Another game against a bad team, another missed opportunity.
So it goes for the Dodgers these last few days. The schedule makers forked over the Nationals, Pirates, and Padres at the end of the season. Normally that would be a recipe for success. But it just hasn't happened.
San Diego pulled away late to beat Chad Billingsley and the Dodgers Tuesday night, 3-1. The Rockies won yet again 7-5 over the Brewers. The NL West lead is now down to 3 and 1/2 games.
Both Casey Blake and Ronnie Belliard were unavailable with injuries, so Juan Castro got the nod at third. Their absences showed, as the offense was anemic all night long. Then again, they were facing the immortal Cesar Ramos.
Yes, that was sarcasm.
Ramos did, however, get the job done last night, as he went five innings and only gave up one run. Four other relievers threw blanks until getting the ball to Heath Bell in the ninth, who struck out the side, punctuating a pitiful night.
Rafael Furcal and Orlando Hudson were at the top of the order, and they did their best to get things going. In both the first and the third, they reached base together. And both times, Andre Ethier could do nothing in the third spot to drive them in.
In the third, the other Tony Gwynn (his son in case you didn't know) got the first run of the game on a solo homer. He has 383 at-bats this season, and that was hit second home run. And of course it couldn't have come at a better time. Sarcasm again.
O-Dog continued his good night by hitting a triple to lead off the sixth. This time Ethier hit an RBI grounder to short that was booted by Everth Cabrera. Manny Ramirez responded to a runner on and no outs by grounding into a double play. That's just added to his .235 average this month.
Not that he's alone, because the rest of the team did zip squat the remainder of the game. In fact, seven of the last eight hitters struck out to end it. It was that sad.
As for Billingsley, he was better, but certainly not great. True, he gave up only two runs in six innings, but he still walked five. Then he said after the game that he felt he threw well. Huh? I hate to break it to you, Chad, but five walks does not mean you threw well.
For those of you that are also keeping track of the home-field advantage standings, the Dodgers have a slim 1 and 1/2 game lead over the Phillies, and 2 and 1/2 over the Cardinals. I'm shocked they're still in the lead to be honest. It seems like one of the other teams would have leapfrogged them by now.
The Dodgers are still lucky in that they have a chance, YET AGAIN, to wrap this thing up tonight. It'll be Jon Garland's time to see if he's the guy that can do it. No that it'll matter if the offense continues to blow chance after chance and lose to some unknown scrub (Clayton Richard tonight).
The Rockies will counter with Jason Hammel against the Brewers' Jeff Suppan. Since the Rocks are underway almost and hour and a half earlier, the Dodgers should have a decent idea where they stand before they take the field.
No comments:
Post a Comment