Hello,
Thanks as always to ESPN for all the great stats and injury updates.
Last night the Dodgers played their first road game of the season, losing to the Padres 9-3. Josh Beckett had another rough outing for the Dodgers. His first inning was absolutely brutal, in that inning he gave up 4 hits, 2 earned runs including a home run. Beckett's ERA after the first inning was 6.43. After his brutal start he settled down somewhat. Beckett pitched 4 more innings, only giving up 2 more hits and 1 more run. Since the Dodgers were able to score 3 runs, he was able to avoid the loss. His season record remains at 0-1 and he was able to lower his ERA to .491 by the end of the game.
After Beckett gave up 3 runs, Dodgers pitching gave up 6 more runs. It's not like this Padres team is an offensive juggernaut either. Although a tip of a hat to Will Venable, he had a hell of a game. He hit that first inning home run off Beckett. He later added a bases clearing triple on his way to a 4 RBI night. He also had 2 hits, 2 walks and 2 runs.
I'm hoping that Beckett can be eventually replaced in the rotation, which is a weird thing to hope for a player making $17,000,000 this season. However Chad Billingsley is scheduled to make his Dodgers season debut tonight. He's coming off an injury and I'm hoping he'll be more effective than Beckett, which isn't setting the bar very high. Also Ted Lilly is scheduled to make another rehab start for Triple A Albuquerque tonight. I'm hoping he'll be able to make an impact for the Dodgers this season.
A couple of offensive trends continue, one that's good and one which concerns me. Carl Crawford continues his season beginning hot streak. He had two more hits as he pushes his batting average to .458. I'm going to enjoy Crawford's hot streak as long as it lasts, I'm pretty sure it will end sometime soon. Meanwhile Matt Kemp continues his cold streak, he only had one hit in 5 at bats. For the season he's 3 for 25, which is a .120 average. He also hasn't hit a home run this season yet. The Dodgers need Kemp playing at a high level this season if they want to remain in the playoff chase.
The Dodgers are 4-3 and in fourth place in the NL West. San Francisco, Colorado and Arizona are all tied for first place with a 5-3 record. The Dodgers only lead the woeful Padres in the NL West, they are only 2-5. Realistically they probably weren't expecting a good season, about all they can hope for is a better season than the gutted Marlins.
What's next: The Dodgers and Padres play their second of three games tonight in San Diego. The pitching matchup will be Billingsley vs. Eric Stults (1-0).
Other teams: the Atlanta Braves continue to have the best record in MLB. They are 7-1 and have won 5 straight games. Currently they lead the NL East's second place team, the Nationals, by 1.5 games. The Braves Justin Upton is almost as hot as Crawford, he's had a hit 12 of the 30 times he was at the plate. That's a .400 batting average. He's also has 6 home runs and 9 RBIs.
themusicaddict
No comments:
Post a Comment