First pitch for Monday’s Giants-Dodgers game came at 7:57, 42 minutes late. Following the first batter, another weather delay began, this one lasting for just shy of three hours. So, the Giants and Dodgers basically didn’t get started until it was already 11 p.m. ... on the West Coast.
The Dodgers lost again and it took forever
Tuesday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at the Dodgers losing their 11th straight, the Indians winning their 19th, and fallout from both games.
Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
The two sides finished up after 5 a.m. on the East Coast, so if you wake up early for work in that time zone, you might have even caught coverage of the tail-end of a game that was very much live. For Giants fans who were up, at least this was a win. For the Dodgers and their fans, though, this was their 11th loss in a row, extending the lengthiest losing streak in MLB this season, and making this the longest such streak for the Dodgers as an organization since back when they were in Brooklyn.
The Dodgers are still 3.5 games up on the Nationals for the best record in the NL and the postseason home-field advantage that comes with it, but that lead was much more significant not all that long ago: Following Aug. 25’s games, Los Angeles had 91 wins and the Nats had 76. 17 games and 16 losses later, the Dodgers have 92 victories, the Nats 88.
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Also of concern to the Dodgers are the Indians, who have won 19 in a row and also have 88 victories, though, they’ve also played one more game and have one more loss than the Nationals do. As Grant Brisbee pointed out on Monday, MLB finally got things right when it comes to World Series home-field advantage, and the seasons of the Dodgers, Nationals, and Indians are proof of that: Who has the top record does matter, and the Dodgers are, one game at a time, wasting the incredible lead for it that they had built up over the summer.
Luckily for the Dodgers — unlike the Indians, who are in historic territory already even if they lose on Tuesday — they have to lose a few more before they end up on any top-20 or top-10 lists. Still, though, the fact we even have to look to see is a bad sign.
Remember just a few weeks back when every win for the Dodgers mattered mostly in terms of how close it kept them to matching the 2001 Mariners 116-win pace? Now, instead, you have people like me wondering if their September will end up more or less pathetic than that of say, the 2011 Red Sox, who went 7-20 in the season’s final month and blew a nine-game lead over the Rays to lose the AL East and a wild card spot in the process.
The Dodgers, at least, are mired in a month that could be at least that bad from a winning percentage perspective, but the key difference is that their lead over the D-Backs for the NL West right now is nine games, and they’re already over one-third through the month. So, even if they limp into the postseason pathetically, they’re still showing up at the destination teams like the 2011 Sox failed to. That’s something, yeah?
- Jose Ramirez’s story is also the story of the Indians, so it’s fitting that he’s at the center of their 19-game win streak.
- It’s been mentioned a couple of times here already, but it deserves all the emphasis to itself in this space: The Indians have now won 19 games in a row, which, historically, is a lot of games.
- Darwin Barney had the dangdest time sliding into third base.
- The Mariners went to see Shohei Otani, and here is what we know about that right now.
- If the Cardinals do make it to the postseason, they would likely be a dangerous opponent.
- The Royals don’t have top prospect Ronald Acuna, but they could have!
- A’s pitcher Jharel Cotton is raising money for relief efforts for those in the Virgin Islands impacted by Hurricane Irma.
- Wade Miley has a $12 million option for 2018, and Camden Chat is not opposed to the O’s picking it up, even if he’s struggled.
- Here’s everything out there on Bryce Harper and his potential return to the Nationals’ lineup.
- Noah Syndergaard suffered another setback in his rehab.
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