Everything seemed to be setting up nicely for the Dodgers last night. The Arizona Diamondbacks dropped a close one to the Colorado Rockies, 3-2. The San Francisco Giants were in town, who have had a terrible year. And Barry Zito was pitching, who's career has tanked the last couple of years. Yup, it all looked like a great night.
Except for the fact that Greg Maddux was shelled, and the Giants beat the Dodgers, 7-1. Good thing the Rockies had their backs, so the NL West lead is 3.5 games and the magic number is 6.
It all started going downhill in the 1st inning when Bengie Monlina hit a 2-run double for the quick 2-0 lead. Dave Roberts singled home a run an inning later to go up 3-0, and things were starting to get away. And it got even worse in the 5th on Pablo Sandoval's 2-run double and Molina's 2-run shot, all with 2 outs.
In all, Maddux had a final line of 5 IP, 9 H, 7 ER, 0 BB, 1 K. Obviously, he wasn't fooling anyone last night, even a team with as weak a lineup as the Giants. Don't get me wrong - I like Maddux, but I've got to say that this trade has been a letdown thus far. He's had a couple of good starts, but when he's off, he gets shelled. Since the trade, he's 1-4 with a 5.71 ERA. Uh, not good.
Basically, the entire game can be described as one of those night where nothing went right from the get-go. The top 3 in the order of Matt Kemp (Russell Martin got the night off), Andre Ethier, and Manny Ramirez did fine, going 5-10 with a walk. The rest of the order didn't even get 1 damn hit. Save for Pablo Ozuna's pinch-hit homer in the 8th, and it would have been a shutout. The tell-tale sign that it was going to be a long night was when Manny led off in the 4th and doubled, but never even advanced. It was one of those games.
The Dodgers are usually described as a "streaky" hitting team, which I can agree with. But, what team in baseball isn't streaky? It's not like they can always put up 5+ runs a night. It's just that the Dodgers seem to turn the switch on an off more than others. Manny will do his thing, but when the others can't get on, they won't win.
One game is one game, and the Dodgers have still only lost 4 games in their last 19. But they have been awful the last 3 games, and are lucky they played the Pirates on Thursday, or that would have been a loss as well. Zito looked more like the guy who pitched with the A's than the guy who is flat out stealing millions of dollars to pitch like crap.
Today appears to line up favorably for the Dodgers, but I thought that way against Zito as well. Hey, it's baseball, anything can happen. Hiroki Kuroda goes today, and he's been very solid in his last 2. He's opposed by Brad Hennessey, who's actually only given up 4 runs in 14 innings in his only 2 starts. It's time to get back on track at home today with a solid win.
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