Tag Archives: Dodgers

15 Sep

hot starts

On this date in 2002, Cliff Lee threw the first pitch of his major league career. Perhaps foreshadowing what was to come, the ex-Meridian Community College standout went 5 1/3 innings, allowing a lone run, but took a loss for Cleveland in a 5-0 defeat against visiting Minnesota. A 6-foot-3 left-hander, Lee would finish his 13-year MLB career with a 143-91 record, a 3.52 ERA, a Cy Young Award, an ERA title and four All-Star Game appearances. He never won a World Series ring but was 7-3, 2.52, in the postseason. In sum, he was really good. Born in Arkansas, he spent two years at MCC (under Scott Berry) and was drafted by Baltimore in 1998. He didn’t sign and went on to Arkansas, where he was a fourth-round pick by Montreal in 2000. He was traded to Cleveland in the summer of 2002 along with Brandon Phillips and Grady Sizemore in a blockbuster deal for Bartolo Colon and Lee Stevens. Lee would win 90 games for the Indians, 22 in 2008 when he earned the Cy Young. He won 58 games in parts of five seasons with Philadelphia and went 2-0 in the 2009 World Series. … Also on this date, in 1984, Natchez native Freddie Toliver made his MLB debut, tossing a scoreless inning for Cincinnati against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Drafted out of a California high school in 1979, Toliver went 10-16, 4.73, in 78 MLB games; he was 7-6, 4.24, for a 91-win Minnesota club in 1988. … And on this date in 1993, Keith Kessinger, an Ole Miss alum, went 1-for-2 for Cincinnati against Atlanta, getting his knock off Kent Mercker in his first at-bat. Kessinger, son of former big league star Don Kessinger, hit .259 in 11 games in ’93, his only year in The Show. P.S. Crochet v. Warren Act II went a lot like the original. Crochet, the former Ocean Springs High standout now with the Boston Red Sox, threw six effective innings Sunday night, allowing three runs and fanning 12, in Boston’s 6-4 victory over the New York Yankees at Fenway Park. Warren, the Jackson Prep product, gave up all six runs in the first inning – two on a hit by Mississippi State alum Nathaniel Lowe – and took the loss. Crochet (16-5, 2.63 ERA in 30 starts) beat Warren and Yanks on Aug. 23, punching out 11 in seven innings in a 12-1 win. Warren (now 8-7, 4.44) got roughed up in that game, too. He has a 9.42 ERA in three career starts against Boston. Of note: Crochet has fanned Aaron Judge 11 times in 15 at-bats; Judge has hit two homers off the lefty, including one Sunday. The season series between the two American League East rivals has ended. The Red Sox, who won the series, trail the second-place Yankees by 1.5 games. … Former Southern Miss standout Chuckie Robinson has been recalled again (see previous posts) by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

07 Sep

three stars

Brandon Wooduff: The ex-Mississippi State star from Wheeler threw six shutout innings (two hits, no walks, eight strikeouts) to pace Milwaukee to a 4-1 victory Saturday at Pittsburgh. Woodruff, coming off a couple of shaky outings, improved to 6-2 with a 3.32 ERA in 11 starts for the Brewers, now 88-55, best record in the big leagues.
Mason Nichols/Connor Hujsak: Former Ole Miss standout Nichols threw two scoreless innings (the eighth and ninth) for his first pro win and ex-MSU star Hujsak belted his seventh homer as co-stars in Low-Class A Charleston’s 2-1 victory at Hickory. Nichols, a 2025 draft pick by Tampa Bay, has a 0.00 ERA in seven games. Hujsak, a 2024 draftee, is batting .229 with 19 doubles, six triples, 51 RBIs and 54 runs in 98 games.
Konnor Griffin: The Jackson Prep product, the No. 1 prospect in the minors, returned from a day off to hit a home run, draw a walk and score twice for Double-A Altoona (Pittsburgh). Griffin has four homers in Double-A and 20 overall (with 90 RBIs) in his first pro season. Note: He was NOT hit by a pitch after getting drilled four times in the three previous games against Richmond.
P.S. Former Southern Miss catcher Chuckie Robinson was called up by the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday and figures to be behind the plate today when the team — and Clayton Kershaw — takes on Baltimore. … Sad to hear of the passing of Davey Johnson, who longtime Jackson-area fans will remember as the manager of the 1981 Jackson Mets. Johnson took a team that wasn’t loaded with future MLB stars — Marvell Wynne, Mike Fitzgerald, Terry Leach, et al. — to the franchise’s first Texas League title in its seventh year at Smith-Wills Stadium. Five years after that ’81 run, Johnson guided the New York Mets — and a bunch of JaxMets alums — to the World Series crown. That Mets club played a memorable exhibition game at Smith-Wills prior to the season. Johnson also won two rings as a player with Baltimore.

06 Sep

minor matters

The Have-a-Day Award, minor league edition, for Friday has to go to Bryson Ware, the Germantown High product now in the Philadelphia system. Ware went 4-for-4 with three doubles, two RBIs and a run in Double-A Reading’s 7-6 loss to Hartford. Just a .226 career hitter in three pro seasons, third baseman Ware is batting .296 with two homers and eight RBIs in 14 games since his move up to Double-A. He has 10 homers all told in 2025. A former Pearl River Community College star, he was drafted out of Auburn in the eighth round in ’23. … Ex-Ole Miss star Kemp Alderman homered for the fifth time in six games with Triple-A Jacksonville. The Miami prospect now has 20 homers on the year and is batting .282 overall, .300 in Triple-A. … Southaven’s Blaze Jordan went deep twice for Triple-A Memphis and now has 17 bombs on the year and 60 in his five years in the minors. Jordan, 22, is batting .184 with five homers and 25 RBIs in 27 games for St. Louis’ top affiliate. … Mississippi State alum and erstwhile big leaguer J.P. France, laboring on the injury comeback trail in Houston’s system, went five innings, yielding just one run, for Triple-A Sugar Land in a 5-2 win vs. Oklahoma City. France is 2-1 with a 6.38 ERA in seven games for the Space Cowboys. … Of note: Konnor Griffin, hit by a pitch four times over a three-day span, did not play Friday for Double-A Altoona. Pittsburgh’s top-rated prospect is hitting .330 with 19 homers and 65 bags on the year. … The Los Angeles Dodgers are expected to call up a catcher today, and it might not be coincidence that ex-Southern Miss star Chuckie Robinson was pulled from Triple-A Oklahoma City’s game early on Friday night. Robinson, who has big league experience, is hitting .259 with four homers and 28 RBIs for the Comets. He is not on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster. P.S. Hailed as “the best team in baseball” by none other than the Wall Street Journal, the West Michigan Whitecaps are the only team in pro ball with 90 wins (current .698 win percentage) and have a ridiculous run differential of plus-284. And, yes, there is a Mississippian on the team. Pascagoula native Patrick Lee, a former William Carey University star, is a role player for the Whitecaps, Detroit’s High-Class A affiliate. The 25-year-old outfielder is batting .207 with a .394 OBP and has four homers, 24 RBIs and 27 steals in 63 games. Lee wasn’t drafted out of NAIA Carey, where he finished in 2023 with a .335 career average. He played in the MLB Draft League that summer, then in the independent Frontier League early in 2024 before Detroit signed him. West Michigan (90-38), not exactly loaded with top Tigers prospects, won both halves in the Midwest League East Division and will go into the playoffs as a heavy favorite for the pennant.

21 Jul

fit to be tied

The Cubs went down in Chicago, Milwaukee rose up in Los Angeles and suddenly there’s a tie at the top of the National League Central. Not long after former Ocean Springs High star Garrett Crochet and the Boston Red Sox beat the Cubs 6-1 Sunday at Wrigley Field, ex-Biloxi Shuckers standout Isaac Collins knocked in the go-ahead runs for the Brewers in a 6-5 win at Dodger Stadium. With its 10th straight win, Milwaukee (59-40) has caught the Cubs, who have gone 6-4 during the Brewers’ impressive run. The pitching-rich Brewers will send former Wheeler High and Mississippi State star Brandon Woodruff to the bump today at Seattle. In two games since his return from shoulder surgery — and a season-plus on the shelf — Woodruff is 1-0 with a 2.61 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 10 1/3 innings. He’s 47-26, 3.09, for his MLB career, all with the Brewers. In Sunday’s win, the Brewers overcame an early 3-0 deficit against Clayton Kershaw and ultimately took the lead in a three-run sixth, fueled by a two-out knock by Collins, who’s among a bundle of former Shuckers on the Brewers’ roster. The rookie outfielder, who played in Biloxi in 2023, is batting .268 with six homers and 26 RBIs. Earlier Sunday, Red Sox ace Crochet threw six innings of one-run ball against the Cubs and got the win — he is 11-4, 2.19 — as Boston scored a combined six times in the seventh and eighth. Ole Miss product Drew Pomeranz, who has been so good for the Cubs, surrendered a three-run bomb to Alex Bregman in the Red Sox’s pivotal four-run eighth. P.S. Matt Wallner, Southern Miss alum, crushed his 40th career homer — 11th of 2025 — for Minnesota in a win on Sunday. Wallner is batting just .205 but slugging .454 (with nine doubles and two triples). … Ex-USM standout Chuckie Robinson doesn’t always play for Triple-A Oklahoma City, but when he does … . The veteran catcher and ex-big leaguer is 5-for-8 with four RBIs in the last two games, both wins for the Dodgers affiliate. Robinson, a waiver claim from the Angels back in May, is hitting .251 with three homers and 33 RBIs on the year. He has played in just 22 games for the Comets, 59-37 overall in 2025.

19 Mar

the early show

Gotta get up early — 5 a.m. local time Wednesday — to watch Justin Steele try to shut down the world champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Former George County High standout Steele is starting for the Chicago Cubs in Game 2 of the Tokyo Series. A 2023 All-Star, Steele is 29-21 with a 3.24 ERA in his career with the Cubs. He is 2-1 all-time against the Dodgers, beating them in ’23 as a starter and in ’21 as a reliever. Max Muncy and Chris Taylor have homers off Steele, who doesn’t surrender many. Tommy Edman is 4-for-10 career against Steele, and Will Smith is 1-for-3. Left-hander Steele has never faced Shohei Ohtani, the reigning National League MVP who went 2-for-5 with two runs in the Dodgers’ 4-1 win in the season opener at the Tokyo Dome on Tuesday. The Dodgers’ starter will be Roki Sasaki, the Japanese import who will be making his MLB debut. P.S. On a breezy Tuesday night in Pearl, Southern Miss did a lot of good things in a 6-2 win over Ole Miss at Trustmark Park. You want defense? In the first inning, left fielder Davis Gillespie went to the fence — and maybe over it — to make a catch on a high drive by Ole Miss slugger Ryan Moerman. USM second baseman Nick Monistere made a slick snatch while lying on his back to record an out at the bag and save shortstop Ozzie Pratt from a costly error. Golden Eagles third baseman Drey Barrett made two sweet plays, including starting a 5-3 double play that ended the game with the bases full of Rebels. You want pitching? Matt Adams worked a strong 4 2/3 to get it started for USM. Josh Och got eight outs in the middle innings, allowing just two walks and punching out three. Closer Colby Allen escaped a tight spot with a punchout to end the eighth and then worked in and out of a jam to end the game for his fifth save. The bats made some noise, too. After Jake Cook drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the first, Pratt ripped a double for a 1-0 lead. With two outs in the first, a Monistere single made it 2-0. In the fifth, Gillespie blasted a go-ahead three-run homer to left in a park that doesn’t yield a lot of bombs. Carson Paetow capped the four-run fifth with a two-out RBI double. That was all the Eagles needed to take it home. With a crowd of 3,498 looking on, USM improved to 15-6, avenging a loss last month at Oxford. Ole Miss slipped to 15-5.

31 Oct

a memory evoked

Los Angeles rallied from a five-run deficit Wednesday night to win Game 5 — and the World Series — evoking a painful memory for Atlanta fans but no doubt a thrilling one for Hattiesburg native Charlie Hayes. According to baseballreference.com, the only other time a team has squandered a lead of five runs or more after five innings and lost a Series game was in Game 4 in 1996. The Braves, up 2-1 in the Series, led 6-0 after five innings but fell to the New York Yankees 8-6 in 10 at old Fulton County Stadium. Hayes played a role in the rally. He had an RBI hit in the three-run sixth and another knock in the eighth, when Jim Leyritz’s three-run homer off Mark Wohlers crushed the soul of Braves fans and tied the score 6-6. Hayes also reached on an error that scored the final run in New York’s two-run 10th. The former Forrest County AHS star went 3-for-5 in Game 4 — his only hits in the six-game Series — and three days later at Yankee Stadium caught the foul pop that closed out the Yankees’ championship. A midseason pick-up by the Yankees in ’96, Hayes played 14 years all told in the big leagues (1998-2001), batting .262 with 144 homers and winning the one ring. P.S. Dodgers first baseman and Mississippi Braves alum Freddie Freeman, 6-for-20 with four homers and 12 RBIs against the Yankees, was named the MVP of the 2024 Fall Classic, becoming the first Mississippi-connected player to win that award. No native or college alum has done so. … In the Arizona Fall League on Wednesday, Ole Miss product Tim Elko went 3-for-5 with a double, a homer (his fourth), four RBIs and three runs for Glendale. The Chicago White Sox prospect is hitting .267 in the AFL.

26 Oct

celebrate, celebrate …

There were two wild celebrations in baseball on Friday, the one at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and another at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taiwan, where Kirk McCarty and his CTBC Brothers teammates celebrated a Chinese Professional Baseball League title. McCarty, the former Southern Miss standout from Hattiesburg, won Game 3 for the Brothers, working 5 1/3 shutout innings in a 10-0 win over Uni-President that put the club up 2-1 in the best-of-7 Taiwan Series. CTBC won the clincher 12-6 on Friday for the franchise’s 10th CPBL crown. McCarty went 5-3 with a 2.76 ERA for CTBC in his first season in Taiwan after a year in the Korean Baseball Organization, where the little lefty won nine games in 2023. Drafted by Cleveland out of USM in 2017, McCarty made the big leagues in 2022 and posted a 4-3, 4.54, ledger for the Guardians. He won two C-USA titles with the Golden Eagles. P.S. Former Mississippi Braves pitcher Evan Phillips was a late scratch from Los Angeles’ World Series roster, reportedly because of minor arm soreness. The Dodgers added pitchers Alex Vesia and Brusdar Graterol to the 26-man squad, and both worked effectively in the 6-3 win capped by M-Braves alum Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning. … Brennon McNair, Magee High product, had a disappointing fourth year in pro ball, batting .193 for Low-Class A Columbia in the Kansas City system. The 22-year-old outfielder, who can also play third base and shortstop, will get a chance to redeem himself in the Australian Baseball League, where he’ll play for Brisbane starting next month. McNair did have some highlights in 2024, hitting eight homers, 15 doubles and two triples and swiping nine bases in 87 games. His career average is .207 with 18 bombs.

25 Oct

names to know

There are no Magnolia State natives or school alums on the active rosters for this year’s World Series, though there are some significant state connections. Former Mississippi Braves star Freddie Freeman plays first base and Evan Phillips, another M-Braves alum, pitches for Los Angeles. Trent Grisham, who played for the Biloxi Shuckers, is a reserve outfielder for New York. Ex-Mississippi State star Travis Chapman also suits up for the Yankees and enjoys the privilege of slapping hands with Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, et al., as they start their home run trek. Chapman, the Yankees’ first-base coach, was an outstanding third baseman who played on two College World Series teams at State before enjoying a nice pro career (.286 average) that included one at-bat in The Show in 2003. He played his last game in 2006 and then became a manager and coach in the Yankees’ minor league chain. He joined the big club in 2022. Grisham belted 20 homers in 79 games for Biloxi in 2017-18 and hit nine this year for the Yankees, but the lefty hitter has yet to appear in this postseason. Freeman, who has pronounced himself a “100 percent go” for tonight’s Game 1 despite an ankle injury, played for the M-Braves in 2009; he hit .248 with two homers and 24 RBIs in 41 games. He made the big leagues in 2010 and is an eight-time All-Star and former MVP. Phillips did two stints in Pearl (2016 and ’17), appearing in 37 games as a reliever. He reached Atlanta in 2018 and was traded to Baltimore during that season. The right-hander has yet to allow a run in 12 postseason appearances over four years with the Dodgers. … Andy Fletcher, an Ole Miss alum and Olive Branch resident, is on the umpiring crew for the Series and will be behind home plate for Game 2 at Dodger Stadium. A 25-year vet in MLB, Fletcher was behind the plate in Korea for Game 2 of the 2024 season when the Dodgers played San Diego. … Brent Rooker, MSU alum now with Oakland, will serve as a correspondent for MLB Network in Game 3 of the Series at Yankee Stadium, doing pre- and postgame interviews. P.S. In the previous 11 World Series matchups featuring the Dodgers and Yankees, the only one in which a Mississippian played any type of role was the 1941 meeting. Morton native Atley Donald, nicknamed Swampy, started Game 4 for the Yankees and stood to get the loss before Mickey Owen’s infamous ninth-inning passed ball allowed the Yankees to mount a winning rally en route to taking the Series 4-1. Right-hander Donald pitched eight years with the Yankees from 1938-45 and compiled a 65-33 record with a 3.52 ERA. He was a three-time world champion with the Bronx Bombers.

23 Oct

‘fernandomania’

Fernando Valenzuela, who died on Tuesday, will always be remembered for the “Fernandomania” the Mexican left-hander generated in his 1981 rookie season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who won the World Series that year. A strain of “Fernandomania” also reached Jackson’s Smith-Wills Stadium on May 27, 1991, when Valenzuela made an appearance for the Midland Angels against the Jackson Generals in a Double-A Texas League game. A stadium-record, standing room-only crowd of 6,252 turned out; a section of the outfield was roped off to accommodate the spillover. Valenzeula, who had been released by the Dodgers in spring training that year, was making a comeback attempt with the California Angels. He pitched six innings and got the win on that crazy night. If you were there, you can’t forget it. Valenzuela didn’t last long with the Angels but bounced back to win 32 games with four other MLB clubs from 1993-97, running his career win total to 173, 141 of those with the Dodgers. He was the Cy Young Award winner and rookie of the year in 1981 and won the pivotal Game 3 of the World Series against the New York Yankees with a gutsy effort. Forty-three years after that remarkable season, Valenzuela remains one of baseball’s true icons. P.S. A few details from Valenzuela’s Smith-Wills outing, his second minor league start for Midland: He wore a major league uniform — not a Midland unie — with his name on the back. … He threw 53 strikes among his 90 pitches, allowing no runs on five hits and three walks (all in the first inning) with seven strikeouts in a 7-1 victory. … He said he was especially happy with his signature screwball. … “He made great pitches at the right times,” Gens second baseman and future big leaguer Trent (Trenidad) Hubbard said after the game. … Bill Blackwell, the Jackson GM at the time and now executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, said not only did he sell a lot of tickets for that Monday night game, he also sold a lot of beer, especially to the fans standing in the outfield. … The Gens averaged about 1,700 fans per game in 1991, the franchise’s first season as a Houston affiliate. … Blackwell also noted that Valenzuela sat in the Midland bullpen the next night and rode the team bus to Arkansas for the next series.

10 Oct

postseason potpourri

A former Mississippi Braves player enjoyed a star turn for the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the National League Division Series on Wednesday night. It wasn’t Freddie Freeman, who sat out the Dodgers’ stunning 8-0 win vs. San Diego with an ankle injury. It was Evan Phillips, who got four outs — against the biggest bats in the Padres’ lineup — and earned the win at Petco Park. The series is 2-2 heading back to Dodger Stadium on Friday. One of the eight pitchers LA deployed in Game 4, Phillips entered in the fifth inning of a 5-0 game with two on and two out and got Fernando Tatis Jr. to fly out. The 30-year-old right-hander then mowed down Jurickson Profar, Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill in the sixth. Now in his fourth year with the Dodgers, Phillips has not allowed an earned run in nine postseason appearances. A former Atlanta draftee, Phillips pitched in Pearl in 2016 and ’17, posting modest numbers over 37 games in Double-A. The Braves traded him to Baltimore at the deadline in 2018. He signed with Tampa Bay in 2021 and was claimed off waivers by the Dodgers that summer. He has a 3.43 ERA and 45 saves in 243 MLB games. … The New York Mets, who eliminated Philadelphia in a Game 4 on Wednesday, might have a good luck charm in their dugout: first-year bench coach John Gibbons. Gibbons, a former big league manager, was a catcher for the Jackson Mets in 1982 — the Darryl Strawberry year — and ’83 and also played for the 1986 big league Mets. Of course, that was the last time New York won a World Series. (Gibbons didn’t play in the ’86 Series.) … Biloxi High product Colt Keith got his first postseason knock and scored a run in Detroit’s 3-0 win against Cleveland on Wednesday. The Tigers take a 2-1 lead into Game 4 tonight at Comerica Park. Rookie Keith is back in the lineup at second base, hitting fifth. … Ex-Mississippi State standout Adam Frazier made his first appearance of the ’24 postseason, got a hit and scored a run for Kansas City in a 3-2 loss to the New York Yankees at Kauffman Stadium. Frazier has been in the postseason each of the last three years with a different team each time; he is 6-for-31 in eight games.