Blog Kiosk: 6/19/2018 - Dodgers Links - Double Header Today!

After almost three hours yesterday's game was finally postponed due to both rain and a power outage at Wrigley Field. Per Bradford Doolittle at ESPN:

It rained heavily for a while but the storm passed, the tarp was rolled up and preparations began to get the field ready for play. The fans settled back into their seats, including a large contingent of a Dodgers fan club who occasionally broke into "Let's go Dodgers!" chants. 

However, the light banks atop the right-field roof of Wrigley had gone dark, leaving that side of the park dark, as well as sections on the opposite side of the field that the lights would have been illuminating. The work on the field finished but the lights remained out.

They will play a double-header today -- with the first game starting at 10:05 AM PST. Maeda will pitch the first game. Rich Hill will start game 2. BTW, Alanna Rizzo is reporting, via twitter, that the Dodgers 26th man for today's double-header is Brock Stewart. He is currently at the stadium.

Photo above of Rich Hill via Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2018 at Dodger Insider. Below are more links to check out:

• This Day in Dodgers History: In 1952 Carl Erskine threw a no-hitter against the Cubs in the Dodgers' 5-0 victory at Ebbets Field. This is the first of two no-no's he would throw in his career. The only Cub to get on base was the opposing pitcher, via a walk. In 1973 Dodger outfielder Willie Davis collected his 2,000th career hit at Dodger Stadium with a two-run home run. In 1990 Dodgers catcher Gary Carter broke a National League record for career games caught at 1‚862. He passes former Dodger Al Lopez who set the record in 1946.
• Happy Birthday, Bill Swift, Larry Miller, Bob Aspromonte, Jerry Reuss, Butch Davis, Doug Mientkiewicz & Claudio Vargas!
• Podcast -- Dodgers Digest: ‘Dugout Blues’ episode 235 – Kemp, Hernandez, Stripling, prospects (Podcast Link).
• I had missed this. Per The 700 Level; "Chase Utley receives Father's Day gifts from his … Dodgers teammate." Then on top of that, Utley's real kids gave him the most adorable Father's Day gift ever!. Per Tim Brown at Yahoo Sports; "It's all about the shoes this Father's Day for Chase Utley."

“My oldest is 6,” he said. “This is really the first year where he’s starting to recognize that I play baseball. I’ve envisioned having him being a part of it a little bit. It’s hard when they’re young, because they don’t really understand it. Now he’s at a point where he does and his younger brother, Max, looks up to him. I figured for Father’s Day I’d give them a pair of all white cleats and let them do whatever they wanted to with them. That was their project last week. And I think they turned out cool.”

• Kiké Hernández is hilarious. Per a tweet by LA Times reporter Andy McCullough:

Enrique Hernandez pointed to this sign next to the visitors dugout at Wrigley Field. “If you hit three homers in a playoff game here, you get your own office.” pic.twitter.com/H7miEeQqVK

— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughTimes) June 18, 2018

• Clayton Kershaw apparently was impressive during his three-inning simulated game at Wrigley yesterday. So much so, his return is likely just around the corner, via a tweet by Ken Gurnick:

Roberts said Kershaw will pitch four innings for OKC, then will return to Dodgers rotation.

— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) June 19, 2018

• Per Mike Petriello at MLB.com; "The secret to how Muncy turned his career around: Infielder leads Dodgers with 13 homers, .599 slugging percentage."

But for all the talk of mechanical changes, the word that Muncy keeps coming back to is "confidence."

"When I was with Oakland," said Muncy on Saturday, "I was laying off the bad pitches, but …  because I had lost confidence in myself, I wasn't able to get my barrel to the ball like I should, like I am now. I wasn't chasing bad pitches when I was over there, I just wasn't squaring up the pitches I was supposed to be squaring up, whereas now, I'm squaring those pitches up -- and that's where all the difference is coming from."

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