Monday, April 20, 2009

Ten Hours with the Dodgers (Part two in a three-part series)

Now on to the game. First off, it was fricken’ hot. No doubt about it, the sun was out in force. Torre probably rested the players because it was a day game after a night game, but also because it was hotter than Hades. We had great seats on the field level behind home plate. Unfortunately, our seats were one row in front of the shade that was SLOWLY creeping up on us. The shade arrived in the seventh inning, but was a little late by then. Luckily there was no one seated behind us, so we jumped back a row in the middle of the game.

And what a game it was. I thought that it was going to be a long game as we had three of the starters out of the game – Martin, Furcal, and Blake. The top of the lineup was pretty scary still, but the bottom of the lineup looked a little shaky with DeWitt, Ausmus, and Castro before the pitcher. Hudson did a nice job leading off. I’m sure that Pierre was again feeling left out that we don’t even need a back-up leadoff hitter now.

Manny up to bat.


I felt like Manny was “due” as he had been homer-less all year as well as in his career against the Rockies. Then “BAM” 2 homers in the game. The first one was a “no doubt about it” line drive and the second one was off the first pitch. It almost looks like he is toying with the pitchers. Andre didn’t want to get overshadowed, so he proceeded to hit 2 home runs himself, which was pretty impressive as well. Everyone got into the act. I think everyone had at least one hit (except Slappy Pierre as a pinch-hitter). Even Ohman was left in the game and used Manny’s bat to single in a RBI. Nice.

Defensively, Castro did a nice solid job in place of Furcal. It was sad to see Manny drop a routine fly ball in the 2nd inning – TWO HANDS Manny. Some guy in the crowd shouted "That’s what you get with Manny – hit a home run but give it back with the error." Luckily the Rockies couldn’t capitalize on the error and didn’t score. I think Kemp didn’t want Manny to feel bad, so he dropped a fly ball as well. But given that the sun was right in BOTH their lines of sight, I will let these slide.

Thunder Thighs Bills was great. He got a little shaky in his last inning, but again it was pretty hot out there. Also, Mota wasn’t too effective by letting two Rockies on base without recording an out, but I hope he isn’t thinking of turning back to the cream and clear. Ohman did a great job mopping things up and we ended up winning 9-5 over the Rockies.

Manny rounding the bases after his second home run of the day.


As for the food, my wife and I had two Dodger Dogs, garlic fries (that were too soggy), two malts, and two Sprites. We tried to go back to the regular Dodger Dogs, but again found that there is slightly too much bun and feel that the Super Dodger Dogs are a little better – more dog, less bun, and only 75 cents more. Anyone else feel this way too? We also brought in our own water because we knew we were going to melt. The crowd thinned out by the ninth inning and we were able to get out of the stadium pretty quickly and rest up before the third leg of our Dodger journey.

Earlier: Part One (Photo Day)

3 comments:

Steve Sax said...

I'm a traditionalist, and go with the regular Dodger Dog. But I have started to grow fond of the Louisiana Hot Sausage lately as well.

I may have to do a head-to-head test of all three (regular Dodger, super Dodger, and Louisiana Hot)...

...did someone say, "bratwurst"?!

QuadSevens said...

Nice seats AC! Great pictures too! I'm definitely a fan of the Super Dog over the originaly. I usually have two of them before warmups are done.

Roberto Baly said...

Got to go with the Kosher dog... The all beef Super Dodger Dog.