Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Post-Game 21 Thread: Never a Dull Moment

DODGERS 5, GIANTS 3

Another nine innings of chaos at AT&T Park. It's still only April, but things are getting tight!

If Chad Billingsley gets a no-decision, can we still call him a stopper? Because he did everything except get the W: 7.1 IP, 8H, 3R, 2ER, 8 K's. Billingsley was in line for the win until Joe Torre tried to wring another five-out save from Jonathan Broxton, who strangely seemed more comfortable against lefties than righties. Broxton walked in the tying run but recovered to strike out Eugenio Velez on three pitches.

In what will hopefully become a super-fantastic trend, the Dodgers offense responded immediately. Manny Ramirez, a.k.a. Mr. Consistency, led off the ninth with one of his three doubles (he also drew two walks). Andre "The Beard" Ethier weathered a heroic 10-pitch at-bat to double in Manny for the go-ahead run, and Matt Kemp (2-for-4 with a walk) tripled Ethier in for some Geico (insurance).

Will Ohman worked a 1-2-3 ninth, which makes us wonder if Torre might consider using him and/or Ramon Troncoso in future high-leverage situations. Maybe relief pitching has become overly specialized, but players do seem to respond well when their roles are clearly defined.

Russell Martin (0-for-4 with a walk) still has concerns at the plate, but compensated with stellar defense, blocking the plate to nail Randy Winn in the first inning and making a full-extension catch to force Pablo Sandoval in the eighth (see below).

DODGER DEFENSE ON DISPLAY:

First inning: Kemp keeps it interesting.


First inning: The relay from Kemp at the wall to Rafael Furcal in shallow left to Martin at the plate.


Third inning: Casey Blake saves a run by snaring Bengie Molina's hard-hit grounder.


Sixth inning: James Loney gets fives after starting a 3-5 double play.


Eighth inning: Martin forces Sandoval at home.

all game photos by Jon SooHoo/Dodgers except last photo by Jeff Chiu/AP

7 comments:

NicJ said...

Cory wade made his minor league rehab assignment tonight. 1IP 2BB 1SO, not bad. I still can't get over that plate block by martin. He looks like a goalie.

Orel said...

Thanks for the update on Wade.

(Insert French Canadian joke here.)

LLCoolL said...

What's the deal with Torre and Broxton? He keeps using him for 5-out save attempts and then he keeps repeating the same line about how he hates to do it. How do you think the other relievers in the pen feel about that? Not exactly a vote of confidence. And I'm not sure why Torre doesn't seem to trust anyone else. At least he had the good sense to bring in Ohman last night after Broxton looked shakey.

Fred's Brim said...

That's five leads we've lost in the eighth now, plus a couple of games where we've let a team extend a lead in a close game. I say start trying other guys there - everybody's the setup guy if they need to define the role. And don't pitch anybody for more than an inning, or on back-to-back nights if they had an extended inning the day before. Let's get this down to once every couple of weeks instead of every few games

Nims said...

All that yoga appears to be paying off for Mr. J. Martin. Anybody else think Ohman's hilarious?

Unknown said...

Another thing about Martin that is being overlooked is his throwing. With a staff that is much better at getting the ball to the plate and moving to first, Martin has a CS rate of nearly 40 percent. Even Ausmus, who's arm hasn't been much for a few years now has thrown guys out. The naysayers last year bitched and moaned about Martin's throwing, and his still solid 25 percent CS rate probably cost him another GG, but that was on the staff.

Unknown said...

And another thing. Why wasn't Ohman brought on in the 8th to pitch to Ishikawa? Ishikawa is an extreme lefty who has troubles with LHP. That Ohman is also effective against RHB would have justified the move if he didn't get a DP.