Sparing me the chance to write about Chico Ruiz stealing home, Herman Franks stealing signals, or even Jorge Orta pinch hitting for Fernando Valenzuela, the Dodgers quickly erased the memory of a bad trip to Cincinnati (well, it was a trip to Cincinnati, it’s not a tourist destination.) Iwith a resounding 8-1 win over the second place Diamondbacks behind a six home run fusillade in a four inning span, with three of them coming from the bat of one Juan C. Uribe.
Uribe took Arizona starter Randall Delgado deep twice and his third homer came off of reliever Eury De La Rosa. In Uribe’s fourth at bat, he hit a chopper to third that he managed to leg out for an RBI infield hit. In all a 4 for 4, 4 RBI night for someone whom most people (people like me) felt that even Luis Cruz was an improvement.
In addition to Uribe, Andre Ethier, Hanley Ramirez, and Adrian Gonzalez also homered. Gonzalez’s homer was the only one the Dodgers hit with a runner on base.
Ricky Nolasco, the Dodgers ace du jour, gave up just one unearned run (set up when Uribe airmailed a throw into the seats) in 6 2/3 innings. J.P. Howell picked up an out, Carlos Marmol threw a scoreless inning, as did a rusty Kenley Jansen, who allowed a walk and a hit.
The Dodgers lowered their magic number to clinch the division to 8 and eliminated both the Giants and the Rockies from the division race. The loser of tomorrow night’s Rockies-Giants game will be mathematically eliminated from the wild card as well if both Pittsburgh and Cincinnati win on Tuesday.
KT
From MSTI: Off The Wall 79 4 minutes ago
http://i.imgur.com/4s7b2M2.png
btimmer
The Giants could still tie for the second wild card if they win their remaining 20 games and either the Reds or Pirates lose all of their remaining games.
Jeff
KT – you mentioned a while back you have been very successful getting autographs. I’m going to the game with my son on Thursday and have field level tickets…would you be kind enough to share those tips?
KT
Since the areas for the Prime Ticket and the Dodger Dugout seats (where I usually sit) will be blocked off because they don’t allow non ticket holders to enter the area, you will have to go down the 3rd base foul line by the foul poles to get (dodger signatures) or 1st base to get the opposition. Make sure you get to the auto gate at least an 1/2 hour before so you can be parked and at the beginning of the entrance to the 3rd base side ASAP. you will want to position your son in front of you or right next to you along the baseline wall…so get there as early as possible. Make sure you bring permanent markers or pens and the items you want autographed. Pens are better for baseballs because markers bleed or yellow after years.
To tell you the truth I have never tried to get autographs from the field box area but I’ve seen the crowds and have seen players autograph there. I’ve got most of my autographs at ST, behind the Dodger Dugout or at Petco where they let everyone in the stadium no matter where you are sitting try to get autographs
I final note make sure your boy can been seen and the he is actively asking for the autographs (loud enough for them to hear) because it’s the kids that attract the players
Jeff
Thanks, KT – appreciate it.
KT
NP
Linkmeister
Aarrghh! An Oxford comma! Egad!
S’alright, I know it was just irrational exuberance. You’re forgiven.
SaMoDodger
I like the Oxford comma. It’s often necessary to avoid confusion, harmless at worst, and merely irritating when superfluous.
Linkmeister
Oh, I don’t have strong feelings either way. I was just trying to tease Bob. (You see how much it bugged him by his strong response, don’t you?)
Bumsrap
I like them, always use them, and attribute that to a 7th grade English teacher.
Bob_Hendley
Nice.
foul tip
With his performance last night on top of a solid season, Uribe probably erased any lingering bad taste from his first 2 years.
Someone here proposed maybe offering him a one-year with performance clauses and pointed out there’s not a lot available in the 3B FA market.
He probably feels bad about those first 2 years and would be inclined to accept.
RBI
Woke up with visions of dingers dancing in my head. What a fun game after the previous four! Plus, I acquired two Hello Kitty mini-bobbles for the twin granddaughters. Never too early to start them in on their own collection.
btimmer
I got two bobbleheads as my wife couldn’t make it to the game. But to get two, I had to walk in, get one, walk out, and then walk back in.
btimmer
NPUT