The young Dodger farmhands with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes are seen celebrating their playoff series victory a couple of days ago in the photo above; via a
tweet from pitcher Chase De Jong. They won it with a
miraculous ninth inning rally that started with two men out. In other news, I'm pretty sure many of the folks above are underage... Uh, who am I kidding... Who cares? One evening of revelry is hardly unwarranted.
BTW, Last night was Game 1 of their Cal League Championship match against the San Jose Giants, and they decimated our rivals Class A league team, 12-3. WooHoo! The winning pitcher is none other than the guy who shared the photo above, Chase De Jong. Via
Tyler Maun at MiLB:
"It's always important to win Game 1, especially when you're at home,"
Quakes manager Bill Haselman said. "We had a pretty intense game
yesterday, and they wiped that slate clean. They were ready for this
game, so they did a heck of a job. De Jong did a great job on the mound,
gave us six strong innings, and our offense was relentless with their
ABs."
Ron Cervenka at Think Blue LA also wrote a great story about last night's game that you check out
here. Below are more links to check out:
- Left Field Pavilion made a fantastic fantasy Baseball card featuring Joc Pederson and Corey Seager that you can see here.
- ICYMI: Mat "Cat" Latos is no more. He has been DFA'd by the Dodgers. Unquestionably, he was the worst pickup so far for the new Dodger front office, and that's OK. Nobody will be perfect all of the time. That said, the fact that they were willing to cut bait rather than let him ride it out on the bench into October is telling. This group will not hesitate to move beyond any mistakes - In other words, they don't let their pride dictate player movements.
Or, maybe the 6.66 ERA in the six games he pitched for us as a bad omen.
- Via Eric Avakian at Dodgers Nation, "Mattingly Not Surprised By Andre Ethier’s Season."
“Coming out of Spring Training with all the talk of wanting to play
everyday and all that, and really I’ve said it a few different times,
he’s backed it up with his play. When he’s gotten his opportunities he’s
been really good. I don’t know if it’s really necessarily a surprise
that he’s capable of this, but it’s been a good season for him.”
In LA, Ruggiano has had 24 plate appearances against lefties. He
possesses a .417 OBP, 1.330 OPS, .522 ISO, .461 BABIP, .550 wOBA and 261
wRC+. Those numbers may not be sustainable in the long run, but in his
limited role, he’s carved out a niche that has helped catapult the
Dodgers comfortably into the playoffs—barring a major collapse.
"He doesn't get the credit; he's not on the magazine covers and stuff, but every year, he puts up the numbers and now he's here and I'm really pumped for him," said Seager, ranked by MLBPipeline.com as the Dodgers' top prospect and the No. 2 prospect in baseball. "He's everything you'd want in a teammate."
