Friday, May 18, 2012

Post-Game 39 Thread: Berkman Buoys, But A.J. Answers

This image is not from tonight's game, but it was all I could find of an unhappy Lance.

DODGERS 6, CARDINALS 5

In a close one that was tied at four from the third inning until the bottom of the seventh (James Loney finally broke the tie by singling in Andre Ethier for what looked like the go-ahead run, with Ethier having reached off the generosity of former Dodger Rafael Furcal's error), it ended with a ninth inning full of drama. Man, that was a horribly-worded lead.

Kenley Jansen mowed down his first two batters in the ninth inning before Cardinals PH Lance Berkman took a 0-1 count over the wall, tying the game. Depression. But these plucky Dodgers don't go down easy. Elian Herrera walked to lead off the bottom of the ninth, and even though Andre Ethier was fooled (swinging), Adam Kennedy singled Herrera over to third. Inexplicably, the Cardinals chose to IBB James Loney (BA: .250) and load the bases with one out, allowing A.J. Ellis (BA: .327, the highest BA in the lineup tonight) to earn a walk-off walk (as well as a Matt Kemp-delivered shaving cream pie during the post-game interview). Dodgers snatch victory back from the Cardinals in the series opener.

Kenley Jansen is now 2-0 when he blows the save.

Ted Lilly pitched a nice seven innings of 4 ER ball (two of the four earned runs, all unearned, came off a Matt Holliday bomb), which was a gritty outing if not spectacular. Josh Lindblom had a shaky eighth but ended up striking out the side over what seemed like 463 pitches. And Loney did end up going 3-for-4 with 2 RBI, paling only in comparison to 4-for-4 Adam Kennedy (1 RBI). When Loney and Kennedy are coming through for the Dodgers, it's hard not to think something special is going on here. Let's enjoy this while it lasts.

(Oh, and the Lakers won Game 3 and trail OKC 2-1 in the series.)

9 comments:

Neeebs (The Original) said...

I thought all of Lilly' s runs were unearned?

Neeebs (The Original) said...

I thought all of Lilly' s runs were unearned?

Hideo Nomo said...

Yep, 0 ER due to fluky scoring.

Dusty Baker said...

I didn't have the video last night. Was there dry humping after the walk off?

I mean at the game, not with Neeebs' mom.

Steve Sax said...

There was much dry humping, Dusty. I assumed that your dry-humping meter would have picked that up!

Dusty Baker said...

It did, it did. I just wanted to confirm my Spidey senses were still intact.

Steve Sax said...

Well, some of the humping might have been wet . Maybe that threw you off.

Steve Sax said...

@Neeebs: thanks for the catch. Post fixed

Neeebs (The Original) said...

@Sax, Weren't you suppose to post that twice? Twice? ;-)