Monday, April 28, 2008

Dodgers Showing Chutzpah

It seemed all too familiar at the time: Tie game, eighth inning. The Dodgers' defensive specialist second baseman makes a brainfart error on a ground ball that screams double play; instead of bases empty with two out, it's men on second and third with no out. Game over, right? Maybe last year. This year, Chin-lung Hu shook off his error the very next play, taking Garrett Atkins' hard grounder and looking Todd Helton back to third before throwing to first for the out. Then future closer Jonathan Broxton goes 3-0 to Troy Tulowitzki, and instead of walking in the go-ahead run fights back and gets Tulowitzki to hit into a double play. After two shutout innings by Takashi Saito and Joe Beimel, and after hitting into two double plays of their own, the Dodgers win when James Loney singles with the bases loaded in the tenth. Final: Dodgers 3, Rockies 2.

The win gives the Dodgers their first three-game winning streak of the season and moves them to within one game of .500 (12-13). It's too early to call this a "statement game," but if—er, when—the Dodgers' fortunes improve in May, this game will be remembered as the starting point.


top photo: Jon SooHoo/Dodgers
bottom photo: Kevork Djansezian/AP

3 comments:

Steve Sax said...

You neglected to mention how the bases got loaded after Helton and before Tulowitzki; I thought we IBB'd someone (I can't recall for sure), to load the bases and put Broxton in a tough spot, but I can't recall the details...

Agreed, though, that this was a key series sweep for the Dodgers. Over the course of the weekend we showed some real mettle fighting back when it was tied in extras (in the bookend games) or when down 2-0 early (in Saturday's game). Well done, Dodgers.

Steve Sax said...

Sorry, I forgot to say, "Nice post."

StolenMonkey86 said...

Jon SooHoo is awesome.