Venting about politics and world affairs with occasional Dodger and Laker rants as well as a movie review here or there.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Dodgers knocked out of NLDS by Mets

So that's what $314 million gets you.
Congrats to the Mets. Daniel Murphy was lights out in this series, and in this game hit a big homerun, stole a base on Dodger inattention, and drove in a run with a double. The Dodgers went 0 for their last 11 with RISP. Cory Seager, Kike Hernandez, Yasmani Grandal, and Andre Ethier came up short in particular. Zach de Grom wasn't dominant but managed to gut out the tough outs. His career looks bright with his ability to deal with tough situations. The Mets' pitching is scary looking forward. De Grom, Harvey, Syndegaard, Matz, and Zach Wheeler. Absolutely scary - better than the Braves' mid '90s pitching of Maddux/Smoltz/Glavine/Avery.
Don Mattingly continues to tinker too much. Why did he start Joc Pederson again today? Joc Pederson hasn't hit since about mid-July and yet Puig was largely relegated to the bench during these playoffs. Then during this game he puts Carl Crawford in late. I never understand why he makes the moves he makes. Mattingly has insane resources but never seemed to take control of the club and establish any sort of a regular depth chart for his team. It seemed he wanted to keep everyone happy and I imagine that it left players feeling off-kilter. Mattingly seemed really unpredictable and one doesn't know what he's going to do next. I'm betting that when Ethier yelled at Mattingly during this game that was the run-off from a couple of years' worth of frustration.
Kershaw won one of his games in this playoff series and that is an encouragement. Overall, I wish the Dodgers had a manager who would establish more of a depth chart and stick to it more. He tinkers too much and micromanages and I get the sense (of course I could be wrong) that the Dodgers get frustrated with it. The sense of unease within the Dodger organization is pervasive and the feeling I get from the Dodgers is not that of a dominant team.
Congrats Mets, you gutted it out and your pitching is astonishing and Terry Collins obviously got the most out of his team by trusting them.