So much for resting Jonathan Broxton and not having to worry about it.
George Sherill was given a two-run lead in the ninth, but was absolutely horrible in blowing the save. A 6-4 lead was quickly turned into a 7-6 defeat, dropping the Dodgers under .500 again at 2-3.
The Marlins struck in the first off of Vicente Padilla, which was not exactly the best way for him to prove that Opening Day was a fluke. Cameron Mayben singled with one out, and Hanley Ramirez doubled him home to go up a run.
In the third, the Dodgers put together four hits to score three runs. It started with Rafael Furcal's single. Garrett Anderson doubled to put two runners in scoring position. Matt Kemp took a pitch the other way for an RBI single to tie the game. A sac-fly RBI by Manny Ramirez and a run-scoring double by Casey Blake made it 3-1.
At this point, Padilla had settled in and was looking pretty good. Then a weird thing happened. The padding on the right field foul pole came off, delaying the game for several minutes in the fourth.
How would the delay affect Padilla? The next two batters saw a single by Cody Ross and a two-run homer by Gabby Sanchez, putting the Marlins up 4-3. So you be the judge if the delay was a bad thing or not.
With the Marlins nursing a one-run lead in the eighth, their bullpen again was shaky (don't worry, the Dodgers was too, and we'll get to that). A single by Blake and a walk to Blake DeWitt started the inning off of Tim Wood. Russell Martin sacrificed them over to scoring position.
Enter pinch-hitter Andre Ethier, who's still nursing a sore ankle. He greeted new pitcher Dan Meyer with a two-run single, giving the Dodgers a big lift and putting them up 5-4. A solo homer by Matt Kemp in the ninth made it 6-4, and things were looking up.
But, Joe Torre said before the game that he didn't want to use Broxton. Well, he didn't, and they paid for it. Ramon Troncoso pitched a perfect eighth, then started the ninth and surrendered a single to Sanchez. It all fell apart from there.
Sherrill simply was terrible, as he recorded one out from the five batters he faced. He beaned Wes Helms to start, then walked Chris Coghlan to load the bases. Ronny Paulino pinch-hit for Mayben and tied the game with a double.
An intentional walk to Ramirez put runners on the corners. Jorge Cantu lifted a fly ball to Kemp in center, and Coghlan was able to beat the throw home to take the win.
It was obviously a frustrating end to the night after such a nice comeback a couple innings earlier. The bottom line is that Sherrill is lost right now, and a 22.50 ERA in three appearances shows that. I'm not sure how he went from practically unhittable to entirely easy to hit from one season to the next.
I think Torre should use Troncoso in the setup role for now while Sherrill works the kinks out. The Dodgers really need Ronald Belisario and Hong-Chih Kuo back. Until then, Troncoso's the best option.
The Dodgers will turn to knuckleballer Charlie Haeger for a series win today. It's his first start of the year after winning the fifth starter's spot in the spring.
No comments:
Post a Comment