Freeway Series, Game One- Dodgers vs. Angels | Blue Notes - A Dodgers Blog

It's Los Angeles vs. Los Angeles. Sort of.

Wherever you come down on this whole Angels name change thing (personally, I vote for "silly but generally harmless"), interleague play, the DH, the steroids investigation, Social Security reform, or Coke Blak (personally, I vote for "disconcerting") the interleague matchup between the Dodgers and Angels is becoming quite a happening. Or at least as much as a wholly inorganic, love-child-of-Bud-Selig-and-his-marketing-department sort of rivalry can be. True rivalries take years and tears to build up, but that doesn't mean this weekend can't be fun. And just to kick things off, the Dodgers went ahead and made a roster move.

Lance Carter is back. Put your heart medication down, this actually may be a good thing. In his relatively brief stint with Vegas, Carter was 1-1 with a 1.08 ERA over 8.1 innings for the 51s. In this case, the hope is that what happens in Vegas doesn't actually stay in Vegas. As always, when someone comes up, someone else must head down. In this case, it's Franquelis Osoria, who hadn't pitched since May 10 and had struggled mightily all month.

Even better, Eric Gagne threw 20 1/2 pitches to Russell Martin, Andre Ethier, Jose Cruz Jr., and Willy Aybar (the last being a screw around toss to fellow Canadian Martin, accounting for the 1/2) and reported no pain. Grady Little was relieved to see him throw without incident, and spoke in glowing terms afterwards. "He threw the ball very well out there, and he had a big smile on his face throughout the session, so what that's telling us is that he had no pain. All indications we had out there (were that) he felt good. And the quality of his pitches looked good, too."

Little says Gagne will throw again on Monday before heading out to toss some innings in the minors. They won't push him, but Little gave the impression that Gagne looked better than he anticipated. "From what I saw out there today, I'm starting to be kind of curious as why it might be two weeks before he's ready to pitch, to tell you the truth. I was very impressed." Said Gagne, "My arm feels 100%, but I still have to tune up a little bit." Needless to say, he's itching to get back out on the field.

Dodgers fans won't have to wait until he can throw back-to-back days before seeing Gagne wearing the Blue. Little figures he can use Baez and Saito when necessary until Gagne can handle that kind of load. But he has no plans to ease him back into the closer role, either. When he's back, he's back.

INJURY UPDATE: Jeff Kent is good to go and will be in the lineup tonight, but Kenny Lofton's sore hammy will keep him out one more night. "I'd like to be able to think he'll be in there tomorrow," Little said, but they'll have to wait and see.

THANK GOD THERE'S NO DH IN THE NATIONAL LEAGUE: Why? Because it keeps Tim Salmon out of the Angels lineup tonight. Salmon, who is generally limited to DHing because of his knee issues, has beat Dodgers starter Aaron Sele around the park over the course of his career (.341/2/8 in 44 ABs). Another Halo who has had success against Sele is Garrett Anderson (.316/3/12)... and like Salmon, poor health will keep him on the bench. Unfortunately for LA, Orlando Cabrera is in Anaheim's lineup and he's owned Sele- .714 in seven ABs. Yeah, it's a small sample size, but 5-7 can't be a fluke, can it?

As for the Dodgers vs. Jeff Weaver, Nomar Garciaparra has smacked him around like a grizzly bear does a salmon (.393/6/12 in only 28 ABs). Jose Cruz is under the Mendoza Line lifetime against the former Dodger, but since Weaver has basically been throwing BP this season, as evidenced by his 1-6, 7.40 ERA, all bets are off.

GRADY ON INTERLEAGUE PLAY: While Little believes interleague play is great for the fans, he wasn't necessarily a fan when he managed in the AL:

"I knew that I was taking out a fourth or fifth hitter in my lineup to add the pitcher hitting at the bottom when we went to a National League park to play. And I knew when they came to our park to play they're getting some pinch hitter, a valuable pinch hitter (they add) four more at bats, which is very good. So I've never been able to decide how level of a playing field that is. Because in the American League, you build your roster according to that hitter being right in the middle of it, and then all of a sudden you're going to play six or nine games a year in the opposing park, it's a tough situation."

Little says if he were king, he'd tweak the format by switching when the DH is used: basically, in NL parks, they'd use the DH and play with AL rules. That way, fans can see what the other game looks like. Clever (except I don't like watching games with the DH, and since I cover an NL team, I'm voting no).

LINEUPS-

Dodgers:

Furcal- SS

Cruz- CF

Garciaparra- 1B

Drew- RF

Kent- 2b

Aybar- 3B

Ethier- LF

Martin- C

Sele- P

Angels:

Figgins- CF

Cabrera- SS

Guerrero- RF

Rivera- LF

Kennedy- 2B

Quinlan- 1B

McPherson- 3B

Napoli- C

Weaver- P

Finally, this has nothing to do with tonight's game, or even baseball. But heads up if you happen to go to school here.

Comments

I wish somebody woulda video typed his session. Look out NL WEST, we're getting healthy.

Posted by: bluebleeder | May 19, 2006 at 07:33 PM

bluebleeder-

I think on the FSN broadcast, they showed some of it. I'd check the post game coverage. If they have it, I'm sure they'll play it again.

Posted by: Brian Kamenetzky | May 19, 2006 at 07:41 PM

Milton who?
Is Grady Little a direct descendant of Yogi Berra? If he sticks around as Dodger coach he will become a legend. I love the "never in a hurry" Little doing Jiffy Lube commercials.
I can't wait to see the "French Connection".
Maybe now we can let Odalis finish the game, howabout a 3 inning save?

Posted by: Pho 06 | May 19, 2006 at 09:43 PM