Dodgers Hammer Giants

I like those kind of games. The kind of games where you can just sit back and smile, knowing full well a sharp dagger has just been inserted into the hearts of your rival team.

In just his second start since taking a header by a batted ball, Hiroki Kuroda was masterful for eight innings. He was brilliant tonight, shutting down what was left of the Giants season as it was fading into a deep, dark abyss, fading into oblivion. Kuroda struck out five while making 86 pitches, giving up just one earned run and walking no one as the Blue rolled.

The Dodger offense found its groove once again, this time sending one of their aces, Matt Cain, to his seventh career loss without a win against the Dodgers. James Loney had a big night as he always seems to do on the road this season. Casey Blake welcomed himself back to the lineup with a big night. And, like they did on Tuesday night in Arizona, the offense strung together a bunch of hits in a five-run seventh inning that would all but seal the fate on the Hated-Ones-to-the-North, at least on this night.

Meanwhile, the Rockies continued their amazing winning streak, pushed to eight tonight after a four-run ninth inning with two out off Padre closer Heath Bell, to keep things interesting in the division, and the dagger that struck the Giants after their loss was dug just a little further into them with that Rockies win.

The Dodger lead in the division dwindled down to 2½ games on Wednesday night in Arizona after Ramon Troncoso threw a comebacker down the right field line in the ninth inning. He was forced to intentionally walk two hitters in a row to load the bases, and then couldn't find the strike zone in walking in the unearned winning run. The Rockies gained another half game with a win yesterday while the Dodgers had the day off.

That lead looked like it might climb back up to three until the Rockies rallied tonight in San Diego. But the Giants are now 5½ games behind the Rockies in the Wild Card race, and 7½ behind the Dodgers in the division. The Cardinals lost tonight, as well, and are now even with the Dodgers for best record in the N.L.

As for tomorrow night, it's Vicente Padilla's turn with a chance to really send the Giants reeling. Jonathan Sanchez, who's also never had any luck against the Dodgers, takes the bump for the Giants.

Two Close Calls

Yesterday, the Blue completed a sweep of last place Colorado to improve to 33-15, but the Dodger pen made it very interesting in the ninth inning, so much so that Jonathan Broxton had to make 40+ pitches just to get the last two outs after the Rockies cut the lead from 8-3 to 8-6. Eventually, Broxton would get those last two outs without any further damage, and the Rockies would leave the bases loaded in the process.

Almost the very same scenario played out tonight in Chicago at Wrigley Field. The Dodgers got two quick runs early in the game, and Randy Wolf made it stand up for seven innings, until he gave up a lead-off solo home run in the eighth inning to cut the lead to 2-1. Wolf was then yanked for Ramon Troncoso who made it interesting in both the eighth and ninth innings. The Cubs loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, but failed to score, as Troncoso got two big strikeouts to the end the game as the Cubs, too, left the bases loaded.

Final score: 2-1, Dodgers. Dodgers improve to 34-15, by far the best record in the league.

I can't imagine what goes through Joe Torre's mind when he sees the bullpen cut these games so close, but it sure is nerve-racking for me, and I'm not on the team. Either way, it's nice to see them continue to prove to the baseball world that this team is, in fact, a team, and not Manny plus 24 other guys. Every day or night, someone else is coming up big for the Blue, whether it be someone getting a big hit, or a pitcher getting a big out somewhere. Yesterday it was James Loney coming up with a huge bases-clearing double that broke a close game open, and tonight, it was all pitching from Wolf and Troncoso. And tomorrow, it will probably be someone else.

Weekend Game Thoughts, and More on Manny

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.

Could This Be It?

UPDATE (7:00pm CT): Manny now has a new offer from the Dodgers. Details here from Tony Jackson... It's basically a revision of the original two-year, $45MM offer back in November. No agreement is expected tonight. Stay tuned as usual...

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You knew the end could be near, and it very well might be. A couple of updates have surfaced in the past hour or so, one from Ken Gurnick on the Dodgers official website, and a follow-up from Tony Jackson of the Daily News, each suggesting things might be finally coming to a closure. The first bit of coincidence before it was known why was when it was learned that Colletti left Arizona to skip the first Spring Training game against the Cubs today (which the Dodgers lost 5-3 after Ramon Troncoso gave up a go-ahead Grand Slam) to head back to L.A.

We have now learned that Colletti has been meeting with McCourt and Scott Boras. Gurnick called the meeting the most serious attempt to sign Ramirez to date in his report, and Tony Jackson went even further to say that from his vantage point, people around Dodger Stadium were acting strange, or not normal, and adds that it could be a long night. (Jackson confirmed the meeting moments later, saying that it was ongoing.)

So far, no details of what the possible contract might be. Two years plus? Three years? We'll know soon enough obviously. Stay tuned. I'm thinking this could happen in the next 12 to 18 hours.

Historical Night Concludes at Coliseum

Well, I wasn't able to personally be at the Coliseum last night for the historical night, but watching from afar on television, I was just as much in awe as I would have been if I had been there. From the wacky television camera angles, to the cooky dimensions, it was certainly a night to remember. Playing before the largest crowd ever in baseball history, the Red Sox upended the Dodgers 7-4 in front of an announced crowd of 115,300. That's in tickets sold! And even more importantly, as the event was part of the kickoff of the Dodgers 50th season in Los Angeles, all the proceeds from the event were going to ThinkCure, the Dodgers charity for cancer research.

The center field camera, usually just to the left or right of the pitcher in straight-away center field, was out in right-center field, almost directly behind the second base umpire much of the night. The dimensions were just as strange: 201 feet down the left field line, 374 to center, and about 300 down the right field line, almost an exact replica of the field as it was at the Coliseum from 1958 to 1961. Also in place was the 62-foot high screen from the left field foul line to left-center field as it was from '58 to '61. (Three home runs were hit over the screen: two by the Red Sox, one by James Loney of the Dodgers.) The bullpens were side-by-side in foul territory beyond the Red Sox third base dugout.

Even stranger was watching the defense in action. The Dodgers apparently did some homework and opted to scratch a left-fielder, allow the shortstop and third baseman to cover left field with the short dimensions and go with five infielders. Center fielder Andruw Jones played directly behind second base much of the night, and even covered second base on at least two occasions on stolen base attempts by the Red Sox. Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier were left to cover center and right fields.

The Dodgers were never really in the game, but that didn't appear to dampen anyone's spirits at the game. There was a beach ball sighting or two in the stands. What would a Dodger game be without a beach ball bouncing around amongst the crowd? There was even a wave! (History tidbit: the wave originated at the Coliseum in 1984 during the Summer Olympics, when fans grew bored between the day and night events; the wave was their way of keeping themselves entertained between events.) But, as it is at most Dodger games in L.A., some of the crowd began to head for the exits in the 7th inning. And slowly the game, the night, the event, came to a close as Jonathan Papelbon struggled to get the final three outs of the game.

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Some notes following the game heading into opening day tomorrow afternoon:

* Brad Penny was named the Opening Day starter tomorrow by Joe Torre. This will be Penny's first Opening Day start as a Dodger.

* The fifth spot in the rotation was awarded to Esteban Loaiza, in part because he has a guaranteed contract in place for the season. Loaiza didn't particularly have a good spring. Chan Ho Park did have a brilliant spring, and would have been the better choice of the two, but he doesn't have a guaranteed contract, and it appears he will be sent down to AAA Las Vegas, and not forgotten. Jason Schmidt will start the season on the DL as expected, and Clayton Kershaw, who had a brilliant Spring, will be sent down to the minors.

* Blake Dewitt has emerged as the third baseman for Opening Day with Nomar Garciaparra, Andy Laroche and Tony Abreu all expected to start the season on the DL.

* Jeff Kent made his Spring debut on Friday, played all nine innings last night, and will likely play today to gear up for Opening Day tomorrow. There was concern he might start the season on the DL to give his injured hamstring more time to heal, leaving the Dodgers even thinner in the infield. There was also speculation that Dodgers had been talking to Kansas City for infielder Esteban German, but the Royals were said to be dead set on receiving Chin-Lung Hu in return, something Dodgers were unwilling to do. Instead, Hu will now be one of the two reserve infielders, along with Delwyn Young. Veteran Ramon Martinez has been cut.

* Rudy Seanez and Mike Myers were released earlier in the week after both had poor Springs. Rookie reliever Ramon Troncoso has impressed enough during Spring to earn a spot in the bullpen. Hong-Chih Kuo also makes the club as the team's long-reliever/spot starter.

* Mark Sweeney has made the club, as well, as the primary pinch hitter and backup to James Loney at first base.

* And last but not least, it appears Juan Pierre has played himself out of a starting job after hitting .169 entering today's Spring finale. I had been campaigning since the day he was signed that he shouldn't have been signed, and campaigning even moreso since Jones was signed in December that he shouldn't even be in the starting lineup. With Jones in center field having pushed Pierre to left field temporarily, Ethier and Kemp should be the obvious choices to play everyday over Pierre anyway, as they are better offensively, and both have better arms, and can cover just as much ground as Pierre defensively. They both also earned their jobs by having solid Springs. Jason Repko has also made the club.