Billingsley. Kemp. Thanks, we needed that.
Category: Uncategorized (Page 36 of 63)
To answer your most burning question: Yes, we all slept … my kids, my in-laws, my wife and I.
So I can move my attention away from my household and back to Dodger Stadium and a different sort of burning question in the wake of the Dodgers’ fourth consecutive defeat, an 11-2 loss to St. Louis that might have been closer than the score indicated, but not much.
One of the storylines that emerged in Spring Training was the idea that this year’s Dodger team was going to rehabilitate the heart-and-soul demise of last year’s team. We heard that a lack of focus and willingness or ability to go the extra mile wasn’t confined to Matt Kemp, but rather spread like a virus through almost every Dodger who wasn’t, say, a cagey 37-year-old veteran infielder. The 2011 Dodgers understood these deficiencies and intended to rectify them.
The exhibition season certainly supported this idea – this was the most easygoing, focused camp in memory, with Andre Ethier’s contractual omphaloskepsis the minorest of blips. But that still left us with two unanswered questions:
1) Why, when the 2010 playoffs were still in reach, would the Dodgers suddenly decide to try not harder, but softer?
2) Why, when adversity struck again in 2011 as it inevitably would at some point, wouldn’t the Dodgers fall into the same bad habits again?
Now, there are potential answers to those questions: 1) immaturity, 2) growth. But there are also alternative theories for last season and this one that invalidate the questions to begin with – namely, the Dodgers collectively were and are doing the best they can, given that they are human beings and not programmable robots, and what you see is what you get.
Yes, Kemp looks like a better player this year, for reasons Dodger fans will debate. By the same token, James Loney looks worse than ever, and I think everyone would agree it’s not for lack of trying. Overall, it’s not clear to me how much a team can simply will itself to be better when, even in the darkest hours, there is always a baseline of effort.
Growth might help the Dodgers overcome a short stretch that has seen them fall into a virtual tie for last place in the National League West, but my suspicion remains the same: In the end, ballplayers always want to do well, and their fate will come down to their talent, not their desire.
This team wants to win. But can it?
So, been thinking … thinking about shocking y’all and declaring the National League West race over: Colorado in 2011.
Nah. I can’t do it. But the Rockies were the team in the division I feared the most in March, and they’ve done everything so far to appear to be the bee’s knees.
Whatever the Cardinals did to the Dodgers on Thursday, that and more is what my 3-year-old did to my wife and I. He was either so revved up from getting a visit from my in-laws – or, more simply, possessed by a demon – that he went crazy and did not stop until 3 a.m. Three ay em.
My brain feels like an under-.500 brain, like a baseball that was bobbled, wild-pitched, thrown errantly into center field, battered all over the park. Getting to sleep by 3 instead of 4 is like getting a ninth-inning solo shot by Matt Kemp to cut a five-run deficit by one.
On to the next game …
Sorry – running behind. Game wraps could be delayed until the next morning for the next several days … thanks for your patience.
Eric Risberg/APTim Lincecum averaged more than 20 pitches per inning tonight.
It was hard to watch the Dodgers build a 3-0 lead against Tim Lincecum and then fail to hold it in a 5-4 loss, but I’m not going to throw Chad Billingsley under the bus for this one.
Billingsley was superb through the first three innings and kept making good pitches in the fourth, but the Giants hurt him anyway. Buster Posey’s RBI single was on a pitch no higher than his knees, and Pablo Sandoval’s RBI double came on one even lower.
Aaron Rowand’s game-tying RBI single in the fifth was little different – a fastball down in the zone, a good challenge pitch that Rowand drove to left.
Obviously, Billingsley wasn’t perfect. Posey’s second RBI hit, giving the Giants a 4-3 lead, was a fastball up, leading to the last of the nine baserunners Billingsley allowed in five innings. But the Dodger righty looked better on the field then he does in the boxscore – in fact, he looked better than Lincecum, who lasted only 5 1/3 innings himself while throwing 115 pitches.
The Dodgers came back to tie the game on Marcus Thames’ pinch-hit homer in the seventh, but reliever Blake Hawksworth gave the lead back almost immediately on a Rowand triple and a wild pitch.
Giants closer Brian Wilson struck out Xavier Paul, Tony Gwynn Jr. (0 for 5) and Jamey Carroll in the ninth inning, thereby avoiding Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp. Ethier was 2 for 4 and robbed of a third hit when Lincecum dove at a ball that was hit off of him and threw Ethier out. Kemp was 2 for 2 with two walks (one intentional), raising his season on-base percentage to an astonishing .578. In at-bats, he is 17 for 36, one hit shy of batting .500.
Kemp was caught stealing for the first time this season.
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Jerry Sands homered for the fourth straight game and doubled in Albuquerque’s 18-3 victory over Iowa tonight. Dee Gordon had four hits, four runs and a steal.
Eric Risberg/APJeremy Affeldt and Jamey Carroll conclude the on-field ceremony with a handshake.
Monday night’s pregame ceremony by the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers against fan violence, part of a concerted response to the horrible beating of Giants fan Bryan Stow on March 31, was unprecedented but wonderfully rendered.
Coming after a warm presentation that saw former Giant and current Dodger Juan Uribe receive his World Series ring amid applause and smiles from both teams, the event illustrated how simple it is to embrace a rivalry without being overwhelmed by it.
Dodger and Giants players gathered on the field and paused for a moment of silence on behalf of Stow. Then, Giants pitcher Jeremy Affeldt took to the microphone and thanked fans of both teams for their support of Stow.
“I don’t think I need to tell you guys about the Dodger-Giants rivalry,” Affeldt said. “It’s one of the most storied rivalries in the history of the game. But in honoring that rivalry, and honoring the Stow family, we ask that you respect the rivalry, and you respect each other as fans. You guys have rights as fans. You guys have the right to cheer. You have rights to wear the black and orange. You have rights to wear Dodger blue. You have rights to be frustrated when one team loses and excited when one team wins.
“We’re fierce competitors, but when the last out is made, that rivalry ends upon the field. So please respect that, and in your excitement or in your frustration, don’t take it out on another fan if you don’t agree with who they cheer for.”
Affeldt then introduced Dodgers infielder Jamey Carroll, whom he called a friend, an ex-teammate, a good husband, a good father and a good human being. Carroll reiterated Affeldt’s gratitude for the support of Stow and his family, as well as the call for perspective.
“There’s nothing better than rivalry in sports,” Carroll said. “And as Jeremy said, this is one of the best that’s out there. And as we do respect each other on the field, we do want you guys to have the same respect.”
Carroll said “competitive banter and passion” were praiseworthy, “but there’s no room in this game for hatred and violence.”
“It is about respect,” Carroll concluded. “It is about civility. This is America’s national pastime, and let’s keep it that way.”
They shook hands.
J-school:
1) Has James Loney’s swing gotten messed up, either by himself or by the Dodgers, in an attempt to get more home runs out of him?
2) Is Juan Uribe, who was hit by a Tim Lincecum pitch Opening Day, still hurt?
3) Will we see Jerry Sands, who is 6 for 16 with two homers, an .813 slugging percentage and one strikeout, in Dodger blue by June 1?
Lenny Ignelzi/APAn elbow salute to Andre Ethier’s first homer of the year.
The smoothest Dodger victory of the season, 4-0 over the Padres, had a rough-and-tumble ending.
On a night that the Dodgers were concerned enough about their bullpen to hold Chad Billingsley in reserve, Hiroki Kuroda, a good man and true, took a one-hitter into the seventh inning (last year, you’ll recall, he took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the Phillies) and came within one out of a shutout. He threw 117 pitches, the most by a National League pitcher in this young season.
Kuroda gave up his fifth and sixth hits with two out in the ninth, and Jonathan Broxton came in to try to save his second game of the day and fifth of five Dodger victories this season. Broxton had Chris Denorfia down 1-2 in the count before walking him, bringing up the tying run in Cameron Maybin.
Maybin hit a slow roller inside of third base. As he went for the ball, Casey Blake and Chase Headley collided, sending both players tumbling. Umpire Ed Hickox called interference, and just like that, the game was over. Blake would have had a tough play to get Maybin at first base.
Tonight’s twin victories didn’t do all that much to alleviate concerns about the Dodger offense, but they have done wonders for some Dodger batting averages and on-base percentages. Check out these numbers from tonight’s starting lineup:
.484/.568 Matt Kemp
.400/.478 Jamey Carroll
.357/.500 Casey Blake
.353/.436 Andre Ethier
.353/.353 Tony Gwynn Jr.
.250/.500 A.J. Ellis
.147/.189 James Loney
.107/.138 Juan Uribe
.143/.143 Hiroki Kuroda
Like I said – some.
Kemp, Carroll and Ethier (who hit his first home run of 2011) each had three hits; Gwynn added two. Kemp and Gwynn also combined to steal five bases, and Kemp had an outfield assist. Kuroda, who started last season 0 for 45, got his first hit of this season in his second game.
Loney did walk twice, and he continues to shine on defense. Uribe, meanwhile, is off to a 3 for 28 start with no walks.
Lenny Ignelzi/APTime for lullabies …
It’s funny to think that in the space of an entire work week, the Dodgers only finished two baseball games.
At 1:40 a.m., in the midst of a fourth rain delay that had left the score tied 2-2 in the ninth inning, umpires sent the Dodgers and Padres back to hotel and home, telling them to resume play at 5:35 p.m. today.
Here’s the report from The Associated Press on where things stand:
It was a long, wet and cold Friday night that stretched into early Saturday morning.
When the umpires finally decided to suspend the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, there had been four rain delays totaling 3 hours, 36 minutes.
The game was tied 2-2 in the top of the ninth inning and only a few hundred fans were still at Petco Park when the umps called it.
The final delay began at 1:13 a.m. Matt Kemp had just hit a leadoff single when it started pouring. The game was suspended at 1:40 a.m.
Clayton Richard, who started the game for the Padres but didn’t return after the second rain delay, had never seen anything like it.
“We were talking about that,” Richard said. “It’s so late now, I’m trying to stay awake, to be honest.”
During the long breaks, the players sat around and talked, hit the weight room or snacked.
“We played baseball every now and then, so that kept us awake a little bit,” Richard said. …
Two of the rain delays came with Kemp on base. The Dodger center fielder is 3 for 3 with a walk and stolen base so far in the game, raising his season on-base percentage to .519.
Casey Blake singled and walked and stole third, scoring the tying run on a throwing error. The rest of the Dodgers were 1 for 23 with a walk. Both Dodger runs so far have been unearned.
Juan Uribe and Marcus Thames each have gone 0 for 3 with two strikeouts in the batting spots behind Kemp, though Loney at least was having a fine defensive game.
Ted Lilly failed to complete the fifth inning for the second consecutive start, but as Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com writes, Lilly was anything but wilting.
… It began at the end of a one-hour, 34-minute rain delay, long enough that Padres manager Bud Black judiciously pulled his starter, Clayton Richard, after just 16 pitches. But Lilly was having none of that. When the game resumed, so did he. Already he had escaped a first-and-third, one-out situation in the first inning by getting Jorge Cantu to fly to shallow right and Ryan Ludwick to fly out to left.
After the delay, Lilly’s high-wire act continued. The Padres would strand at least one baserunner in each of the first four innings, at least one in scoring position in three of them. But each time, Lilly would pull off a daring escape, punctuating his performance with back-to-back strikeouts of Todd Hundley and Cory Luebke to strand two runners in scoring position in the fourth.
The definitive Lilly moment, though, came at the plate in the top of the fifth. With two outs and nobody on. The sort of situation when most starting pitchers take their obligatory hacks, make the obligatory last out of the inning and get back to business. But not Lilly. He worked Luebke for a full count. And when he finally popped up on the sixth pitch, almost three hours after he had thrown his first pitch of the evening, Lilly took two steps out of the box, raised his bat above his head and slammed it into the dirt of the basepath in frustration.
Lilly finally reached the end in the bottom of that inning, leadoff hitter Will Venable reaching second when Matt Kemp bobbled his base hit to center for an error and the Padres eventually scoring twice to take a short-lived 2-1 lead. Lilly had thrown 85 pitches, with a long rain delay between pitches No. 13 and 14. He had been in constant trouble and had gotten virtually no run support from a Dodgers offense that seems to be getting weaker by the day. He had been so deliberate in his delivery that the Padres had stolen three bases behind him. But he had never flinched. …
Hong-Chih Kuo, who got the final out in the eighth inning in relief of Matt Guerrier, is the current Dodger pitcher. If he can’t pitch on consecutive days, the Dodgers have four relievers behind him: Blake Hawksworth, Lance Cormier, A.J. Ellis and Jonathan Broxton. I’d like to remind Dodger manager Don Mattingly to use his relievers in order of quality, rather than holding his best reliever back for a save situation.
The Dodgers, if they desired, could make a player transaction in between the end of the suspended game and the start of tonight’s regularly scheduled game if one becomes a marathon and they want to beef up the bullpen. On the other hand, the workload this week has been so slim, I don’t expect the Dodgers to make a move until they add a fifth starting pitcher to the roster. That’s expected to happen Sunday, though Clayton Kershaw could always pitch that day on four days’ rest.
Here’s more from Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
Manager Don Mattingly said he’ll “have to be careful” with his pitching decisions when the game resumes, saying Kuo might be able to pitch on consecutive games. But he ruled out the possibility that Saturday’s scheduled starter, Hiroki Kuroda, would finish up the suspended game and then start the regular one.
Mattingly said he spoke with general manager Ned Colletti about calling up a pitcher, “but we don’t have a lot of flexibility” because the Dodgers are already planning on calling up a fifth starter (probably John Ely) for Sunday in place of the disabled Jon Garland.
Heath Bell, the Padres’ closer who entered the game in the ninth inning, was their sixth pitcher of the game.
Two Dodger wins today and a Rockies loss would put Los Angeles back in first place in the National League West – despite being the division’s only team to have been outscored so far this season.
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Wee-hour discoveries …
- Beer sales at Dodger Stadium are a source of controversy, but Sons of Steve Garvey finds a new reason: this Yumsugar post by Katie Sweeney indicating that a large beer is a smaller value than a small beer.
- Joel Torres, a 21-year-old who has played in the Indians’ farm system, scratched $1 million off a lottery ticket, according to the New York Post.
- Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette suspects that former Dodgers and Pirates manager Jim Tracy got “hoodwinked” by former Rockies manager Clint Hurdler at the end of the Rockies’ 14-inning loss to Pittsburgh on Friday. Tracy’s team allowed a two-out, game-winning double to Jose Tabata instead of walking Tabata to pitch to the next hitter, Garrett Olson, who was the Pirates’ last remaining pitcher.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 11 1/3 innings of shutout relief by the Pirates’ bullpen was the team’s most since the start of the 20th century, wrote Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com.
Lenny Ignelzi/APDelay of game penalty.
A rain delay of close to two hours was scheduled to end at about 9:20 p.m., bringing the Dodgers and Padres back into action. When play was suspended, Matt Kemp had just doubled to lead off the second inning of a scoreless game.
- Jon Garland is aching (not literally) to pitch Sunday for the Dodgers, writes Tony Jackson of the ESPNLosAngeles.com.
- Zach Lee’s debut went well: four shutout innings, two hits, three walks, five strikeouts.
- Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com expands on today’s Dodger Stadium security news.
- Triple-A Albuquerque knocked out former major leaguer Jeff Suppan with seven runs in four innings, en route to a 10-6 win despite only seven hits. Justin Sellers homered twice off Suppan. Ramon Troncoso relieved Carlos Monasterios and pitched three shutout innings for the win. Dee Gordon is 3 for 10 in two games but has two errors.
- Al Michaels tells Chris Erskine of the Times the following story:
… When I started my career in Hawaii in minor league baseball, our big rival was the Spokane Indians. The president of the team was Peter O’Malley, the manager was Tommy Lasorda, and they were our rival. … Tommy loves to tell this story, they’re in Hawaii and after every game he’d have to call Al Campanis to tell how the minor leaguers did, so one night, Lasorda says, “Hey, Al, there’s one more thing: There’s this guy on the radio here, really good. If you ever need a guy, his name’s Al Michaels. I know you got Vinny, but down the line, you know.” Campanis says, “Hey Tommy, this announcer, how do you even know about him?” Tommy says, “Well, I’ve been thrown out of the last four games.” So the irony was, here’s Tommy, he discovers me in 1970 and tells someone I could be the successor to Vinny. And here we are in 2011 and I’m ready to retire before Vinny is. …
Doug Pensinger/Getty ImagesMichael Guerro and his son Isaiah Alvarez, 10, got early seats in preparation to support their teams at Tuesday’s Dodgers-Rockies game.
Evan Bladh Sr. has a personal story to tell about fan violence: a grave incident in San Francisco, following Barry Bonds’ 700th home run, that left Bladh’s stepson seriously injured and a friend of his dead. Read it at Opinion of Kingman’s Performance.
In Los Angeles today, there was a press conference discussing the latest measures to be taken at Dodger Stadium. In addition, the Dodgers are staging a fundraiser for beating victim Bryan Stow at Dodger Stadium from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday.
In San Francisco, ceremonies for the Giants’ home opener included a moment of silence in support of Stow. Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle live-blogged.
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- Last year’s top draft pick, Zach Lee, is making his first professional start in the Dodger organization today.
- Dayn Perry posted his choice for the Onion’s 25 top baseball stories ever at Notgraphs.
- There’s a great picture of Jerry West and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from 1972 at The Fabulous Forum.
Kim Klement/US PresswireManny Ramirez
Tampa Bay Rays designated hitter Manny Ramirez is retiring.
Major League Baseball announced the move in a statement on Friday.
“Major League Baseball recently notified Manny Ramirez of an issue under Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program,” the statement said. “Rather than continue with the process under the Program, Ramirez has informed MLB that he is retiring as an active player. If Ramirez seeks reinstatement in the future, the process under the Drug Program will be completed. MLB will not have any further comment on this matter.”
Ramirez, who has 555 career home runs, had one hit in 17 plate appearances with Tampa Bay this season.
Charles Krupa/APThe 0-6 Red Sox scored seven runs for John Lackey today, and he needed them all to leave with the lead.
There’s always going to be complaints about players the Dodgers should have signed but didn’t, but I think we can eliminate one player from the list: John Lackey.
Having allowed six runs in five innings to the Yankees today, the 32-year-old Lackey now has a 4.83 ERA since signing with Boston before the 2010 season, and the Red Sox still owe him more than $60 million through 2014. Lackey is digging a hole for himself that I’m not sure he’s capable of digging out of. From 2007-2010, his pitching performance declined each year.
I suspected it might be bad to sign Lackey, though maybe not this bad. From Dodger Thoughts, January 21, 2010:
“The Dodgers could have gone for the best free agent pitcher out there, John Lackey. But even if the team had a higher payroll limit, the health-vulnerable Lackey is no safe bet at the $82.5 million for five years given to him by Boston. You should basically assume he’s going to be injured a good chunk of one of those years — meaning he’s basically a $20 million-a-year pitcher in the others. Given what happened with Kevin Brown and (Jason) Schmidt, the Dodgers can’t be faulted for looking the other way.”
Omaha at Albuquerque, 5:35 p.m. (Listen online here.)
