Category Archives: we beat the Padres!

Hey, Who Needs Manny… or Furcal… or J.Martin… or Blake?

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I have to say, when I saw the lineup that Joe Torre was rolling with today, I had a flashback to the dark days of Jim Tracy. Sure, I’m very pleased that Torre’s sticking with his pledge to get Russel Martin and Rafael Furcal regular rest, and aa day game after a night game is the obvious time to do it -  but I had to wonder why today had to be the day that Casey Blake and Manny Ramirez (later revealed to have asked out to rest a sore hamstring) were taking a seat as well. It’s amazing how different this vaunted lineup looks when you see a fivesome of Loretta/Ausmus/Castro/pitcher/Pierre, doesn’t it?

billingsleyvspadres.jpgOf course, after looking at the pitching rotation, it makes a lot more sense: who needs more offense, Chad Billingsley against the woeful Padres, or Eric Stults & Jeff Weaver the next two nights against the Diamondbacks? To Torre’s credit, believe it or not, the Dodgers took this one partially in thanks to the scrubs, as opposed to in spite of them. Ausmus, Castro, and Pierre combined for five hits and four runs, including all three of them singling (with Billingsley also getting one in between) with two outs in the sixth inning, which chased Chad Gaudin and really took the air out of the Padres.

As Vin mentioned several times, the Dodgers have now tied the NL record for most wins at home to start a season with 10, but it was two other stats that Vin had for us that really caught my attention:

1) This was the first time the Dodgers have ever swept a four-game series against San Diego. God, I hate the Padres. I’m really surprised to see that, though; the Padres have had a ton of lousy teams since they entered the league in 1969, especially in the early years, and the Dodgers have of course had some pretty talented teams since then. The lesson here, of course, is that I will be thrilled to watch them lose 106 games this year. Look, I know that the Giants are the traditional rivals of the Dodgers, but for the last few years, I just haven’t been able to muster up the vitriol towards them that I do against San Diego. Must be the ugly uniforms.  

and

2) Billingsley is now second behind only Roy Halladay for most wins in the last calendar year. I know, I know, I’ve been railing against using wins for pitchers as any sort of metric for a while here, and that hasn’t changed. I’m not saying that Billingsley is the second best pitcher in baseball, and I’m not ignoring the fact that if Tim Lincecum was on any sort of team last year he’d have won 27 games; I’m just saying, that if anyone out there still had any doubt that Chad Billingsley is a bona fide ace, it’s time to wake up. This kid? He’s good.

Carrying on the streak against Arizona tomorrow…  

This Is Why This Team Might Be So Dangerous

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Future Hall of Famer Manny Ramirez and All-Star Russell Martin, arguably the team’s two most potent hitters, combined to go 0-6 with two walks. How many Dodger teams would have seen their chances of victory completely disappear if their top two hitters didn’t contribute, especially with Dodger-killer Jake Peavy on the mound? Just the thought of lineups that included Cesar Izturis, Dave Roberts, and Juan Pierre every day makes my eyes bleed.

But not this team, on this night, and one has to hope that this is a sign for the rest of the season. Tonight, we saw how strong this lineup is going to be 1-8 – there’s no weak links here. Well, except for Casey Blake, who struck out three times in going 0-4. But that can’t keep up, right? Right?

Tonight’s not a night for focusing on the bad, so let’s look at the good:

Matt Kemp is going to be a monster. What’s more impressive? The blast he hit out to dead center vs. Peavy, or the diving catch in the 6th inning that prevented the ensuing rally from getting any worse? For some reason, people seem to think that Kemp can’t handle center, but we’ve always said that his inexperience was the cause of any issues out there. Besides for the homer, Kemp only struck out once against one of the best pitchers in baseball – and drew a walk, too. Remember when we had Pierre or Andruw Jones in center? Yeah, me neither.


wadepumpsfist.jpgCory Wade has balls of steel. After Kuroda began to falter in the 6th, Wade entered with the bases loaded and a two-run lead, with Kevin Kouzmanoff at the plate. If the Padres were going to have a prayer, this was going to be it, and after rumors of arm soreness this spring, it wasn’t hard to question Wade here. Kouzmanoff grounded weakly back to Wade, and that was really that for the Padres offense. That’s exactly the kind of situation that could have spiraled out of control for the Dodgers in previous years, and Wade locking it down may have been the biggest moment of the game. 

James Loney is going to be better than last year. Not that he was bad last year, but somewhat underwhelming. 2009′s looking better already! In addition to some nice defensive plays, Loney led the way with three hits, the most important of which was his first. With the bases loaded and two outs, Loney came up with Peavy on the ropes. You don’t get a whole lot of opportunities against a guy like that, and you can’t squander them when they happen – especially with the history of TOTAL FAIL LA’s had against Peavy. Loney pokes a 2-RBI single to left field, and the Dodgers never trailed.

No more questioning Jonathan Broxton as closer. Did you see that 9th inning? I almost felt bad for the Padres. Well, almost, because screw them. But Broxton comes in throwing absolute gas. I know you can’t ever trust the TV gun, but when that’s saying 99s and 100s, then he’s still throwing at least 96 or 97, and that’s plenty good enough. Strikeout, popout, strikeout, and the game was done. I think we’re all going to enjoy watching the Bull this year. 

One down, 161 to go!