Hello,
Thankfully the Dodgers were able to stop the two point conversion against the Rockies yesterday, so the Dodgers only gave up 12 points. Colorado cruised to an easy 12-2 victory in LA. Starting pitching was suppose to be a strong part of the 2013 Dodgers. In this game starter Ted Lilly pitched 3 innings and gave up 8 hits. He was tagged for 5 runs, with 4 of them earned. That pitching performance was closer to the norm than it should be. The allegedly strong Dodgers pitching hasn't worked out very well this season. Other than superstar Clayton Kershaw and solid Hyun-Jin Ryu, Dodgers starting pitching has been less than amazing.
Before the season started the Dodgers had 8 starters. Some of those players were injured, but all 8 were expected to pitch for the Dodgers this season. However with their seeming glut of pitching the Dodgers traded Aaron Harang for a back-up catcher. Three Dodgers starting pitchers are currently injured. Chad Billingsley needed Tommy John surgery and is out for the season. The $147 million dollar man Zack Greinke got in that stupid fight, which knocked him out for 2 months. Chris Capuano is also on the 15 day DL. Of the 8 Dodgers starting pitchers that leaves highly ineffective Ted Lilly (0-1, 5.63 ERA) and and Josh Beckett (0-3, 4.75 ERA). So something that was suppose to be strong, doesn't seem to be that strong anymore. When Greinke comes back, obviously Dodgers pitching will be a lot better.
Also I'm not sure how people should see Dodgers left fielder Skip Schumaker pitch an inning for the Dodgers. He gave up 2 hits and one walk in one inning pitched. However he didn't give up any runs, he currently leads all Dodgers pitchers with a 0.00 ERA :)
Two good pieces of news for the Dodgers today though. Ryu is tonight's starting pitcher for the Dodgers. It's highly unlikely the Rockies will score 12 runs tonight. The other good piece of news is that Hanley Ramirez is back 3 weeks early. He made his season debut last night and was 0-1 as a pinch hitter. But I'm so glad that Ramirez is back, his bat is sorely needed in this lineup. Hopefully his offense can cover up some the ineffective Dodgers starting pitching.
While the Dodgers are making their home in the NL West's 4th place spot, the Red Sox have the best record in MLB. Boston is 18-7 overall and leading the AL East. They lead the second place Evil Empire by 3 games. Boston has won 5 straight games and just completed a weekend sweep of the Houston Astros. On Monday those same Astros blasted the Yankees 9-1.
In fact the Red Sox are doing so well even John Lackey had a good game. In his last game he pitched 6 innings, gave up 5 hits but only 1 run. I'll take that kind of game from Lackey every time. Lackey is 1-1 this season and has an extremely respectable ERA of 2.61. That's so much better than his career ERA of 4.09.
I'm sure when people looked at this series before the start of the season, they wouldn't have guessed that the Red Sox would be in first place. I'm also sure that almost no one would have predicted the Blue Jays would be 9-17. However both of those things have occurred. Although this series is in Toronto, it looks like things will get worse for the Jays. Pitching for the Red Sox in this series will be Jon Lester (4-0), Clay Buchholz (5-0) and Ryan Dempster (1-2). Also Red Sox closer Joel Hanrahan looks like he'll be active for Tuesday's game, although it's not a surety he'll be the Red Sox closer any more.
Also David Ortiz is absolutely on fire, he had two more hits in Sunday's game. Since his return from injury, he's hitting .516.
It's amazing how getting rid of Bobby Valentine has benefitted the Red Sox this season, it's the classic addition by subtraction. While all of the blame for the Red Sox horrific season can't be placed on Valentine, a lot of it can and should be. Also adding John Farrell has helped the Red Sox a lot. Can this Red Sox team win their third World Series in the last decade?
themusicaddict
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