Steve Webb
MIAMI, FL — To paraphrase the immortal words of former Vikings and Cardinals head coach Dennis Green, “Lance Lynn is who we thought he was.” When the Dodgers acquired the veteran pitcher, there was some head scratching. The guy gives up too many home runs, his ERA is the worst in the league, etc, etc. But for a few starts, Lynn looked pretty good. I regret to report that maybe we were right about Lynn all along. The righthander’s regression to the mean is now complete: the Marlins absolutely raked Lynn over the coals in what proved to be a mostly embarrassing 11-4 loss on Wednesday at Loan Depot Park.
The grisly details are too sordid to get into here. Let’s leave it at this: after looking pretty good for four innings and being staked to a 1-0 lead thanks to a Jason Heyward solo shot, Lynn absolutely imploded in the fifth inning, a frame in which the Marlins scored nine unanswered runs and put the game on ice before another Dodger even stepped to the plate. Three Marlins went deep in the Joey Wendle, Jazz Chisolm Jr., and Jesus Sanchez, but everybody was knocking the ball around the yard. It was awful. Lynn’s final line for the night: 4.2 IP, 7 H, 8 R, 3 BB, 1 K.
James Outman hit a home run late, but it hardly mattered. For the second straight start, Lance Lynn looked unbelievably bad. There is no magic “Dodger Dust” that Mark Prior can sprinkle on pitchers and supernaturally make them other than who they are. And now, the Dodgers’ rotation is in a shambles because of so many things, Lynn being bad among them.
“Mistakes,” Lynn said when asked to account for his dumpster fire of an outing. “Got behind. Didn’t put anybody away with two strikes. Just an absolute disaster. I blew up. Can’t happen. Got to be better. I know that. I’ve pitched way too long to have an inning like that.”
“Looking back at the replays, there were a lot of pitches over the big part of the plate,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts of the performance. “Unfortunately, they went out of the ballpark. Going into that fifth inning, the pitch count was where it needed to be — efficient, throwing strikes, commanding the baseball. Then in the fifth inning — there were some walks in there and something happened where he just lost control.”
And guess what, it’s now Julio Urias‘s turn in the rotation! Oh Joy! However, at least the Dodgers have someone who’s actually looked good ready to slot in. Ryan Pepiot, who looked so good in his last start will get the ball as the Dodgers’ try to salvage the final game of the series against the Marlins. The righthander takes the mound against Braxton Garrett in the game, slated for a 3:40 first pitch. Let’s see what he’s got. I’m at the point right now of just going with the youth movement the whole way. Fill up the postseason roster with these kids and give them a chance to show what they’ve got. Let’s go boys, season’s not over yet.
