Must be an LA thing.
Hours before the Lakers blew yet another late-game lead to the Mavs, the Dodgers couldn't protect a 3-2 lead as the Mets fought back and won, 6-3. The Dodgers have dropped three straight.
With the mess the Dodgers are in financially and the so-so team they put on the field, all eyes are on Andre Ethier these days as he was looking to extend his hitting streak to 30 games. He got what he wanted in the first, as after a Jerry Sands single with one out, Ethier followed with one of his own for runners on the corners. A Matt Kemp RBI single made it 1-0.
Jose Reyes has been involved in many trade rumors lately, mostly to the Giants, and he showed his worth to stroking a leadoff triple. Carlos Beltran's sac-fly RBI tied the game at 1.
Both teams traded solo shots in the second. The first came from Rod Barajas, who hit his sixth of the season. The dude is only hitting .226, but as long as he provides the longball, that's good enough. Ike Davis then led off the bottom of the inning with a homer, and it was 2-2.
The Dodgers took their last lead of the game in the fifth. Jamey Carroll started it with a walk. An out later, Ethier singled again and went to second on the throw. Kemp was given the intentional walk to load the bases and pitch to Juan Uribe. Uribe got an RBI, but on a groundout to make it 3-2. James Loney grounded out to end it.
The Mets rolled the dice with the intentional walk and it paid off by only giving up a run. The Dodgers would try to do the same thing in the sixth... and got burned. Beltran doubled with one out, but Jason Bay grounded out for two down. Davis was due up, and he already homered earlier, so Don Mattingly chose to put him on to pitch to Jason Pridie. He was only hitting .242 with three home runs in his brief career, so it seemed like a good move.
The result? A three-run homer to put the Mets up 5-3. Figures.
An RBI single by Bay in the seventh off of Blake Hawksworth capped the scoring. Francisco Rodriguez recorded his eighth save.
After dropping four of six on the recent homestand against the Padres and Cubs, it was another disappointing sign that the Dodgers couldn't get back on track against the Mets. With so much drama and turmoil going on around them, all the players on the field can do is go out and play ball. So when they lose like this, it's only natural for people to think they are feeling the effects of this mess.
I highly doubt the players take the field thinking about the management situation, though. The bottom line is that they are just a mediocre team, ownership trouble or not. If their pitching doesn't come through, it's going to be really hard to win since the offense won't score much. It showed again on Friday night.
Hiroki Kuroda has had a good year, but suffered his second bad start in seven outings. He ended up going 5 2/3 innings for seven hits, five runs, three walks, and three strikeouts. Obviously, the home runs hurt him badly. Four of the five runs surrendered came via the longball. It's hard to win when that happens.
At least the headlines will be all about Ethier's streak, with the subheading about another loss. For Ethier, he is now one game away from tying Willie Davis's club record of 31. He'll go against Chris Young on Saturday, a righty. Ethier is a career .414 hitter against him, so the odds are definitely in his favor of extending.
The Dodgers will send Jon Garland to the mound Saturday to try and snap the losing streak. He only has one win, but has pitched well in his last three outings and hasn't shown any ill effects from the oblique injury he had during Spring Training.
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