2016 Senior League Division Series: Game 5, Dodgers @ Nationals

Ugh. If there’s a player I’d like less than Chase Utley (who broke Miguel Tejada’s leg last year in the dirtiest play since Ty Cobb retired) to drive in the run that sent the Dodgers (93 – 73) back to the Nationals (97 – 69) for a deciding Game 5, I don’t know who it is.

The man is a sleazebag who ought to have a permanent restraining order keeping him 5 miles from any Major League Ballpark to take effect after his 6 years of hard prison time for Assault and Battery.

I don’t much like the Nationals but I like the Quislings of Chavez Ravine less.

Tuesday’s Game

Top 1st- Leadoff Single. Walk. RBI Single. Nationals 1 – 0.

Bottom 1st- HBP. 2 RBI HR. Dodgers 2 – 1.

Top 3rd- Leadoff Single. Single, Runners at Corners. RBI Sacrifice. Tied at 2.

Bottom 3rd- Leadoff Double. RBI Single. Dodgers 3 – 2. Walk. Walk. HBP. Runner scores. Dodgers 4 – 2.

Bottom 5th- Single. RBI Double. Dodgers 5 – 2.

Top 7th- Single. Single. Walk. HBP. Runner scores. Dodgers 5 – 3. 2 RBI Single. Tied at 5.

Bottom 8th- HBP. Single. RBI Single. Dodgers 6 – 5 Final.

Series Tied at 2

Now the thing about the pitchers tonight is that they’re both losers having lost 1 game each in this series. The Nationals will be starting Max Scherzer (R, 20 – 7, 2.96 ERA) who looks good on paper in the Regular Season but didn’t do himself or his team any favors in his previous appearance. He went 6 Innings which is not so bad but he gave up 5 Hits and 4 Runs, all Earned. He also dished 2 Long Balls against 5 KOs and his Post Season ERA (the number of Runs he can be expected to give up in each 9 Innings) is a hefty 6.00. Those are not great numbers.

For the Dodgers we will see Rich Hill (L, 3 – 2, 1.83 ERA) who seems a World beater based on his limited Regular Season record. However in his previous start he was only able to go 4 and a 3rd Innings before they had to yank him and justly so. He gave up 6 Hits and 4 Runs, all Earned. He only threw 1 HR but surrendered 2 Bases on Balls. He notched 7 KOs but his ERA soared to a lofty 8.31.

All things being equal I’d expect the Nationals to win handily, but I expected that 2 games ago and in Baseball things are rarely equal.