Before I get to the games, let me review the food and beer. On Friday, I stopped at Chef Josh Capon's grilled cheese stand. I know Josh Capon from Bar Rescue so I had wanted to check out his place since last year, but I didn't get to it until this year. I had a short rib grilled cheese and it was probably one of the best tasting food items I've ever had at a baseball game. It was also $13.50. To drink I had a Common Sense Ale from the Upstate Brewing Company. I got it because I liked the name, but it turns out that it was quite good. Citi Field's beer selection for the general public is lacking a little bit, but I got this from a little New York craft beer stand on the upper level. It has a decent selection of New York beers (most of which I've never tried before) and there isn't much of a line. On Saturday, I was in Section 417, which gave me access to a few of Citi Field's clubs. I got a burrito from the Promenade Club, which was fine. I was tempted to go back to the New York craft beer stand and get something from Cooperstown because I was seeing Clayton Kershaw pitch and he's going to end up there someday, but I couldn't pass up a can of my favorite beer, Sam Adams Summer Ale, from the bar inside the Promenade Club. Drinking my favorite beer outside in good weather while watching my favorite pitcher pitch is a great combination.
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| Josh Capon does good work. I would love to see Jon Taffer do a baseball stadium. Yankee Stadium could use his help. |
So Julio Urias is the top prospect for the Dodgers (I think we're at the point where Corey Seager isn't a prospect anymore). Urias is 19 years old. And he looked like he was 19 years old. For the second straight game that I went to at Citi Field, I saw a Dodger rookie get roughed up in his Major League debut (it was Zach Lee last year). The Dodgers had a nice rally in the ninth and they tied it on a Chase Utley bases clearing triple, but Curtis Granderson won the game in the bottom of the ninth with a home run off of Pedro Baez. He hit it to right field exactly where I was picturing Chase Utley hitting a grand slam in the top of the ninth that would have given the Dodgers the lead. By the way, Chase Utley is not popular in New York. You know this already. But I'm going to say Mets fans are overreacting. They beat the Dodgers and got to the World Series last year. And Ruben Tejada isn't on the team anymore.
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| My view on Friday night |
Out of curiosity, I compared Urias's first start to famous Dodgers lefties. Urias went two and two-thirds, struck out three, and allowed five hits, four walks, and three runs. Sandy Koufax had two appearances out of the bullpen as a rookie at age 19 before starting his first game. In his first start, he went four and two-thirds, struck out four, and allowed three hits, eight walks, and one run. Fernando Valenzuela pitched 17 and two-thirds innings out of the bullpen at age 19 and didn't allow a run. The next year, he made his first start. His first eight starts were complete games (all Dodger wins) and five of them were shutouts. He allowed a total of four runs in the other three starts. That's ridiculous. Clayton Kershaw made his debut at age 20. His first appearance was a start against the Cardinals. He went six innings, struck out seven, and allowed five hits, one walk, and two runs. He took a no decision, but the Dodgers won. His next eight starts weren't great and he picked up three losses. It took until his tenth start to get a win (six shutout innings against the Padres).
Sunday was more fun. Ordinarily, I'd be opposed to the Sunday night game, but it worked out well since the next day was Memorial Day. It was the second straight year I've seen Clayton Kershaw vs. the guy everybody forgets took steroids. The Dodgers took the lead in the third when Justin Turner grounded into a force out at second and a run scored. Adrian Gonzalez drove in a run with a single in the fifth. The Mets got on the board in the sixth with a wall scraping home run by Asdrubal Cabrera (a routine fly ball out before they moved in the fences). Clayton Kershaw gave up a single to Kevin Plawecki leading off the eighth. He got two outs and then Dave Roberts brought in Adam Liberatore to face Curtis Granderson. Granderson tripled and the game was tied. Now Liberatore has been pretty good this year. And Clayton Kershaw was running out of gas and it would have been his fourth time facing Granderson. But he had Kenley Jansen warming up. I say you either stay with the greatest pitcher in the world (and the lefty-lefty match up) or you bring in your best reliever (even if you're sacrificing the lefty-lefty match up). So Kershaw was in line for the win, but he took a no decision. The Mets brought in Jeurys Familia for the ninth. The Dodgers loaded the bases with a single and two walks. Adrian Gonzalez singled to drive in Kike Hernandez and Corey Seager. And Kenley Jansen worked a 1-2-3 inning to finish it off. Kershaw ended up going seven and two-thirds while striking out 10 and allowing four hits, no walks, two runs (with an asterisk next to one of them). He was very good, but I've definitely seen him pitch better.
Let's go through a quick power ranking of the Clayton Kershaw starts I've seen in person:
7. April 24, 2010 against the Nationals. Six innings, six strikeouts, eight hits, three walks, two runs no decision.
6. April 23, 2013 against the Mets. Five innings, five strikeouts, three hits, four walks, two runs, no decision.
5. May 29, 2016 against the Mets.
4. July 7, 2009 against the Mets. Six innings, seven strikeouts, three hits, two walks, no runs, win.
3. August 17, 2013 against the Phillies. Eight innings, eight strikeouts, three hits, one walk, no runs, and an RBI double, win.
2. July 23, 2015 against the Mets. Complete game shutout, 11 strikeouts, three hits, no walks, win.
1. April 1, 2013 against the Giants. Complete game shutout, seven strikeouts, four hits, no walks, and the home run that gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the eighth, win.
Here are Kershaw's numbers in those seven starts: 50 and two-thirds innings, 4-0 (the Dodgers are 7-0), 1.07 ERA, 54 strikeouts, 0.75 WHIP, two complete game shutouts, and one home run as a batter. And in the last 14 Dodger games I've been to, they are now 5-9 (going back to 2012). They're 5-0 with Kershaw pitching and 0-9 with anybody else pitching (starts by Beckett, Ryu, Ryu, Haren, Greinke, Ryu, Lee, Anderson, and Urias).
So the winning pitchers in the two games I went to were Jeurys Familia and Adam Liberatore. Familia gave up the double to Utley to tie the game (not a good series for him) and Liberatore gave up the triple to Granderson to tie the game. Both winning pitchers made their team significantly less likely to win. This is one of the reasons why nerdy stat guys hate the win as a statistic. And I'm here to defend it. But I will definitely agree that wins for relievers are pretty much meaningless (losses, on the other hand, are not). But for starting pitchers, the win is a valid statistic. Sure pitchers don't go the distance like they used to, but check out the active leaders in win-loss percentage. The only one that's kind of surprising in the top ten is Jered Weaver, but he did have some very good years. If you look at the top 20, you're talking about most of the best pitchers in baseball. Felix Hernandez is only 20th (great pitcher on bad teams), but it's no coincidence that Clayton Kershaw is first. I agree that just looking at a win total for one season is silly (that's why R.A. Dickey got the Cy Young over Kershaw in 2012 when Kershaw was better), but if there's a strong correlation between a statistic and how good a pitcher is (and there is in the case of win-loss percentage), it's a statistic worth looking at. And all statistics lie. Zack Greinke had a better season than Kershaw last year (I would have voted for him for Cy Young), but Kershaw was still the better pitcher. Nerdy stat guys love strikeouts. Jake Arrieta was 40 strikeouts behind Max Scherzer last year. Scherzer had a good year, but Arrieta was definitely better. James Shields had 16 more strikeouts than Zack Greinke last year and Greinke was much much better than Shields. So wins and losses still matter for starting pitchers. Yes, you can pitch well and lose or pitch poorly and win, but with a large enough sample, they're still statistics worth looking at.
I wish Kershaw had gotten the win against the Mets. He deserved it. But the Dodgers got the win on Sunday night and I got to see my favorite pitcher ever pitch well so I'll take it.
Sunday was more fun. Ordinarily, I'd be opposed to the Sunday night game, but it worked out well since the next day was Memorial Day. It was the second straight year I've seen Clayton Kershaw vs. the guy everybody forgets took steroids. The Dodgers took the lead in the third when Justin Turner grounded into a force out at second and a run scored. Adrian Gonzalez drove in a run with a single in the fifth. The Mets got on the board in the sixth with a wall scraping home run by Asdrubal Cabrera (a routine fly ball out before they moved in the fences). Clayton Kershaw gave up a single to Kevin Plawecki leading off the eighth. He got two outs and then Dave Roberts brought in Adam Liberatore to face Curtis Granderson. Granderson tripled and the game was tied. Now Liberatore has been pretty good this year. And Clayton Kershaw was running out of gas and it would have been his fourth time facing Granderson. But he had Kenley Jansen warming up. I say you either stay with the greatest pitcher in the world (and the lefty-lefty match up) or you bring in your best reliever (even if you're sacrificing the lefty-lefty match up). So Kershaw was in line for the win, but he took a no decision. The Mets brought in Jeurys Familia for the ninth. The Dodgers loaded the bases with a single and two walks. Adrian Gonzalez singled to drive in Kike Hernandez and Corey Seager. And Kenley Jansen worked a 1-2-3 inning to finish it off. Kershaw ended up going seven and two-thirds while striking out 10 and allowing four hits, no walks, two runs (with an asterisk next to one of them). He was very good, but I've definitely seen him pitch better.
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| My view on Sunday night |
Let's go through a quick power ranking of the Clayton Kershaw starts I've seen in person:
7. April 24, 2010 against the Nationals. Six innings, six strikeouts, eight hits, three walks, two runs no decision.
6. April 23, 2013 against the Mets. Five innings, five strikeouts, three hits, four walks, two runs, no decision.
5. May 29, 2016 against the Mets.
4. July 7, 2009 against the Mets. Six innings, seven strikeouts, three hits, two walks, no runs, win.
3. August 17, 2013 against the Phillies. Eight innings, eight strikeouts, three hits, one walk, no runs, and an RBI double, win.
2. July 23, 2015 against the Mets. Complete game shutout, 11 strikeouts, three hits, no walks, win.
1. April 1, 2013 against the Giants. Complete game shutout, seven strikeouts, four hits, no walks, and the home run that gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the eighth, win.
Here are Kershaw's numbers in those seven starts: 50 and two-thirds innings, 4-0 (the Dodgers are 7-0), 1.07 ERA, 54 strikeouts, 0.75 WHIP, two complete game shutouts, and one home run as a batter. And in the last 14 Dodger games I've been to, they are now 5-9 (going back to 2012). They're 5-0 with Kershaw pitching and 0-9 with anybody else pitching (starts by Beckett, Ryu, Ryu, Haren, Greinke, Ryu, Lee, Anderson, and Urias).
So the winning pitchers in the two games I went to were Jeurys Familia and Adam Liberatore. Familia gave up the double to Utley to tie the game (not a good series for him) and Liberatore gave up the triple to Granderson to tie the game. Both winning pitchers made their team significantly less likely to win. This is one of the reasons why nerdy stat guys hate the win as a statistic. And I'm here to defend it. But I will definitely agree that wins for relievers are pretty much meaningless (losses, on the other hand, are not). But for starting pitchers, the win is a valid statistic. Sure pitchers don't go the distance like they used to, but check out the active leaders in win-loss percentage. The only one that's kind of surprising in the top ten is Jered Weaver, but he did have some very good years. If you look at the top 20, you're talking about most of the best pitchers in baseball. Felix Hernandez is only 20th (great pitcher on bad teams), but it's no coincidence that Clayton Kershaw is first. I agree that just looking at a win total for one season is silly (that's why R.A. Dickey got the Cy Young over Kershaw in 2012 when Kershaw was better), but if there's a strong correlation between a statistic and how good a pitcher is (and there is in the case of win-loss percentage), it's a statistic worth looking at. And all statistics lie. Zack Greinke had a better season than Kershaw last year (I would have voted for him for Cy Young), but Kershaw was still the better pitcher. Nerdy stat guys love strikeouts. Jake Arrieta was 40 strikeouts behind Max Scherzer last year. Scherzer had a good year, but Arrieta was definitely better. James Shields had 16 more strikeouts than Zack Greinke last year and Greinke was much much better than Shields. So wins and losses still matter for starting pitchers. Yes, you can pitch well and lose or pitch poorly and win, but with a large enough sample, they're still statistics worth looking at.
I wish Kershaw had gotten the win against the Mets. He deserved it. But the Dodgers got the win on Sunday night and I got to see my favorite pitcher ever pitch well so I'll take it.
