I've hit a number of balls like El JO'Co described...unfortuneately they were golf balls and they were headed way out of bounds!!! It's amazing to me how much further my ball goes when I hit it out of bounds or into the woods!!
The team's pitching staff is fading away, but they held on against Colorado to increase their lead to 2 games... Dodgers 5 Rockies 4 Brad Penny upped his record to 13-1, as he remained undefeated versus the National League. He also hurt himself running out an infield hit and he'll be evaluated day-to-day. Derek Lowe got hurt last night, Randy Wolf got shelled by the local Rancho Cucamonga Quakes in his rehab assignment at San Bernardino and Hong Chih-Quo underwent his third major elbow operation in five years. The staff is getting thin... Penny had two hits in the game and is now batting over .290. He's the first Dodger pitcher to have a batting average higher than his ERA since Fernando Valenzuela... How strange was tonight's rain-soaked game? The winning hit was a HR by shortstop Rafael Furcal... The best news of the night was the return of closer Takashi Saito, who picked up his 26th save in the 9th. He's an intense character on the field. He misses his wife and children back in Japan and admitted to turning down millions of yen to pursue his dream of proving himself in America against the very best. Every night after he warms up and gets the call, he stops in the bullpen and says out loud, "Takashi Saito!" "Why did you come here?" Then he trots out onto the field... You don't have to remind guys like that to "concentrate." He was born ready...
Rain...rain...rain... Meanwhile, Pete Rose says that he would vote for Palmiero and all the other steroid boys to be in the Hall of Fame. Oops! He doesn't have a vote. I'll bet you he hadn't thought of that... Meanwhile, downtown...the tension mounts... Barry Bonds hit another HR tonight and he's one behind Henry. His next stop when they leave the Bay is DODGER STADIUM, where the locals have vowed to riot if he hits it here: Vin Scully says that he doesn't want to call the game... Henry Aaron said that he won't be there... Giants pitchers have said that they're afraid of being stabbed in the bullpen... The LA Times is urging Dodger Dogs to remain calm, avoid violence and greet the HR with the silence it so richly deserves...
The state of professional sports has never been as tenuous as it is now. Personal cheating, institutional cheating etc. etc.
It was the same old tune. Every time Brett Tomko takes a turn on the mound, he's immediately shelled. Walk a batter, then BOOM... a two-run home run. I hadn't even warmed up my channel changer, then the 2nd inning: walk a batter, then BOOMo...another HR and we're down 4-0... Rockies 6 Dodgers 2 The Arizona Dbacks have quietly slipped into a tie for first place... Penny is hurt. Lowe is hurt. Wolf is hurt. Jason Schmidt and Hong Chih-Quo are gone. The bullpen is worn out. Put me in coach! I got three innings left! OK...maybe three pitches left...but this situation is putting a real squeeze on Colletti with the trade deadline looming. Geeeez, I hope he doesn't panic. I'm in favor of keeping the kids and taking our lumps. We got in this situation because previous GMs panicked. I say, "Just ride it out." .............DD
The blues continue. The Dodgers completed a continuous 17-day road trip with another loss, in which Jeff Kent pulled up with a hamstring with two out in the final inning. The list of injuries continues to grow and it includes most of the pitching staff... Russell Martin is hitting again. He got sidetracked after the All-Star game by trying to pull everything and hit for more power. He's a line-drive hitter who needs to go with the pitch, not a power hitter. In his last game, after they finally gave him a rest, he had two doubles and a HR going the opposite way. He's back... No game today. Its the calm before the storm. Dodgers-Giants tomorrow night, with Balco Barry one HR shy and Johnny Roseboro's Army ready to explode...
Could I interest you in Jason Jennings DodgerDog, rumour is that he pines to pitch on the West Coast and his contract is up at the end of the season!!
Uh... you mean the same Jason Jennings who gave up 11 runs in 2/3 of an inning yesterday? Gee whiz, I know you Houstonites only have our best interests at heart...but weren't you the fellers who sold us electricity that was priced like the Czar's caviar?
The Dodgers took the gas tonight and looked utterly helpless without Jeff Kent in the lineup... Giants 3 Dodgers 1 The Dodgers have now lost 7 of the last 10 and sure look like they're fading. The team is a combo of vets and kids and the vets are breaking down. Jeff Kent batted .447 in July, which was the highest July number for any Dodger in 22 years, since Pedro Guerrero in 1985. Without him, it looked like a pop-gun offense with no real big gunslinger... Balco Barry was booed, scorned, laughed-at and taunted as he failed to do much of anything. He did reach on an error, but his poor play in LF gave the Dodgers their only run. The angry sell-out mob that came to jeer him got most of what they wanted, but victories are more important now. Today is August. The "dog days of August" are never kind to teams led by fading veterans. The kids need to step up now...
The little-pop-gun-offense-that-could pulled it off in their final at-bat tonight and gave Balco Barry another bad time to remember: Dodgers 6 Giants 4 With Jeff Kent absent again, the Dodger offense was non-existent until the bottom of the 8th inning, when they created an offense out of thin air. Rafael Furcal led off by showing bunt, then pushing the ball over the head of the crashing 3rd baseman for a base hit. Its a play that's not often seen on that level, because it was invented in the 19th Century. The next batter, Juan Pierre, observed the Giant infield at double-play depth. This means the shortstop is deep near 2nd base, so Pierre simply bunted the ball toward the normal shortstop position and he was on with a hit too. Furcal had taken 3rd on the throw to try to get Pierre; who promptly stole 2nd base. This put the tying runs in scoring position with no outs... Luis Gonzalez drove in both runs to tie the game, but the best was yet to come. Nomar Garciaparra hit a two-run HR into the leftfield pavillion for the eventual game winner, as the Dodger Stadium crowd went berzerk. They stayed on their feet through the 9th inning and after Takashi closed the door, the celebration was on... Corey called me after Nomar's HR, because he could imagine the scene at my house, which was shear pandemonium... Russell Martin stole his 18th base. This sets the Los Angeles Dodgers record for a catcher and ties the all-time franchise mark set by Con Daily in 1892... Barry Bonds now has one game left on this homestand to disgrace himself yet again. He has not had a hit against the Dodgers since April 26th, when he had a single, but who's counting? He's currently mired in the worst slump of his career (as the drugs wear off) batting .186 for the month of July, his worst month since April, 1991 when he started to hit the juice hard. His BA against the Dodgers this year is now down to .118... Brett Tomko throws tomorrow, which should give Bonds and his Stooges a sporting chance. This race will be tight right to the end, but thanks to the "Bonds Factor", everybody in the West will be contending except the Giants...
In an incredible coincidence, today was "Steroids Awareness Night" at Dodger Stadium. Over 100 Little Leagers were lectured before the game on the evils of people who cheat with performance drugs by Dodger CF Juan Pierre, hitting coach Bill Mueller and former Dodger Sweet Lou Johnson. It also just happened to be Balco Barry's finale and he failed again, to a chorus of "BARRY SUCKS, BARRY SUCKS, BARRY SUCKS" by the unofficial Boo Bird Chorus of Greater Los Angeles... Giants 4 Dodgers 2 There isn't much to say, except that all of these games look alike. No power and with Kent on the bench, very few RBIs. The Dodgers loaded the bases in the 5th and the 8th and the 9th innings. In the 9th, they loaded the bases twice and all they had to show for it was a total two runs. The game ended with the bases loaded after the Giants intentionally walked Nomar, then they got Loney to ground out. Jeff Kent was in the on-deck circle if Loney had reached, with a Kirk Gibson look on his face and legs that don't work...but we're grasping at straws here... El Supremo said it best as usual. "The circus has folded its tents, pulled the stakes from the ground and moved the elephants to San Diego." Sayonara to that sucker and I hope he becomes the Yankees DH next season...he's worn out his welcome on the West Coast...
Everybody knows Giambi juiced. MLB would be doing the Yankees a huge favor if they banned him from the game. Of course the Players Union would stop that. Is that Sheffield in the middle? If so, that's the Tigers headache now.
Fading...fading quietly away. The Dodgers hit a new low tonight. Dbacks 1 Dodgers 0 Doug Davis of the Dbacks is a pitcher you should know about. I confess that I hadn't really been following him and Dodger broadcasters were making fun of his plain name just two nights ago, but he's got our attention now. Not only did he shutout the Dodgers (easily) for 8 innings, but he stretched his string of consecutive scoreless innings against the Dodgers to 30! That's a whole lot of nothing for any pitcher to dish up and we'll remember who he is now. Oh! He also leads MLB in runners picked-off and he picked off three tonight. He picked Russell Martin off first base, but the kid made it back safely by out-maneuvering the first baseman. So Davis picked him off AGAIN, before he threw another pitch! Replays show that he's balking, but it doesn't matter. If they're letting him get away with it, then the runners will just have to stay closer to the base. Besides...it gives me something to whine about when I'm running out of answers. Some of these Dodgers are really hurting themselves. Brett Tomko and Olmedo Saenz appear to be at the end of their careers... Super Rookie Delwyn Young got his first start, to try and add some power to the lineup, but Doug Davis took him to school at the plate the same way he did Russell Martin on the base paths... 23 year-old pitcher Chad Billingsley was sensational again for the Dodgers, and his great effort was wasted for lack of support... re: Diamondbacks I have a hard time seeing them winning this thing and the fans in the Phoenix area still don't believe in them either. Their closer has 15 one-run saves and they've hit an incredible eleven pinch-hit home runs! How long can this kind of stuff continue? Their luck will run out sooner or later...
Shut out again. The Dodgers have lost the last five series in a row. They're fading away and there's not a damn thing that can be done to stop it. The problem is structural and I've been concerned all season that it would bite us in the arse and now the chomping has begun. The Dodgers have zero power and only one RBI guy (Kent) who's almost 40 and can't play everyday. There are no prime-age position players on this team, except Rafael Furcal the SS and he's played hurt all year. All the guys being counted on are too old or too young and there is no true power guy to anchor the lineup. I agree with not trading away the young guys to win this year, but this IS this year right now, and its hard... All we Dodger Dogs can do is wait and hope; that Kent returns to the lineup and doesn't call it a career yet; that some of the kids will step up now; that Gonzalez has a little left in the tank. We're down to hoping as we fade away...
Everything gettin' dark... 3 for 50 with runners in scoring position... Most men left-on-base of any MLB team... Can't remember the last time scored... Fade to black...
Dodgers shut out for the fourth time in five days... Lose 1-0 for the second time in three games... Lead MLB in being shutout... Worst Dodger scoring slump since the 1930's... Where'd all these effing injuns come from? ................GA Custer
:evil: So how desperate are the Dodgers? Today they obtained pinch hitter Mark Sweeney from the San Francisco Giants for a player to be named later. This was the first Dodger-Giant trade in 22 years...