Dodgers send Wolf to mound in need of NLCS Game 4 win
Following Sunday’s 11-0 loss to Cliff Lee and the Phillies in Game 3, the Los Angeles Dodgers will pin their Game 4 and possibly their NLCS hopes on Randy Wolf.
A more dominating playoff win I can’t remember when I’ve seen.
Cliff Lee and the Phillies smashed the Dodgers in Game 3, the final 11-0 score giving the defending champs a 2-1 lead in the NLCS. Lee tossed eight innings, allowing three harmless singles and not walking an LA batter while striking out 10. At the plate it was Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth leading the charge and chasing Hiroki Kuroda with six runs charged to his linescore before he could get out of the second inning.
Now the Phillies are -130 favorites to take Game 4 tonight, with the total set at 8½.
Though the defeat was tough to swallow for the Dodgers, catcher Russell Martin understands it was just one game and tried to put it behind him as fast as he could.
“Tomorrow is a new day. Nothing is out of hand right now, so we've just got to regroup, forget about today's game, go out there tomorrow and just battle,” the LA backstop noted following the contest.
Regrouping is something Joe Torre has been trying to do with his rotation since September. From the injury-plagued season for Kuroda, to limiting Clayton Kershaw’s innings as well as a right shoulder injury, to lost confidence in Chad Billingsley who was thought of as the staff ace at the start of the season, it’s been anything but easy for Torre who will now send Randy Wolf to the mound against Joe Blanton and the Phillies.
For Wolf this will be just the second postseason start of his career, the first coming in the ALDS opener against the Rockies almost two weeks ago. It’s a start Wolf would rather forget despite the Dodgers winning the game. The southpaw walked five (Albert Pujols twice intentionally) and was headed to the showers before the end of the fourth inning.
He made two starts against the Phils this season, pitching poorly in a 7-2 loss out in LA on June 7 and pitching well in Philly on May 13 in a 9-2 win. This will be his 28th career start at Citizen's Bank Park, so he's got some experience in this park. Over the course of 161 innings, his ERA on this mound is 4.30. The one batter that has given him fits is third baseman Pedro Feliz who has three bleacher bombs against Wolf in 18 plate appearances.
This will be Blanton's first start this postseason, though he did pitch twice in relief during the series against the Rockies. Blanton saw the Dodgers once this season, that game in LA on June 6 when he faced Kuroda. Blanton allowed just a run through the sixth in that game and got a no-decision in what was eventually a 3-2 win for the Dodgers in extras.
Manny Ramirez has had his way against Blanton (14-25, .560 with a HR); no biggie there since Manny is a problem for a lot of pitchers. But also keep an eye on the situations when Andre Ethier comes to the plate. The Los Angeles right-fielder is 5-11 lifetime with two homers off Blanton.
While I expect Wolf to pitch much better tonight than Kuroda did on Sunday, I also expect Blanton to not have as easy an outing as Lee did in Game 3. Give me the Over 8½ for this one.
STARTING PITCHERS
NLCS Game 4, Mon, Oct 19, 8:07 p.m. (ET): Randy Wolf (22-12, 3.23 regular season / 1-0, 4.91 postseason) vs. Joe Blanton (17-14, 4.05 regular season / first postseason start)
UMPIRE
I'm a Ted Barrett fan, and have been since I first saw him as a 'substitute umpire' back in the mid-90s at a Texas Rangers game. He wound up subbing a lot, I'd like to think because he does call a good game, and made the full-time payroll in the big upheaval from the 1999 umpire's strike. He calls a large but fair strike zone, and is more willing to call the above-the-belt strike than most umpires in my opinion.
During the 2009 regular season Barrett sported two very regular trends: Home teams won 23 of the 34 games he worked the plate and the Under cashed in 21 of the 34, with one push.
This is Barrett's 10th postseason series, and the last time he worked the plate in the playoffs was when these two very same teams met in Game 4 of the 2008 NLCS. As luck would have it, Joe Blanton also started that one, going against then-Dodgers ace Derek Lowe. Philadelphia prevailed 7-5 in a game that saw 13 pitchers used by the two teams combined.
WEATHER
The wet stuff is supposed to be gone from Philadelphia on Monday, but it's still going to be on the chilly side with the first pitch likely finding the thermometer reading in the upper-40s and dropping from there. Winds are forecast out of the WSW at 5-10 MPH (from behind 3B out to right-center).
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they start games. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com and ESPN.com and of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
Following Sunday’s 11-0 loss to Cliff Lee and the Phillies in Game 3, the Los Angeles Dodgers will pin their Game 4 and possibly their NLCS hopes on Randy Wolf.
A more dominating playoff win I can’t remember when I’ve seen.
Cliff Lee and the Phillies smashed the Dodgers in Game 3, the final 11-0 score giving the defending champs a 2-1 lead in the NLCS. Lee tossed eight innings, allowing three harmless singles and not walking an LA batter while striking out 10. At the plate it was Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth leading the charge and chasing Hiroki Kuroda with six runs charged to his linescore before he could get out of the second inning.
Now the Phillies are -130 favorites to take Game 4 tonight, with the total set at 8½.
Though the defeat was tough to swallow for the Dodgers, catcher Russell Martin understands it was just one game and tried to put it behind him as fast as he could.
“Tomorrow is a new day. Nothing is out of hand right now, so we've just got to regroup, forget about today's game, go out there tomorrow and just battle,” the LA backstop noted following the contest.
Regrouping is something Joe Torre has been trying to do with his rotation since September. From the injury-plagued season for Kuroda, to limiting Clayton Kershaw’s innings as well as a right shoulder injury, to lost confidence in Chad Billingsley who was thought of as the staff ace at the start of the season, it’s been anything but easy for Torre who will now send Randy Wolf to the mound against Joe Blanton and the Phillies.
For Wolf this will be just the second postseason start of his career, the first coming in the ALDS opener against the Rockies almost two weeks ago. It’s a start Wolf would rather forget despite the Dodgers winning the game. The southpaw walked five (Albert Pujols twice intentionally) and was headed to the showers before the end of the fourth inning.
He made two starts against the Phils this season, pitching poorly in a 7-2 loss out in LA on June 7 and pitching well in Philly on May 13 in a 9-2 win. This will be his 28th career start at Citizen's Bank Park, so he's got some experience in this park. Over the course of 161 innings, his ERA on this mound is 4.30. The one batter that has given him fits is third baseman Pedro Feliz who has three bleacher bombs against Wolf in 18 plate appearances.
This will be Blanton's first start this postseason, though he did pitch twice in relief during the series against the Rockies. Blanton saw the Dodgers once this season, that game in LA on June 6 when he faced Kuroda. Blanton allowed just a run through the sixth in that game and got a no-decision in what was eventually a 3-2 win for the Dodgers in extras.
Manny Ramirez has had his way against Blanton (14-25, .560 with a HR); no biggie there since Manny is a problem for a lot of pitchers. But also keep an eye on the situations when Andre Ethier comes to the plate. The Los Angeles right-fielder is 5-11 lifetime with two homers off Blanton.
While I expect Wolf to pitch much better tonight than Kuroda did on Sunday, I also expect Blanton to not have as easy an outing as Lee did in Game 3. Give me the Over 8½ for this one.
STARTING PITCHERS
NLCS Game 4, Mon, Oct 19, 8:07 p.m. (ET): Randy Wolf (22-12, 3.23 regular season / 1-0, 4.91 postseason) vs. Joe Blanton (17-14, 4.05 regular season / first postseason start)
UMPIRE
I'm a Ted Barrett fan, and have been since I first saw him as a 'substitute umpire' back in the mid-90s at a Texas Rangers game. He wound up subbing a lot, I'd like to think because he does call a good game, and made the full-time payroll in the big upheaval from the 1999 umpire's strike. He calls a large but fair strike zone, and is more willing to call the above-the-belt strike than most umpires in my opinion.
During the 2009 regular season Barrett sported two very regular trends: Home teams won 23 of the 34 games he worked the plate and the Under cashed in 21 of the 34, with one push.
This is Barrett's 10th postseason series, and the last time he worked the plate in the playoffs was when these two very same teams met in Game 4 of the 2008 NLCS. As luck would have it, Joe Blanton also started that one, going against then-Dodgers ace Derek Lowe. Philadelphia prevailed 7-5 in a game that saw 13 pitchers used by the two teams combined.
WEATHER
The wet stuff is supposed to be gone from Philadelphia on Monday, but it's still going to be on the chilly side with the first pitch likely finding the thermometer reading in the upper-40s and dropping from there. Winds are forecast out of the WSW at 5-10 MPH (from behind 3B out to right-center).
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they start games. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com and ESPN.com and of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
