Charlie Haeger gave Joe Torre another good reason to keep him in the rotation by tossing seven scoreless innings, as the Dodgers blanked the Cubs, 2-0. Two solo homers by Matt Kemp and Casey Blake were all the Dodgers needed on the afternoon.
The Rockies came back from a 6-1 deficit to beat the Giants 14-11 in an old school Coors Field game. The Dodgers are now up 4 and 1/2 over the Rocks and 6 and 1/2 over the Giants in the NL West.
Kemp blasted his 18th of season with one out in the second. It cleared the Dodgers' bullpen and was estimated to 449 feet. Whoa!
The only other run of the game came with two outs in the fourth, when Blake hit his 15th of the season. Ted Lilly only gave up those two runs in six innings, but as usual with the Cubs, got no offensive support.
As for Haeger, he had the Cubs fooled all day. In seven innings, he gave up three hits, no runs, four walks, and seven strikeouts. He's gone seven innings in both starts this season and given up three runs, good for a 1.93 ERA.
The way I see it, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. As long as he's pitching this well, he deserves to start. Once Hiroki Kuroda comes back, there's only one rotation spot open, and Vicente Padilla will be given a chance as well. I'm sure Torre will go with the hot hand, because the Dodgers still have their eye on home field throughout the National League playoffs.
For the first time since being traded, George Sherill got the chance to close, and Jonathan Broxton pitched the eighth. This seemed to have more to do with the Cubs having the heart of their order up in the eighth, so Torre wanted his big righty in.
Haeger gave up a walk to Sam Fuld to start the inning. With switch-hitter Milton Bradley and righties Derek Lee and Aramis Ramirez due up, Torre wanted to match Broxton with them. It didn't seem like Broxton was thrilled about not getting to close when interviewed after the game, but this seemed to be more of a matchup issue than anything else.
Kemp lost a fly ball in right to give Lee a double and two runners in scoring position. Ramirez then lined out to first and Kosuke Fukudome struck out to end it. Sherrill wasn't exactly lights-out, giving up a single and a walk, but still got his 21st save, and first as a Dodger.
It wasn't a smooth ride, but Torre made the right call. I wouldn't think this situation will happen often, so Broxton shouldn't worry about losing his job. By now, I think he's used to getting the ball at the end of the game, so being called upon in a different situation was surprising to him. But it's all good.
The Dodgers will look for the sweep today by sending Chad Billingsley to the hill. Bills has gotten over his rough patch from a little earlier in the year, as he's had three straight good starts. Hopefully he's over his leg injuries as well, but we'll see.
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