dodgErs losE in thEir rEturn to yankEE stadium

One day after the Dodgers and Yankees were rained out, delaying their much-anticipated matchup in Yankee Stadium for the first time since the 1981 World Series, both teams went at it on Wednesday afternoon in the first game of a day-night twinbill.

Maybe the Dodgers had a little too much fun in The City on Tuesday night.

A huge two-error play by Ronald Belisuckio in the eighth led to three runs for the Yankees, and despite a perfect day at the plate from Hanley Ramirez, the Dodgers fell, 6-4.  All in all, the Dodgers committed four errors, something good Little League teams don't even do.  Or even bad ones.  That's just awful.

Yasiel Puig may as well have been charged with an error in the first, as he singled to center with one out, then tried to stretch it to second and was thrown out by Brett Gardner.  You have to respect his hustle, but not so much his intelligence on that one.

The Yankees got to Hyun-Jin Ryu in the second.  Thomas Neal singled leading off, which Ichiro followed with an infield single.  After David Adams sacrificed them both to scoring position, Lyle Overbay knocked them in with a two-run double, making it 2-0.

The Dodgers couldn't get anything going for the first part of the game.  If they weren't meekly grounding out with runners on, they encountered some bad luck.  In the fourth, Adrian Gonzalez singled and Ramirez doubled to start.  Andre Ethier then laced one, but naturally it was gloved by Hiroki Kuroda, who flipped to third for the double play.  Juan Uribe then grounded out.

Ichiro got into one in the sixth, as he hit his third homer of the season to make it 3-0.  That was one of his three hits and three RBIs on the day.

The seventh inning finally brought some noise for the Dodgers.  Ramirez started it with a single and Ethier walked.  After Uribe popped up, Skip Schumaker singled to load the bases.  A.J. Ellis hit a sac-fly RBI to right, and the Dodgers were on the board at 3-1.

Jerry Hairston then hit for Alex Castellanos, and he hit an RBI single to go down 3-2.  Shawn Kelley relieved Kuroda and got Nick Punto swinging for the final out.

If the Dodgers felt good about getting back into this game, then they did everything possible to go right back to feeling like crap in the bottom of the frame.  J.P. Howell entered the game for Ryu and gave up consecutive singles with one out.  Not only was that a bad job in relief, but it also brought in Belisario.

My oh my was Belisario bad.  Really, really bad.  And you know what?  He actually made the perfect pitch to Vernon Wells, who softly popped one back to the mound.  Belisario appeared to intentionally let it hit the ground with the intention of turning a double play.

Good thinking, right?  Wrong.  The ball got away from him for an error.  Then to make things worse, he fired the ball into centerfield, which allowed Jayson Nix to score and Robinson Cano to scamper to third.  For the icing on the cake, Belisario beaned Neal on the next pitch, and the bases were loaded.

Paco Rodriguez was given the tough task of pitching to Ichiro with nowhere to put him, and a two-run single put the Yankees up 6-2.  At least Paco got the next two to keep the score as is.

In the eighth, the Dodgers experienced both the joy and frustration of their beleaguered offense.  After Puig beat out a double leading off, Ramirez lined a two-run tater to left to make it 6-4.  David Robertson came in and walked Ethier and Uribe.

Schumaker had a 2-0 count, but soon popped up for the second out.  Needing one more big hit, the Dodgers predictably couldn't do it, as Ellis grounded into a forceout. 

It should come as no surprise that the greatest of all-time, Mariano Rivera, got the Dodgers in order for his 25th save.  Puig struck out looking to end it.

Four errors in one game.  A bullpen that turned a one-run deficit into four runs.  Surprise, surprise, these are the reasons the Dodgers dropped the first game.  The offense got some hits with runners on, but still could've done more.  It's just more of the same.

Ryu wasn't too bad, as he lasted six innings for five hits, three runs, two walks, and four strikeouts.  Obviously, he didn't get any help from the offense, which did not score during his time out there.  Then the bullpen threw the ball away in more ways than one, so his record drops to 6-3.

The second game is coming up in about an hour from now as I type this.  For fans who were clamoring to see a matchup of Clayton Kershaw vs. CC Sabathia... forget it.  It's Chris Capuano vs. Phil Hughes instead.