April 4th, 2013 at 6:41 am 
by Ron Cervenka I don’t have the exact numbers in front of me nor do I particularly want to look them up, but I would be willing to bet that the Dodgers are among the all-time leaders in leaving men on base; at least it sure seems that way to me. Year after year they always seem to leave more runners stranded than any other team in the game and it happened yet again in Wednesday night’s 5-3 loss to the Giants in front of a sold out Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers missed out on so many opportunities to blow the game wide open leaving a season-high 12 men on base and were a dismal 1 for 14 with runners in scoring position. In fact, the Dodgers left men on base in all but two innings, whereas the Giants left only two runners on base the entire night.
Without question, the crushing blow for the Dodgers came in the 6th inning when it appeared that they were going to send Giants starter Tim Lincecum to the showers after loading the bases with nobody out and Matt Kemp coming to the plate. But instead of working the count, Kemp (who is 0 for 2013) chased a 2-0 inside fastball and hit a hard grounder to Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval who simply stepped on third and fired across the infield to double-up Kemp. And while the Dodgers scored a run on the play, it turned what could have been a game-changing rally into basically nothing. Make no mistake about it, without Kemp’s offense, the Dodgers have little chance of making a run at the defending World champions – period.
According to Rick Monday, Kemp’s swing is too long and nothing like his swing from last April, when he hit .456 with 11 home runs in one of the greatest April performances in MLB history. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)
For the second consecutive night the Dodger infield didn’t help matters either. With one out in the top of the third inning, back-up second baseman Skip Schumaker muffed a routine grounder by Lincecum that allowed the inning to continue and brought Sandoval to the plate. Sandoval promptly hit a laser shot into the Right Field Pavilion turning what should have been a one-run inning into a four-run inning; but here again, the Dodgers continued to put men on base and continued to leave them there.
Through three games in a very young 2013 season, the Dodgers have left a total of 21 men on base (including the 12 on Wednesday night), and are 2 for 27 (.074) with runners in scoring position. Simply put, this isn’t going to get it done if they hope to have a successful 2013 campaign.
The Guggenheim Baseball Management group can’t be too thrilled with these offensive numbers. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)
The bottom line is that the Dodgers need to start having better at bats and in the words of new hitting coach Mark McGwire “…need to wait for their pitch instead of trying to hit the pitcher’s pitch.” Hopefully Kemp and the rest of the anemic Dodger offense (sans Carl Crawford who is tearing it up) will figure this out between now and Friday evening’s series opener game against the Pirates. If they do not, they may soon find themselves in a familiar position of trying to catch teams ahead of them, which is not a position that you want to be in during the month of April.
And please… please do not say “it’s still early,” because if the Dodgers miss the playoffs by one game (again), this is one that they should have won and will never get back.
Posted in 
I would argue that runners “left in scoring position” is a much more accurate statistic in determining a team’s lack of run production, whereas “left on base” doesn’t address the actual scoring opportunities which were missed. I do suppose “LOB = Loss” is a good catch phrase, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
So far, on the outset of the first three games, the Dodgers are a dismal 2 for 27 with runners in scoring position. That’s a lot of wasted potential. As bleak as that may be however, it also reminds us that the Dodgers are just a base hit, here or there, from beginning to tally up the runs.
Call it “failure to launch.” Don’t be afraid to score runs, guys… it’s the only way ahead moving forward.
RLISP slumps seems to me to be the “achilles heel’ for the Dodgers down through the years and I think it’s held them back from acchieving their goals more than anything else.
I was hoping this group of players would cut down on these type of games but so far to no avail.
The good news is they don’t last forever and the hope is they end as soon as possible.
The deeper problem here is basic batting strategy and pitch selection. If you have a pitcher on the ropes like Lincecum with control issues, you work it to your advantage to get hitter counts. 3-0, 3-1, 2-0 are nice counts for a hitter to find the right pitch to hit and drive in runs. Look for the exact pitch that you want and drive it. Kemp, Cruz, Uribe and others all helped Lincecum out by choosing poor pitches to hit especially with RISP. What drove me crazy last night was Cruz popping up a first pitch after Lincecum issued a 4 pitch walk. That is just basic baseball. You take at least a pitch or a first strike. It is not problem to sometimes hit a tantalizing first pitch especially when you have a pitcher just trying to get ahead but there are certain situations where you need to work the count in your favor. With the exception of Ellis who probably takes pitch selection to an extreme, many of the Dodgers don’t work the counts in their favor.
A great assessment, 3B. You and I see things exactly the same – especially with regards to A.J. Ellis. I love his plate discipline but I go absolutely crazy when he always takes two strikes, usually the best pitches that he is going to see. I understand the need to work the count, but A.J. would have a much better average and probably hit more home runs and have more RBIs if he were to occasionally take a hack at a few of those first or second pitch fastballs right down the middle. It is obvious that the pitchers are onto him, as they always seem to groove those first two pitches to him.
I agree. It can’t be a given that you always taking the first pitch. AJ does that a lot so he is to a certain extent giving away a strike. Pitchers will throw him a very hitable first pitch more often than not. Especially when there are no runners on base and he gets a good pitch, he should take a hack every now and then to toss a little grey area into the scouting report. But he has a great eye and I wish a few more would take note of his patience.