Game 127 Post Game Interviews And Notes

There was so much going on at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday night before and after the Dodger’s 8-6 win over San Diego, that it was hard to cover in any sort of conventional sense. I did try to hit all the main points. The big one was the health of Zack Greinke’s elbow. The Dodgers were being tight lipped about it, but it doesn’t sound good.

We all knew something was up when Greinke had three mediocre starts in a row. Greinke doesn’t have three poor starts in a row. Hell, Greinke doesn’t have mediocre starts period. Maybe one every few months. That’s how good he is. So when he walked five Brewers in his last outing on Saturday, I knew something was wrong.

Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

Turns out we were right. I would put the odds of Greinke making his scheduled start on Thursday at around 10%. Now Mattingly did say that Greinke has had this elbow discomfort before and has pitched through it. That gives me a glimmer of hope. But that doesn’t give us much context here. If Greinke can’t go, then that means Carlos Frias would have to make the start. The Dodgers do not have anyone else.

According to Greinke himself, he believes that the brutal slog of 20 consecutive games without an off-day contributed to this injury. MLB rules state that every club must have an off-day at least every 20 days. That means the Dodgers went the maximum amount of time without a day off. So if we lose Greinke for a long period of time, we can blame the horrible schedule. Thanks schedule makers! (Said in a hateful sarcastic tone). (Shakes fist at schedule makers).

Now the game on Tuesday night was a doozy was it not? Let’s go over some post game notes from this one.

The game ended on a tag play at third as Abraham Almonte strayed too far off the bag on Jedd Gyorko’s single to center. Yasiel Puig made a strong throw (when does he not) , which was cut-off by Adrian Gonzalez, who threw to Miguel Rojas at third. Rojas had been put in the game as a defensive replacement, and applied the tag on Almonte.

San Diego challenged the call and after the play was reviewed the New York office upheld the original call on the field. Since there were two outs, that ended the game, and giving the Dodgers an 8-6 win.

Carl Crawford had a great game. He had three hits, a two-run home run, an RBI single, and a walk. He also stole a base as well. His seventh inning home run was his fifth of the season, and he tied a season high with three runs batted in.

Crawford has 21 hits and is batting .420 over his last 50 at-bats since August 4. Here’s what he had to say after the game.

Starter Kevin Correia allowed four earned runs on eight hits across five innings pitched. He whiffed six and walked one while making 81 pitches. This was Correia’s second win as a Dodger, and ninth on the season. Correia is also 2-0 this season against his former club. Here’s what Correia had to say after the game on the win.

Justin Turner had two RBI doubles, and is batting .327 in the 24 games since the all-star break. With Hanley Ramirez, and Juan Uribe both out with injuries, his bat in the lineup is vital. Stacie had a great article on his value this year. His clutch hitting has been out of this world.

Matt Kemp also had a good game. Bison had two doubles and scored twice. Kemp now has 21 runs batted in since the all-star break. His return to form has also been vital to the Dodger’s success.

The Dodgers are now 8-3 versus San Diego this season. By doing so they avoided what would have been their first four game losing streak of the year. The Dodgers are now 33-18 against the NL west in 2014.

With the win the Dodgers picked up a game on the Giants to take a 4.5 game lead in the NL West. The Giants had their game at Wrigley Field in Chicago canceled late Tuesday night due to poor playing conditions. Apparently there was some kind of tarp malfunction that caused the game to be called early. It started to rain with the Cubs up 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth. The Chicago grounds crew was unable to get the tarp onto the field properly, causing the delay. Now that is some kismet going on, isn’t it my lovely little Lairians? I couldn’t make this up even if I tried.

Go Blue!