If it feels like I’ve typed “Yasiel Puig did his job with three hits but almost no one else stood up to support him,” before, well, I probably have. It seems to the be story of Puig’s short career so far, though at least Andre Ethier knocked in a pair today.

Puig had three hits, all singles, but other than Ethier’s pair of hits no one could solve Pirates rookie Gerrit Cole, who really outpitched Zack Greinke on the day. Greinke never really looked good, not getting a 1-2-3 inning all afternoon and throwing 104 pitches in five innings.

The best chance the Dodgers had probably came in the top of the sixth inning, a frame that began rather innocuously when Skip Schumaker and Nick Punto each failed to get on. Adrian Gonzalez hit a ground-rule double and advanced to third on a hard-hit Puig single, then scored when Ethier followed with a single of his own. Tim Federowicz walked to load the bases for Luis Cruz… and Don Mattingly allowed Cruz to hit. No Hanley Ramirez, no Juan Uribe, no Jerry Hairston, no Mark Ellis, just the worst hitter in baseball in the biggest spot of the game. All too predictably, Cruz failed to get the job done, striking out on questionably low pitch.

For three innings, I wondered if Ramirez just wasn’t available to hit, because we know he’s not fully healthy and we don’t have complete insight into his day-to-day status. But then he came out to hit for Alex Castellanos with two outs in the ninth inning, and so it appears he had been available all along. So from where it stands now, Mattingly just simply chose not to replace the atrocious Cruz in a huge spot, and I simply can’t say a word to defend him on that. That’s really not putting your team in the best spot to win.

It should be noted, of course, that simply making a move was no guarantee of success. Ramirez did strike out in the ninth, and it’s not like Uribe or Hairston are terribly appealing options themselves. But games all too often turn on little decisions, and that one stings badly.

The Dodgers have now lost six of eight, as they head into the Bronx after tomorrow’s day off. But hey, that brawl against Arizona totally turned the season around, right?

Most of the story is information we already knew, but I did get a kick out of this note:

White was impressed with the intelligence he saw when Puig — the child of engineers — established an Internet connection for White’s laptop after the Dodgers executive was unable to do so.

I guess PUIG DESTROYER is going to have to update “One Man, Five Tools” to include that sixth asset — IT guy. Puig’s back at cleanup today, as he continues to pinball around the first few spots in the lineup..

Part of the reason why he’s back at #4 is because Hanley Ramirez is out of the lineup, which isn’t a total surprise because he’s not 100% recovered from his hamstring injury. Don Mattingly flat-out said that “he may treat Ramirez like he does Mark Ellis by giving him a day off after playing him, until the injury is fully healed,” and neither of his regular infield duo are in the lineup today. I’m really, truly terrified by the idea of Ramirez being obviously less than healthy, because we’ve seen how badly that ends so, so many times. On the other hand, Luis Cruz is starting at shortstop today, and so I understand why the club might prefer a limited Ramirez to no Ramirez at all.

In the meantime, we’re going to be treated to a pretty interesting pitching matchup today. Zack Greinke takes the hill for the Dodgers against the #1 overall pick in the 2011 draft, 22-year-old righty Gerrit Cole. Cole made some noise in his debut by doubling in two runs while holding the Giants to two runs over 6.1 innings, though he struck out only two. There is some risk of thunderstorms in the Pittsburgh area, but the game should still get in, even if it’s delayed somewhat.

J.P. Howell remains unavailable as he serves the final game of his two-game suspension.

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If not for an awful throwing mistake by Hanley Ramirez in the first inning, Clayton Kershaw would have been working on a shutout today. Ramirez airmailed what looked to be a relatively simple throw, but wasn’t charged with an error because “you can’t assume a double play” and no runners advanced.

Then again, if not for Skip Schumaker robbing Russell Martin of a three-run homer in the seventh inning, as you can see above, Kershaw wouldn’t even have left with a lead… so I think Kershaw would be happy to call it even, right?

But Kershaw didn’t get the shutout, and he didn’t even get the win, because after Chris Withrow & Paco Rodriguez combined to allow a run in the eighth, new closer Kenley Jansen came in to strike out Garrett Jones and… give up a game-tying blast to Travis Snider on an absolute meatball. And that’s the danger of insisting someone must be closer, isn’t it? They’re still humans, and they’re still imperfect. For whatever reason, closers are held to standards that no other players are, and while Jansen is unquestionably the best Dodger reliever, today wasn’t a great day for him.

Jansen got out of the inning without losing it entirely, and after the Dodgers went down easily in the top of the tenth, the Pirates managed to get Martin to first with two outs against Peter Moylan. Neil Walker doubled to deep right field, and the Dodgers caught a break for once if only because of the reputation Yasiel Puig already has. Puig had to slide to get the ball and threw it far up the third base line from deep in the corner, but Martin had already stopped at third, not daring to test Puig’s arm. Moylan intentionally walked Pedro Alvarez, but managed to get Mike McKenry to fly out to end the threat.

That brought up the eleventh, and fortunately we didn’t have to wait all that long to see Jansen get bailed out. Andre Ethier kicked it off with a double to right; after a Mark Ellis sac bunt — which I didn’t love, but I’ve seen worse — Juan Uribe was the hero by knocking in the go-ahead run with a single. Nick Punto added an insurance run with a double, and the lead was 5-3.

But the lead still needed to be held, and that gave Don Mattingly the unenviable choice of keeping Moylan in for a second inning or going to Brandon League, Matt Guerrier, or Ronald Belisario. I can absolutely not think of a less appealing set of options for the embattled manager there, and there’s really just no right answer.

Mattingly went with League, and… well, it wasn’t pretty. He allowed Snider an infield single when he failed to either cover or touch first base in time — replays showed Snider was probably out, but by an eyelash at most — and then when he induced a grounder to second that Ellis flipped over, Ramirez couldn’t get enough on the throw to turn two. After yet another infield single, A.J. Ellis couldn’t handle a pitch in the dirt — it has not been a good season on defense for A.J., I must admit — moving the runners up for the dangerous Andrew McCutchen… who mercifully grounded to Uribe.

With two outs, Gaby Sanchez hit one to deep left, and for a brief second I’m sure I was thinking what you all were… but Schumaker managed to track it down for the victory.

Moylan with the win, League with the save. Just… how we all drew it up?

Lost in all of this is that as we all pretty much expected, rookie Brandon Cumpton completely confused the Dodger offense, striking out the first three and five of the first six. When you’re making your major league debut, and you can say that you whiffed Puig, Adrian Gonzalez, & Ramirez in your first two innings, you can probably be satisfied with your day. But the Dodgers eventually did get three runs off of him, on a few singles and a sacrifice fly, setting up the fireworks in the late innings.

******

In other news, per a tweet from Peter Gammons and confirmed by Dylan Hernandez, catcher John Baker has been claimed by the Dodgers. Baker was Nick Hundley‘s backup in San Diego until May 28, when he was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Yasmani Grandal‘s return from suspension. He played just four games with Tuscon before being DFA’d on Monday when the Padres needed a 40-man spot for Logan Forsythe.

Baker hit .150/.261/.150 in 46 plate appearances for the Padres in 2013, and has a .258/.342/.364 line in parts of six seasons for the Marlins and Padres, who acquired him after 2011 for pitcher Wade LeBlanc. He’ll take the open 40-man spot vacated by Ramon Hernandez and report to Albuquerque, helping to avoid some of the depth issues that we discussed the other day. The reign of Matt Wallach is held off for a little longer. Interestingly enough, Baker was at first thought to be the cause of Jerry Hairston‘s mad dash across the field during the infamous Zack Greinke / Carlos Quentin brawl in April, though Baker was strenuous in his objections that he hadn’t done anything wrong.

Yasiel Puig gets his first start hitting second, as Don Mattingly attempts to solve the eternal problem of “should I hit Puig where no one will drive him in or where he will have no one to drive in?” That’s one of those questions where there’s probably not really a right answer, at least insomuch as giving Schumaker the opportunity to hit most often doesn’t seem like a great idea. Then again, the options are so limited at this point; sure, I’d probably prefer to have seen Alex Castellanos get a shot, but I also can’t say that it’s enough of a difference that I can really get invested in that.

In the meantime, the Dodgers face a pitcher who is apparently named “Brandon Cumpton,” making his debut not only in the majors but in my consciousness.  The 24-year-old righty was a 9th round pick out of Georgia Tech in 2010, and based on unimpressive strikeout numbers in the minors, I’m guessing he gets by through relying heavily on his defense.

That seems to be confirmed by scouting reports from Pirates Prospects, who rated him as Pittsburgh’s #46 prospect…

Cumpton currently has a 3.31 ERA in 65.1 innings with Indianapolis, along with a 6.8 K/9 and a 3.0 BB/9 ratio. He got off to a rough start this year after a return to Altoona, giving up eight earned runs in 9.2 innings over his first two starts. Cumpton was promoted to Indianapolis more out of need than merit, due to the early season injury problems in Pittsburgh taking pitchers from Indianapolis. His first start with the Indians was rough, with four earned runs in 5.1 innings. Since then he’s been outstanding, with a 2.95 ERA in 61 innings over ten starts, along with a 47:19 K/BB ratio. The most impressive thing is that he’s got a 3:1 GO/AO ratio this year in Indianapolis, which will play well with the infield defense in Pittsburgh.

…and Bucs Dugout:

Cumpton obviously isn’t a future star, but he does a reasonable job limiting walks, and he keeps the ball on the ground. His ceiling is probably that of a back-of-the-rotation starter, and the Pirates probably would have preferred to leave him in the minors a while longer, but obviously, they’re running out of choices, and Cumpton’s ground-ball tendencies make him unlikely to be a disaster.

If that sounds exactly like the kind of guy who is probably going to shut the Dodgers down given that they haven’t seen him before, congratulations, you’ve been paying attention. No pressure though, kid, you only have to face Clayton Kershaw in your major league debut. Although when I say “kid”, Cumpton is only about eight months younger than Kershaw kid. Daily reminder that Clayton Kershaw is awesome, I guess.

Starling Marte remains out for Pittsburgh with a strained rib cage and yes, that is Brandon Inge playing right field. As noted by Eric Stephen, Inge is making his fourth start there this season, after not having played the corner since 2004 with Detroit.

You know, we just destroyed Ned Colletti on the Trayvon Robinson deal a few years ago. I mean, completely crushed him, and not just me, either. Every other Dodger blogger I respect and most mainstream writers too took glee in punishing the Dodger general manager for what seemed to be an out-of-nowhere and beyond foolish deal.

Now here we are almost two years later and Robinson has washed out with Seattle and is hitting .235/.321/.355 for Baltimore’s Triple-A team in his age-25 season, Tim Federowicz has beaten out Ramon Hernandez once and for all, and Stephen Fife… well, the Dodgers lost tonight, but he was once again pretty decent. I still don’t see much more than “fifth starter” out of him, but I will take “two earned runs in five innings” most nights out of a fifth starter, and Fife has been on a pretty consistent streak of keeping runs off the board, even somehow managing to miss some bats along the way.

Of course, none of that really matters when your offense gets shut out again, and while this isn’t the first time that’s happened this season — and it sure as hell won’t be the last — this one was a little harder to take. Jeff Locke has been decent this year, but he’s hardly elite, and despite the injuries the Dodgers have suffered this is still a lineup that had Yasiel Puig, Adrian Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez, A.J. Ellis, & Andre Ethier in it.

That’s most of a major-league lineup, in theory, yet the Dodgers could do no more than five singles, a walk, and a Jerry Hairston double. (At least two of the hits came off the bat of Puig, pushing his line to an absurd .487/.512/.846.) We can blame injuries all we like — and we do — but sooner or later the guys who are playing are going to need to contribute too. It’s not April any longer, or even May, and June is now half over. If this team plans to turn the season around… well, the time is now.

I can’t argue with that, because Hernandez was pretty poor, but it does leave the Dodgers precariously thin at catcher. J.R. Towles played just four games for the Isotopes before getting hurt — he’s due to have thumb surgery soon — and so the Albuquerque backstop duo these days is Matt Wallach & Dashenko Ricardo. That’s… well, that’s pretty bad. All it takes is one poorly placed foul tip or another weak oblique for Wallach or someone like him to be in the big leagues, and that does honestly make me wonder a little bit about the timing of letting Hernandez go. (There remains the chance that Hernandez ends up in ABQ once he gets through waivers, like Bobby Abreu did last year, but he was reportedly not willing to do so when Colorado wanted him to.) I can’t imagine that’s a situation that lasts long, though it’s not like upgrades are readily available; you’re probably looking at someone like Kelly Shoppach, recently cut by the Mariners.

At least Ellis is back tonight, hitting seventh, but the news regarding Matt Kemp indicates that he’s at least another week away, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. Fortunately, Yasiel Puig is back at the top and Hanley Ramirez is hitting cleanup. Today’s round of “wait, who is hitting fifth?” ends with Mark Ellis, who is there because… well, I have no idea. He’s never faced Pittsburgh starter Jeff Locke before.

As for the aftermath of today’s suspensions, both J.P. Howell and Skip Schumaker appealed their two-game bans and will be available tonight. Ronald Belisario and manager Don Mattingly will both serve their suspensions tonight in Pittsburgh, so Trey Hillman will serve as the skipper. Remember that when we’re all screaming at Mattingly for horrible bunt calls or bullpen usage, okay?

D-backs pitcher Ian Kennedy has received a 10-game suspension for intentionally throwing a pitch in the head area of Zack Greinke of the Dodgers in the bottom of the seventh inning, after a warning had already been issued to both Clubs earlier in the game;

D-backs infielder Eric Hinske has received a five-game suspension for leaving the dugout and for his aggressive actions during the incidents;

Pitcher J.P. Howell and infielder/outfielder Skip Schumaker of the Dodgers have each received two-game suspensions for their aggressive actions during the incidents;

Dodgers hitting coach Mark McGwire has received a two-game suspension for his conduct during the incidents;

Dodgers pitcher Ronald Belisario has received a one-game suspension for his aggressive actions during the incidents;

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly has received a one-game suspension for the actions of his Club and for his conduct during the incident;

D-backs manager Kirk Gibson has received a one-game suspension for the intentional actions of Kennedy after a warning had been issued.

Greinke, & Yasiel Puig were fined, but not suspended.

All in all, not too bad, I think. No discipline for Clayton Kershaw, no missed start for Greinke, and Howell could have easily received more than two games for flipping Arizona coach Turner Ward over a railing. Kennedy gets the worst of it, as he should. Really, I can’t complain with any of this.

No word yet on appeals or when the Dodgers will serve their suspensions; they will almost certainly not happen all at the same time.

Over the last 365 days since signing that deal, Ethier is hitting .263/.340/.401 with 15 homers in 603 plate appearances, giving him only a .322 wOBA. Unlike Matt Kemp, who also has had a pretty lousy calendar year, Ethier doesn’t have a particularly serious injury to point to as a reason. He’s just been, well… mediocre.

You want to know who is right ahead of him on the wOBA list over that year? You don’t, but I’m going to tell you anyway. There’s Cody Ross, who signed with Arizona for 3/$26m. There’s David DeJesus, who signed with the Cubs for 2/$10m. There’s Ike Davis, who is now in the minor leagues. (Mercifully, Ethier is just barely ahead of Josh Hamilton.) He’s been called out by his manager, and we’re to the point where we’re seeing comps between Ethier and Vernon Wells, and while I think that’s more than a little unfair, you can at least see the argument.

So… how’s that deal working out over the first year?

In retrospect, I probably should have just stated my initial opinion and been done with it, because back in February of 2012, I actually had nailed the terms he’d eventually get. At the time, the thought of such a deal was terrifying:

there’s a big difference between a deal for, say, 3/$36m (which I’d certainly love to do) and something more like 5/$85m (which I’d run away screaming from)

I determined his closest free agent comparable to be Jason Bay, and that should have probably been enough to just shut down the entire thing right there. But in the interest of full disclosure, by the time Ethier actually signed in June, I had softened on the idea, calling it a defensible move that was “market value or something close to it”.

That’s probably true, but looking back, I may have let the off-the-field aspects of the deal cloud the baseball value of it more than I should have. Remember, this was the first big signing under new ownership. No one had ever even heard the name “Yasiel Puig“ at that point. Hanley Ramirez was still in Miami, Zack Greinke was in Milwaukee, Brandon League was in Seattle, and the idea of actually getting Adrian Gonzalez or Carl Crawford seemed like a laughable fantasy at best. Hamilton looked like the only impact bat available on the upcoming open market, and I doubt any of us wish the Dodgers had ended up inking that deal.

There were definitely some reasons to think this made sense, particularly with Ethier’s popularity and the new owners looking to gin up some good in-season feelings, and so we may have slightly let that desperate attempt for positive vibes after years of McCourt nightmares allow us to to be influenced somewhat.

So while I’ve long wanted the flawed Ethier to be traded while his value was highest — I’ve probably said so for about three years now — I can’t in good conscience look back and say that this deal was a terrible idea from the moment it was signed. (It wasn’t just us, either; this review of the deal from Dave Cameron at FanGraphs decided that while it was an overpay, “this just isn’t something that anyone should get all that worked up over.”) It was certainly not a team-friendly deal, but considering the other options available and deep pockets of new ownership, it didn’t seem like an anchor, either.

But I will say that I never saw it working out quite like this, either. We all know the Dodgers tried to trade Ethier over the winter, and when that didn’t work, we figured he’d at least be a slightly above-average lineup piece while we waited to see what would happen with Crawford, Puig, and Kemp. If we had the usual Ethier, the deal still wouldn’t have been great value, but we’d probably have been okay with it.

We don’t have the usual Ethier though, do we? While there’s some amount of bad batted ball luck at play, since his peripherals aren’t all that far off his career norms, the last few years really do look like the work of a man who has seen his peak and is on the other side of it as he enters his 30s. Throw in his questionable defense, total inability to hit lefty pitching, reports that he’s not exactly the most popular guy in the clubhouse, and the Mattingly benching, and you’re left with someone who isn’t exactly at the peak of his trade value.

And I do think he’ll be traded, by the way, especially now that Crawford has shown some life and Puig’s talent is for real. But I don’t think it will be soon — how can it be, with everyone else injured and Scott Van Slyke actually getting regular playing time before he was hurt — and I don’t think it will be for a return that the casual fan will be pleased with. One popular idea that gets thrown around a lot is Ethier for Ian Kinsler, since the Rangers in theory need an outfielder and have too many infielders with the emergence of Jurickson Profar. I’d do that in half a heartbeat… but there’s little reason to think the Rangers ever would.

No, when Ethier gets traded, it’s going to be in a deal that has the Dodgers eating at least half of his salary and getting some decent-but-hardly premium talent in return. Considering how integral to the future Ethier once was, it’s sad to think about like that, but it’s also almost assuredly true.

So much can change in the space of a year, can’t it?

Except… here we are. Yasiel Puig was in the original lineup before being scratched with a sore right shoulder, a malady which reportedly is directly related to last night’s brawl. When Puig initially came up, I expressed some concern that he might not be ready, using this exact quote as something of a joke:

That should hopefully mean that Puig at least gets to play in a second game, rather than getting arrested after probably using his linebacker frame to knock Jedd Gyorko or Will Venable or whatever poor Padre happened to get in his way clear into the Pacific Ocean in the inevitable bench-clearing brawl.

It wasn’t the Padres, and it wasn’t an arrest — which I was obviously not serious about — yet here we are eight days later, and Puig is out of the lineup because of his involvement in that mess. We haven’t even heard about suspensions, and we aren’t likely to today, but for everyone who claimed that the “heart” shown in the fight is going to turn the season around — just like after the Carlos Quentin mess, right? — here is the first of several real-world consequences to that.

So now that Puig is out along with Matt Kemp & A.J. Ellis & Carl Crawford & Hanley Ramirez, we’re left with Adrian Gonzalez and a whole bunch of guys who are not Adrian Gonzalez. Alex Castellanos gets his first start of the season replacing Puig in right field, while Jerry Hairston becomes the eighth different Dodger to hit cleanup, and Juan Uribe hits fifth. In the absence of Ramirez, now bordering on a decade, the terribly struggling Nick Punto leads off as the BABIP regression we all knew was coming continues to take its toll.

The good news, I suppose, is that Hyun-jin Ryu has been on the mound, and he has been wonderful. But it’s increasingly difficult to look at that lineup and feel a lot differently than we did last year at this time when Elian Herrera was in every day. At least, I suppose, Ellis, Puig, & Ramirez should be back soon, and Kemp hopefully not too long after that. But for now? This one’s on you, Ryu.

Sydney Cricket Grounds, via Vijay

Very interesting news out of Australia, via The Daily Telegraph:

In a $13 million coup for the state government, the opening series of the MLB will be held at the SCG on Saturday March 22 and Sunday March 23 – the first time a competitive US baseball fixture will be held in Australia and only the sixth time one has been staged outside America.

The games have been described as the biggest internationally recognised event in this country since the 2003 Rugby World Cup final and come exactly 100 years after the Chicago White Sox played against NSW at the SCG.

“Sydney will host the first two games for the opening series of 2014 Major League Baseball at the Sydney Cricket Ground,” Premier Barry O’Farrell said.

“The opening series will feature the LA Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks playing the first two games of the season.

Stateside, Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times confirms the report.

We first heard rumors about exactly this last October, and I find it pretty exciting, because while MLB games have been played in Japan a few times, Australia is an entirely new frontier. The Dodgers under new ownership have been pretty clear about wanting to expand their international influence in any way they can, and while Australia isn’t exactly thought of a baseball hotbed, there has been pro ball there on and off since the 1980s. Currently, the Australian Baseball League is the highest level of the sport, and a few dozen Aussies have played in the big leagues, including current Dodger Peter Moylan, as well as Trent Oeltjen in 2010-11 and Luke Prokopec, Craig Shipley, and Jeff Williams in years past..

The historic Sydney Cricket Grounds date back to the 19th century and is currently undergoing $186 million worth of renovations:

Plans include the biggest video screen of any sporting ground in Australia.

The upgrade will make sure the heritage areas of the ground – Members Stand, Ladies Pavilion and Clock Tower remain intact.

“The trust has been lobbying for a long time. Things are tight but we got the money,” a federal source said.

I’ve already told my wife I want to go to Australia (which I’d love to visit anyway) next spring. She’s on board. Outstanding.