September 2nd, 2023 at 10:15 am 
by Ron Cervenka No team has ever won every game during a major league season. Heck, even the 116-win 1906 Chicago Cubs lost 36 games, as did the the 116-win 2001 Seattle Mariners, who lost 46 games.
In the immortal words of “Nuke” LaLoosh, played by Tim Robbins in the epic baseball movie Bull Durham:
“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.”
And then there are the immortal words attributed to Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengel:
“Good pitching will always stop good hitting and vice-versa.”
Through the first two games of the current crucial four-game series between the NL West first place Los Angeles Dodgers and the NL East first place Atlanta Braves at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers have done neither and the Braves have done both.
“You turn to Lance (Lynn), it wasn’t his best outing clearly. He didn’t have good stuff, his stuff wasn’t sharp, his execution wasn’t consistent, and the misses they took advantage of,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of his 36-year-old right-hander following his team’s 8-7 loss to Brian Snitker‘s Braves on Thursday night.
“Julio wasn’t sharp,” Roberts said of 27-year-old left-hander Julio Urías after the Dodgers 6-3 loss to Atlanta on Friday night.
(Juan Ocampo)
“Just bad pitches and too many mistakes,” Urías told reporters postgame through an interpreter.
There was one silver lining to Friday night’s second consecutive loss to the team with the best record in all of baseball at 89-45. Recently acquired (on August 9) 32-year-old Hilo, HI native second baseman Kolton Wong slugged his first home run in his very first at-bat with his new team, having been called up from Triple-A OKC earlier in the day. Wong hit a two-out / two-strike 84.8-MPH curveball from 32-year-old Braves right-hander Pierce Johnson, sending it 381feet into the Braves bullpen in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Unfortunately, the Dodgers were unable to add to those three runs for one of their (seemingly nightly) comeback wins.
“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.”
Play Ball!
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Posted in 
So I have this dream that Kolten Wong has a phenomenal September the Dodgers go into the playoffs with a ton of momentum and Kolten Wong hits .480 with three home runs and 6 stolen bases. Then in the World Series ihe wins the World Series MVP and carries what is otherwise a fairly lackluster, starting pitching staff with all due respect to the future Hall of Famer. I sure hope the starting pitching can rise to the occasion. And then they make it into a movie. Called “And It All Turned Around When I Put On Dodger Blue”.
Dodgers rotation does not compare to the best top three starters needed by a WS winner. Maybe next year, if Buehler is really himself… and we keep Kershaw and Urias.
After these first two games my only hope of a World Series title this year is that in October, anything can happen. The Dodgers won 111 games last year and got outplayed over 4 games and their season was over. We know better than any fan base on the planet that the best team doesn’t always win, actually the best team RARELY wins in MLB. That’s my only solace from what we’ve seen so far as the Dodgers have been flat out outclassed in these last 2 games. With that said, it’s hard to envision anybody beating this Braves team 4 out 7 times.
The Dodgers are always planning ahead. Could it be that their pitching strategy against the Braves in this series is pure vanilla, nothing like how they will pitch in postseason? Roberts is very good at spinning messages for the press. Just wondering.
After Saturday night’s 10-inning Dodgers loss, I can say with a clean conscience that the Braves are the best team in the NL (and all of baseball), not the Dodgers. World Series-caliber teams do NOT go 1-for-10 w/RISP and have 10 LOBs – period.
I don’t want to be ‘Debbie Downer,’ but I fear the it will be a 4-game sweep for Brian Snitker’s exceptionally good team.
Ron
Meaningless games. Turn the calendar to Tuesday Sept 5th on to Miami.
I will tell you this. I will take game 7 in ATL with Bobby Miller on the mound.
They should have split the series.
As good as the Braves are Sheehan and Miller shut the Braves down.
Hopefully Ozuna Arcia Harris all hitting way over their heads will cool off making the Braves beatable.