Even with Manny Ramirez, Casey Blake, and Ronnie Belliard hurt, the Dodgers still had a great chance to beat the Pirates Monday afternoon and claim the NL West.
What happened instead was total humiliation.
The Pirates took advantage of a throwing error by Mark Loretta at third, then proceeded to put up five runs in the second. It was a beatdown after that, as the Dodgers got crushed, 11-1.
All things considered, I'd go so far to say it was still the worst loss of the season for the Dodgers.
Hiroki Kuroda had a golden opportunity to make his team forget about yesterday's debacle (from up 5-2 to losing 6-5 in the ninth for those of you who have forgotten), but the defense was once again a big letdown.
With Blake out with a sore hamstring and Belliard nursing a sore groin, Loretta was called upon to man the hot corner. And sure enough, the first ball hit to him was thrown away. Normally one error against the bottom part of the order wouldn't be that big of a deal.
Oh, how you are so wrong.
One damn error led to nine men coming to the plate in the second. The big blows were an RBI double by Delwyn Young and a two-run double by Andy LaRoche.
For those of you wondering, yes, they would be the ex-Dodgers coming back to haunt their old team. Again. I'm glad to see they finally figured out how to hit just in time to torch their original franchise.
LaRoche and Garrett Jones hit back-to-back solo shots in the fourth to make it 7-0, as if the score wasn't bad enough. LaRoche ended up 5-for-5 with two homers, six RBIs, and four runs scored. Oh joy.
Kuroda obviously didn't get any help to start the second, which explains how he gave up four unearned runs. But he also surrendered eight hits and two walks, while only getting three strikeouts. No matter how you slice it, he wasn't sharp at all on a day his team needed him to be the most.
Not that it really mattered at this point, but Guillermo Mota and James McDonald were each terrible as well late in the game. Which is probably why they might be on the postseason roster, but it's hard to imagine either one of them making an important pitch.
Today's disaster concludes a 3-4 road trip against the two worst teams in the National League. I'm starting to think that their 14-2 win last Tuesday against the Nationals seemed to be a bad thing. They definitely relaxed after that, and it showed.
Instead of "taking the bull by the horns" as the saying goes, the Dodgers have let defensive miscues and poor pitching completely ruin any momentum they may have had before this trip. They've got a lot of figuring out to do now.
It all starts on the defensive end, as they simply cannot just hand away outs, even against lousy teams. Injuries happen, and the Dodgers had a few guys out today. But the they have a veteran bench, and important games like this are the reason why. It's time for those guys to step up and help lead this team to some wins.
This can go one of two ways: they can suck the rest of the season and flop in the playoffs, or they can refocus and use this as motivation that they can't just coast anymore. They need to get after it as they have nearly all season long.
We'll see how they respond by traveling to San Diego for two starting Tuesday night. Chad Billingsley is the starter, and now's the time for him to put forth an effort like he did in the first half.
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