Dodgers: A Preview of the A’s versus Dodgers Series

He fouled off one of Dennis Eckersley’s best pitch and hobbled down the first base line. Vin Scully said,” it had to be an effort to run that far.” Scully was talking about Kirk Gibson. Gibson, crippled by a serious ankle injury suffered during the NLCS, was pinch hitting in the bottom of the ninth inning with the Dodgers trailing the Oakland A’s four to three in game one of the 1988 World Series.

Gibson saw a few more pitches, wincing in sheer agony with every swing. The count made its way to 3-2 and, with a runner on second, Gibson slammed a back-door slider into the right-field pavilion of Dodger Stadium in what would become the most famous walk-off home run of all time. Vin capped off Gibson’s homer with a call that would live on for decades, a call whose message would remain true for the Dodgers in the ‘88 World Series. He said,” In a year that has been so improbable the impossible has happened! And, now, the only question is, can he make it around the base paths unassisted?”

Improbability was no match for the 1988 Dodgers as they would go on to beat the Athletics in five games. Orel Hershiser started game five and finished it with an electric two-run, four-hit, complete game. Gibson, Hershiser, and the rest of the 1988 baseball team would live on in Dodger history not only for their miracle-working but for winning the most recent World Series in Dodger Baseball history.

Today, on Tuesday, April 9th, the Dodgers will take on the Oakland Athletics not in the World Series but in a two-game set in Los Angeles.

The Dodgers go into the quick match up with their historical foe with a record of 3-6 and a story of pitiful hitting in their first nine games. Less than ideal hitting has been the story but so too has their excellent pitching been in the spotlight.

The Dodger bullpen, aside from one poor game in Arizona and a pair of subpar outings from closer, Kenley Jansen, has been magnificent in their work behind the starters.

The starting pitching has also been very good, featuring multiple gems from Clayton Kershaw and solid outings from all of Alex Wood, Rich Hill, and Kenta Maeda. The only pitcher left out of that group is Hyun Jin Ryu, who will take the mound in game one of the series with the Athletics.

Ryu was plagued by poor control and hard contact in his first start of the year. He lasted just 3.2 innings and walked a career-high, five batters in that span. He also surrendered five hits and three runs, all of them earned.

Ryu will have to work to turn things around in this upcoming start, his second of the year. To do so, control and making batters miss will be the keys to lasting longer in the game and, hopefully, giving his team a chance to win.

Ryu will square off against fellow southpaw, Sean Manaea. Manaea, who has been average in his young career, is off to a blazing hot start to the 2018 season. He has pitched more than seven

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innings in both of his first two starts and owns an ERA of 1.15 going into tonight’s contest. The Dodgers will have to jump on Manea early if they have any hopes of winning this game.

The second game of the series will feature lefty, Alex Wood, for the Dodgers and righty, Daniel Mengden, for the A’s.

Wood has gotten off to a strong start this season, pitching to the tune of a 1.93 ERA. He has thrown two quality starts in both of his outings this year, one of which includes eight shutout innings while holding the opposition to just one hit.

Against Wood will be the 25-year old right-handed pitcher, Daniel Mengden. Mengden, who went to college with Dodgers’ reliever, Ross Stripling, has gotten off to yet another slow start to a season. This year, he has thrown just 11 innings in two appearances and has given up a total of eight earned runs amounting to an ERA of 6.55. The Dodgers can, and should, be able to beat Mengden in game two.

As for batting, both teams have been pretty cold this season. The Dodgers have struggled with run production in a big way just like the A’s who are coming off a weekend in which they were totally blanked by phenom, Shohei Ohtani.

Next: Dodgers: Positives from a Slow and Painful Start

The series should be a good one between the two teams but the Dodgers are clearly the better of the two. They could really use this as an opportunity to turn a slow start into a hotter one and kick-start the season with the performances fans were expecting all along. Either way, win or lose, there is a lot to look forward to in a series with so much history.