Dodgers Analyst Has a Challenge for LA Heading into September
The Dodgers enter the final phase of the season still trailing the Giants in the NL West. Los Angeles also dropped two of three against Colorado at home this weekend. The common theory is the Dodgers got caught looking ahead to this weekend’s series in San Francisco.
Former Dodger and current Sportsnet LA analyst Nomar Garciaparra reinforced that the Dodgers can’t afford to look ahead. Especially this late in the season.
“You’re sitting here now, end of August, you’re into September. Yes, you are starting to peek at that scoreboard. Start having a look. This is playoff baseball now. I always think September is playoff baseball to carry you into the postseason. It’s just a peek…it’s not a look. It’s still the task at hand. You have a really good team in the Braves in front of you, don’t overlook them.”
The Dodgers are guilty of overlooking the Rockies. The vaunted Los Angeles offense scored a total of seven runs against one of the worst pitching staffs in the league. More importantly, they missed two opportunities to pick up ground on the Giants.
Garciaparra also voiced the consensus of most MLB analysts – the Dodgers have plenty of talent to keep racking up wins.
“You need to have timely hitting. Good defense, solid pitching. You have that formula, easier said than done, but then you have that on a regular basis, you’ll take your chances. That’s what this team’s capable of doing. When they do that, they often come out on top. That really needs to be the focus.”
This Dodgers club has all the tools and then some to capture the division for a ninth straight season. In order to do that, they have to win one game at a time.
Like Uncle Nomar says, the Dodgers must simply focus on the task at hand.
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A quote from Sue Aiken, sole proprietor of the remote fueling station in Kavik. Alaska:
“If ya got one foot into yesterday and one in tomorrow, then the only place you’re not experiencing is today– and that’s where we need to be”.
Paul:
You’ve got that right. Dodgers have all kinds of talent, but they seem to never be playing to that “paper potential”. This has got to be Roberts worst year of game management. Notwithstanding his clubhouse diplomatic and psychoanalyst talents I’d give him a C- for his lineup and pitching choices.
From here on this club better start hitting on all cylinders.
Scherzer goes tonight but the Dodgers face a tough lefty in Fried. Meanwhile SF has Gausman facing Brett Anderson in Milwaukee. The bums need to play the next 4 like it’s game 7.
The Dodgers will be looking directly at the Giants this weekend, with first place in the NL West on the line. And they will have used all three of their frontline starters against the Braves. The Giants may have finally hit the skids with their first real losing steak of the season. But you still have to have some SPs to beat them. We’ll see how that works out.
Dodgers should sweep the Braves with Scherzer on the bump, and if the gnats lose again, we are in first tomorrow! gnats finally coming back down to earth with their first losing streak all season having won only 1 game out of the last 5 played!! Dodgers gained 2 games by winning 3 of their last 5. Let’s even it up in the loss column tonight. I also love our chances in frisco. We finally have all the 1-8 lineup back, plus Trea, minus Cody, and there’s no where to pitch around us! Once we get T-gon and Kersh back, we’ll end up with another NL West title – just I like I’ve said all year!
Correct, in that Cody sits tonight against a LHP.
Dodgers lead the Giants by a half a game your little behind the times buddy ??????
2 weeks ago everyone was panicking and “jumping off the bandwagon” (those who are not true fans) . I said all we need to do is gain 1 game a week- well lo and behold it only took about 2 weeks and here we are sitting in 1st. it is a marathon not a sprint and the Boys in Blue will be fine.