As both Rafael Furcal and Jon Garland were ready to hit the DL once again, and as Vicente Padilla is ready to stay on the DL, the Dodgers could not muster enough offense in Cincinnati as they fell to the Reds, 2-1. The loss is the opening game of their 10-game road trip.
Hiroki Kuroda and Bronson Arroyo both got through the first three innings unharmed, though Kuroda had to survive a wild ride in the second. Jay Bruce and Scott Rolen singled leading off. Bruce was then caught stealing, and Fred Lewis singled. Ryan Hanigan struck out for two down. Paul Janish walked, but Arroyo grounded into a forceout. That's three singles and a walk, yet no runs.
The Dodgers loaded the bases themselves in the fourth. Andre Ethier led off with a single, followed by Matt Kemp also singling. Jay Gibbons was then beaned to load the bags with nobody out. James Loney produced a sac-fly RBI for the 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, Kemp was tagged out in a rundown going to third, and Dioner Navarro grounded out to take away any chance of a big inning.
In the fifth, the Reds got on the board. Daniel Stubbs singled with one out. An out later, both Joey Votto and Bruce took walks, which proved to be big, as Rolen hit a two-run single with two outs to give the Reds a 2-1 advantage.
The Dodgers would go on to put two runners on base in the sixth and eighth, but came up empty both times. Lo and behold, it was Ethier and Kemp reaching base in both innings, yet nobody around them could do anything with it. Not a surprise when it's guys like Gibbons (.255), Loney (.241) and Navarro (.196) whom you're relying on.
Kuroda was coming off of two pretty poor starts, but did well in this one. He ended up with six innings pitched for six hits, two runs, four walks, and three strikeouts. The two walks with two outs in the fifth were what burned him in the end, because that set up what would eventually be the game-winning hit by Rolen.
As for the other story, it was once again the Dodgers having to deal with injuries. It's just incredible how crippling the injury bug has been for this team. This time it was Raffy once again going down after making a throw to third in the second inning. I love the guy, but I have to wonder if it's time to let him go. He's a special player when he's healthy... which seems like only 10% of the time now.
I'm not saying to release him, but maybe put him on the trade block if he does prove to be healthy for the trade deadline. Get some sort of value if a contending team wants to take a shot with him. It's not like the Dodgers are a contending team, so it's worth dangling him out there to what they can get.
The other injury news concerns Garland and Padilla. Garland is scratched from his next start which will instead go to young Rubby De La Rosa. Garland was brought in because he's an innings-eater who's never hurt. So of course that means he now will be making his second DL trip this season.
Padilla was supposed to be activated, but experienced pain in his neck when trying to warm up. The scary part is that this was the same injury that derailed him last year, so it's obviously a big concern. Much like Furcal, he's just so unreliable, it's hard to ever feel like he'll be a big contributor again. The second you feel good about either guy, something goes wrong, and here we go again.
All Don Mattingly can do is put a ragtag lineup out there of people who actually are healthy and see what happens. Either and Kemp combined to go 4-for-6 with two runs and a walk, so they did their part. Now the Dodgers are just desperate to see if someone else can step up and join the fun. Juan Uribe is eligible to come off the DL Saturday, so maybe it can be him? We can only hope.
A couple of aces will take the mound on Saturday. Clayton Kershaw and his 2.62 ERA takes on Johnny Cueto and his 2.20 ERA. That should be a fun one to watch. Not that I'll get to because it's on FOX, so I get Cubs-Cardinals instead. Oh well. Enjoy it for those of you who can.
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