DodgerHeads: No excuses for Dodgers after Cubs throw combined no-hitter

Intro [Music] what's up everyone welcome into dodger heads presented by dodgerblue.com my name is jeff spiegel and this is your home for the 2020 world series champion los angeles dodgers unfortunately this morning also you're home for the 2021 los angeles dodgers who get no hit by the chicago cubs last night and that's why we're here Are we worried it's the morning after a no-hitter and i want to ask dodger fans how are we how are we feeling are we worried are we nervous that's what i want to talk about let's start first by saying you know what there's two teams involved in a no-hitter hat tipped to the chicago cubs mookie bet said it last night zach davies and those guys they pitched well enough obviously clearly yes they did allow eight walks but the dodgers were never able to to get a hit and there's two teams involved so we got to give some credit for the cubs but i want to talk mostly about the dodgers i want to ask the question how worried should we be how concerned should we be and the answer is honestly i don't really know but here's what i want to say here's the headline i'm worried by the lack of excuses the dodgers had last night it was a home game for the dodgers the dodgers are a much better home team they were playing the cubs who are a pretty terrible road team and yet that didn't matter the dodgers had just come off getting swept by the san diego padres so you think maybe there's a little extra motivation maybe they're more excited to rebound didn't help not a long travel day yes they came from san diego yes they didn't have a day off but for some guys that might be a basically the same thing as their normal commute they might have slept in their own beds the night before so no travel day as far as lineup yes will smith was out yes justin turner was out but you still had mookie bellinger's back muncie's back chris taylor all in the lineup so we can't blame injuries it was against a right-handed pitcher not a lefty we know the dodgers struggle against lefties and yet they get a righty on the mound but here's the biggest one of all the non-excuses the dodgers have zach davies is not very good okay i know he's been in the league for a while i know he's had some starts here and there who that have been okay but zach davies came into the game with a 4.66 era he was coming off a performance in which he allowed eight earned runs in the start just before this one okay it's a guy we we saw the walks last Zach Davies night he walked five guys he had walked 14 in the 33 innings coming in he's not a big strikeout guy season high is six he had four against the dodgers but the biggest thing for me is you look at his stat cast numbers okay we know he doesn't throw hard we know he's not gonna be throwing a 95 on our fastball he's lucky if he touches 90. i don't think he did last night but here's the thing stackcast is not kind to zach davies expected batting average against zach davies second percentile okay second percentile that means if you put everybody on a major league baseball all major league pitchers on a chart he is at the very very very very very bottom of that list second percentile unexpected batting average second percentile in strikeout percentage fourth percentile and expected on base average fourth percentile in expected era okay so he's one of the worst pitchers now even after last night his average exit velocity his hard hit percentage his barrel percentage all in the bottom half of the league below 50th percentile his wife rate is 10th percentile so when you're talking about a roster that has mookie bets cody ballinger max munsey chris taylor etc etc etc to go against a guy like that and get no hit for six innings is absolutely pathetic it's embarrassing and again i don't mean that in the sense that the dodgers are pathetic the dodgers are embarrassing i'm just saying last night's performance was disappointing and there's no other way to put it okay yes we know the Cubs bullpen cubs bullpen as i said on our preview show they have the best era in baseball so once you get into the seventh eighth night then they go to the pen my expectations drop but to get no hit by zach davies for six innings that's the disappointing part for me last night the dodgers put 20 balls in play half of those had an expected batting average under oh 50. okay so you want to talk about not getting hard contact half of their balls in play had an expected batting average of under oh 50. all right so this is a guy throwing 86 mile an hour fastballs the dodgers were able to navigate to get just three hard hit balls against him in six innings right so and as i said the cubs bullpen is good so no surprise there but to let zach davies do this to you at home after getting your butt kicked by the padres that is the worrisome part to me and i'm The Dodgers need to wake up not trying to overreact i'm actually restraining myself it's just one game but i i think we are seeing that there is something going on with this dodgers i'm not saying it's the end of the world i'm not saying the season's ending i'm not seeing they need to trade people i'm just saying at some point we stopped making excuses for these types of performance and we start wondering why this team has been so streaky the dodgers are 18 and 22 against teams over 500 this season okay 18 they're below 500 against good teams they are 26 and 9 against bad teams this is their second four game losing streak of the season and so at some point you want the dodgers to just wake up and so far this season daniel and i have talked and it's been like hey small sample size small we're getting to a point where we're almost to the halfway point and we need the dodgers to pick it up now if you want to be optimistic let's do the optimistic thing let's not end there okay first of all the dodgers have the second best record in the national league still so let's be positive they had eight walks last night so eight base runners and nine innings not the end of the world they all just came via walk no hits they did have three balls hit again with an expected batting average over 580 against davies another against de pera so maybe you say maybe there's some bad luck there but let's look forward to tonight how do they bounce back the good news for the dodgers is that tonight is another game in which as i would say they have no excuses they get another right-handed pitcher and that's another righty who hasn't been very good which is putting it nicely in jake arrieta the last guy ironically to no hit the dodgers at dodger stadium Jake Arrieta here's the deal on arietta this is not cy young jake arrieta 5.54 era on the season 66 innings pitch he has zero outings in which he is not a lot of run this season he hasn't gone more than five innings since may 14th here's the most encouraging part if you're a dodger fan discouraging part of your cubs fan he has allowed 32 earned runs in his last 38 innings okay in his last 38 innings he has allowed 12 home runs stack cast again agree he's in the bottom 10 of all of major league baseball and exit velocity hard hit percentage expected weighted on base average expected era expected batting average expected slugging with percentage okay bottom 10 of all of baseball in all of those categories if you want to look for one dodger who's had success max muncie is four for 10 in his career with two home runs off jake arrieta so all of that to say i think the dodgers bounce back tonight i think the offense rebounds in a big way i'm not saying it's going to be a 15-run outpouring necessarily but i do think the dodgers get things figured out i'm gonna make the prediction i think the dodgers get a hit in the first inning off of jake arrieta tonight i think they put a run on the board in the first two innings against arietta and the cubs and i'm not saying they're going to win although i think they will but i think that's going to be good for the dodger offense tony gunslin on the mount for the dodger so dodger fans where are you at that's what i want to know in the comments below let me know how are you feeling are you concerned is this one game out of 162 or is this becoming a trend that you're worried about daniel and i will be live post game tonight so make sure to set your clocks for that after the game will be right here on dodger blue 1958 youtube channel so make sure you subscribe ring the notification bell we'd love to have you join us as always check out dodgerblue.com for all the day after coverage from last night's game as well as preview stuff for today my name is jeff spiegel we appreciate you joining us vince goalie wash the bad taste out of our mouth and get us ready for tonight's game the best team holding a trophy high in the air the los angeles dodgers champions of the baseball world