Jeff Weaver is following up yesterday's gem by Eric Stults with one of his today. Yesterday, the Blue earned their first win post-Manny's suspension with another scoring outburst, beating the Hated Ones To The North 8-0. Stults pitched a complete game, four-hit shutout, the second of his career, and improved his season record to 4-1 one, lowering his ERA a full run to below 4. Today, against Giants' ace Tim Lincecum, the Dodgers have tallied four runs so far through five innings, and have staked Weaver to a two-run lead. As we speak, Weaver is being pulled from the game with five solid innings after giving up a lead-off double to Randy Winn here in the sixth.
Really, though, the story of the game, and in the four games since Manny started serving his 50-gamer, has been Juan Pierre. Originally supposed to be a regular everyday player when he was signed three off-seasons ago, and now getting a chance again with Manny out, all Pierre has done is tear the cover off the ball, coming up with big hits, and scoring key runs. Pierre, with two more hits today, is hitting well over. 400 for the season, albeit, still in limited chances.
(Ramon Troncoso enters the game.)
So far, in the three plus games sans Manny, the Dodgers have scored 24 runs, an average of six runs a game (if the current score holds up) through four games, up from their season average per game. So far, the offense hasn't really lost a beat.
If you were watching the game on TV in the third inning, Vin Scully interviewed Frank McCourt after he and GM Ned spoke by phone yesterday with Manny. McCourt basically echoed his disappointment with Manny, and said he was pleased with the conversation he had with Manny. McCourt said Manny has taken full responsibility for his actions. The key component of the conversation,however, was to make sure Manny knew it was important for him to speak with his teammates, as well as the fans. McCourt expects this to happen soon, and he expects to see Manny back on the field for workouts (and to support his teammates during games from the clubhouse) in very near future, perhaps as early as next weekend when the team travels to Florida to play the Marlins.
Now, I'm not going to get into the logistics of L.A. Times columnist Bill Plaschke's thought process into the whole Manny debacle, other than to say I completely disagree with him, and I think he's completely lost his mind. The article he wrote showing his displeasure for Manny, and his tirade on ESPNEWS on Wednesday afternoon was pretty comical, and in a nutshell, moronic. To counter this, Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts pretty much echoed how I feel about the whole mess, Plaschke, Kurt Streeter, also from the Times, and many other media members, such as some of the goons at the Big Four-Letter Network, Dodger and baseball fans.
(And for another similar, and more comical take on Plaschke's superb professional journalism, check out this bit over at Fire Ned Colletti Now.
It took me some time to get my thoughts together and figure out exactly how I felt about it all, and Weisman pretty much hit the head on the nail with his comments today. And let's not forget, I still don't care that players have been juicing, because the game has never been on a level playing field anyway.
In any case, as a Dodger fan, I still support Manny, and will when he comes back. I too am a bit saddened that it came to this, but it is what it is, and there's nothing we can do about it.
Really, though, the story of the game, and in the four games since Manny started serving his 50-gamer, has been Juan Pierre. Originally supposed to be a regular everyday player when he was signed three off-seasons ago, and now getting a chance again with Manny out, all Pierre has done is tear the cover off the ball, coming up with big hits, and scoring key runs. Pierre, with two more hits today, is hitting well over. 400 for the season, albeit, still in limited chances.
(Ramon Troncoso enters the game.)
So far, in the three plus games sans Manny, the Dodgers have scored 24 runs, an average of six runs a game (if the current score holds up) through four games, up from their season average per game. So far, the offense hasn't really lost a beat.
If you were watching the game on TV in the third inning, Vin Scully interviewed Frank McCourt after he and GM Ned spoke by phone yesterday with Manny. McCourt basically echoed his disappointment with Manny, and said he was pleased with the conversation he had with Manny. McCourt said Manny has taken full responsibility for his actions. The key component of the conversation,however, was to make sure Manny knew it was important for him to speak with his teammates, as well as the fans. McCourt expects this to happen soon, and he expects to see Manny back on the field for workouts (and to support his teammates during games from the clubhouse) in very near future, perhaps as early as next weekend when the team travels to Florida to play the Marlins.
Now, I'm not going to get into the logistics of L.A. Times columnist Bill Plaschke's thought process into the whole Manny debacle, other than to say I completely disagree with him, and I think he's completely lost his mind. The article he wrote showing his displeasure for Manny, and his tirade on ESPNEWS on Wednesday afternoon was pretty comical, and in a nutshell, moronic. To counter this, Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts pretty much echoed how I feel about the whole mess, Plaschke, Kurt Streeter, also from the Times, and many other media members, such as some of the goons at the Big Four-Letter Network, Dodger and baseball fans.
(And for another similar, and more comical take on Plaschke's superb professional journalism, check out this bit over at Fire Ned Colletti Now.
It took me some time to get my thoughts together and figure out exactly how I felt about it all, and Weisman pretty much hit the head on the nail with his comments today. And let's not forget, I still don't care that players have been juicing, because the game has never been on a level playing field anyway.
In any case, as a Dodger fan, I still support Manny, and will when he comes back. I too am a bit saddened that it came to this, but it is what it is, and there's nothing we can do about it.
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