No Rest, No Problem For Dodger Relievers
Last night, the Dodgers were able to utilize their top four relievers to close out the game. It wasn't the conventional way of course, as Randy Wolf was pulled in the fourth inning, but the Dodgers have to be happy any time they have a lead after five or six innings and can turn the game over to their bullpen. The site of Ronald Belisario, Hong-Chih Kuo, George Sherrill, and Jonathan Broxton usually means curtains for the other team.
In a perfect world, the Dodgers will get to use those same relievers tonight, perhaps adding a pinch of Ramon Troncoso to the winning recipe. Here's a look at how these relievers did with zero games rest on the season:
| With 0 Days Rest | With Rest | |||||||||
| Pitcher | G | ERA | BB/9 | K/9 | BA/OBP/SLG | G | ERA | BB/9 | K/9 | BA/OBP/SLG |
| Broxton | 26 | 1.71 | 2.73 | 11.96 | .151/.216/.172 | 47 | 3.08 | 3.81 | 14.32 | .172/.263/.264 |
| Sherrill* | 21 | 3.32 | 4.26 | 10.42 | .200/.291/.286 | 51 | 1.08 | 2.70 | 7.02 | .212/.277/.315 |
| Kuo | 3 | 7.71 | 11.42 | 15.43 | .250/.455/.625 | 32 | 2.60 | 3.25 | 9.11 | .194/.282/.276 |
| Belisario |
19 | 0.96 | 3.86 | 6.75 | .206/.316/.279 | 50 | 2.42 | 3.63 | 8.65 | .199/.286/.288 |
*I used Sherrill's numbers for the entire season, including his time in Baltimore.
There's really not a huge difference either way for Broxton, Sherrill, and Belisario, who have been used on back-to-back days quite often this season. The outlier is Kuo, who was only used three times in such situations all season, an understandable strategy given his injury history. Kuo was ineffective in one of his three outings, giving up a couple runs to Atlanta, a game in which he allowed his only home run since returning from the disabled list in late July. Aside from the small sample size, don't be alarmed by the high walk rate with no rest for Kuo; two of his three walks were intentionally issued to Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday to set up one of the most thrilling strikeouts of the season, the "I want Parkman" moment, if you will.
Since it's the playoffs, I would guess Kuo is available again today, if needed, although Ramon Troncoso might be added to the mix as well. Then again, Clayton Kershaw could shorten the game all by himself. But should the Dodgers need to go to the bullpen again today, fear not.
**********
Here are the lineups. The only change for either team is Julio Lugo starting at 2B instead of Skip Schumaker.
| Cardinals | Dodgers |
|||
| 2B | Lugo |
SS | Furcal |
|
| SS | Ryan | CF | Kemp | |
| 1B | Pujols | RF | Ethier |
|
| LF | Holliday | LF | Manny |
|
| RF | Ludwick |
1B | Loney | |
| C | Molina |
3B | Blake | |
| 3B | DeRosa | 2B | Belliard |
|
| CF | Rasmus | C | Martin | |
| P | Wainwright |
P | Kershaw | |
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Dodgers being interviewed now
http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?topic_id=7270758
Thome just finished, said you can’t miss good pitches to hit, and he did that last night.
Same lineup
Furcal SS
Kemp CF
Ethier RF
Ramirez LF
Loney 1B
Blake 3B
Belliard 2B
Martin C
Kershaw LHP
I don't know if Hudson is a big improvement over Belliard at this time.
Aces are for teams without the best bullpen in baseball.
For this series
You need offense, for another series we might need O-Dog in the field….he would’ve made that play in the first inning last night.
Cards lineup
Lugo 2B
Ryan SS
Pujols 1B
Holliday LF
Ludwick RF
Molina C
DeRosa 3B
Rasmus CF
Wainwright P
Joe Torre
O-Dog is “disappointed” but it hasn’t stopped him from being part of the team. He was the first one on the steps of the dugout when Kemp hit the HR
Torre also said Belliard gives us a better bat right now.
by Eric Stephen on Oct 8, 2009 12:27 PM PDT up reply actions
I am a little surprised
that he feels a left handed hitting Hudson can’t provide more bat then Belliard against Wainwright. He must really be down on Hudson. This can’t be helping Hudson’s free agent case when a waiver wire pickup is playing over him in the playoffs.
I agree
Wainwright’s 2009 OPS Against RHB is .545 while it is .764 against LHB. I don’t think Torre has much confidence in Hudson.
Kershaw strikes out more batters
So it actually makes more sense having Bellie in for Odog tonight rather than last night.
Definitely put ODog in if Garland makes an appearance :) and Wolf’s next start.
Yup,
little things, veteraniness, a throwback … uhm… what am I leaving out? Ah! Gritty!
by Seanny Rotten on Oct 8, 2009 1:23 PM PDT up reply actions
Rockies up 3 – 0 Yorvit goes yard
http://www.truebluela.com/2009/10/8/1076590/2009-baseball-playoffs-day-two
Notes on sellouts
Josh Suchon is talking on DodgerTalk right now, explaining that the Dodgers can only seat 56,000 maximum, due to an agreement with the city. The actual capacity is something close to 58,000, so for any given game they choose a section in which to not sell seats. Last night it happened to be the top rows of the RF pavilion.
I didn’t realize the capacity was so high.
We had more visits on Tuesday/Wednesday
then the whole month of October and that was a playoff month.
I'm calling BS Right There
The mayor was right in McParking’s box, if he wanted 58K, he could have gotten the city to agree to 58K. Just wanted the sellout.
When did ESPN play by play get so subjective
and what’s up with the spanglish?
“A Bastardo relieved B Myers”

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