Dodgers Survive Seventh-Inning Stench, Recover to Sweep Reds

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.

                Cincinnati played its most inspired baseball of the three-game set in the home half of the seventh inning and threatened to steal the series finale, but the Dodgers pulled themselves together just in time to stave off the Reds’ rally and secure a 7-4 victory. With the win, the Dodgers completed their second straight sweep of the Reds and won seven of their eight meetings for the season.

                The Dodgers offense scored the first six runs of the game, but things quickly unraveled in the seventh inning. Eric Stults, whose first start of the season had gone swimmingly thus far, walked Edward Encarnacion to open the inning and induced a routine ground ball from Joey Votto. Rather than turning the double play, however, Jeff Kent committed an error that put men on the corners with nobody out. After yielding a run-scoring infield single, Stults was yanked for the pitcher with the worst ERA on the team not named Brad Penny. Scott the Proctologist couldn’t escape more trouble, and so Joe Torre ultimately had to turn to his three bullpen stars in a save situation. Fortunately for the Dodgers, the trio didn’t disappoint, with Joe Beimel, Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito snuffing out the last Cincinnati rally.

                The seventh-inning meltdown helped overshadow a strong performance by the Dodger offense. Every starter recorded a hit as the Dodger offense totaled 14 on the day. Up and down the lineups there were contributors, starting with Jeff Kent and Russell Martin knocking back-to-back two-out doubles for the first of six runs of Aaron Harang (3-10). Matt Kemp showed more of his immense talent and tantalizing promise with a homer, double and three RBIs, and James Loney went 3-for-4 to raise his average to .307, one point higher than Russell Martin’s.  Andre Ethier showed resilience, Blake DeWitt added grit, and Juan Pierre and Angel Berroa managed not to get in the way. And Mark Sweeney struck out as a pinch hitter, so I guess there was some bad, though not unexpected, news.

                Meanwhile, Stults was the hero of the game. In his first game since last September, Stults contributed a walk and a perfect hit-and-run single, which amounts to a superb performance by the Dodgers’ hitting standards. I’ll bet Torre is wondering if he’ll be able to use Stults in a Micah Owings-esque way as a fourth-pitcher/pinch-hitter extraordinaire. The real news for the Dodgers, though, was that Stults gave the rotation and bullpen a boost, pitching into the seventh inning to pick up the win. Incredibly, at 1-0, he is the only Dodger starter with a winning record.  

The Dodgers can actually have a second such pitcher get over the .500 mark, as Chan-Ho Park will make a spot start on Saturday against the Cleveland Indians and reigning AL Cy Young award winner C.C. Sabbathia. Park’s record on the season is 2-2, with all four decisions coming in relief. In other words, Brad Penny and Hiroki Kuroda (gulp)… take your time coming back. Can’t believe I’d rather have Stults and Park going instead of Penny and Kuroda (and their combined $16.7 million this year), but the numbers don’t lie.