Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (81-45) at Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles (71-55)

In Series Previews by berselius35 Comments

It’s our last chance to hear Vin Scully call a Cubs game. Boo.

The Dodgers have been kind of a mess injury-wise this year, but somehow find themselves at the top of their division anyway. Despite having fourteen (!) different pitchers start a game this year, they still have the sixth-best starter ERA in the league. If you made a bet last offseason that Scott Kazmir of all people would be one of two Dodgers starters to make every start this year, you would be a rich man. Oh, wait. Kazmir is now also on the DL. They finally got Brandon McCarthy back from TJS in July only to see him go down with a hip injury a month later. Their probable pitchers page on mlb.com might as well be replaced with a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Team Leaders

Cubs

Dodgers

If Kershaw had not suffered an injury, he would probably be leading the MVP race.

Pitching Matchups

K/9, BB/9, ERA, FIP, projected ERA listed for each starter.

Friday: Mike Montgomery, LHP (8.56, 3.01, 2.41, 3.44, 4.37) vs Bud Norris, RHP (8.25, 3.56, 4.69, 4.10, 4.52), 9:10 PM CT

Montgomery looked surprisingly competent in a spot start against the Rockies last week, pitching into the fifth inning with some very efficient innings. The Cubs are certainly hoping for a another nice surprise in Chavez Ravine. The Dodgers picked up Norris from the Barves back in June, and he’s been pretty terrible for them. He’s posted a 5.67 ERA in seven starts and made a DL trip in the beginning of August. I guess he just wanted to make sure he fit in with the staff. I always mix Bud Norris up with Bud Smith, and I’m not sure if that makes me think better or worse of him.

Saturday: Jason Hammel, RHP (7.52, 2.88, 3.07, 4.27, 4.11) vs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, 3:05 PM CT

The Dodgers haven’t announced anyone for this game yet. Based on the timing this could be Julio Urias, who pitched on Sunday, but the Dodgers are trying to limit his innings for the rest of the year and would rather have him in long relief. This would normally have been Scott Kazmir’s spot, but he just hit the DL with a neck problem.

Sunday: Jon Lester, LHP (9.00, 2.51, 2.81, 3.67, 3.28) vs Kenta Maeda? (9.02, 2.48, 3.37, 3.68, 3.44) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, 3:10 PM CT

I’m guessing this one is Kenta Maeda, who pitched on Tuesday. The Cubs haven’t faced Maeda, who was signed to more or less be the Dodgers fifth starter but has ended up being their most reliable pitcher this year. It’s probably a good thing he’s not facing off against Arrieta, as he’s one of the best pitchers at inducing soft contact and we’d all be clawing our eyes out over the sheer number of weak groundouts in that hypothetical game. His slider has been a humongous pitch for him this year according to the pfx data.

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Comments

  4. Mucker

    berselius,

    It would be nice if the Cub pitchers could morph into one monster pitcher that’s 1st in all those categories like Voltron. His name could be Kyohke Arrickskey. Arrickskey, Lester and Hammel in the playoffs would be pretty formidable.

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  5. cerulean

    Mucker:
    berselius,

    It would be nice if the Cub pitchers could morph into one monster pitcher that’s 1st in all those categories like Voltron. His name could be Kvothe Arlidenson. Arlidenson in the playoffs would be pretty formidable and would probably break the world.

    I have Doors of Stone on the brain.

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  31. Wenningtons Gorilla Cock

    In the last inning Len and JD discussed that fangraphs article. They also inplied that anybody still watching this game must be drunk.

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  32. Rizzo the Rat

    Appropriate that the new magic number is also the uniform number of the guy who single-handedly tied the game against one of baseball’s toughest pitchers:

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