It wasn't pretty early, but the Dodgers eeked out a 5-3 win tonight in Game 1 of their NLDS series with the Cardinals. Both Randy Wolf, making his first ever playoff appearance in his 11 year career, and Cy Young candidate Chris Carpenter, struggled.
Between the two teams, they left a Major League record 30 men on base for a nine inning playoff game. The Dodgers left 16 men on base, which was pretty amazing in itself that they managed to get at least that many on base against a pitcher like Carpenter.
But credit the Dodger pen for shutting down the Cards for five plus innings. They did get a run off Jonathan Broxton in the ninth inning, but by then, the game seemed to be in hand.
It looked early on like this was going turn into a long night, and an even longer series, at least for the Dodgers. The Cards got a run in the first with the bases loaded after Matt Kemp couldn't come up with a routine blooper that landed harmlessly in front of him. But Wolf got out of it inducing an inning-ending double play.
Things shifted pretty quickly when the Dodgers grabbed a 2-1 lead after three pitches by Carpenter after a Kemp home run to center field.
The lead didn't really do much to ease Wolf, even after the Dodgers added another run in the third, as he was gone when he couldn't get out of the fourth inning. The turning point in the game came when Jeff Weaver came in to relieve Wolf after the Cards added a run and promptly loaded the bases with two outs. Weaver got Ryan Ludwick on a comebacker to the mound to end the inning, and the Dodgers settled down from there, at least, on the hill.
Still, though, the Dodgers were getting runners on base left and right, and leaving them there. But they did manage to squeak another run out in the fifth inning, and by the end of that inning, they had 11 hits against Carpenter. They would add yet one more run off three Cardinal relievers in the sixth inning, leaving the bases loaded yet again. In all, the Dodgers left them loaded three times.
Ronald Bellisario, Hong-Chih Kuo and George Sherrill kept the Cardinal bats at bay for the most part in the sixth, seventh and eight innings. Kuo did give up two hits but the Cards couldn't do anything with them. With two outs in the eighth, Joe Torre wasn't taking any chances, and summoned Broxton to face Albert Pujols, who grounded out harmlessly to third.
In the ninth, Ludwick singled to right after Matt Holliday popped out to second. Ludwick then took second as Yadier Molina struck out. With two out, Kemp misplayed a Mark DeRosa flair for a double and Ludwick scored. Broxton then struck out pinch hitter Rick Ankiel to end the game.
The game lasted almost four hours, and it would turn out to be the longest nine inning game in N.L. playoff history. And it won't be a game that will be very well remembered for much else other than a win that gave the Dodgers the series lead.
No comments:
Post a Comment