The one (inning) that got away
In the home half of the first Friday night, the Dodgers stole three bases, took a 1-0 lead and generally looked deeper into Padres starter Chris Young's head than John Cusack in John Malkovich's. Had you turned off the game at that point, likely you'd have felt pretty confident about the final outcome. After all, the numbers said the Blue would win 8-0 while stealing 24 bases. I'm not looking it up, but will guess that would have set some sort of record. But, alas, you'd have been wrong (... and frankly kind of dumb for making such wild assumptions after one inning). That stuff all happened before Hong-Chih Kuo resumed his campaign to make all my early '07 hosannas look completely and totally misplaced. Kuo showed cracks in the second (one hit, one walk, one run) and crumbled in the fourth (five hits, one walk, six more runs), giving San Diego just enough cushion to escape the Ravine with a 7-6 win over the Blue.
Not that the Dodgers didn't make it interesting. They touched up the generally bulletproof San Diego bullpen for three runs in the eighth, keyed by a two-run single from James Loney who continues to treat the bigs like his personal trip through American Legion ball. In the ninth, they scored a run off Padres closer Trevor Hoffman before a Jeff Kent double put the tying run at second with two out. Unfortunately, Hoffman got all Hells Bells on Luis Gonzalez, who popped out to catcher Michael Barrett to end the game about twenty-eight hours after it began.
Scrappy, yes, but wasted by another poor outing from Kuo. "His biggest problem out there tonight was a few bases on balls, and he was hitting too many bats. When you're playing against a ballclub like this team in San Diego, you can't afford to give up runs like that in that big of abundance early in a ballgame," Grady Little said. "That bullpen makes it tough to come back. Tonight he walked a few guys, and he hit too many bats in the sweet part. We don't see anything mechanically. We've seen him better, and I'm sure we'll see him better again."
Gonzalez, who became about the billionth victim of Hoffman's nasty changeup in the game's final at bat, knew they missed an opportunity to take a game in front of an always tough Jake Peavy start on Saturday. "We gave ourselves a chance tonight. We gave ourselves a chance tonight. We left guys in scoring position again, and I was probably first guy in line guilty of it. For me it was a frustrating night. Tomorrow, with Peavy, there's not a lot of room for error. When we have opportunities against him we have to go right after him and try to take advantage of it." The loss dropped the Dodgers a game behind the Padres, which matters, but isn't necessarily a reason to freak out. "They all count. We had a good series in Arizona, and took three out of four there," Gonzo said. "Three teams have put themselves in good contention going into the All Star Break. That's all you can ask to be. You never know what happens in the second half of the season, but as long as you're right there at the midway point, you've got a shot.
On a side note, Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic stopped by the press box tonight with PR man John Black. Not surprisingly, Sasha wasn't going to get drawn into the whole Kobe morass, but oddly enough he did launch into an expletive laced tirade against one of the kids who mopped the baseline last year after players hit the floor. I have the whole thing on my cell phone.
Just kidding.
More on the game tomorrow.
BK
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Well at least they scored 6 runs......'
KEEP LONEY IN LINEUP
KEEP KEMP IN LINEUP
MOVE JEFF KENT DOWN THE ORDER
TRY GIVING EITHIER SOME TIME TO BAT (EVEN IF THAT MEANS TAKING OUT PIERRE)
AND PLEASE PUT BACK THE BLUE SEATS AT DODGER STADIUM....TAKE OUT THOSE YELLOW SEATS
Posted by: Aryan | June 30, 2007 at 01:42 AM
The Dodgers better get better at bringing home the runner from third with less than 2 out than they have been so far this season.
Tonight was just one more example of the failure to score in 2 such situations (once when Martin struck out in the third and again when Kemp did likewise in the fourth). If they score those two runs, they win the game tonight. Since they do not score on many 3 run home runs, it is imperative that they capitalize on such situations.
Martin has failed in several such situations recently, which I find puzzling, since he is so good at hitting the ball to the right side. I hope they find a cure to this problem soon.
Posted by: CamTheFan | June 30, 2007 at 01:51 AM
Great...another game where the Dodgers fall exactly ONE clutch hit away from winning or tying a big game. This is getting to be a very bad habit, and once again, it was one of the veterans falling short. Also, Little needs to stop leaving struggling pitchers in the game to long. Its pretty clear after he's already been touched up for 2 or 3 runs in an inning (with no outs mind you) that he doesn't have it. At that point get Kuo out of there and try to salvage the game before its too late (i.e. they score 6 runs in the inning). Every game counts and I'm tired of how Little just gives games away by leaving pitchers in to long or by starting Betemit or not calling up Loney until halfway through June when the rest of Los Angeles knew he should have been on the team in April....
Posted by: Dodger Fan | June 30, 2007 at 08:14 AM
I was pleased to see Tsao return, but sad that it meant the end of Marlon Anderson with the Dodgers. Marlon added some spark last year when it was really needed.
I am bothered by Little's comments about Tsao. "We don't want to waste too many bullets at Las Vegas." Sounds like he's anticipating another breakdown, similar to Brazoban.
Posted by: Dodgerdog | June 30, 2007 at 10:06 AM
Dodgerdog-
Yeah, not that they're hoping it happens, but they're very aware of Tsao's ability and tendency to get hurt. They want to get as much out of him as they can, because with him, you never know. It's been an issue his whole career.
BK
Posted by: Brian Kamenetzky | June 30, 2007 at 10:21 AM
kuo sucks, i used to be high on him. It seems like we need what we thought we had at the start of the year........pitching. If kemp and loney play everyday i dont think we need a bat anymore but we cant win with only two good pitchers. Jason getting hurt put a bigger dent than i thought. I hate seeing pad,angel or giant fans happy can we please beat these stupid teams!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: bigtaxdizzle | June 30, 2007 at 11:09 AM
Dodger Fan,
Right ON! I find myself all too often this season always seeing so many "IF's" throughout a ballgame that would have won us the game. I've never seen so many IF's in my life w/ the Dodgers. The game seems to always want the Dodgers to win yet AGAIN, we give it back. Why must our Dodgers be so Damn generous with Wins. I despise underachieving, and thats what the Dodgers are doing, make no mistake about that!
I went to the game last night and saw the Padres line-up. Top hitter is a .282 average (A. Gonzalez)??!! Most guys are .250/.260's!!?? Kousmanoff is a .217 hitter. And we lose to a team like this??!! Why? ... b/c the Padres are truly a TEAM. A bunch of guys who get it done when they need to.
Pierre last night was pathetic. What a waste of speed. The guy plays centerfield like a little leaguer. He's crotch down ON HIS HEELS! No wonder you get crappy jumps on the ball! Stay on your toes... BASIC BASEBALL 101. He is the leader out there and needs to call for all he can get but is so scared to make a mistake, watches others to see if they will make the play and then if not, goes after it..... opps too late... triple.... should of been an ERROR. I AGREE, PIERRE needs a few days off with Ethier roaming centerfield. Our defense is killing us!
Kuo now needs to take a trip down to the minors. He's been given ample opportunity to show his stuff. He doesn't have it MENTALLY to be a quality pitcher. When things get bad, the get worse.... kind of reminds me of Tomko, Hendrickson, and Tsao. All great talents w/ great arms but cannot face adversity with any consistency....TAXDIZZLE is right!
Posted by: Rob | June 30, 2007 at 06:41 PM