Dodger Thoughts

Wednesday’s game at Dodger Stadium thankfully had no brawls, with all the hitting coming off the bats of the Diamondbacks and Dodgers bats.

Arizona banged out 20 hits, 17 of them singles, to break through against Ronald Belisario and Brandon League in the 12th to win 8-6.

The highlights for the Dodgers all came in the fifth, when they erased a 3-0 lead, scoring four times, highlighted by a Hyun-Jin Ryu triple (helped out by an ill-advised dive by Gerardo Parra).

Then the Dodger bats fell silent. Rookie Chris Withrow made his MLB debut in the 7th and couldn’t hold the 1-run lead.

After the Diamondbacks scored four times in the 12th, the Dodgers tried to come back with a home run by Ramon Hernandez (who also stole a base), a single by Yasiel Puig (who did not start because of a shoulder strain, although he appeared OK in his limited action), followed by a walk to Skip Schumaker. Nick Punto grounded to first and may have been able to beat the throw at first, but he opted for the headfirst slide, and he was out.

Puig scored on Mark Ellis’ ground out. Adrian Gonzalez walked, but pinch hitter Tim Federowicz grounded in to a force play to end the game.

Thursday is an off day for the Dodgers as they head off to Pittsburgh. The Pirates are the only team the Dodgers have swept at home this season. The Pirates are 39-26 on the season and 23-11 at PNC Park. The Pirates go for a series sweep against the Giants Thursday.

Disciplinary action for Tuesday’s Pier One brawl (I think there was a lot of rattan involved) should be handed out Thursday.

There will be no announcement on discipline from MLB today, according to a baseball source.

— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) June 12, 2013

Yasiel Puig has become a True Dodger as he was scratched with an undefined leg injury strained right shoulder. Alex Castellanos gets the start in right field. Tonight’s cleanup hitter: Jerry Hairston!

Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10 p.m.

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph of Sydney, the Dodgers and Diamondbacks are scheduled to open the 2014 MLB regular season at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

In a $13 million coup for the state government, the opening series of the MLB will be held at the SCG on Saturday March 22 and Sunday March 23 – the first time a competitive US baseball fixture will be held in Australia and only the sixth time one has been staged outside America.

The games have been described as the biggest internationally recognised event in this country since the 2003 Rugby World Cup final and come exactly 100 years after the Chicago White Sox played against NSW at the SCG.

“Sydney will host the first two games for the opening series of 2014 Major League Baseball at the Sydney Cricket Ground,” Premier Barry O’Farrell said.

“The opening series will feature the LA Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks playing the first two games of the season.

There is no official announcement from either team, MLB, or the Players Association.

If the plan goes through, both teams would likely start spring training very early and then fly back to the U.S. after the two games that count and then play more exhibition games before their respective home openers.

The Dodgers have never played a regular season game outside of North America.

According to weather.com, the average temperature in Sydney for March 22-23 is a high of 76 and a low of 63.

Bob posting here: The Dodgers will still not have Hanley Ramirez in the starting lineup (found through the link below). But he’s not disabled!  But there’s Skip Schumaker. And Luis Cruz. And Juan Uribe.

And there are more personnel changes! Opening Day shortstop Justin Sellers was optioned back down to Albuquerque for the second time this year and Alex Castellanos was called up. Chris Withrow got his call to the big leagues. Scott Van Slyke went on the disabled list. The outfielder is replacing the infielder and the relief pitcher is replacing the outfielder. Not that it really matters. As long as it adds up to 25 players.

After 32 at bats in his major league career, Yasiel Puig is batting .500. If he stopped playing today (and didn’t play tonight or the rest of the season), that would be the highest batting average for any rookie in his first season in the majors with at least 32 ABs.

The second best is Craig Wilson, who batted .468 in 53 ABs for the White Sox in 1998. Wilson was a 28-year old rookie who lasted just parts of three seasons in the majors.

The third best is Arizona’s second baseman tonight, Willie Bloomquist, who batted .455 in a callup for the Mariners in 2002. Bloomquist has played in 12 big league seasons. He’s also played seven different positions (all but the battery) and he’s hit a whopping 17 home runs.

The seventh best hitter on the list is Stan Musial, who hit .426 in 47 ABs for the Cardinals in 1941. The 1941 Cardinals finished 2 1/2 games behind the Dodgers in the NL that year. Some Cardinal players were disappointed that GM Branch Rickey didn’t call up Musial earlier. Musial batted .545 in his first three games and then didn’t start the fourth, which the Cardinals lost.  He started the final seven games of the season. Musial sometimes played the outfield with the unfortunately named Estel Crabtree, a real baseball player and not a character on Bewitched.

Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10 p.m.

From Ken Gurnick at MLB.com last night.

Mattingly wavered on whether League (who saved his three previous chances but has blown four overall this year) would remain the closer.

“Tonight the numbers said to go with Brandon,” he said. “Does that mean keep the guy? I don’t know. It’s hard to make that decision 12 minutes after the game.”

But he defended his decision to use Kenley Jansen in the eighth inning against Bloomquist, Goldschmidt and Cody Ross (Jansen retired all three) and use League for the bottom of the order. He pointed to the statistical matchups and said if the batting orders had come up the other way, he would have used League in the eighth and Jansen in the ninth.

“If you want to play sabermetrics, those were the best matchups,” he said. “The guys Kenley got are the guys he gets out better than Brandon. The matchups should have been exactly the way it was. But if it doesn’t work, it’s a bad decision. We talked before the game, the eighth and ninth [innings] were up in the air depending who comes up.

“I understand people boo when it doesn’t work out. It doesn’t make the game any less painful. Look up the numbers. I know it was a solid decision. The fact a solid decision doesn’t work, it’s a bad decision. Brandon has done the job in the past. If he gets them out, nobody says anything. As soon as he doesn’t get outs, it’s my fault he doesn’t.”

No. 3 hitter Goldschmidt is 3-for-3 with a homer against League and 2-for-7 with a homer against Jansen. No. 6 hitter Martin Prado, who had the first hit in the ninth off League, is now 1-for-2 against him, but was 3-for-3 with two homers against Jansen.

A debate who should pitch the ninth inning for a team that’s in last place is somewhat ridiculous when you think about it. The Dodgers are 27-36 with 99 games to play. They’ve got a lot of issues. Their issues have issues.

One of them may be teaching Don Mattingly (who, in his defense is like just about every other manager) about relevant sample sizes. I miss Jim Tracy talking about arm angles.

Hi, Bob Timmermann, sitting in for Jon for a few days. He’s off in the Middle East making a movie about a courageous Iranian journalist.

Oh, he’s not. But he’s on a vacation that requires a great deal of courage.

Anyway, I was out of town myself. But I’m back. And here’s how we can sum up tonight:

• Yasiel Puig moved to the cleanup spot. He went 3 for 4, but didn’t drive in a run.
• Clayton Kershaw held the first place Diamondbacks to one run over seven innings.
• The Dodgers led 3-1 in the 8th and had the bases loaded with no outs with Jerry Hairston, who was 3 for 3 on the night at bat. Hairston bounced into a 5-2-3 DP, a call which likely no one agreed with.
• Brandon League could not hold a 3-1 league, giving up three straight hits, then a walk, and then an infield hit by Willie Bloomquist to score two runs. Peter Moylan was called in to stop the bleeding, but he had to face Paul Goldschmidt, who singled in another run to make it 5-3.
• But, there was hope in the bottom of the ninth. Juan Uribe led off with a home run off of Arizona closer Heath Bell. Tim Federowicz doubled to right as Gerardo Parra, the archnemesis of the Dodgers, couldn’t quite catch the ball.
• Skip Schumaker, of 15-game hitting streak fame, sacrificed pinch runner Scott Van Slyke to third and reached first himself when Martin Prado couldn’t come up with the ball. Schumaker’s hitting streak lives another day! First and third and nobody out.
• It was Nick Punto’s turn to be the hero. But he popped out to short left.
• Then it Mark Ellis’ chances to be a hero. He had already homered. He was 3 for 4 against Bell in his career. As soon as you could say “small sample size warning,” Ellis struck out.
• But there was still Adrian Gonzalez, the Dodgers best hitter over the course of the season with runners in scoring position. All Gonzalez could do was bounce back to Bell, who knocked the ball down and threw to first in time to send the Dodgers down to a 5-4 loss, their sixth in seven games against Arizona this season.
• Yasiel Puig watched from the on deck circle.

And yet, we’ll probably still watch tomorrow.

Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10 p.m.

Braves at Dodgers, 1:10 p.m.

Braves at Dodgers, 7:10 p.m.

Braves at Dodgers, 7:10 p.m.

The Dodgers went from nursing a 1-0 lead with Braves on first and third in the top of the seventh and none out … to the bottom of the eighth and this …

“High fly into deep right field. I don’t believe it! A grand slam home run!” – Vin Scully.

“I have learned over the years that there comes a rare and precious moment when there is nothing better than silence.” – Vin #puig #dodgers

— Jon Weisman (@jonweisman) June 7, 2013

“… nothing better to be absolutely speechless to sum up a situation, and that was the moment. Holy mackerel!”

If Yasiel Puig keeps this up, Vin might stick around another 20 years just to watch …

That boy is a beast!!!! #Puig

— Matt Kemp (@TheRealMattKemp) June 7, 2013

Padres at Dodgers, 7:10 p.m.

Yasiel Puig, Earth and the stars
Skip Schumaker, 2B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Hanley Ramirez, SS
Andre Ethier, CF
Scott Van Slyke, LF
Juan Uribe, 3B
Tim Federowicz, C
Clayton Kershaw, P

* * *

Your Los Angeles Disabled Listers

1a) Scott Elbert, left elbow surgery recovery
2) Ted Lilly, left shoulder surgery recovery
3) Hanley Ramirez, torn ligament in right thumb
4a) Chad Billingsley, right index finger contusion.
5) Zack Greinke, fractured left collarbone
6) Shawn Tolleson, lower back strain
7a) Chris Capuano, left calf strain
8 ) Ted Lilly, right rib cage strain
9) Hanley Ramirez, left hamstring strain
10) Mark Ellis, right quadriceps strain
11) Jerry Hairston, left groin strain
4b) Chad Billingsley, Tommy John surgery
12) Josh Beckett, left groin strain (and right arm nerve issues)
13) Matt Kemp, right hamstring strain
7b) Chris Capuano, left shoulder latissimus strain
14) Carl Crawford, left hamstring strain
15) A.J. Ellis, left oblique strain.
1b) Scott Elbert, left ulnar collateral ligament tear

There is approximately a seven-second delay between when tweets from Dodger Stadium appear on my home computer and when the events they are describing appear on the small TV next to it.

When Yasiel Puig came up in the bottom of the sixth inning, his first career double and home run (and error) already to his credit, the Dodgers nursing an unlikely 7-6 lead courtesy of the second RBI hit of the entire season by Luis Cruz, I was just starting to settle in for what might be a thrilling at-bat, a rocket ship to the moon.

And then, before I even got my seat belt on, the rocket launched.

The Dodgers tweeted. Eric Stephen tweeted. My TV showed only ball one. And my heart dropped down a mineshaft into my gut.

Yasiel Puig, phenomenon.

Tonight was going to be the night we would all let the Puig hysteria take a breather. He might get a hit, he would strike out a couple of times, he would make that error, and after Monday’s stunning start, we’d load up for the long haul.

Instead, on a night at Dodger Stadium that probably eclipses even emotion felt following the pinch-hit Manny Ramirez grand slam of 2009, a night that the Dodgers came back and held on for a 9-7 victory over San Diego, you needed to defibrillate all of Los Angeles.

Puig is the first major-league player with at least two homers and five RBI in his second game in 64 years. He is 5 for 8 with 12 total bases in his 27-hour-old Dodger career. But the stats don’t do the phenomenon justice.

If Matt Kemp came on as the Bison, what is Puig? Beast of the Cuban Wild? If I’m Hushpuppy, this is what he looks like to me.

I don’t think I’m alone. Puig’s exploits brought youthful thrills from Vin Scully, who shouted “Que viva Cuba, viva Puig!” as each moment topped the last.

“If you joined us late,” said Scully, “I’m sorry.”  And that was before Puig’s second homer, an opposite-field laser over the right-field wall.

As the Dodgers fell behind 3-0 in the second inning and 5-2 in the fourth, starting pitcher Ted Lilly bringing nothing to tonight’s party, my thought was that Puig won’t mean a whole lot to the Dodgers if the Dodgers can’t get guys out. Monday’s victory, after all, was as much about Dodger pitchers holding San Diego to one run over the first eight innings as it was about Puig and the defense holding them down in the ninth.

But Puig forestalled that reality, with help from Tim Federowicz, who turned hard on a second-inning Clayton Richard pitch and hit a two-run second-inning homer down the left field line, and Cruz, who reached base twice for only the third time this season. Puig’s first homer, with Federowicz and Cruz aboard, bridged a 5-2 deficit in the bottom of the fifth, before the second homer gave the Dodgers the eighth and ninth runs they would need in hanging on to victory.

So tonight, once again, we soar to the sky. Viva Puig! Tomorrow, we return to Earth. Right? Right?

With Yasiel Puig in right field, and Clayton Kershaw on the mound, I’m not so sure.