Hello,
In a game that had multiple hits, I don't mean only off of bats, the Dodgers won 5-3. Tim Federowicz, a Dodger besides Yasiel Puig, that finally had a timely hit. It was also a game winning hit, hitting a 3 run double in the 8th inning which powered the Dodgers to a 5-3 victory. Federowicz is one of the many Dodgers that have started out slowly. However like Skip Schumaker, Federowicz seems to be turning into a player who could play the next several years for the Dodgers. Fedex, his nickname from his teammates, was 2 for 4 yesterday and is hitting .214 on the season.
After Brandon League's meltdown on Monday, Don Mattingly has named Kenley Jansen to be the Dodgers closer. Thank goodness! Jansen earned his 3rd save of the season last night. He probably has better stuff than League. Also Jansen's ERA is 2.45, which is much better than League's 6.00 ERA.
Of course the big story was the brawl between the two teams. I'm not going to try and recap the whole thing here, if you want the full story and video go to ESPN.com. Again Zack Greinke was central to this brawl. Although at least this time he wasn't an instigator, but of course he wasn't a peace maker either. The seeds for this brawl seems to be when Diamondbacks pitcher Ian Kennedy hit Puig, the Dodgers superstar in the making, in the face. It didn't look like he intentionally hit Puig, however that started a series of batters getting hit by pitches. Greinke then hit Diamondbacks clean up hitter Miguel Montero. Later in the game Kennedy hit Greinke, which led to a bench clearing brawl.
This brawl really could have turned into a disaster as it ended up so very close to the crowd. At first it didn't to be seem much, but Puig and Ronald Bellisario seemed to instigate the brawl into more than it should been.
Six people were eventually ejected. For the Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson (yes the Kirk Gibson who hit probably the most famous Dodger homer in their long history), Ian Kennedy and Turner Ward. For the Dodgers, Puig and reliever Bellisario were ejected, Kennedy and those two Dodgers will probably be suspended. The final Dodger that was ejected was hitting coach Mark McGwire, yes that Mark McGwire!, someone that I would have no interest in fighting.
Tonight LA ends their 10 game home stand and play their 20th game in 20 days. The Dodgers get a much needed day off Thursday before playing the Pirates starting on Friday. Before that is the finale of the Dodgers-Diamondbacks series. I imagine this game will be full of tension, a lot of warnings from the umpires and MLB and I'm hoping cooler heads prevail.
The pitching matchup will probably be overshadowed by the brawl, although I wish it wasn't. I'm hoping people will turn in to watch for the aftermath of the brawl and end up watching because of a great pitching duel. This is an excellent pitching matchup. Pitching for the Diamondbacks is Patrick Corbin (9-0, 1.98 ERA) vs. Hyun-Jin Ryu (6-2, 2.72 ERA).
Thanks to my friends at MLBN I'm sure I'll be seeing frequent updates from Chavez Ravine tonight.
Speaking of MLBN, via Elias Sports Bureau, the start of Puig's career has been truly historic. In his first 32 at bats, he had 16 hits. That's obviously a .500 batting average. He also hit 4 home runs, which includes a grand slam. Out of all batters who've played MLB, he's off to the best start of anyone ever! Yes anyone and yes ever. Although as I mentioned above it's quite likely he'll be suspended for his actions in Tuesday's brawl.
Pirates pitcher Gerrit Cole, the #1 overall pick in the 2011 draft, had a very good debut for the Pirates Tuesday. Cole pitched 6 1/3rd innings, gave up 7 hits, but only 2 earned runs. After one game Cole's ERA is a solid 2.84. But that's not all, Cole also had a single in the second inning. In his first MLB at bat he drove in two runs. But even better than either one of those things is the interview he gave to MLBN following the game. When Cole was asked about how he got the hit he replied "I went with the closing my eyes and sticking my bat out there." (That's paraphrasing and probably not real close to what he said. I couldn't find his exact quote though.) I did appreciate Cole having some humility and a sense-of-humor, two things too few professional athletes have. Cole said that's the first hit he had since high school.
The Pirates went on to win the game 8-2, they are now 38-26 on the season. Although the Pirates have only won 4 of their last 10 games, they remain in the NL Central's Top 3. Those 3 teams in the NL Central are very competitive. The Pirates are in third place, 4 games behind St. Louis (42-22, 98.2% Poffs). They trail second place Cincinnati (39-26, 80.5% Poffs) by a 1/2 game. Pittsburgh has a 51.7% chance of making the playoffs. Can this be the year for the Pirates? Finally?
themusicaddict
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