Hello,
I'm going to try and keep this blog post short as I'm very tired of writing the same blog over and over again. The Dodgers lost again. This time they lost at home to a team that had a fire sale recently. They lost to a team more dedicated to making money for the owner rather than winning. That approach is the exact opposite of what the Dodgers are doing, so then how did the brutal Marlins beat the almost as brutal Dodgers?
Once again the Dodgers only scored 4 runs, which is one more than their usual maximum number of runs. Even with 4 runs the Dodgers starting pitching is as bad as it's been this season. LA's offense probably needs to average 6 or 7 runs a game to get back to. 500.
Adrian Gonzalez had the Dodgers biggest hit Friday, a three run home run. It's good to see a Dodger hit a home run again. Sometimes I forget that Dodgers players can hit home runs. In the 32 games he has played Gonzalez has now hit 4 home runs. It's as many home runs as Paul Goldschmidt hit recently for the Diamondbacks in their 3 game series in Dodgers Stadium. This isn't meant to be a criticism of Gonzalez, I'd hate to see where this team would be without Gonzalez. Of course Gonzalez's 4 home runs looks Ruthian compared to Kemp's one home run on the season. Obviously Kemp is nowhere as effective and healthy as he was last season, will we see that Kemp this season?
Meanwhile Dodgers pitching remains atrocious. Matt Magill, who still doesn't have his picture on his player page on ESPN, pitched well enough. Magill pitched 5 innings and only gave up 3 hits and 3 runs. Comparatively that's an outstanding pitching performance for most Dodgers pitchers this season. And no matter how bad or good Magill is, honestly he shouldn't be pitching for the Dodgers at this point of his career. And his 6.92 ERA so far this season will attest to that.
Thankfully it looks like Zack Greinke is working is way back to the Dodgers lineup, let's just hope he doesn't get in any more stupid brawls. Zack if you hit a player with the baseball, apologize. It's just that simple.
Although the Dodgers have lost 8 in a row and 9 of 10, I'm not blaming Don Mattingly yet. LA took a big chance when they made last season's trade with the Red Sox. To be honest the trade has worked out so much better for the Red Sox. The Red Sox were able to dump a lot of high salary players that are all probably on the downhill sides of their career. If Josh Beckett was any more on the downhill side of his career he'd be at the bottom of the hill. Because of that trade and the fact the Dodgers are able pay a lot of money to whoever they want, they made some bad signings. Zack Greinke anyone? In short what I'm trying to say is this is a poorly constructed team.
While this is a criticism, it's not an overwhelming criticism. The Dodgers took a chance on the trade and it hasn't worked out as well as they would like. But the fact they would rather win than make money is so refreshing as a fan of their team. It's especially refreshing following the disastrous ownership of Frank McCourt. However I hope Dodgers management learns their lesson from having this kind of roster. Let's hope they can get rid of some of these ridiculous contracts at either the trading deadline or in the offseason. At this point I think the Dodgers should put their best players on the field, regardless of contract and prepare for a hopefully better season next year.
I don't blame Mattingly for this team's lack of offense, all the injuries and the ineffective pitching. That was bound to happen with the roster he was given. With this Dodgers team having so many problems there's only so much Mattingly can do. I don't really think realistically we can start judging Mattingly's performance until next season at the earliest.
Upcoming: LA will try to break their 8 game losing streak by sending Hyun-Jin Ryu to the mound tonight. Let's hop Ryu can have a good enough pitching outing tonight that the Dodgers can get a win. Maybe the Dodgers offense can explode for 5 runs? Why do I hope the Dodgers can somehow get a win tonight? Because the next two Dodgers pitchers starting are Chris Capuano (0-2, 10.38 ERA) and Josh Beckett (0-4, 5.13 ERA). Can we nickname Josh Beckett Et Tu Brutal? Also will Beckett get his first win of the season before his 33rd birthday on Wednesday?
I so hope I'm writing about a Dodgers win tomorrow morning.
themusicaddict
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