EL SEGUNDO HERALD July 14, 2016 Page 5 First Half Finale By Adam Serrao The Los Angeles Dodgers are heading into the 2016 All-Star Break on a high note. After making it through some rough patches; like losing two of three to the Baltimore Orioles or three of four to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Dodgers have weathered the storm - and some injuries - to remain in this year’s playoff race. At a little bit past the halfway point of the regular season (91 of 162 games) the Dodgers “So, if the Dodgers starting rotation has been next to excellent, then their bullpen must be horrible, right? Not quite.” have a lot of work to do if they want to catch the first place San Francisco Giants. Heading into the break having won three of four versus the San Diego Padres and seven of their last 10 games overall bodes well for a team that still has holes in certain areas, but exhibits major strengths in others. Six and a half games can be seen as quite a bit of ground to make up on the first place Giants if the Dodgers want to win this year’s NL West for the fourth season in a row. Despite their recent success within the division, however, Los Angeles has failed to achieve any postseason success. When you have the best pitcher in the entire league, simply getting to the National League Division Series or even the Championship Series just isn’t good enough. Clayton Kershaw, who has now been accepted into his sixth consecutive All-Star Game, should be enough to get the Dodgers to the World Series and this year, he is once again proving why. Though he’s been injured for the past couple of weeks, Kershaw continues to sport the best ERA and WHIP in the entire league and was leading in strikeouts as well, before his injury. Despite Zack Greinke’s departure to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers starting rotation, behind Kershaw, ranks in the top five in the entire league. A stable of pitchers that is only getting healthier as the season draws on still expects better results from Hyun-Jin Ryu and the return of Brett Anderson to help improve on their 3.44 team ERA that ranks them only behind the Washington Nationals, Chicago Cubs, and New York Mets at the break. So, if the Dodgers starting rotation has been next to excellent, then their bullpen must be horrible, right? Not quite. As good as the starters have been, L.A. relief pitchers have been even better. The Dodgers bullpen ranks second in the league at the break and has actually pitched more innings than the starting rotation has, as a whole. The bullpen, headed by the nastiness coming from closer Kenley Jansen’s arm, ranks as the best bullpen in the entire league with a 2.83 combined ERA. Jansen, who has finally garnered his first All-Star Game appearance, has been the linchpin. His 27 saves tie him for second most in the league and his 1.16 ERA, while basically being unhittable, is also second among closers in the MLB. Jansen isn’t the only one getting things done in the Dodgers pen, though. Adam Liberatore has been nothing short of outstanding. He recently set the franchise record for most consecutive scoreless appearances (24), passing John Candelaria. Liberatore now sports a 0.61 ERA, while Joe Blanton (2.09) and Casey Fien (2.49) have been excellent, to lead the league’s best bullpen, as well. With all of the great pitching going around, the Dodgers one major area of weakness has been their offense. Corey Seager has been the lone bright spot, earning his first All-Star bid to become the youngest position player in Dodgers history to make the All-Star team. Seager leads the team in almost every offensive statistical category, including batting average (.297), runs scored (60), and home runs (17). He’ll also be participating in this year’s Home Run Derby at the All Star Break. Behind Seager, Adrian Gonzalez has been his usual self while Justin Turner and Yasmani Grandal have also turned things up a bit lately. Overall, though, the offense has been inconsistent. With the MLB trade deadline coming up (July 31), the Dodgers should be major players for another bat in the lineup. Look for the team to dangle Yasiel Puig in front of other teams to see what kind of offers they receive. With Andre Ethier set to return soon, the Dodgers have a surplus of outfielders that they can afford to play with in order to get another .300 bat in the lineup; something only Seager has managed to accomplish lately. The Dodgers 51-40 record at this year’s break will put the team 11 games over the .500 mark and rank them as the eighth best team in the entire league, right on the heels of the Boston Red Sox (49-38). Through 91 games last season, the Dodgers held the same exact record as they do now, at 51-40. Winners of seven of their last 10 games heading into the break, the only difference between this year’s Dodgers team and last year’s is the record of their rivals from San Francisco (47-43 last year, compared to 57-33 this year). First place might be pretty tough to accomplish in an even year when the Giants have the best record in baseball and are favored to win it at all, but if the Dodgers remain healthy and rested behind their three All-Stars, it’s not something that’s seen as being completely impractical. With 71 games remaining on the schedule after the break, anything is possible for the Boys in Blue. • Up and Adam South High Volleyball Earns First Place By Adam Serrao The High School volleyball season is often one that goes un-talked about in the prep sports ranks. With other sports like baseball, softball and even track and field and swimming all going on at the same time, the one indoor sport seems to always get left out of the mix. Don’t tell that to the South High boys volleyball team and their head coach Aaron Saldana, though. Saldana and his crew worked extremely hard this season to put together massive winnings streaks, take first place in the Pioneer League standings and ultimately make it into this year’s CIF Division 2 playoffs. A 26-10 overall record this season, in addition to an 11-0 mark in league play, made this South High Spartans volleyball team the best that the city of Torrance had to offer this season. “Los Angeles International Airport is the choice to become the West Coast hub for nonstops to Cuba. How many daily flights LAX gets is yet to be decided.” The South High volleyball team faced a tough test to open this year’s 2016 volleyball season. The Redondo Sea Hawks were the Spartans first opponent of the year and perhaps one of their toughest in the seasons early going. Redondo wound up winning their first four games of the season, and were it not for one mere loss, would have opened the year up with an incredible 11-0 record. The very first win for the Sea Hawks was against the Spartans, handing them their very first loss of the season. Stepping into a brand new season, it took South a while to get going. Offense was a bit hard to come by on the night as Redondo took it to the Spartans in the first set, 25-20. The second was a bit closer and may just have took the rest of the fight that South had left in them on the night. A 27-25 victory for Redondo, however, led into a 25-16 third-set victory and a sweep for the Sea Hawks, giving the Spartans a season-opening first game loss and a bad taste in their mouths. While the first game started off slowly for the Spartans, things were soon to begin looking up. After their opening day loss to start the season, the South High boys would rattle off four victories in a row, including wins against Cathedral and their biggest rivals this year, the Torrance Tartars. South beat their inner-city foes in their first matchup of the year by taking the first set 25-16 and the third set 15-10 of the match, extending their own personal win streak to four, in the process. Like every long and trying season, though, the ups come with the downs. South High’s first extended winning streak of the year was quickly followed by the team’s lowest point of the season. Losses to Tesoro, Santa Margarita and Palos Verdes gave the Spartans their first losing streak of the season. They tried to battle back in this year’s Las Vegas Invitational, but two more losses to Bishop Gorman and Beckman would soon follow. Luckily for the Spartans, league play is all that would matter this year and it was right around the corner. There was no better team for South to get back on track against than their rivals from Torrance High. The Tartars had beaten the Spartans both times that the cross-town rivals matched up last season, so this year, South was certainly out for revenge. Senior Troy Ellis stepped up to the plate for the Spartans. His 21 kills and two blocks led South to a sweep of their league rivals (25-20, 31-29, 25-17) and marked the second time this year that South would come up on top of their inner-city foes. “It’s huge. It’s a huge win for us,” coach Saldana explained after the win. “These are our league rivals and they beat us both times last year, so to jump on them early is a great thing.” The Spartans were hot coming into the matchup against the Tartars, but South gained even more momentum from the win. Their second victory of the season over their rivals was part of a massive 17-game winning streak for the Spartans that would lead the team directly into this year’s playoffs. South’s incredible winning streak didn’t slow down once the playoffs started. Crescenta Valley was first up on the postseason schedule to take the brunt of the Spartans newly found force. A victory was in short order. 25-23, 25-18, and 25-21 led to a straight-sets sweep in round one for South High. Costa Mesa was next. Behind strong play from Kohl Kutsch and Luke Krzmarzick, the Spartans would find themselves sweeping again. A 3-0 victory over Costa Mesa would lead the team into the quarterfinals of the playoffs where they would match up with West Ranch. The West Ranch Wildcats proved to be a team that would finally give the Spartans matchup problems. Michael Flores provided 21 kills for the Wildcats on a night when South, at last, simply looked overmatched. A close first set (25-22) led into an ugly second (25-10). Losing by 15 points seemed to take all of the remaining wind out of South’s sails. The third and final set of the match was soon taken by West Ranch as well (25-20). The Spartans ultimately fell in a sweep that would prove to end their season. Though South High couldn’t make it out of the quarterfinals of the playoffs, they enjoyed a very successful season that saw them get revenge towards Torrance High and finish in first place in the Pioneer League standings. The Spartans will have to find a way to deal with the loss of senior captains Chase Ceballos and Troy Ellis next season, but young athletes like Joseph Sico and Cole Rossi are primed to take over as leaders of the team. Coach Saldana and the rest of the Spartans will certainly be back next season. Don’t be surprised to see them finishing on top of the Pioneer League standings once again. • Burkley & Brandlin LLP A T T O R N E Y S A T L AW Living Trusts/Wills, Probate, Employment Law, Personal Injury Trust and Estates Litigation, Business Litigation, Civil Litigation 310-540-6000 *AV Rated (Highest) Martindale - Hubbell / **Certified Specialist Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law, State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization
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