The Rockies took full advantage of the Dodgers sitting 3 of their key players, as they cruised to a 10-4 victory. It's the Dodgers first loss against the Rockies in 6 this year to this point.
Manny Ramirez, Rafael Furcal, and Casey Blake were all given a rest with visions of long-term in Joe Torre's head. It's the right call to make. I know a lineup with Juan Pierre, Juan Castro, and Blake DeWitt isn't going to strike fear into the hearts of the opponents, but it's better than running the veteran legs into the ground this early.
Clayton Kershaw probably didn't like the lineup changes, as he had the unfortunate task of starting in Coors Field with a B lineup. The first 2 innings were fine, but the wheels fell off the bus after that. And it all came back to one thing - a walk to leadoff hitter Chris Iannetta. Clint Barmes homered the next at-bat, and Ryan Spilborghs added another 2-run homer for the 4-0 lead.
Overall, Kershaw went 4.2 IP, 3 H, 9 ER, 4 BB, 4 K. Ouch. He's faced tough ballparks his last 2 starts (Minute Maid Park in Houston and today), and he's been literally creamed. 3 starts ago his ERA was 1.50, now it's ballooned to 7.29. He's obviously better than his ERA shows, he's just young and still learning. With his nasty stuff, I'm sure he'll figure things out soon.
The offense couldn't do anything until it was too late. The Rockies went up 9-0 in the 5th before James Loney's 2-run double in the 6th finally got the Dodgers on the board. The other runs were from a Russell Martin double and an RBI groundout by Loney.
As for the 3 replacements, the only one who did anything was Pierre, who hit leadoff and went 2-4 with a run and a walk. I'll take that. DeWitt and Castro were lost though, going a combined 0-8.
The Dodgers never were in this one, and it's understandable that they'd have a flat game considering they had to grind out the last 3 wins. An off day was inevitable at some point, and today was that game.
But, they'll have no time to rest as they travel to San Francisco for 3. The Giants were a blown save away from sweeping the Diamondbacks in Arizona, so they're playing better. Randy Wolf is the starter for tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment