| time: | 7:40 p.m. PT |
| tv: | 4SD |
| sp: | Chris Young (7-3, 2.08) vs Hong-Chih Kuo (1-3, 6.33) |
| pre: | Padres.com, SI.com |
I guess Luis Gonzalez didn’t get the memo. You know, the one that says he’s washed up. Gonzalez is batting .350/.424/.624 over 132 plate appearances since May 21 and .301/.393/.500 overall. Russell Martin? Still a pain in the neck. Jeff Kent and Andre Ethier are doing okay, but the rest of the Dodgers offense is pretty dormant.
In an effort to get youngster James Loney more playing time (good idea), the Dodgers have moved Nomar Garciaparra to third base (bad idea), where his tepid .266/.306/.321 line wouldn’t seem to justify the injury risk of playing him at the hot corner. Garciaparra, the oldest 33-year-old in baseball, has one home run in 2007. That’s the same number as Friday night’s starter, Hong-Chih Kuo.
The Padres, meanwhile, welcome Brian Giles back to the lineup. Nobody seems to be expecting much from him, which is probably just as well. Better to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed that he still isn’t the player he once was.
Chris Young? I feel like I should say something about him, but I’ve run out of superlatives. How ’bout if he just keeps doing what he’s doing. Yeah, that’ll work.
Go Padres!
I hate to say this, but is anyone else worried we will never put the bloom back on Cla’s onion? Seems like this sort of thing sometimes happens with the “wacky delivery” guys (Nomo, BK Kim, etc.) for a while they are essentially unhittable, then the league figures something out and things get patchy…
That said, thanks Cla for a scoreless inning…
101: Cla seems to have worked out his issues, whatever they were, and has looked pretty nice the past few outings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Bradley_Company
Shut em down Royce, you can do it!
All I know is that I wouldn’t want to face Ring if I hit left handed….he’s going to be a really, really nice guy to have around come playoff time
Typical slugging Dodger offense.
Maybe Trevor kindly asked Cla and Royce to create a save opp.
C’mon guys, put the breaks on here.
This is just like Linebrink against the Giants the other day. Ring is making good pitches.
The Dodgers are just killing the ball. Or, not.
Get Hoffman up…
That was pretty ridiculous. One was hit 40 feet and the other was 3 feet away from being a nice double play ball. Or maybe they wouldn’t have been able to turn it because it was hit so slowly.
re 109 – the “luck” factor rears its ugly head…
109 – good call. Let’s see what Scotty can do…
Finally a ground ball at someone.
Too bad the wild pitch happened. That ball would have been a double play.
Betemit’s PH numbers this year are sick: .438/.571/1.125. C’mon, Liney.
That inning was way too stressful. Can we get like 3 here in the top 9? Please?
Re: 116 – Liney helps correct the fluke.
Baseball’s so weird. Betemit has a good at bat and does a nice job hitting the ball the other way, but it’s caught. Garciapparra and Loney hit weak ground balls, and they reach base.
Okay, we survived. On the bright side, Marlon Anderson has been DFAd so we don’t have to worry about him.
Attaboy Scotty. Let’s get some insurance runs here so the Dodger fans all decide to leave early, as usual.
Whew. Those Betemit (like most pinch-hit) state must be a pretty small sample size?
120 – but Kent and Nomar are still around…who was the 4th guy that night?
122: whoops, stats (not state)
Is it just me, or does Tsao look like a young, Asain, Fernando V.?
125: Does that sound to anyone like a short Hideki Irabu?
120, 123 – never mind, I figured it out. I probably shouldn’t be speaking of that particular game…
That was a great at bat by Cameron. He fouled off every pitch he couldn’t hit, almost took him deep on the hanging pitch, and then went back up the middle on the pitch outside. Very encouraging.
#128: Well said. It won’t show up in the box score but great job there by Cammy.
re 116-I thought we agreed earlier that stats are meaningless?
Let’s go Trevor. Shut it down here.
Niiice play by Khalil. Furcal might beat that throw if he’s healthy.
Trade a run for an out. I gotta say, I’m impressed with Kouzy’s glove at 3rd.
Making this harder than it needs to be…
Shit. C’mon Trev. Get him here.
whew
YEAH.
Oh man, that wasn’t pretty. That game had no right being that close.
Watching this on gameday is maddening…
Well. That was interesting. We survived.
Solid win. Shouldn’t have been that close, but not much Ring could have done about those two singles he gave up. Hoffman made a couple of mistakes that inning and the Dodgers hit all of them.
Sometimes survival is enough. Any W is a good W, especially against the Dogs.
I’m officially concerned about Scott Linebrink. Not because of his most recent outings, but because this whole season he isn’t striking guys out at all. Pitching to contact is nice in theory, but you definitely don’t want your eighth inning guy subjecting you to the randomness of balls in play. That’s what happened in his two outings against San Francisco, and it will continue to happen periodically throughout the season. Bell can strike guys out, and Meredith is striking out more guys than Linebrink and can get ground balls to limit the damage on balls in play. I’d much rather have them in high leverage situations until Linebrink figures out how to strike out guys again.
OT: Mark Loretta hit a walk off homer against Brian Fuentes tonight. We gotta find a way to get him back here. He can play all over the field and hit. Gonzo needs a day off, badly.
143: I agree, as soon as it turned into a save situation Buddy brought in Linebrink. Ring wasnt pitching horribly and the situation doesnt always have to be reserved for Linebrink, especially when he has been as sketchy as he has recently.
Great win tonight. Nice to see Kouz make hit and good to see us put up a big inning stringing some hits together. Nice to see Cam, Kouz and Greene stay hot while Gonzo is slumping.
144: “Nice to see Kouz make hit…” Make an impact I mean. He was slumping a little again as well.
#143
Agreed about Bell, and I think we’d have seen him tonight had he not pitched in the previous 3 (or 4?) games. He needs a rest, too.
And, since we’re on the bullpen, if we’re never going to use K. Cameron in important situations, why not just give him back to the Twins? I’d rather have Cassidy or Thompson on the roster to mop things up. I know Cameron has the .40 ERA, but Black obviously doesn’t trust him to get hitters out in any real situation, so why is he on the roster? I think we should give him a chance to fail/succeed for real, then decide if we can use his roster spot for something more pressing, like a 3rd catcher or another backup infielder.
And I thought I’d get my two cents in about Bradley.: Good move. I assume he will be on a (very) short leash. He can play all 3 OF positions, hits equally well from both sides of the plate, runs well and is the kind of gap/line drive hitter that Petco was built for. Assuming (and it’s a huge assumption) that his typical divisive behavior doesn’t enter the picture, I thin this is an absolute steal, considering we didn’t give up anything for him, and can therefore release him with no remorse should he prove difficult.