What’s the best way to overcome a disappointing offense? Chris Capuano decided the best way around that problem was to simply take matters into his own hands, taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning against Miami this afternoon and scoring the only run the Dodgers would need for good measure.
Capuano lost that no-hitter bid on a Jose Reyes single, but managed to work around it and struck out ten over eight scoreless in one of his most impressive outings as a Dodger. He also started off the initial Dodger rally by leading off the top of the third with a single, eventually coming around to score on a Hanley Ramirez sacrifice fly after having been moved to third by singles from Shane Victorino & Mark Ellis.
That 1-0 score held up until the eighth, when the Marlins decided to remove an effective Wade LeBlanc in favor of free agent disaster Heath Bell. Bell, once again proving the “big money deals to non-elite relievers rarely ever work out” corollary, allowed hits to Ellis, Matt Kemp, Ramirez, & Ethier before being removed in favor of Chris Hatcher, having retired just one of the five hitters he saw. Hatcher struck out Juan Rivera before allowing Luis “all I do is double” Cruz to drive in Ethier on a two-bagger to the right field gap; Matt Treanor finally grounded out to end the inning with the Dodgers up 5-0.
For Ramirez, who drove in three runs today and five during the series, the weekend marked a successful return to Miami, as he went 6-12 over the three-game set. I can’t imagine how much Marlins fans enjoyed watching that.
