Lyles vs. Hernandez in Weekend Series Opener

If the Dodgers play the Rockies in a meaningless series and nobody is around to watch, does it make a sound? It’s like that tree falling in the woods thing. I’m sure you are all still hung over from Wednesday night’s division clinching celebration over the Giants. The Dodgers have won the NL West, and secured home field advantage in the NLDS by clinching the number 2 seed. The Nationals are going to get the best record in the league, so the Dodgers will play the winner of the NL Central, which is either going to be the Cardinals or the Pirates on Friday night in game 1 of the NLDS.

Dodgers Lineup vs. Colorado

Gordon 2B

Puig CF

Gonzalez 1B

Turner SS

Crawford LF

Ethier RF

Uribe 3B

Butera C

Hernandez P

Jordan Lyles-7-3 vs. Roberto Hernandez-8-11

So this means that this weekend’s regular season series finale against Colorado will be ultimately meaningless. The Dodgers can’t gain or lose anything by winning or losing these games, and these are just going to be practice in a way until the postseason begins a week from today.

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So I expect most of the regulars to be resting. So get ready for a game with Darwin Barney, and Miguel Rojas, and Carlos Triunfel, and all the other reserves. I would expect for Joc Pederson, (who was just named as one of the Branch Rickey Minor League players of the year) to get some playing time as well. It’ll be funny to see how the lineup looks like. So go Crazy Donnie! Have fun with these lineups.

As for Colorado, they were eliminated long long ago, and are just playing for pride. They are trying to avoid finishing in the NL West basement. It looks like that honor is going to Arizona. Colorado is 66-93 and 25 games behind the Dodgers in fourth place. They’ve been one of the worst road teams in MLB with just 21 road wins (21-57). The Dodgers are 91-68 and need two wins in these three games to finish with a better record than their 92-70 mark of last season.

The pitching match-up for tonight will feature youngster Jordan Lyles for Colorado. The 23-year old right hander used to pitch for Houston before he came to the Rockies. The South Carolina native is 7-3 with a 4.15 ERA in 21 starts. He’s whiffed 86 and walked 46, for about a 2-1 strikeout to walk ratio.

He faced the Dodgers once this season, and got a no-decision back on April 25 at Dodger Stadium with seven innings of two-run ball. Lyles is 0-1 in his career against the Dodgers with a 6.57 ERA in two starts.

The Dodgers are batting .346 (18 for 52) against Lyles with three home runs and an OPS of over a 1.000 Check out the rest of the numbers below.

The Dodgers will counter with Roberto Hernandez. I guess he can’t do any damage in a meaningless game, so they may as well give him one last start. Hernandez has been downright awful in his short stint with the Dodgers. He has failed to pitch past the fifth inning in any of his four September starts. His last start he barely made it into the fourth inning against Chicago.

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Hernandez is 2-3 with a 4.74 ERA in eight starts with the Dodgers. Overall he is 8-11 with a 4.08 ERA in 121 frames. Hernandez has faced Colorado twice this season and has two no-decisions. Hernandez has a 6.60 ERA in September this season. He is 0-1 with an 8.50 ERA in four starts in his career against Colorado.

The Rockies are batting .292 (40 for 137) with five home runs and 18 runs driven in against Hernandez. Justin Morneau is hitting .316 (12 for 38) with four home runs and a 1.120 OPS against Hernandez. The rest of the numbers don’t look any better.

You can catch tonight’s game at 7:10 pm on Sportsnetla and KDOC. All three of these games can be seen locally on KDOC. Although I wonder how many people are actually going to watch. Come on, just admit it, you know you’re going to watch. You know you can’t wait to see Hernandez pitching a meaningless game against the Rockies. You can’t deny it!

I say watch anyways! It’s meaningless Dodger Baseball! The last three games of the regular season will be a mere precursor to the playoffs. I’m sure it’ll be good for a laugh.

Go Blue!