June 6th, 2019 at 1:30 pm 
by 0799291000348 “You can’t win them all”
That quote is attributed to legendary Hall of Fame baseball manager and team owner Cornelius McGillicuddy (December 22, 1862 – February 8, 1956).
Never heard of him, you say? Perhaps you know him by his shortened, more popular name – Connie Mack.
Even the most zealous of Dodger fanatics never envisioned this Dodgers teams – or any major league team – winning all 162 regular season games. In fact, as fellow Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda, the biggest Dodger fan on the planet, often said:
“No matter how good you are, you’re going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are you’re going to win one-third of your games. It’s the other third that makes the difference.”
(Author’s Note: When Tommy made this statement, he had no idea how bad the 2019 Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals would be).
That being said, Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to the National League West fourth place Arizona Diamondbacks was the Dodgers tenth blown save through their first 63 games of the 2019 season – an unacceptable statistic for a team with the goal of being World Champions this year.
Although there have been countless articles written about the seemingly endless shortcomings of the Dodgers bullpen this season, Wednesday’s game was more about uninspired play by several position players who have been performing at ridiculously high levels thus far this season.
They did not during Wednesday’s series finale with the snakes.
A 162-game season is a grind mentally as well as physically. Perhaps after convincing wins in the first two games of the three-game series by a combined differential of eleven runs, there was an emotional letdown by a few Dodgers players.
During Wednesday’s game, outfielders Cody Bellinger and Joc Pederson seemed to have reverted back to their old (bad) hitting mechanics and approaches. Utility infielder Max Muncy, who looks completely lost at the plate right now, seemed pleased with a weak ground out after striking out seven times in his previous eight plate appearances. Even popular rookie outfielder Alex Verdugo appeared to be intent on launching home runs into the pool – or beyond – in each of his failed at-bats on Wednesday.
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)
But alas, it’s just one blah game out of 162.
…and “You can’t win them all.”
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Posted in 
Diamondbacks also had the humidor workin’ overtime in that series, too (lol). Counted only 4 balls that would’ve gone out regardless: those HRs from Corey Seager and Christian Walker in the opener and those two triples off the wall in dead center by both Cody Bellinger in that first game and Eduardo Escobar in the finale.
That said, I’m not broken up about this loss other than manager Dave Roberts giving Kenta Maeda the quick hook after five innings. Didn’t really feel such a move was necessary considering Maeda was having his best outing of the season since the one he had against the Padres back home not too long ago and his pitch count was fine at that point. Oh well, on to SF!
That’s all absolutely true.
I fully understand and accept that “You can’t win them all,” but this was absolutely positively a ‘should-have-won’ game.
There was no valid (or acceptable) reason whatsoever for Roberts to pull Maeda after only five innings and only 70 pitches, of which 52 were strikes. He was in complete control and was flat out dominating the entire Dbags line-up.
I agree with Jesse that the so-called ‘regulars’ looked flat, but bringing in Baez – who is NOT all better (sorry, Joe) to blow the save (who didn’t see that one coming), and then putting Alexander, who is an absolute MESS right now, into a position to fail, accomplished the exact opposite of what Roberts was trying to accomplish.
Alexander’s confidence is now toast, just like Joe Kelly’s.
This one is entirely on Dave Roberts.
to be fair to alexander, that pitch to escobar was a good one. (93.6 MPH sinker below the zone) sometimes you tip your cap to the other guy. the pitch to peralta was down and in (92.6 MPH sinker), peralta has pulled it into play 5 times and that was his first hit. good pitch, perhaps poor def positioning?
alexander’s last two outings have seen all of his pitches at the lower part of the zone except for one to walker which was to his weak zone and called for a strike. he hadnt pitched in the previous week, so hopefully what ever was keeping him from getting his pitches down is now resolved, as evidenced by 23/24 of his pitches in bottom 1/3 of the zone (most at or below the knees)in his last two appearances.
Thanks for pointing that out to the others on this board who honestly think Alexander’s one of the “weak links” in the bullpen chain. I mean, give Escobar and Peralta some credit at least as they’re the top two hitters on that Diamondbacks team and are extremely hard to keep in check no matter who’s pitching to ’em. And yeah, from what I’ve heard Alexander has been battling a minor hip issue up until recently and that may have played a key role in him not being able to get his power sinker over consistently like we know he can when he’s truly on. Another thing about that game the other day, if not for Will Smith’s 2-run HR the Dodgers were on pace to get shut out by the Arizona pitching staff. Their rookie starter Duplantier (gonna keep my eye on that kid, he really showed me something in that game) set the tone early and that was that. Sometimes, you just gotta tip your cap to the other team for rising to the challenge…
😉
Very good point about the pitch to Escobar (who is a fine major league hitter). But, overall, Alexander has been a disappointment since signing with the Dodgers — it appears that 2017 was his career year with the Royals.