EL SEGUNDO HERALD September 1, 2016 Page 5 Boys’ Water Polo Preview Dodgers Attempt to Take NL West By Adam Serrao Before last Sunday’s game against the Chicago Cubs, the Dodgers had 72 victories to their name and held a two game lead in the National League West over their rivals, the San Francisco Giants. Though that sounds like a nice stat, and is certainly better than being in second place, 72 wins was the least of any divisional leader in the league. The Dodgers, though, aren’t concerned about records. They are only concerned with being the best team in the league when it comes to the end of October. By overcoming San Francisco in the standings and attempting to run away with the NL West, the Dodgers are one giant step closer to their ultimate World Series goal. People always just seem to expect the Dodgers to win on a yearly basis, perhaps because of their payroll, or perhaps because the talent on the team is actually just that good. No matter the reason, though, the Dodgers are living up to those expectations this year and doing so against all odds. Take into account the fact that Clayton Kershaw - perhaps one of the best pitchers Major League Baseball has ever seen - has not thrown a pitch for the team since June 26. At the time of Kershaw’s departure due to an injury to his back, the Dodgers were 41-36 and looking up at the Giants in the standings, trailing their bitter rivals by eight games. Before last Sunday’s game, the team was 72-57 and held a two game lead in the standings over San Francisco. How does a team lose its best player and improve by 10 games in the standings? Despite not having Kershaw, the Dodgers have still gotten great pitching performances, especially out of their bullpen, and timely hitting. Rich Hill finally made his debut for L.A. and pitched six scoreless innings of baseball against the Giants to help extend the team’s lead in the standings. Kenta Maeda has been his usual solid self as well, but even Scott Kazmir has put together a couple of solid outings and Julio Urias looks to be reaching his future All-Star potential much sooner than expected. Then there’s the bullpen. Kenley Jansen isn’t necessarily unhittable, but he’s pretty close to it. With 39 saves on the season (behind only Jeurys Familia of the New York Mets) and a 1.86 ERA (dating back to last Sunday), Jansen may be the league’s best overall closer. All in all, the Dodgers, as a team, have a 3.78 team ERA, good enough for sixth best in the Major Leagues. Maybe the main reason the Dodgers have been so good lately has to do with the play of Corey Seager, who’s making a strong case for Most Valuable Player and will certainly get this year’s Rookie of the Year Award, leads the team in batting average (.322), on base percentage (.377), and hits. To go with that, he’s also contributed 22 home runs and 61 RBIs. Justin Turner has also been a beast at the plate, knocking in 24 home runs and 74 RBIs. Adrian Gonzalez has been his usual self as well, batting near the .300’s with 15 home runs and 73 RBIs. Together with excellent pitching, the Dodgers proficiency at the plate on offense has gotten them to the top of the National League West standings and in front of the Giants for a playoff spot. Through it all, the team’s journey has been rather improbable. The Dodgers began the year with 10 players on the disabled list. When Brett Anderson landed back on the DL, he was the fifth player to land on the list twice this season. The Dodgers have had seven pitchers make the disabled list and a total of 27 players. An amount matched only by the 2012 Red Sox who finished the year in fifth place in the American League East. Despite all of the injuries, the Dodgers pressed on. They pressed on with a rookie head coach in his first year in a management role with the team. They pressed on and overcame a six game deficit in the NL West at the time of this year’s All-Star break. The Dodgers only figure to get healthier and with the arrival of Hill to the pitching staff, combined with Kershaw’s hopeful and eventual return, could get a major boost to the team’s talent. Add to that the September call-ups and rookies like Jose De Leon that could potentially come in, relieve some pitchers and make an immediate impact. Though the Dodgers only held a slight two game lead in the standings dating back to last Sunday, they certainly look to be in a good position. The Chicago Cubs may be the game’s best team record-wise, but the Dodgers just beat them two out of three games as well. If the team can somehow stay healthy and play out the last month of the season like they’ve been playing, they may just have enough to send Vin Scully off with a World Series ring. • By Gregg McMullin Last season was a record year for the El Segundo High School boys’ water polo team. They won a school record 26 games, tied for the Ocean League title and made it to the CIF Southern Section Division 4 semi-finals. Head coach Riley Brady will need to reload his team with the loss of most of the team to graduation. Gone are Justin Knoll, Nick Paz, Lukas Frerichs, Joe Doucette, Matt Marak and Kyle Parker. Coach Brady, a former standout for the Eagles, will put his coaching abilities to the test if his team is to repeat last season’s success. In his first two seasons as the head coach, Brady is 49-11 and two of those losses were in the CIF playoffs. “We have just two returning starters so everyone will need to step up this year,” he said This year’s team faces an uphill battle as the result of the new seeding format pushed the Eagles up from Division 4 to Division 2. The Eagles will play now in the same division as many of the top Orange County teams. Those teams are historically strong and some ranked nationally. In addition most of the those schools have a much greater enrollment and have as many as 80-100 kids in their programs. The Eagles will most likely top out at a total of 22 players in their program this year. Coach Brady is still encouraged with what he’s seen so far. “We have a strong history of putting together a good and competitive team and compete with the best,” Brady said. “It is a great compliment to be pushed up to Division 2 after the success we’ve had especially last season’s success.” This year’s team will be led by returning starters Kelly Reynolds senior and junior Kyle Crist. Reynolds will be playing the center position and the offense will be run through him. His leadership skills and talent has led the team to elect Reynolds as the captain of this year’s team. Coach Brady said he was expecting a huge year from Crist. His speed, outside shooting and ability to create an offense will be vital to the team’s success. Crist will be leaned on to help out on the defensive side as well. He is a great team defender and does a great job of putting everyone in positions to be successful on both offense and defense. Another returnee is left-hander senior Ryan Winkler. Winkler has a strong outside shot and will also be relied on to post-up and play the center position when Reynolds is out of the game. The center-defender will be handled by junior returnee Nolan Young. Young’s work ethic during the summer and offseason workouts have really paid off and he’s shown great improvement. While Young’s primary position is a defender, he also has the ability to score with his wicked strong arm. Senior left-hander Kyle Parker he is a great team player and gives the Eagles the rare advantage of having two left-handers in the game at the same time. That advantage could work very well against opposing teams. See Eagles, page 9 “By overcoming San Francisco in the standings and attempting to run away with the NL West, the Dodgers are one giant step closer to their ultimate World Series goal.”
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