Sunday, October 3, 2010

A managerial debut for the ages

After years of blood, sweat, and sacrifice, Jamey Carroll has finally reached the pinnacle of his career: a win in a meaningless regular season October game in which he was pretending to be the real manager.

Nonetheless, a combination of a great start from Chad Billingsley and another homer from Matt Kemp was enough to lift the Dodgers over the Diamondbacks, 3-2. It was a well played game between two teams... that did absolutely jack squat this year.

In all seriousness, it was good to see a hard worker like Carroll get the win, as he was the chosen one of Joe Torre to manage Saturday night's ballgame. Carroll certainly wasn't a huge offseason signing, but he has played well this year. So good for him.

The game flew right by, as both Billingsley and Joe Saunders threw up blanks through four innings. In fact, Billingsley had a no-hitter going into the sixth, but it was broken up on a single by Gerardo Parra.

The Dodgers were the first to strike in the fifth. With two outs, Andre Ethier, hitting in the #2 spot, hit a single. Up came Kemp, who unloaded for the fourth straight game. His two-run shot to left made it 2-0. He is now up to 27 homers for the year.

In the sixth, Rod Barajas lifted a long fly ball to center. Chris Young got under it, but didn't exactly make a textbook attempt at catching it (you know, glove above his head, catching it with both hands). Instead, his lazy attempt at catching it near his left shoulder resulted in the ball bouncing off his glove for a three-base error. Reed Johnson's sac-fly RBI made it 3-0.

Billingsley would last into the eighth before getting pulled. Brandon Allen hit an infield single leading off. Parra then struck out, but Ryan Church pinch-hit and was plunked to put two on. Stephen Drew's RBI single into right made it 3-1.

Carroll came out to give Billingsley the hook in favor of Ramon Troncoso. Tony Abreu immediately got another run in with a sacrifice fly, and it was 3-2. Kelly Johnson struck out to end the threat.

With the score at 3-2 entering the ninth, Carroll went with Kenley Jansen for the save. It worked. Jansen blew away Young, then gave up a single to Adam LaRoche. Justin Upton pinch-ran and stole second. Two straight strikeouts of Miguel Montero and Allen ended the game. Jansen now has four saves.

Billingsley got the win to get his record up to 12-11. That's certainly not an indication of how well he's improved this year, however. Tonight's effort of 7 1/3 innings, four hits, two runs, one walk, and nine strikeouts lowered his ERA to 3.57. He's done a great job of answering critics who thought he couldn't bounce back from last season. He definitely has.

It was also great to see Jansen get the crack at getting the save. I was worried Jonathan Broxton was going to run out there, but I'm sure Carroll wanted to, you know... WIN. So kudos for not going that route. Jansen pretty much just threw fastballs. Actually, I'm not sure if he even went with a secondary pitch. But he shows great potential of growing into the closer's role in the future, or at least being a top setup guy.

Kemp has ended the year on quite the hot streak, as he now has four homers and 10 RBIs in the last four games. His batting average hasn't really changed (.249), but his home runs have been no-doubters. It's a good way to end the year, but the obvious focus for him now is to be that type of all-around player for an entire season. The talent is there, now let's see if the desire is.

I remember two years ago when these two teams were neck-and-neck for the NL West crown until the end of the season. My how times have changed. Things have been much worse for the Diamondbacks, as they went from losing the West by two games to the Dodgers in 2008 to having a combined 135-188 record since then. Ouch.

The Dodgers, on the other hand, are a day (or possibly two, depending on Sunday's Padres-Giants result) away from relinquishing their two-year hold on the NL West title. This year hasn't gone as planned, but hopefully it's just a bump in the road. Let's also hope that they don't tank like the Diamondbacks have after winning the division in 2007.

Sunday will be a big day for the Dodger organization, as they say goodbye to Torre. Love him or hate him, he's done a lot with this club, taking them one step away from the World Series twice. That can't be ignored. His final act will be sending Ted Lilly to the mound.

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