Los Angeles Dodgers

Dodgers up, ready to lose, facing Wilson.

Fred Lewis makes a half-hearted attempt to make a great play. Either go all out or don't. He only gave about 75% and decided last second that he could actually make the catch on that line drive to left. He dives, misses and it gets by him. Pinch hitter Mark Loretta gets a double from a single.

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Giants up, facing Scott Elbert who gets one strike out and is pulled for Guillermo Mota.

Edgar Renteria smacks the first pitch toward the hole at short, but it was too slow and Furcal picked it up too deep. Not even close. Uribe hits one to dead center that I was sure would be no problem for Pierre. But he couldn't get there. I wonder if the wind didn't knock that one down. Two on, one out.

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Dodgers up, facing Timmy!

Two pitches and two hits. It may be time to yank 'im. Bullpen only just wakes up after three more pitches.

That change up hadn't been touched all game. He was fooling Furcal with it too until that last one. The bat broke into 4 different pieces but the ball fell soflty inside of the left field line for a double as it spun into the giants bullpen area. One run scores. 

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Giants up, facing Scott Elbert.

Molina uppercuts the first pitch he sees sky high and that baby is GONE! Triple and a homer for Bengie. I'd say that's a good day for him, eh? That's his 17th RBI this season. Not too shabby.

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Dodgers up, facing Skinny Timmy.

1-2-3. What else is there to say?

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Aaaaaaaaaand we're back. Just in time to see the first pitch of the inning!

Burriss' check swing makes contact for what effectively is a bunt. But, not ready to run, Burriss is easily thrown out. Lewis shows a good eye by working a walk from a 1-2 count and Renteria rewards him with a solid cut. You could tell by the sound of the crack that that was going to be a hit. Stand up RBI double. I like the way these Giants are hitting!

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Dodgers up, facing Timmy.

CORRECTION: I said earlier that Winn was out with a bruised ankle, but it was his knee. He fouled a ball off his knee yesterday and decided to sit a game or two.

Second inning in a row that Lincecum has started off with three straight balls. Last inning turned into a walk... and this one too.

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Giants up, facing Hong-Chih Kuo.

Kuo has an ERA over eight so far this season, but don't let that fool you, he can be unhittable. Just ask Rowand, Rich or Nate. Three up, three down.

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Dodgers up, facing Timmy.

Tim walks his first batter of the game. The first pitch to the next batter, Martin, was a no-doubt strike tht left a smoke trail. He ends up striking out swinging on a filthy change up that left Martin looking foolish.

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Giants up, facing Troncoso.

Look at that! Manny Ramirez made a decent play in left field. Fred Lewis hit it hard to Manny and it knuckled toward the line, but Manny was on top of it. Nice catch.

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Dodgers up, facing Tim.

Unfortunately Juan Uribe has placed Pablo Sandoval at third. We don't yet know why. They showed a replay of Pablo's last at bat and he did look like he was in a little pain during his futile jog towards first on a fly out.

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Giants up, facing Stults.

We are getting a good long shot of Carney Lansford, Giants hitting coach, and Timmy is sitting behind him. Tim has got a cold. He is sucking up snot and coughing up a storm. It doesn't help that it is a cold, cold day in San Francisco. It hasn't effected his pitching yet. At least not negatively.

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Dodgers up, facing Lincecum.

Eric Stults is batting EIGHTH! He's the second batter of the inning. The last time a Dodger pitcher did not hit ninth was 1965... 44 years ago. It was Don Drysdale and he bat seventh! But that's because Don Drysdale was a .300 hitter. Look it up. 29 career home runs. Seventh most all-time by a pitcher. Juan Pierre is ninth. No wonder he's not running hard in the outfield. He's been emasculated. 

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Giants up, facing Eric Stults.

The second pitch of the inning made it all the way to the backstop, but not in any ordinary way. Russell Martin would have needed to leap about three feet in the air to have caught that one.

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Dodgers up, facing Tim Lincecum.

Three outs on ten pitches. Only 4 pitches thrown for the last two outs.

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Again I was unable to write during much of the first inning. I'll be picking it up at Bengie's improbable triple.

Who would've thought Bengie Molina would ever hit a triple, let alone to left center. It looked like a home run but, like so many hard hit drives in Giants Stadium, fell short due to wind. Juan Pierre, CF  for the Dodgers, had enough time to get to the ball, but seemed to be convinced that it was well over the wall. He put little effort into running it down made an awkward jump at the ball. In fact, on the replay it looks like he may have jumped at the ball after it hit the wall. 

Continue reading "Dodgers at Giants, Game 3 of a three-game series"

Dodgers up, facing Bob Howry.

Manny's got his third (second lead off) double of the game. Definetely not the type of player we need, right Sabean?

There goes the game. Double for Ethier after maybe 8 balls fouled back in counts 1-2 and 2-2. Dodgers re-take the lead.

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Giants up, facing Billingsley.

Pablo hits a grounder up the middle that somehow curves far towards right field. So far that he thought about going two, and a faster runner would've made a double out of it. Sandoval, however, chose to stay at first.

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Dodgers up, facing Osiris Matos.

This freaking ump has removed the outside corner off the plate for Dodgers hitters, not to mention, the bottom of the zone. I am pissed. But Matos gets Furcal to swing at and miss two excellent pitches and he's gone.

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Giants up, facing Billingsley.

Nate Shierholtz is pinch hitting for Medders. Groundball to third. He looks safe to me and it is called SAFE! Replay shows that it was as close as a play can be. He may have been out. But it is way too close to tell. Great hustle play by Schierholtz.

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Dodgers up, facing Medders.

Manny leads off and works it to a full count from 0-2. Aaaaand opposite field double... again. He's good. Tell me why the Giants didn't pursue him again?

With one out, the Giants are walking Eithier to get to Kemp. I do not understand this. Kemp lines it to center. Bases juiced. Tell me again, why did we walk Ethier to get to Kemp? 

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Giants up, facing Billingsley.

Ishikawa's been struggling, but he just took a pitch that was initally behind him, right in the ankle. Hey, any way you can get on base is okay by me.

Uribe's up. Why don't they save us some time and change the sides right now? Eat my words? Don't mind if I do!! Uribe nails it to center field, well over Kemp's head. Ishikawa is held at third. Wise decision. He hesitated off the bat and so didn't have a chance.

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Dodgers up, facing Justin Miller.

Matt Kemp wisely tries to steal. Bengie Molina throws well, well off the bag towards first base. But Kemp is so absurdly slow that he still got tagged out. He got tagged so far from the bag that he hadn't even begun his slide yet, and never bothered. That is the first runner I've seen Molina throw out this year out of maybe 15 attempts. I don't know what his actual stats are. Those are just the ones I've seen.

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Giants up, facing Billingsley.

I hate the Dodgers. Sandoval wanted a hit and Loney makes a great doving stop of a hard, low grounder that's hugging the line. It looked like a hit the whole way, but Loney got there and made the play. Impressive.

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Dodgers up, facing Jonathon Sanchez.

Two change ups in the same spot, back-to-back, strikes out Furcal. Good pitching. 

Sanchez is still missing the occasional pitch anywhere from 4-6 geet off the plate, usually high and away. Hey, if it works for him...  Manny took him to town, though. Good thing it's impossible to hit home runs in this stadium because that off the wall, opposite field double is gone almost anywhere else.

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Giants up, facing Chad Billingsley.

That was such an uneventful inning; it just ended and I already forgot everything that happened.

Continue reading "Dodgers at Giants, Bottom of the Fourth"

Sanchez just let one of his 6 feet off the plate pitches get too far out of Molina's reach. Ethier is at second now.

Randy Winn is great in right field. He caught a fly he's supposed to catch but he positioned himself and timed his run so well that Ethier didn't dare go for third. That's an important 90 feet because that was the first out of the inning.

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Fred Lewis just got beaned in the foot on a super sliding slider. The pitch did not look like it was going to be within 6 inches of him. It broke hard. As long as he misses that much, I don't mind.

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Furcal, like many speedy hitters, tries to bunt it to third because Sandoval's reputation of being a slow third baseman spread through the NL as quickly as his waist line at Thanksgiving dinner. But his bunt was terrible. It went up and floated to Pablo on one bounce. Furcal still came close to a bunt single though, that's how slow Sandoval is.

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I was eating dinner for the first two innings but I'm ready to write now.

For those that were wondering, the Dodgers only run came when Fred Lewis, in left field, set his feet and readied to catch a fly ball but forgot to actually catch the ball. The ball hit his glove and simply bounced out. Oddly poor defense.

Continue reading "Dodgers at Giants, Game 2 of a 3 game series"

Dodgers up, facing Brian Wilson.

Wilson blew a save and the game yesterday. Let's see what he's got for us today. Bengie Molina is behind the plate now instead of Sandoval.

Blake is first up. 0-2 becomes 3-2. Wilson is trying too hard and losing the strike zone because of it. Blake bails him out swinging at a pitch well low. One away.

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Giants up, facing Ronald Belisario.

For anyone that cares, Sharks are down 3-1 at the start of the third. I think you can kiss this season good-bye.

Renteria shows bunt on the first pitch. During the wind up, he showed just a hint of a bunt on pitch two, pulled back and smacked a grounder past the out of position third baseman. Fred Lewis gets all the way to third on a close play. Excellently played all around.

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Dodgers up, facing Valdez.

Ethier broke his bat, and thankfully because that could've been a basehit up the middle otherwise.

Apparently Torres hurt something, a hamstring pull perhaps, rounding first and that's why Nate Schierholz came in for him. Winn is now in center and Nate's in right.

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Giants up, facing Wolf.

Uribe decides he's not going to make up for the lack of effort on defense by weakly slapping at a first pitch fastball and getting thrown out easily at first.

Torres, wi

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Dodgers up, facing Zito.

For anyone interested, the Ducks have tied it 1-1 mid-way through the 2nd period against the Sharks.

Bochy has a man in the bullpen warming up.

Zito just did something I have never in my life seen or even heard of. Kiper said the same thing. The ball slipped completely out of his hand during the pitch and it flew awkwardly in the direction of first. The ump decided to call it a throw to first and therefore and balk. Loretta advanced to second. 

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Giants up, facing Wolf.

Aurilia hits it high and hard to left, but not hard enough. I thought it was out off the bat, but it fell at the tip of the warning track.

Sandoval just hit himself in the helmet with his bat while preparing to step into the box. It was not intentional.

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Dodgers up, facing Zito.

By the way, the Giants went three up, three down last inning. I got distracted.

I never knew Bonds could be so articulate. I am used to hearing him speak only when he's upset about something, usually the media's line of questioning, and he has been flustered, inarticulate and just plain sounded dumb. Right now he is deflecting attention from himself, wanting to talk about current players rather than himself or his past. And he obviously knows what he's talking about. He sounds like an intelligent, articulate baseball expert. And he is.

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Giants up, facing Wolf.

Barry Bonds and is, at times, Michael Jackson like voice just walked into the announcer's booth. He had a lot of praise for Fred Lewis. That's nice to hear. He also has a lot of support for the Giants in general. He clearly misses the game and loves the Giants, his father's and his god-father's team (two great Giants).

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Rowand and especially Winn are getting some work out there in the outfield and are showing off their defensive talent. The wind is crazy, whipping and whirling the ball all over, and it shows in their foot work. But neither has missed a fly ball yet. Winn got two more this inning.

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Giants up, facing Wolff.

Sandoval popped foul three swings in a row. A fourth pop landed in no man's land between first and right field, but took enough time getting there that three Ddogers were waiting for it. Again, the Dodgers actually communicate and Hudson catches the out.

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Dodgers up, facing Zito.

For any Sharks fans, Sharks are up 1-0 in the middle of the first period.

Manny hits a lazy fly to right and he's out again.

TV camera found a Mom, Dad and Daughter in the audience. Dad was wearing a dodger shirt and cap. Mom and Daughter had Giants shirts and hats. Krukow says, "Who wears the pants in that family? Mom." Kuiper follows up with, "That baby doesn't even want to lean towards Dad." Hilarious.

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Giants up, facing Wolff.

Two grounders straight to Furcal and we've got two outs against us.

Aurillia gets a hit. Brownie points for Rich: he's a Giant through and through. Long time been a favorite of mine. Krukow just let the viewers know that Aurillia was "psyked up" about starting today because he wants to beat the Dodgers so much.

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Dodgers up, facing Zito.

Mark Loretta hit a grounder up the middle on the first base side. Burriss was playing so far towards first that I didn't think he had a chance. But the ball was slow enough that he got there. I still didn't think he had a chance to throw him out, but Loretta was practically jogging and was out by aa good 5-7 feet. Great play by Burriss. Zito pumped his fist he liked it so much.

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Giants up, facing Randy Wolff.

Not much to say about this inning. three up three down. Though Barry Zito hit a foul balldown the left field line that Manny retrieved and threw into the stands. A 30-year-old wearing a large Giants jacket caught the ball and immediately reared back to throw the ball back. Thankfully he realized that he'd probably get kicked out for interrupting play and didn't. He then looked around and I could read his lips. He yelled, "I don't want it!" and shrugged. There's a true Giants fan.

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Dodgers up, facing Barry Zito.

 The only guy who's had good contact with the ball against Zito so far was Kemp. He had a line drive foul but then walked. Everyone else has been too easy. Zit

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Giants up, facing

Renteria just popped way up to shallow right center. He ran it out the whole way because he's a veteran and it's windy. Ethier and Kemp bumped each other just as the ball landed in Kemp's glove... AND HE DROPS IT. Renteria got to second.

Continue reading "Dodgers at Giants, Bottom of the First"

Top of the first.

 Barry Zito is starting for the Giants. Dodgers already swept us in their stadium. I'd really like to be able to rub it into my friends' faces when the Giants sweep 'em right back.

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bsp;      Rafael Furcal finally decided his future- he is staying with the Los Angeles Dodgers.  This is the wrong decision.  Furcal would have done the best had he signed with Oakland.  In Oakland, he could have taken his pick of which position he would want to play, which spot in the order he would bat, and even which days he would want to take off from playing in the field and just DH. By staying in Los Angeles, he has pigeon-holed himself into the shortstop role and the lead-off batter position.  I mean, don't get me wrong- even with the Atlanta Braves, Furcal was the natural leadoff hitter that they have sorely missed since his departure to Los Angeles.  And although he has had an unlucky streak of injuries recently, he still remains one of the top shortstops in the NL, and even in Major League Baseball.

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Shortstops are changing places left and right.  In the past two days the Giants signed Edgar Renteria, the Cardinals traded for Khalil Greene, the White Sox traded for Brent Lillibridge, and Jack Wilson looks to be on his way out of Pittsburgh.  That leaves the A's, Dodgers, Orioles, Padres, and Tigers as teams that may be looking to add a shortstop, though it looks like Wilson may be on his way to Detroit.  Assuming Wilson does go to the Tigers, that leaves four teams who have holes at shortstop and might be interested in signing Rafael Furcal.  The Braves, once thought to be in the running for Furcal, appear to be set, as a Furcal signing appeared to be contingent upon trading away Yunel Escobar for Jake Peavy.  Now that they've acquired Javier Vazquez, it is less likely they'll make that deal.

Continue reading "Where the A's Stand in Shortstop Roulette"

With the MLB playoffs set to begin, there is a subtle difference in the air compared to start of any other postseason. In the NHL, fans can potentially look forward to a great Canadians/Bruins series that is not only exciting, but has a historical kick to it. Likewise basketball fans always have the chance to see if the Suns can finally get past the Spurs and football fans love seeing the rivalry of the Eagles Vs the City of Philadelphia when the Eagles so much as get tackled for a loss.

Continue reading "The Ups and Downs of the MLB Playoffs"

Hello Everyone!

If we haven't talked yet, my name is Zach "Z.V." Sanders and I have been writing here since May.

This past January I set up another sports site called 24/7 Sports Stop as a side project of mine. My current writing staff has gotten lazy and stopped posting, and I am looking to add new writers.

Continue reading "To All Bloggers"

Recently, I also did a rundown of a few of the teams that could be the busiest come deadline day. Now, a look at the specific players that could be moving:

Catcher

Bengie Molina, Giants: Both the Yankees and Marlins have been said to approached the Giants about the catcher. Both of those teams have had injuries to the position lately, and could be looking for an immediate replacement. The price has been said to be turning some off of the idea. You have to remember, you are not just getting a replacement catcher, you are getting one that can hit and knows what it takes to win a title. I'm secretly rooting for the Yanks to acquire him, because who doesn't want an all Molina catching squad? Now if only Yadier was for sale.....

Continue reading "The Trading Post: Player Edition"

A few relatively minor items to cover with the moves made by a few teams recently. What might they mean in the second half? I’ll try and puzzle this out.

Tony Clark, who experienced a career resurgence the day he put on an Arizona Diamondbacks uniform back in 2005, hs returned to the cozy confines of Chase Field. Petco, where hitting a homer is as hard as hitting the lottery, wasn’t as kind to the aging Clark as Chase has been, so he’ll certainly improve on his 2008 line of .239/.374/.307. His 32:19 K:BB ratio, as well as hs 165-point difference between BA and OBP, will tell you his batting eye is fine, and some power should follow.

Continue reading "Roster Tinkering: What's it Mean?"

One of the All-Star Break traditions: Reassessing our predictions from the first half of the season. Some of mine have changed, some have stayed the same—and some were just damn wrong. Living in the West, I will take the contrarian position and roll from west to east in my choices.

Continue reading "Second Half Predictions"

For some of you who don't know, I am a fantasy sports fanatic. I enjoy the crunching of number, and the drafting of players. This is an example from one of my leagues (my team is SPeff Starz, having an unusually bad season for my standards.)

Continue reading "All Stars and Winning Fantasy Baseball: Relation?"

While injuries to starters typically can devastate a team, the injuries to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ outfield this season have, in fact, been helpful for the team’s future. Losing Andruw Jones and then Juan Pierre has meant more playing time for their young hotshots Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp, something Torre was either unwilling or unable to do, perhaps because he was stuck by the same “play the most who you pay the most” philosophy that has plagued the Mariners.

Continue reading "Crowded Outfield—No More!"

MLB: 

Chipper Jones: .400 watch
http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2008/05/30/braves_0531.html

Cubs make up deficit to beat Rockies
http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/980331,CST-SPT-cub31.article

Continue reading "Link Day (5/31): From Chipper to ..."

Through 6 innings, the Dodgers and Starter Hiroki Kuroda felt pretty good about themselves. After all, its not easy to hold the Cubbies scoreless at historic Wrigley Field. Kuroda must have also felt good after fielding a sacrifice bunt by Theriot and throwing the runner out at second. Then, it all went to hell. Soriano singles to left and Theriot advances all the way to third. Kuroda was distraught at this point, as he was relieved by Broxton. Theriot ended up scoring on an error to tie up the game, and up Lee flew out to right field. Then, up steps Ramirez. He singles to center and scores Soriano to take the lead.

Continue reading "Tuesday Night Baseball: Ramirez, ..."

8 in his six games, with a lone triple as his only extra-base hit.

Skowron would be traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1963, where he would continue to decline, once again platooning at first. Hitting a moribund .203/.252/.287 for the season, Moose found some of his old postseason magic when his new Dodgers faced off against his former team in the Series. Facing the Yanks, he went 5-13 with a homer in the series, as the Dodgers delivered a stunning sweep against the Yankees in one of the lowest-scoring series ever and the first one in which the Yankees had failed to win a game. 

Continue reading "Around The Horn With The '61 Yankees: 1B"

For many baseball fans, last night wasn't a great night to watch baseball, as blowouts predominated early on. But, because of the beautiful game that is baseball, only three of them continued in their lopsided fashion, with the best of them highlighted by a homer from Micah Owings, the best-hitting pitcher in baseball, whom teammate Conor Jackson said had the "best pop" of anyone on the team. And all of them showed something about the winning and losing teams, proving that any baseball game is worth watching, even when it doesn't seem exciting.

Continue reading "The Night of the Blowouts"

petitive division, but they will be one of the teams right there at the end battling for a berth.

Los Angeles Dodgers

Can Andruw Jones rebound this season and return to his pre-2007 self?

Continue reading "MLB 2008 Preview Part One: National League West"