Blue bleeders dig the long ball
Really, so do all baseball fans, but Dodger fans haven't exactly been saturated with homer highlights throughout this young season. During yesterday's 7-2 win over the Brewers, however, they were not only treated with more than their share (3), but saw them crammed into one inning (the 7th) for some extra oomph. To boot, those jacks were supplied by three dudes either nursing slumps or don't even enter the action often enough to fall into a slump. The much maligned Andruw Jones went long off Ben Sheets to kick things off, allowing the hopeful to believe that perhaps he's working his way out of a funk so deep James Brown would be jealous. One Andre Ethier ground out later, Jeff Kent, who ain't exactly setting the world on fire of late, took the plate and sent one into the stands. Then came the... wait for it... "blue" de grace. With two men on and another RBI already banked courtesy of Russell Martin, rare visitor to a lineup card Gary Bennett seized his even rarer two man on at bat, belting a serious blast into the left field seats. That would be enough to prompt an exit stage left for Sheets, who'd otherwise been en route towards a positive box score contribution.
Interleague play in the house!!! More specifically, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's house, a familiar spot for Joe Torre to lay his hat over three days (although "familiar" doesn't always equal "well liked"). The trip to Orange County will be a brand new experience for Hiroki Kuroda, who's dueling against a pitcher off to a terrific start (Joe Saunders) and recent history in the favor of the hosts. The series also provides a chance to see two young first basemen continue to come into their own.
Guess bad backs are a contagious ailment for the Dodgers. Hopefully, Blake DeWitt's will just be a minor setback.
If you're into Jackie Robinson paraphernalia, this would be a pretty sweet get.

Dodger formula for winning: Score five runs. In the past 20 games, they're 18-2 when they score five or more. And you should win that many games when you score that many runs.
The key to this season is whether they can win games in which they don't score five runs or more. The team's record in 1-run games is a nice 6-3. But it still seems that when they don't score, they really don't score, usually tallying just 1 run.
Posted by: SaMo | May 16, 2008 at 10:39 AM
The Dodgers kind of remind me of Arizona from last year. They win the clsoe games for the most part, but when they lose, they get clobbered pretty bad (by usually only scoring one run, per the first poster). Consistancy will be the key for this team because they can't always rely on winning 6 straight after losing 5 in a row.
Posted by: Jimmy Jazz | May 16, 2008 at 11:40 AM