Dodgers: Austin Barnes Will Get the Start in Game Six
It may come as no surprise, but it looks like Austin Barnes has earned the trust of Dave Roberts and the Dodgers front office. It was announced today that Barnes would get the start over Grandal in game six of the NLCS. He will be catching Hyun-jin Ryu and facing off against the left-handed Wade Miley.
Catcher Austin Barnes will start again in Game 6.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) October 18, 2018
Barnes got the opportunity to contribute after Yasmani Grandal made a series of errors in the first few games. Roberts did not call it a benching though, instead referring to it as a good matchup for Barnes in his game two start.
Barnes has made the most of his opportunities. His offensive output may not be great to look at, but his defense has been the real difference maker. He appears to be seeing the ball much better than Grandal, even framing pitches much more efficiently. Barnes has thrown out one of the three attempted base stealers.
Grandal is 2-10 in the series and has struck out six times. His postseason slash line is an abysmal .130/.231/.304 and he has gone down on strikes a total of 11 times through the eight games he has played. I doubt we will see much of him moving forward if Barnes’ defense is solid.
Did Yasmani Grandal help the team to be in the postseason?
Same horror movie as last year!!!!! That’s not a surprise, but good things are coming!!
Barnes could get MVP
Yes, Maria, Grandal did, but he is out of gas now, so we need Barnes from now on – fresh legs, better defense, a couple key at-bats so far.