Hello,
The Dodgers lost 3-2 on Friday night in the first of their three game series with the Reds. LA losing this game is no big surprise, the Reds were at home and they have a lot more to play for. The Dodgers could be swept in this series and still almost assuredly win the NL West by a handy margin.
The Dodgers got off to a great start with Hanley Ramirez's two run homer in the top of the first inning, that gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. However the Dodgers didn't score the rest of the game. Joey Votto hit a two run homer in the bottom of the 5th inning, that gave the Reds a 3-2 lead. Those were the final runs that were scored in the game. Cincinnati improves to 80-62 with a 99.0 % chance of reaching the playoffs.
LA only finished with 5 hits, which highlights my greatest fear about this Dodgers team. That being their seeming lack of being able to score 4 or 5 runs each game. If the Dodgers don't fix this problem I see a few 3-2 games in the playoffs and LA quickly being eliminated. Of course the Dodgers recently picked up Michael Young and the return of Matt Kemp seems to be right around the corner. It feels like I've been saying that all season.
The pitching staff continues to play at a high rate, last night Dodgers pitching only gave up 7 hits and 3 runs. That's a very respectable showing. I would say that this loss should be pinned on LA's ineffective offense. And if it wasn't for Ramirez's homer, quite likely the Dodgers would have been shut out.
However LA continues to coast to the NL West title, leading second place Arizona by 12 games. In the meantime the Reds are in a three way battle with the Pirates and Cardinals to win the NL Central and by extension to avoid the dreaded one game wild card playoff. The Pirates are still in first, but only .5 games ahead of St. Louis and 2 games ahead of the Reds. Go Pirates!
Meanwhile MLB's most powerful offense keeps on rolling, the Red Sox won a 12-8 slugfest over the Evil Empire. Boston has won the first two games in their four game series with the Yanks, which is taking place in the Bronx. The Red Sox exploded for 8 runs total in the 7th and 8th inning. That turned a Yanks 8-4 lead into a 12-8 Red Sox victory. Mike Napoli was 3 for 3, he's hitting .258 this season. It was his 19th homer of the season, a grand slam, that tied the game. Napoli has 82 RBIs this season, I'd say he's been a good free agency signing.
Another good free agency signing is Shane Victorino, the Red Sox 8th inning rally was sparked by his two run homer in that inning. He was 2 for 5, is hitting .295, has 14 homers and 56 RBIs.
Sports Illustrated predicted that Boston would finish 5th and last place in the AL East this season, that was one of many of their predictions that was way off. I mean no offense by that. With so many things that could go right or wrong in a baseball season, it's hard to predict very well what will happen in a given season.
After what I thought would be a much tighter race, the Red Sox are running away from the AL East. They lead the second place Rays by by 7.5 games. With Tampa Bay playing so poorly of late, they continue to open the door to allow Baltimore, New York and Cleveland into the wild card race.
But the MLB story of the night was undoubtedly Yusmeiro Petit, he had a perfect game for 8 2/3rds innings. However the Giants pitcher's perfect game was broken up by Eric Chavez's single. That meant that Petit finished with the most disappointing, 1 hit shutout ever. But still a brilliant game by Petit, he also had 7 strikeouts. Petit, which means little in French, was anything but and improves to 3-0 with a 2.05 ERA this season.
Congrats to Petit for that phenomenal outing!
themusicaddict
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