True Blue LA, a Los Angeles Dodgers community

Nothing like a nice comeback to wash away the sorrow of a disappointing loss. The Dodgers win probability actually never got below 25% in yesterday's contest. The biggest win probability swing in the Phillies favor was on Ryan Howard's homerun when their odds of winning jumped from 48.2% to 59.7%. The Dodgers two biggest win probability shifts obviously came in the bottom of the 8th inning. They entered the inning witha 41.1% chance of winning, and got their odds up to 49.6% when Russell Martin came to the plate and reached on an error by Chase Utley which bumped their win expectancy to 61.0%. But the biggest jump came on Andre Ethier's bases loaded walk, the Dodgers win expectancy went from 63.5% to 87.4%. Those two at bats had a leverage indez above 5, meaning they were more than five times as important as an average at bat. The MVP of the gam (per win probability) was easily Pedro Martinez, whose .450 win probability added was more than double the next closest player, Vicente Padilla with .207 WPA. Ethier (.157), Martin (.152), and Thome (.141) also made key contributions for the Dodgers. The Least Valuable Player was Matt Kemp, whose -.246 was more than twice as bad as any other Dodger. Of course 57% of his negative contribution came on his stikeout in the 8th inning, and whiffing against a guy with more than a strikeout per inning in 2009 is nothing to be ashamed of. Finally, as Phil said in the recap below the Dodgers odds of winning the series are now 51.9%. That's not too bad all things considered.