Saturday, August 13, 2011

Post-Game 117 Thread: Dodgers Strike Late (Not The First Time Though) To Win

DODGERS 1, ASTROS 0 (10)

The Dodgers took another solid start from Nathan Eovaldi (6.0 IP, 2 H, 4 Ks and 3 BB) and got a fortunate double play in the eighth inning to blank the Astros through nine innings. Unfortunately, Astros starter Bud Norris had also held the Dodgers down with 8 Ks over his 7.0 IP, but the Dodgers had the Astros, the NL's worst team, right where they wanted them.

Enter the bottom of the ninth, still scoreless, and Juan Rivera opens up the inning with a leadoff triple. Two IBBs later and we've got the bases loaded with none out, so it's all over, right? Except PH Tony Gwynn fans, Jamey Carroll forces out the runner at home, and Aaron Miles ground out to end the game. Hmm. That wasn't what we had planned...

So on to the tenth inning, still scoreless. Casey Blake hits another leadoff XBH, this time a double. Andre Ethier is intentionally walked, and then the Astros inexplicably decide to pitch to Matt Kemp (instead of walking the bases loaded again and pitching to non-hitting (0-for-19 on the season) Eugenio Velez, who had entered as a pinch-runner for Rivera after his triple). I mean, if you're gonna walk the bases loaded in the ninth by sidestepping the .199 Dioner Navarro (not an easy task, given Navarro's girth), why not reprise the move and pitch to the .0000000000000000 Velez?

But Kemp was their chosen target, and three pitches later, a light single to right field scored Blake and won the game, sending an announced attendance of 33.6K (probably more like 16K in the stadium) to post-game fireworks.

3 comments:

Nostradamus said...

Good to see you guys out there!

Steve Sax said...

Likewise. Let's do it again soon.

Fred's Brim said...

Great to meet both of you last night. After the game, we ended up walking down to the Short Stop which was a strange mix of locals, post gamers, clubs-goers and asshole hipsters making fun of them. An odd place...