Sons of Steve Garvey

Well at least this Rock(ie) is serious.

The Colorado Rockies are going to have to take this final series of the season seriously, being only two games up on Milwaukee with three to play for the final wild card spot. The Dodgers, owners of home-field advantage through the NL playoffs, still need one more win (or one Cleveland loss) to get home-field advantage through the entire playoffs.

I mean, sure, one more win also gives the Dodgers their most wins since moving to Los Angeles. But I have to think that aside from keeping Kershaw on regular rest, we're not taking this series as seriously as the home team.

Friday 9/29 5p: Hyun-Jin Ryu vs. Chad Bettis

Saturday 9/29 5p: Clayton Kershaw vs. German Marquez

Sunday 9/29 12n: TBD vs. TBD

Don't be afraid.

🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡 pic.twitter.com/ODcYNSmR6n

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) September 28, 2017

#RookieDressUp #Lt.Dangle pic.twitter.com/OJvNKp9j2z

— Walker Buehler (@buehlersdayoff) September 28, 2017

Hanging with the King, @Cody_Bellinger #RookieDressUp pic.twitter.com/8G2cvomYvV

— Justin Turner (@redturn2) September 28, 2017

It's a friar sweep!

The Dodgers, owners of a woeful September record with somnambulent offense and porous bullpen, just swept the Padres in three games by a combined score of 28-5. Sure, Adrian Gonzalez was shut down for the rest of the year (including postseason) due to his bad back, and Chris Taylor left today's game in the first inning after hurting his knee running to first base. These are not good signs.

But should we be happy about finally breaking out of our September slump? And having probably anchored around three starters (Kershaw, Darvish, and Hill; with Wood and Maeda likely coming out of the pen)?

Or is this a false read given we beat the lowly 70-89 Padres?

We've got a day off here. Curious to hear what you think.

There's an awful lot of Wood in this series.

If I understand the byzantine rules for home field advantage in the postseason, the Dodgers are in pretty good shape with a 4.5-game lead over the Nationals with six games to go. However, if that rule of "better regular season record" applies for the World Series (and I believe I've read at least one article claiming that the Dodgers would wield the advantage over Cleveland due to our head-to-head record--which really doesn't make sense), then we had better play hard, being only one game up on Cleveland and four games on Houston.

Whatever, I suppose. I'm still excited that we're in the postseason again.

Monday 9/25: Yu Darvish vs. Travis Wood (W, 9-3: Puig benched for showing up late; Forsythe 3-for-3 with 4 RBI; Darvish 7.0 IP with 1 ER and 9 Ks; Baez still sucks)

Tuesday 9/26: Alex Wood vs. Dinelson Lamet (W, 9-2: Dodgers clinch home-field advantage through NLCS; Puig back in the lineup but goes 1-for-3; Alex Wood 6.0 IP with 2 ER and 1 K; Grandal and Seager each with a three-run HR; A-Gon with a solo HR of his own; Baez did not pitch today but still sucks)

Wednesday 9/27: Rich Hill vs. Clayton Richard (W, 10-0: Rich Hill goes 7.0 IP with 10Ks and 0 ER; McCarthy and Jansen each pitch a scoreless inning of relief with 2 Ks each; Puig, Granderson, and Seager all hit solo HRs; Dodgers bat around in the third for four runs; Taylor gets hurt and leaves in the first after tweaking his knee running to first; Baez did not pitch again but I am sure he still sucks)

Kershaw, dealing again.

Whoops, we forgot to put up a Series Thread for this series. Nothing to see here, except the Dodgers clinching the NL West for the fifth consecutive year on Friday night (4-2), then dropping the middle game vs. Ashley Madison (1-2), and then winning Sunday's matinee behind Clayton Kershaw's 18th victory and a rare Yasmani Grandal piece of offense (2-run HR in the fourth). Dodgers win today 3-1 and take the series.

Six regular-season games to go.

photo: Jake Roth, USA Today

NL West Champs!! #ThisTeam has won their fifth consecutive division title! pic.twitter.com/PqnsRsdqTE

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) September 23, 2017

The magic number for the NL West division is four. And after taking two of three from the Nationals this weekend (dropping, of course, the only game on national television; luckily the playoffs aren't nationally televised or anything), we stand a chance to clinch the division if the Padres can hold tough at home vs. Arizona, while we beat up on the last-place Phillies on the road.

Were the last two series, both of which were winning series on the road for the Dodgers, a fluke? Or the sign of the Dodgers finally getting gritty (and on a roll, so to speak), with 14 games left to play?

Monday 9/19 4p: Clayton Kershaw vs. (Doctor) Nick Pivetta (L, 3-4)

Tuesday 9/20 4p: Yu Darvish vs. Aaron Nola (L, 2-6)

Wednesday 9/21 4p: Alex Wood vs. Jake Thompson

Thursday 9/22 4p: Kenta Maeda vs. Mark Leiter

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UPDATE 9/20 (Sax): Please stop the Pedro Baez madness. Now.

Well, there's a couple of things we could do here in Washington, D.C. to help us get back on the winning tracks that seem to have eluded us for most of this month. For one thing, we could prepare for the playoffs by beating a division-leading team in a series on the road. In order to ensure we've got a good shot at this, let's send SoSG's own Alex Cora out to the series to watch at least one of the games. And then let's see if we can take care of those pesky Nats.

Friday: Alex Wood vs. Edwin Jackson (W, 7-0)

Saturday: Rich Hill vs. A.J. Cole (W, 3-2)

Sunday: Hyun-Jin Ryu vs. Stephen Strasburg

(late Series Thread from Sax)

Dr. Ian Malcom recaps the last two weeks.
The Dodgers are dying a painful, inexplicable death. The Indians have usurped them as the best team in baseball (yet without a jinxy-ass Sports Illustrated cover declaring them such). Now, the funeral procession rolls into San Francisco. Fun!

So, here's a novel idea, Dodgers. WIN A DAMN BASEBALL GAME.

9/11: Kenta Maeda vs. Chris Stratton
9/12: Clayton Kershaw vs. Johnny Cueto
9/13: To be announced shortly before he gives up 5 in the first vs. Matt Moore UPDATE: it's Yu Darvish btw (Sax)

Thurs, 7p: who the hell cares we lost this one too

Fri, 7p: Yu Darvish vs German Márquez

Sat, 6p: Alex Wood vs Chad Bettis

Sun, 1p: Rich Hill vs Tyler Chatwood

The #Dodgers have lost 7-1/2 games of their lead over the Diamondbacks in the past 9 days. The lead: 13-1/2 games.

— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) September 3, 2017

Mon, 5p: Rich Hill vs Robbie Ray

Tues, 7p: Hyun-Jin Ryu vs Zack Greinke

Wed, 5p: Kenta Maeda vs Taijuan Walker

With fan support hitting a lull...

Even if he costs $60 on Amazon... and has Ohio allegiances... the Dodgers need all the help they can get.

Yikes another late post! Dodgers took the first game behind our ace Clayton a Kershaw.  In the midst of a doubleheader today.  Let's go blue!

Sept 1 Friday: Kershaw vs Lamet (Dodgers 1-0)
Sept 2 Saturday, Game 1: Stewart vs Richard, Game 2: Darvish vs Lyles
Sept 3 Sunday: Wood vs Chacin