Tagged: Pierre

King Of The Walkoff, Ethier Slams Huge 3 Run Shot

“From the looks of things, and from the sounds of things, the crowd is not disappointed that they won’t see Manny Ramirez.”

-Vin Scully (August 6, 2009 after Ethier’s 3 run walkoff homer with Manny on-deck)

It looked like one of those games for Randy Wolf again against Atlanta. He pitched decent and went deep into the game but was always in a jam and allowed 4 runs overall. Former Dodger Derek Lowe seemed to catch a few breaks when it mattered but the Dodgers scraped out 2 runs none the less. Both pitchers went into the 7th but when it came down to the bullpens Lowe was in line for his 2nd win against his former team.

All through this game I kept thinking about the poll on the side of this page asking which former Dodgers player fans missed the most. Derek Lowe is leading by a long shot and I have to say I miss him too. I keep picturing Lowe in the Dodgers lineup instead of Schmidt and I would like to think the front office is kicking themselves for not doing whatever they needed to do to keep Lowe in town.

After chasing Lowe and facing the bullpen the Dodgers missed chance after chance to tie the game in the 7th and 8th and it looked like the game was headed for a sad end. In the 9th though they didn’t even need an out to get the win. Back to back singles by Pierre and Furcal set the table for Ethier who’s homer made him the true king of the walkoff this year. This was his 3rd walkoff homer and his 5th overall walkoff at-bat this season.

Coincidentally Etheir hit the hard half of a cycle but wasn’t quite hot enough at the plate tonight to get the double and single that would have completed it. Still, his triple early in the game would end up being as important as his walkoff homer.

So the Dodgers squared their record to 5-5 over the last 10 games and 11-9 over the last 20. They added on to their lead for the first time in long time it seems, gaining 1 game on Colorado and a half game on the idle Giants. They sit atop the West now 6.5 games over the Giants again and 7.0 games over the Rockies.

For pride’s sake the Dodgers maintained their most wins record in baseball with the come from behind victory, just 1 game ahead of the Yankees who are sporting a 4 game winning streak. This was the Dodgers 21st 1-run win of the season, the best in baseball as well.

The Dodgers have bounced back from losing 4 in a row to win 5 of their next 8. This win brings the Dodgers back up to a .500 record in August with them going 3-3 so far. The Giants are 4-1 and the Rockies are 3-2. The Dodgers will roll out their 2, 3, 4 starting pitchers in the next 3 games of this 4 game series so they have a pretty good chance of splitting or even winning the series 3-1.

Actual Power Outage Spells End Of Dodgers Power Outage

The Dodgers went 22 innings without a run scored before the sun sat and made the dead bay of lights at the stadium an issue that delayed the game over an hour. As soon as the lights were back the Dodgers ended their scoreless streak and plated Juan Pierre.

Both starters were brilliant through 5 but couldn’t make it through the delay. Briefly Randy Wolf was in line to win after Pierre scored but Andruw Jones’ solo shot dashed those hopes and gave Randy Wolf yet another no-decision.

Matt Kemp’s 2 run blast gave the Dodgers the lead again and strong pitching from end to end held the Rangers to that 1 run and the Dodgers forced a rubber game today.

The Dodgers won their elusive 41st game and kept pace with the Giants who took the first two against their rivals from Oakland. The Dodgers will try to win the series today and gain back the game the Giants gained on them night before last. The Giants look to sweep and cut away the Dodgers lead further.

So the rubber game is set.

Fans Buy Tickets For A Dodgers Game, See The Cole Hamels Show Instead

Cole Hamels put on another world class performance against the Dodgers in LA to open up the 4 game series with a win for the Phillies.

Juan Pierre got a leadoff hit in the 1st and things looked good for LA for just a few seconds. Pierre easily had 2nd stolen quickly but missed out when Furcal fouled off the ball. A few pitches later Furcal grounded into a double play and that would set the tone for the rest of the game.

It seemed like Hamels only threw strikes and the Dodgers weren’t sticking around long to work the count. Hamels only needed 97 pitches in 9 innings to seal the deal and give the Dodgers their 2nd shutout of the year after going almost a 3rd of the season without any. Hamels held the Dodgers to just 5 hits and struck out 5 without giving up a walk.

The Dodgers squandered another impressive outing by Kershaw who allowed only 2 runs in 6 innings. The bullpen kept the Dodgers essentially in the game allowing only 1 run. This wasn’t a case where the Dodgers failed miserably with RISP and stranded runners though. They had only 4 chances with RISP and missed every one but stranded only 2 base runners.

Unfortunately the Giants beat the Nationals in both games of their double header today and the Dodgers lead in the west was cut down by 1½ games. All and all though things are OK. The Dodgers lead by 8 games and still hold the MLB leading record of 37-19. This is one of those games the Dodgers will try to forget about quickly and go out and try and score early in game 2.

The Dodgers need to work hard to try and break out of this offensive slump they are in. It would be easier to handle the Dodgers getting shut out by great pitching if they weren’t 4-4 over the last 8 games scoring 2 runs or fewer in 6 of the 8 being shut out twice and two times scoring only 1 run in the game. Their average runs scored over the last 8 games is just 2.5.

The Phillies evened the season series up 2-2 with 3 more games to go.

Dodgers Finish The Marlins, Head Home

The Dodgers finished off the Marlins today in a blowout 12-5 win with the 4 of the 5 runs allowed coming on a grand slam in the 9th off Mota. You have to love the job Clayton Kershaw did today with what has to have been the best game so far of his young career.

You also have to love the Dodgers bench players by now. Nevermind the fact that Pierre is already off the bench filling in for Manny and swinging the hottest bat in the lineup. You start to feel easier about Torre resting Furcal, Blake, Ethier, and Martin all at once again when you get such potent output by Juan Castro, Mark Loretta, Brad Ausmus and Xavier Paul. These four combined for 6 hits, 5 walks, 5 RBI and 9 runs.

So, that caps a successful 4-2 road trip with the Dodgers taking advantage of a Phillies team that has been struggling to score runs and a Marlins team struggling in too many ways to count. What may be lost to us in the 12 run game but certainly not lost to Torre and Honeycutt is the fact that Guillermo Mota could not get the 3rd out in the 9th. His ERA of 9.00 means there is no time when the Dodgers should feel comfortable bringing Mota in if the lead is not big.

As they near the 40 game mark the Dodgers 26-13 start puts them up there with the 1976 Dodgers, which was 6 years before I was even born.

LA gets back to their own beds late tonight to start a 6 game home stand against the Mets and the Angels tomorrow. I’ll throw together my thoughts on the Mets series later after they (hopefully) finish up a sweep of the Giants and send the Dodgers up to a 7 game lead in the West.

It’s the Pitching, Not Manny

While it’s hard to measure the mental impact and distraction factor of having Manny Ramirez suspended 50 games the day after breaking the modern baseball record for consecutive home wins to start the season, we can look at the results so far to guess at the impact this has had on the Dodgers season.

LA so far without Manny hasn’t fared as well compared to with Manny. The first instinct of many fans may be to be to blame the offensive hole left by Manny. The numbers don’t really paint that picture though.

With Manny – Games 1-29
Wins / Losses: 21-8
Runs Scored / Allowed: 161-106
AVG Hits Per Game / Allowed: 9.59-6.97
AVG Runs Scored Per Game / Allowed: 5.55-3.66
Dodgers with RISP: 82 for 288 (.285 AVG)
Opponents with RISP: 43 for 220 (.195 AVG)

Without Manny – Games 30-36
Wins / Losses: 3-4
Runs Scored / Allowed: 40-31
AVG Hits Per Game / Allowed: 11.86-8.86
AVG Runs Scored Per Game / Allowed: 5.71-4.43
Dodgers with RISP: 24 for 78 (.308 AVG)
Opponents with RISP: 16 for 75 (.213 AVG)

Though the small number of games since the suspension skews the results a bit, you can clearly tell that the Dodgers have hit as good if not better than before. Juan Pierre for instance has been hot, Martin’s breaking out of his slump, James Loney is starting to hit home runs, etc. This clearly makes up for the Dodgers missing their slugger in the three hole.

So why are the Dodgers spinning their wheels a bit? It’s the pitching. Here are the results of the four games the Dodgers have lost since Manny was suspended:

  • 9-11 against the Nationals
  • 1-3 against the Giants
  • 5-7 against the Giants
  • 3-5 against the Phillies.

While averaging a bit more runs scored per game the Dodgers pitching has been allowing between 1 and 2 more runs per game and their opponents are hitting .213 with RISP as opposed to .195 before Manny left. All four losses have been a 2 run difference.

So did Manny’s suspension somehow throw the Dodgers pitching into a tailspin? That’s doubtful. It’s no news to anyone that the pitching has been in question since before the season even started. I would argue the pitching has performed above expectations in the first month of the season and faltering a bit lately is no surprise at all.

Having Manny back will help the Dodgers but hitting is not their problem. Over the next 43 games without Ramirez the Dodgers will need to stay focused on continuing to get quality starts from their front men and seeing that the bullpen gives up fewer runs.