Leave it to the Dodgers to wake up Jason Bay from his two-year hibernation.
Bay went deep twice in driving in four runs, and the Dodgers left 13 men on base in getting creamed by the Mets, 6-0. The Dodgers are now a season-high 13 games under .500 at 37-50.
Ted Lilly got the start, and he had been awful lately. Through four innings at least, he managed to keep the Mets off the board. The Mets put two men on in both the second and third, but Lilly wiggled out of trouble.
Not that it much mattered, because the Dodgers couldn't drive in a run if their lives depended on it. Matt Kemp reached on an error in the second, and soon was on third after a stolen base and groundout. Trent Oeltjen got the start for a sick Andre Ethier and struck out to end it.
Then came the third, where Lilly doubled with one out and went to third on Tony Gwynn's single. Rafael Furcal grounded back to pitcher Mike Pelfrey and Aaron Miles grounded out, once again failing with runners on.
The fourth and fifth were the icing on the cake for just how bad the Dodgers are with runners on. Kemp singled leading off the fourth. An out later, Juan Uribe doubled, sending Kemp to third. Third base coach Tim Wallach got aggressive and sent Kemp home as the throw went to second, and he was easily gunned down.
Now down 2-0 on a Carlos Beltran homer, the Dodgers wasted another golden opportunity in the fifth. With two outs, Miles was beaned, Kemp singled and stole second, and James Loney walked to load the bases. Like they've done all season, the Dodgers failed, as Uribe did hit one hard, but right to center to end the inning.
That sucked the life right out of the Dodgers, as Bay hit his first of two homers leading off the sixth to go up 3-0. Two innings later, Bay put the game away for good with a three-run shot off of Blake Hawksworth to make it 6-0. Kemp struck out against D.J. Carrasco to end the game.
Lilly hung on for awhile, but this loss can't be pinned on him. He went six innings for six hits, three runs, two walks, and three strikeouts, and he hit a double. It was a much better effort from him than we've seen recently. But when his offense fails over and over, there's nothing he can do.
The story once again came down to the Dodgers doing zip with runners on base. 13 men reached, 13 men didn't score. Of those runners left on, 10 of them were in scoring position with two outs. That's just sad.
Not having Ethier in the lineup hurt, as he was battling a high fever. Don Mattingly went with Miles in the #3 hole. I understand his reasoning that Miles was red hot in June with a .419 average, and early on in July has a .438 average. But, it still struck me as a little odd. I thought maybe moving Loney up in the order would have been a better option since a righty was on the mound and he has been hitting much better lately as well (.337 in June).
Even if the lineup was different, it most likely wouldn't have mattered. They only have one guy in Kemp who's a legit threat right now, and even he made a bad baserunning decision. There's just nothing to fear about this offense. It's not like anyone (other than Kemp) would step up and hit a big home run with runners on. That's not going to happen.
The Dodgers have five games left before the All-Star break, so getting back to 10 games under might be a realistic goal. How sad is it that I'm looking at a goal of being ONLY 10 games under .500? That's what it's come to for these guys. Hiroki Kuroda will go against Jonathon Niese on Wednesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment