Hiroki Kuroda (1-2) vs. Burke Badenhop (0-2).
COMMENTS: Top of the morning, sleepyheads! Okay, so Andruw Jones' corpse failed to re-animate on schedule (he went 0-for-3 with two walks yesterday). But everything else went swimmingly for the Dodgers, thankyouverymuch! Chad Billingsley shook off his fifth-inning blues, striking out eight for a well-deserved first win, while Rafael Furcal had five hits and Matt Kemp, James Loney and Blake DeWitt combined for ten RBIs as the Dodgers romped to a 13-1 victory—the tenth time this season they have scored seven or more runs in a game.
Joe Torre's primary goal of reaching .500 has been exceeded. "Now, we have to think of five over," he said. Baby steps, I like it. Kuroda, coming off perhaps his worst start against the Rockies, looks to rebound today against the pitcher with a soap opera name, Burke Badenhop, who has an 8.36 ERA. Torre has indicated he plans to start Mark Sweeney at first base, allowing Sweeney to shake off his rust instead of getting a tetanus shot. As for the rest of the squad (sans Andruw), they should just keep taking what they're taking.
photo by Jon SooHoo/Dodgers
67 comments:
6.04AM? Hot damn, you're up early for this game, Orel.
I stayed up all night for this!
Epale, kids! The lineup:
Furcal, SS
Pierre, LF
Kemp, CF
Sweeney, 1B
Martin, C
Ethier, RF
DeWitt, 3B
Hu, 2B
Kuroda, P
Usually I have to leave Game Threads to leave work. Today it's the opposite. See you....
Pierre in the two hole, and Sweeney in cleanup? Are we wearing our white uniforms, or our white flag uniforms?
Juan Pierre strikes out in the first! Yay!
Hey folks...I gotta run to lunch but will check in upon my return.
7-pitch first inning for the Kurod-ster, not bad.
Badenhop-ster has fanned four Dodgers through two innings, including automatic out Juan Pierre and binary boy Mark Sweeney (batting average .111). This lineup sucks.
Way to kill the momentum, Joe.
Yeah, and also, I think Sweeney's foot was off the bag on that awesome play from Furcal. But it tricked the ump.
Kuroda has to break up the no-hitter, but Raffy can't advance him. 0-0 after two and a half.
Erin, you're watching the game. Im jealous.
Matt Treanor gets Florida's first hit of the day, with one out in the third.
Dammit, Hanley Ramirez doubles to get Florida on the board. 1-0.
That was not a hit by the Marlins' catcher. It was a pop-up to left that Juan Pierre misplayed as badly as you'll ever see an outfielder misplay a ball. I almost threw something at my TV. There is now venom in my veins. I actually can't believe it was called a hit. I actually found myself hoping Pierre broke his wrist on the play.
And now Kuroda gets an earned run for his trouble, when he should actually be out of the inning. Ugh.
But hey, no Loney, Kent or Kemp, with Pierre in the lineup. This team is built for the comeback.
Juan Pierre not making the most of his opportunities. What do you expect for $9 million a year?
Oh, Kemp is in. Nevermind. He came very close to getting a homer there to center.
I think Joe Torre should realize it is Jones orPierre.
hi everybody!
But at least he takes one for the team. HBP to start the next inning.
Good morning, Karina!
JPSQ! Pierre making amends!
Two on. One out. Martin up. Can we get on the board?
Sweeney walks, men on 1st & 2nd w/1 out for Russell.
Russell takes a pitch he really should have been swinging at for called strike three.
Oh, but Ethier comes up big with two outs, and we have a tie game.
Pierre is not forgiven.
Russell K's but Ethier gets it done with a single! 1-1 tie.
Ethier fills in where Martin can't! Tie game. 1-1 after 3.5.
I can't believe it, a Pierre double!
Two batters into the fifth and we're tied again at 3-3. Way to pitch with the lead, Kuroda.
Kuroda only needed 38 pitches to get through the first four. He should be cruising right now, but instead gives up consecutive hits. Suddenly this team is feeling very familiar.
can we spot a trend of dodgers starting pitchers falling apart on the 5th?
Kuroda did settle down, but still. That two-run shot did not help anything. His pitch count is still way low through six. 66 pitches, to be exact.
Meanwhile, Badenhop has thrown 99 through six, so we should be looking at the Marlins' bullpen now.
Kuroda, it's not enough that you pitch, we expect you to bat, too. Heck, it's not like we can depend on Pierre or Sweeney.
Yes yes, I know Pierre had a double with two RBI. He's still an offensive liability.
Furcal may have used up all of his hits yesterday; he's 0-for-3 with a BB and a run.
Pierre is trying to make up for his earlier blunder. He is now 2-3. Who will be sitting for the next four games to reward Pierre for this performance?
All right, so now Pierre is 2-for-3. It's not like he's going to steal to get into scoring position, then score when Kemp singles.
Gameday says that ball was hit pretty deep, but it's still a fly out and it's still stranding Pierre. I suppose Kemp swung at the first pitch since he knew Black Hole Sweeney was batting behind him. Too bad he couldn't score the go-ahead run.
3-3 tie after six and a half.
Wow, I can't believe they aren't relieving Kuroda with two on and two out in the seventh. He's at 83 pitches.
Wow, Kuroda rocks.
Sweeney, now would be a nice time for one of those home runs.
Fish have a guy named Pinto on the mound. Let's bean him.
I know Pinto. He's good and he pitched last night. Hopefully dodgers bats will rock him
I need to share this: on Deadspin there is a story about a girl hitting a home run and getting injured while running to first base, so a couple of players from the opposite team carried her since first to home plate. One of the comments:
Right now the Dodgers are looking at ways to use this technique for Nomar.
Sweeney strikes out.
We have a guy on our roster batting .100, 2-for-20. And today he's in the cleanup spot.
Can we put an end to the Sweeney era, please, and gain a roster spot for someone who can either bat over .100 or pitch an inning or two.
DeWitt works a 2-2 count into a walk, leading Kent to PH for Hu. Let's go, Jeff. Get those old bones creaking!
Karina - that's a bold statement about Nomar.
Damn, wish I could be watching this! Why must work and a 3-hour conference call spoil my fun!!!
Anyone know why Beimel just came in? I am watching via gamecast and it seemed like Proctor was putting up a lot of heat and getting the outs...
I had it on mute and didn't really pay attention. Maybe they wanted Beimel to face a lefty?
succesful bunt! c-mon, Kemp!
Matt Kemp comes through!
a single by Kemp, when it matters...
Hey guys! I can't even watch it on gamecast as county computers suck. I have to refresh to update or read this comment thread - so keep them coming to keep me informed. However, if you say that Jones just hit a home run, I know that you will be lying...
stolen base by Kemp
hey - I "turn on" the game (ie refresh the screen) and we are winning!!! WOOOHOO!
Dodgers up 5-3. Matt Kemp scores on an errant throw to first.
Why were they throwing to first?
Sorry, grounder from Martin, I think. I looked up as the ball was passing first and Martin was near the bag.
Martin got tagged out in a rundown, then Sweeney (is that who was batting next?) popped up to end the inning.
And now we have Saito. And Jones is in playing center.
Thanks - this is how boxscore on ESPN displys it: R Martin grounded into fielder's choice to, M Kemp to third, R Martin to second, M Sweeney to second on throwing error by pitcher K Gregg.M Kemp scored on throwing error by second baseman R Andino.
So Martin AND Sweeney are on second. WTF? Glad Hu wasn't involved or else things would get really confusing.
Saito gets a 1-2-3 inning, with two strikeouts, for the save.
Dodgers win!
I agree, if anyone could recap Martin's AB, it would be helpful as the Gameday text is a mess.
2 sweeps in a row! we're getting spoiled, don't you think?
Wow! Dodgers win - SIX in a ROW!!!! Guess Erin won her prize for last night's comment #300. Go Blue!!!!
I'm rewinding the TiVo to get a better look at what happened.
Martin hit a grounder back to the pitcher. The pitcher threw to second, but the throw pulled the guy off the bag, so whoever was headed to second (Sweeney? I don't know) was safe. The throw to first was wild. Kemp, who had been at second, was already on his way to third, and when the throw went wild, he scored. Martin was stuck in a rundown between first and second, and eventually tagged out.
thanks Erin! gameday won't do any justice
No problem. Getting to see the games is one of the perks about working from home.
Now it's onward for a second sweep of the Rockies, right?
Right.
And Orel is sooooo making game threads.
Gotta love Tivo, thanks.
Erin, this is the first job I've had in a while where I don't have a tv in my office. This sucks.
Guess I better quit my job!
Karina, I agree, Orel is sooooooooo making Game Threads.
How 'bout that Beimel? One pitch, and he gets the win!
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