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Dodgers Go For 80th Win Against Padres, Cashner Counters Capuano
By Scott Andes
Dodgers Lineup vs. San Diego
Crawford 7Puig 9Gonzalez 3Hanley 6Ethier 8Uribe 5Schumaker 4Federowicz 2Capuano 1Andrew Cashner-8-8 vs. Chris Capuano-4-7
*Lineup notes* San Diego has activated outfielder Kyle Blanks from the DL, and third baseman Chase Headley remains out with back problems. The Dodgers insert Schumaker at second giving the slumping Mark Ellis a day, and Fedex gives A.J. Ellis a rest.
We’ve reached Labor Day weekend, which usually marks the three quarters mark of the season. The Dodgers (79-55) have a 10.5 game lead with 28 to play in the NL West. Their magic number is now 19. Which means any combination of 19 Dodger wins, and or 19 Arizona losses, and the Dodgers are NL West champions. The Dodgers are also on the verge of winning their 80th game of the year.
Last night the Dodger’s 9-2 win over the evil Padres and former Dodger foe Eric Stults on Star Wars night gave the Dodgers a record 22nd win in the month of August. The Dodgers have now set another record in this historic season, with their most wins in a calendar month in Los Angeles Dodger’s history. It was the club’s five run explosion in the seventh that put the game away. The Dodgers used a strong offensive force, and a well balanced attack to down San Diego. Adrian Gonzalez hit two home runs and now has a club-leading 19 home runs, and 85 runs drive in. That was his 15th career multi-home run game. Yasiel Puig responded after his mid game benching on Wednesday with a four hit night. Puig had three singles, (One was of the run-scoring variety) a double, and two stolen bases. Hyun-jin Ryu outpitched Stults with 6.1 effective frames, and picked up his 13th win of the year. He also drove in a run with an RBI double, and scored on a very awkward slide. New sideways hat wearer Edinson Volquez turned in a scoreless frame out of the bullpen against his former team. I would love to see the Dodgers pay the Rays in the World Series if only because I want to see who’s hat is more sidewaysier, Fernando Rodney, or Volquez. Anyways, it was an overall team effort, and a strong win against a division rival that seemed to give the Dodgers fits earlier in the season.
Chris Capuano needs to have a good outing tonight in order to keep his spot in the rotation-Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
The two clubs will continue their three game series, which will conclude this current nine game home stand for the Dodgers. In the second game, right handed flame thrower Andrew Cashner will face left hander Chris Capuano. These two pitchers faced each other earlier in the season back on June 23, with both pitchers getting no-decisions, and the Dodgers winning that game by a 3-1 score.
Cashner has been shuffled between the bullpen and the rotation this year, The former reliever was converted to a starter and has see his strike outs decline this year, despite having a somewhat decent season. Cashner’s K/9 rate has dropped from 10.1 in 2012, to 6.2 this year. Cashner has made several relief appearances in 2013 against the Dodgers, but has faced them just once as a starter. Back on June 23 which was the series that started the Dodger’s prolific run. Cashner in that game pitched eight innings and gave up one run on five hits, but whiffed just two. He got a no-decision and hao record, but a 2.13 ERA versus the Dodgers, in a little over 12 innings of work. Cashner was solid in his last start against the Cubs on August 25. He threw seven shutout innings in that game and allowed just two hits, and whiffed seven. Although he picked up another no-decision. Cashner is basically a fastball, chaneup, and slider guy, with his heater regularly reaching 100 MPH. Overall Cashner is 8-8 with a 3.55 ERA, 1.2 WHIP, with 43 walks, and 100 whiffs. Here is how the Boys in Blue have fared against Cashner collectively. Cashner has allowed three earned runs pr less in his last eight starts.
PA
AB
H
2B
3B
HR
RBI
BB
SO
BA
OBP
SLG
Mark Ellis9
7
1
0
0
0
0
2
1
.143
.333
.143
Skip Schumaker9
8
1
0
0
0
0
1
1
.125
.222
.125
Adrian Gonzalez
7
7
2
1
0
0
0
0
2
.286
.286
.429
Andre Ethier6
5
1
0
0
0
0
1
0
.200
.333
.200
A.J. Ellis5
3
1
0
0
0
0
2
2
.333
.600
.333
Juan Uribe5
4
2
2
0
0
1
1
1
.500
.600
1.000
Jerry Hairston4
4
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
.250
.250
.250
Nick Punto4
3
1
0
0
0
1
1
0
.333
.500
.333
Hanley Ramirez4
4
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
.000
.000
.000
Tim Federowicz3
2
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
.000
.333
.000
Yasiel Puig
3
3
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
.333
.333
.333
Chris Capuano
2
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
.000
.000
.000
Carl Crawford2
2
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
.500
.500
.500
Zack Greinke1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
.000
.000
.000
Total
64
54
12
3
0
0
2
9
9
.222
.333
.278
The Dodgers will counter with Chris Capuano, even though the Dodgers signed Edinson Volquez. Who by the way turned in a decent performance last night against his former team that released him just days before. I would tip my hat to Volquez, but I wear mine the regular way. If you are wondering, Volquez’s hat was more sideways than ever. Will his hat get even more sidewaysier? We’ll have to wait and see.
San Diego Padres pitcher Andrew Cashner (34) reacts on the mound in the first inning of the game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.-Jennifer Stewart-USA TODAY Sports
It appears for the moment, that Capuano is still in the rotation. However with the sideways hat wearing Dominican making his debut last night in relief, Capuano’s time in the rotation may be coming to a close if he can’t turn his season around. Capuano has struggled turning in four poor starts in a row. Just like Cashner, Capuano’s first few appearances against San Diego this year all came in relief, and he’s had one start against the Padres. Ironically enough, that lone outing came back on June 23 against Cashner. Capuano pitched five frames, allowing no runs and four hits against five whiffs.
Capuano has allowed 16 runs over his last four starts, including last outing against Boston, where he wasn’t terrible, but still not particularly sharp. In that game he gave up three earned runs on six hits over six frames. Versus the Padres he is 0-1 with a 4.66 ERA in four games, two of them were starts. Overall Capuano is 4-7 with a 4.74 ERA in 95 innings. Check out how the Padres have done against Capuano. He’s put up decent numbers against San Diego, limiting them to a .741 OPS against.
PA
AB
H
2B
3B
HR
RBI
BB
SO
BA
OBP
SLG
Ronny Cedeno27
26
5
2
1
1
2
1
3
.192
.222
.462
Chris Denorfia20
18
5
0
0
0
0
2
1
.278
.350
.278
Chase Headley16
12
4
1
0
1
4
4
3
.333
.500
.667
Jesus Guzman15
12
3
2
0
0
1
3
1
.250
.400
.417
Yonder Alonso14
13
6
1
0
0
2
1
0
.462
.500
.538
Nick Hundley9
8
0
0
0
0
1
1
4
.000
.111
.000
Logan Forsythe6
6
3
0
0
0
0
0
1
.500
.500
.500
Jedd Gyorko3
2
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
.000
.333
.000
Alexi Amarista2
2
1
0
0
0
2
0
0
.500
.500
.500
Andrew Cashner
2
2
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
.500
.500
.500
Mark Kotsay2
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
.000
.000
.000
Will Venable2
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
.000
.000
.000
Tim Stauffer1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
.000
.000
.000
Total
119
106
28
6
1
2
12
13
18
.264
.345
.396
In other news, Matt Kemp is close to returning. Last night the Bison played in his second rehab game for the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. He went 0 for 3 but did make an outfield assist. Woopeee. He’s hitless in eight rehab at-bats against single-A ball pitching, so I’m not sure if he’s ready to play or not. Hearing of him whiffing against minor league pitching doesn’t fill me with confidence, but he hasn’t played since July, so it may take him a while to regain his timing. Whether Kemp can keep his rickety body off of the disabled list this time remains to be seen.
Can Kemp keep his rickety rusty body from getting injured again?-Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Speaking of which, time is running out on the minor league season, which ends on Monday. Kemp is expected to play again tonight against Lancaster, and it’s possible the club could activate him on Sunday when the rosters expand. Remember technically the rosters expand tonight at 9PM, so we may see Bison tomorrow. We’ll also see everyone else in the next day or two. The Dodgers have reported that they’ll bring their call-ups up in two different waves. The first wave will come on Sunday. Chris Withrow will return. We’ll see guys like Alex Castellanos, Scott Van Slyke, and Justin Sellers. I’m sure we’ll see Dee Gordon, and probably third string catcher Drew Butera, and a few others.
Catch the game tonight on Prime Ticket at 6:10 PM. Then jump back over here for some fun with our game recap. The Dodger’s magic number is 19. Let’s go Blue!