You know it's a bad season when the Astros cream you two straight games.
Add Saturday night as the latest in a long line of embarrassing losses this season as the Dodgers fell to the 'Stros, 7-0. The Dodgers are now 10 games under .500 at 31-41 and have a six-game home losing streak.
And there's no reason to believe any of this is going to get better.
Much like the night before, the game was close until the middle innings. Rubby De La Rosa was great through four innings. Wandy Rodriguez was the same, but he's a good pitcher, so you knew the Dodgers' pathetic offense wouldn't stand a chance. They barely stand a chance against scrub pitchers, much less All-Star caliber ones.
Then the fifth inning came, and that started to send fans to the exits. It all started off with a walk to Brett Wallace. Chris Johnson singled and Clint Barmes bunt singled to load the bases with nobody down. There was then a glimmer of hope when Carlos Corporan and Rodriguez struck out.
That glimmer of hope quickly went away, as Michael Bourn walked in a run, Jason Bourgeois hit an RBI single, and Jeff Keppinger followed with a two-run single, and just like that it was 4-0. Mike MacDougal came in and soon uncorked a wild pitch that both scored a run and sent Rod Barajas out of the game with a twisted right ankle.
The Dodgers could've at least cut into the five-run deficit in the fifth, but didn't. Dee Gordon and Casey Blake singled with two outs. Andre Ethier had a big opportunity to drive at least one in, but struck out instead. Not that I'm surprised because his magical year of clutch hitting seems like forever ago. Now he's a singles hitter and nothing else.
In the eighth, the Astros put the game away for good, not that they really needed to. One run was all it took to beat these bums. Anyway, Ramon Troncoso was now in, so runs naturally followed. Johnson hit an RBI single with one out to make it 6-0. Corporan did the same with two outs to close the scoring at 7-0.
By the way, the Dodgers put two on in the eighth on singles by Ethier (big shock) and Kemp leading off, but Juan "Him To Be Traded" Uribe grounded into a double play and Marcus Thames grounded out to appropriately end the inning.
When you tally it all up, the Dodgers collected 10 hits and no runs. That's because only one was for extra-bases. They took one walk and didn't steal any bases. If you didn't see the game and just saw these stats, you're probably saying to yourself, "Wow, that's pretty lifeless." And you would be right.
De La Rosa went from great to horrible in the flick of a switch. He ended up with 4 2/3 innings, six hits, five runs, three walks, and six strikeouts. It's all a learning experience for him, so he has to keep getting chances to start. He just needs to take that positive start to the game that he had and build on it.
The other day I took a look at some problems on the team, and since they're even worse now, let's take a look at some more. I'll start with Uribe. Good Lord has he been awful. In 52 games this year, he's hitting .210, and mostly hitting in the #5 spot. I don't care what his contract is or how many rings he's won - if he continues to stink the joint up like this, the Dodgers either need to trade him or just let him walk. There's no point in continually running him out there.
Thames is also horrendous. He's appeared in 50 games this year and is hitting .180. He was signed to be a power hitter from the right side, and has two homers, one triple, and no doubles. Wow, what great power! That's just so pathetic. Cut the cord with him, please. Nobody will miss him.
The last bum is Troncoso. Not that I needed to remind any of you of this, but he sucks. So let's get this straight. You bring Kenley Jansen off the DL and have a decision on whom to send down. Instead of getting rid of Troncoso and his 6.23 ERA, you dump Josh Lindblom and his 1.69 ERA? Huh? The Dodgers need to correct this terrible mistake and soon.
I'll stop right there because I could go on all day. That's how bad these guys are. I would say they have to win today to save some face, but it doesn't matter. Win or lose, they are still terrible, and one win against a bad team won't change that.
Hiroki Kuroda will take the mound today looking to break a personal five-game losing streak. Not that he gets any run support, so that looks a lot worse than it actually is. Bud Norris goes for the Astros.
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