Hello,
Big surprise, the Dodgers lost again. The Dodgers continue to be in this nightmarish "Groundhog Day" situation. On Monday LA lost to the Diamondbacks 5-4 and dropped to 4-4 on their 10 game home stand. The Dodgers offense showed signs of life, but again wasn't able to get enough key hits.
The Diamondbacks had taken a 5-3 lead in the top of the 9th as Brandon League melted down, again. In the bottom of the 9th, Juan Uribe hit a clutch home run to cut the Diamondbacks lead to 5-4. Tim Federowicz then followed with a timely double, Scott Van Slyke pinch ran for him. Next up was Skip Schumaker, who came up to sacrifice. The Dodgers were given a gift when Martin Prado committed an error on that play. The error resulted with Dodgers on the corners and 0 outs. All the Dodgers had to do was get a deep enough sacrifice fly and they had 3 chances to do so. It seems the Dodgers had already used up their timely hits for the game. Nick Punto, Mark Ellis and Adrian Gonzalez all failed to drive in Van Slyke from third base. Yasiel Puig was at the on deck circle when Gonzalez grounded out.
Brandon League deservedly got the loss after his terrible performance in the save attempt. League is now 2-3 on the season. In his 4th blown save this season he only lasted 2/3rds of an inning, in which he gave up 4 hits, 4 earned runs and a walk. League's ERA ballooned to an even 6.00. This Dodgers team has so many challenges.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Clayton Kershaw had another good game. He pitched 7 innings, gave up 6 hits but only 1 earned run. His ERA decreases to 1.88, which is the third best ERA in all of baseball. Kershaw continues to be one of the most consistent pitchers in MLB and leads the league in innings pitched. He also is 7th place in strikeouts. Although he had a decent game, he ended up with a no decision. Kershaw remains at 5-4. Because Kershaw fails to get much run support, he's only tied for 35th place for number of wins.
The one man wrecking crew, known as Yasiel Puig, had yet another great game. Puig was the NL Player of The Week, that had to have been one of the easiest decisions ever. He batted clean up and was 3 for 4, which raises his batting average to .500. Although Puig is still learning, the young player was thrown out trying to go from 1st to 3rd base. I can't really blame him as this moribund Dodgers offense needs as much help as it can get. It didn't work this time, but it might work next time.
For some reason I continue being hopeful about the Dodgers, but eventually I'll have to face the fact that this Dodgers team just isn't very good. They have a lot of work to do this off season. I expect LA's 2012 trade with the Red Sox will become more onerous as time goes on.
As the Dodgers have been struggling, the Red Sox continue to roll. They've won 3 in a row and 7 of their last 10 games. On Monday they jumped out to a 6-0 lead on the Tampa Bay Rays, only for the Rays to storm back and eventually tie the game at 8-8. While the Dodgers struggle to have timely hits, the Red Sox were able to have a couple in the 14th inning. Former Dodger Shane Victorino led off the 14th inning with a single. After Dustin Pedroia was out and David Ortiz was intentionally walked, Daniel Nava came up with another timely hit. Victorino scored to give the Red Sox a 9-8 lead. Jose Iglesias pinch ran for Ortiz. Jarrod Saltlamacchia had another timely Red Sox hit, he drove in Iglesias. The Red Sox led 10-8 going into the bottom of the 14th inning. In that half of the inning Franklin Morales gave up a lead off hit, but eventually shut down the Rays.
Boston is now 40-25, best record in the AL, they lead the second place Yankees by 2 games. The Red Sox have a 87.9% chance of making the playoffs. Boston leads third place Baltimore by 3.5 games. The Orioles beat the struggling Angels 4-3. It's not an impressive victory for the Orioles as the Angels have been terrible this season. Many people scratched their head when the Angels paid Josh Hamilton a lot of money. He has been a complete bust this season and it seems he's on the downside of his career.
On Monday, Hamilton was 2 for 5 and hit his 9th home run of the season. Although he hit .400 yesterday, that only raised his batting average to .216. His on base percentage isn't even .300, it's only at .275. Hamilton only hitting about .120 with runners in scoring position is frightening. My guess is the Angels expected more with them paying him $17,400,000 this season. (Let that dollar number roll around in your head, he makes that much money to play a game which he isn't playing very well.) But if I'm an Angels fan the thing I'm most concerned about is his terrible defensive play he didn't make in right field. The ball came skidding towards him and Hamilton didn't make much of an effort to catch the ball. The ball skipped past him and he made almost no effort to go back and retrieve the ball. That whole play his body language was terrible, his body language suggested he didn't care if he made that play. It reminded me of his missed catch against the A's in the playoffs last season.
Again I'd like to thank all of my teams for not signing this overpaid prima donna. I find it interesting that the Lakers, Dodgers and Angels seasons have all followed the same arc. A lot of expectations and hype, the same big market, a lot of money spent and a lot of injuries. Does that mean that Hamilton = Dwight Howard? It's likely the Dodgers and Angels will join the Lakers in not making the playoffs.
Last, but certainly not least, I'm excited to see the debut of Gerrit Cole. He makes his MLB debut for the Pirates. If the Pirates want to continue to be in the playoff race, they need all the starting pitching they can get. This will be a good chance to give the 2011 #1 overall draft pick a start in as low of a pressure situation as possible. Despite playing defending World Series champions San Francisco, the Pirates will be at home. The game starts at 7:05 EST Tuesday and I believe that MLBN said that this will be their Tuesday night game. It's a good chance to see a potentially excellent young player make his debut.
themusicaddict
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