Yoni Bain's Los Angeles Dodgers fan blog

It’s tough to say that the Dodgers, a sub-.500 team in baseball’s worst division, are feeling good this holiday weekend. But inching ever closer to division leader Arizona while welcoming back two injured players left L.A. feeling Reborn on the Fourth of July.

                The Dodgers busted out the big bats on a Friday matinee game, beating up on the archrival Giants to win 10-7 in the opener of the three-game set in San Francisco. L.A. connected for 13 hits, eight of which went for extra bases, while rallying from an early 5-2 deficit. The victory stretched the Dodgers win streak to four, and the Dodgers were also glad to welcome back infielder Nomar Garciaparra and outfielder Andruw Jones.

Continue reading "Dodgers Beat Giants 10-7; Nomar (2-for-4), Jones (4 Ks) Return"

Before Wednesday’s game the Dodgers sent rookie pitcher Clayton Kershaw to Triple-A Las Vegas to make room for Hiroki Kuroda, who was coming off the disabled list. While Kershaw has been inconsistent throughout his first major-league stint, Kuroda has been even more so in his first season in the America. Kuroda has had brilliant games, such as his start in May against the Astros, and some horrific outings, such as his last start before the injury, when he gave up six runs in less than three innings in San Diego.

Manager Joe Torre hoped Kuroda could be at least decent, and could get through a few innings to cover for the bullpen tired by the previous game’s 11-inning win. However, with Kuroda there’s been good and bad, and rarely anything in between. On Wednesday, Good Kuroda showed up.

Continue reading "All 4-1 and Kuroda for All: Righty Returns from DL, Beats Houston"

                After coughing up a five-run lead and heading for extra innings, you’d think the Dodger offense would just roll over and die, and drop their fifth straight game to Houston.

                Not so fast. Apparently, these are the new-and-improved Dodgers, who have scored double-digit hits in each of their last two games. True, they lost the first, but last night three old hands were there to right the ship after the youngsters nearly caused it to capsize.

                Jeff Kent hit a solo homer in the 11th inning to give the Dodgers a 7-6, giving them their first win against the Astros this season and crawling back within 2½ of Arizona for first place in the NL West. Also coming up big was Chan-Ho Park, who continues to get it done despite having started the season in Triple-A in favor of, er, Esteban Loiaza. Park got out of a jam in the ninth and pitched a solid tenth for the win. Takashi Saito looked good in the bottom of the 11th, retiring the side in order for his 13th save.

Continue reading "Kent's 11th-Hour Homer Gives Dodgers Come-From-Ahead Win"

                Although baseball has a long and cherished history, the thrill of going to a baseball game is the chance of seeing something unique and unexpected.  Last night the sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium saw the Dodgers win despite recording no hits, and broadcaster Vin Scully claims that in his fifty-plus years calling baseball games he’s never seen such an occurrence (though with the way his memory is aging these days, he might’ve years and years ago). However, seeing such unusual history only takes on meaning when contrasted with the everyday normality that is the slog of a six-month baseball season. The extraordinary only becomes noticed when compared to the ordinary.

                On Sunday the Dodgers reverted to what fans have grown to see as ordinary, once again turning in an impaired offensive performance in a 1-0 loss to the Angels. The Dodgers had infinitely times as many hits that Saturday night’s near no-no, but then infinity times zero is… well, never mind the math. They had three hits, and I can name the extent of Sunday’s offense without even glancing at a box score: a walk by Andre Ethier in the first (erased on a double play) and singles by Jeff Kent in the second, Juan Pierre in the sixth and Delwyn Young in the ninth. The Dodgers then mounted a mini-rally in the ninth, but James Loney hit a weak grounder with the bases loaded to give Frankie Rodriguez his 32nd save.

Continue reading "Dodgers Wallop Three Singles Off Lackey, Drop 1-0 Sunday Snoozer"

The mishaps of the Dodgers’ much-maligned offense have been chronicled in many a-place, including this site. Despite a pitching staff that is reliable at worst and brilliant at best, the Dodger bats frequently cost the team victories in all ways imaginable: not drawing walks, hitting into double plays, failing to produce a big inning, not hitting for power, and failing to come up with enough hits. Earlier this year they scored exactly one run in five of six games, and throughout the year they have been at the bottom of the pack in nearly every offensive category. Derek Lowe probably has it worst, as he has made a living of surrendering one run in seven innings and still getting saddled with the loss; in the last year and a half I think he has lost 240 games by scores of 1-0 or 2-1.

Continue reading "Dodgers Get No-Hit by Angels but Still Win 1-0 Slugfest"

                Suppose I told you that the Dodgers would send two in-season callups to make back-to-back starts in mid-June, and that the first would throw a complete-game shutout and the other would get the loss after a shaky four-plus innings. And suppose that one of these two mystery pitchers was highly-touted 20-year-old rookie Clayton Kershaw, and the other was a 28-year-old farmhand named Eric Stults. Which pitcher would you guess threw the gem, and which would you think was mediocre?

                The last two games of the Dodgers’ series with the Chicago White Sox were shutouts, with the home team winning the middle game 5-0 and the visitors taking the finale 2-0 to win the series. But surprisingly for the Dodgers, it was not Kershaw who dazzled in the shutout.

Continue reading "Stults, Danks Toss Back-to-Back Shutouts; ChiSox Take Two of Three"

In this brand-spankin’-new feature, I offer a few thoughts after taking in the game at Dodger Stadium.

1.   Hand dryers. After the Dodgers’ disappointing performance on the field, I wanted to wash my hands of the team once and for all. Well, maybe just once. And imagine my astonishment when the Dodger Stadium now allows me an ingenious way to dry my hands of them too! Yes, bathrooms (at least on the field level) now include a new hand-dryer thingy. But it’s much much better than the regular hand dryers, which merely blow humid air onto one’s hands. These new-fangled devices included a cavity into which one puts one’s hands, upon which they are blasted with quick jets of cool air which successfully blow the water droplets off one’s hands. Brilliant. This may have been the highlight of my trip to Dodger Stadium. No joke.

Continue reading "Dodger Stadium Report"

                Fairly or not, Dodger fan have the reputation of not being on-hand to watch the entire game at Dodger Stadium. The nightmare that is Los Angeles traffic causes people to arrive in the third inning or later, and also prompts some fans to leave in the seventh inning or earlier to beat the rush home. The fans in attendance yesterday, myself included, spent less time than usual at the ballpark as a result of Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox being on the mound.

                Buehrle, who has a reputation as a fast worker, took less time than usual in throwing eight masterful innings to defeat the Dodgers by a score of 6-1 in the opener of the three-game set. Chicago made quick work of the Dodgers in a game that went only 2 hours 5 minutes and could have been less if not for the visitors’ four-run outburst in the eighth inning. Buehrle threw 96 pitches, allowing no walks and six hits, one of which was Delwyn Young’s solo shot in the fifth inning. He was also the beneficiary of some excellent defense, including three double plays off the bats of Andy LaRoche, James Loney and Jeff Kent.

Continue reading "Buehrle Makes Quick Work of Dodgers"

A bullpen is all about trust, both for the team and for the fans.  A manager needs to be able to trust a reliever to put the game away, and the fan needs to trust that the reliever won’t cause more headaches with a late-inning meltdown.  An Indians fan spending the ninth inning with Joe Borowski is going skydiving without knowing whether you grabbed a parachute or a parakeet until it’s too late; a Yankees fan spending the ninth inning with Mariano Rivera is awaiting the everyday beauty of watching a simple yet majestic sunset.

               The Dodgers are a flawed team, no doubt about it. Their numerous deficiencies – shaky starting pitching, no power, infrequent hitting – might have been enough to bury them in any season and in any division except for the 2008 NL West.  But one of the Dodgers’ biggest strengths, both this year and in years past, has been its bullpen.  The confidence in having an All-Star closer shortens the game by an inning, and a reliable set-up man shortens it another. Throw in another inning or two by other quality arms and the team only needs 17 or so outs from the starter. The stability of Takashi Saito, Jonathan Broxton, Joe Beimel, Hong-Chih Kuo and others at the back end of the bullpen has helped compensate for the craziness that has been the starting rotation.

Continue reading "Fantastic Four Help Dodgers Avert Cleveland Sweep"

The Dodgers’ nine-game road trip was coming to an end, and the imminent sweep of the Cincinnati Reds would help ease the anguish of five straight defeats in the middle of the trip. The offense was putting up runs early and often, and for the third day in a row the starting pitcher had allowed just one run. It seemed the Dodgers were ready to put the 4-5 road trip behind them, and return to Chavez Ravine for the comforts of home and visits by the Indians, White Sox and Angels. The Dodgers had checked out of Cincinnati, and were ready to go home.

                One problem, though: it was still the seventh inning.

Continue reading "Dodgers Survive Seventh-Inning Stench, Recover to Sweep Reds"