A’s 5 Dodgers 2: August 19th And The Dodgers Need A 3rd Starter

Aug 19, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Alex Wood (57) hands the ball to manager Don Mattingly (8) after being removed from the game during the sixth inning at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no. That is no good, Dodgers, you want to get more than 2 hits off of Jesse Chavez, you see. Sure, Jimmy Rollins is ready for Chase Utley‘s imminent arrival as Jim launched his 12th home run of the year to put the Dodgers up 2-1 in the 3rd inning, but Jesse Chavez just totally shut the team down, inducing weak contact and awful swings after Rollins hit the go ahead dinger, Chavez ended up pitching 8 innings, striking out 6, walking two and giving up 2 runs turning in a solid performance.

Chavez would probably slot right into the 3rd spot in the rotation at this moment #shouldof traded for him.

I’m mostly kidding even though he was thought to be the first realistic option, but really, for all the (rightful) excrement the Dodgers bullpen has received -we’ll get into the Jim Johnson stuff later-, the non-Kershaw/Greinke members of the rotation have regressed to the point where Mike Bolsinger probably should rejoin the rotation as soon as possible.

Oh also you could make a non terrible argument that Mike B should start game 3 of the NLDS should they get there. Oof.

This is only so because Alex Wood hasn’t been impressive in the least a 6.56 K/9 4.24 BB/9 amounts to a 4.31 FIP 3.87 xFIP to go along with a 5.01 ERA in his 23.1 innings as a Dodger. Cry sample size if you will, and his true talent level for his career is definitely higher than what he’s shown, but the Dodgers need him to figure it out relatively soon, he walked 3 while generating only one strikeout today, and was simultaneously bailed out (thanks Adrian Gonzalez!) and burned (yikes, Joc Pederson).

The most disconcerting development with Alex Wood is that he was sitting 86-88 all game, topping out at 89, a guy with that kind of delivery mixed with this trend:

Is scaaaary. Granted he was a mid 90’s pitcher while he was in the bullpen way back in 2013 (the first set of bars), so that exaggerates the velocity loss some, but his velocity in this start would be the lowest of his career, and his other starts as a member of the Dodgers don’t inspire any real level of confidence. You hope he finds that extra gear on the homestretch, but his velocity, strikeouts, and control have all trended the wrong way the later this season has gone on.

Not good.

And yeah I suppose we can talk about the bullpen. Kenley Jansen hasn’t pitched since Sunday, and everybody else has been garbage. The good news is that bullpen hero Chris Hatcher has looked really good recently, he came off of the DL and has retired everybody he’s faced thus far. Today he got 4 quick, easy outs to keep the team in the game.

Everybody else?

[shakes head]

Jim Johnson tried to complete the redemption bifecta, he promptly loaded the bases, while walking one in 0.1 innings pitched. Luis Avilan was tasked to clean up the mess and allowed Steven Vogt to hit a sac fly to push the lead to 4-2, also Pedro Baez, fresh off last night’s implosion, gave up a double and the game was pretty definitively over at that point. It’s just kinda depressing, Jim Johnson has completed an even 6 innings as a member of the Dodgers and has given up 14 runs (lol). Johnson has been an unmitigated disaster up to this point, and like Wood, he’s running out of time to figure it out.

They face the Astros next for a 3 game set, and. uh.

Go Cardinals?