Sunday, September 21, 2014

Post-Game 156 Thread: Three Is A Magic Number

DODGERS 8, CUBS 5
PADRES 8, GIANTS 2

When this video gets to the second verse ("A man and a woman had a little baby; yes they did, they had three in the family; and that's a magic number"), I feel the good vibrations of the seventies warm me up all over.

Which is probably how Don Mattingly and the Dodgers felt, having survived "Bullpen Day" at Wrigley Field, starting Jamey Wright for two innings, then letting Carlos Frias take a turn, before parading in Chris Perez (who got the win, retiring four batters), Paco Rodriguez, Pedro Baez, and Kenley Jansen. Wright only lasted two innings and gave up three hits and 1 ER. Frias was a bit shakier (3.0 IP, 3 H and 3 ER), but nowhere near his last outing; plus he got out of a fifth-inning jam with the tying run on second by pulling off a big strikeout of Chris Valaika (Frias was actually seen on camera pumping himself up before the fateful pitch). Scattering only five Cubs runs over the course of the day, the Dodgers were able to actually survive throwing a spaghetti-like bullpen arms against the wall, just to see which ones could stick long enough to register 27 outs.

And that of course was due to the offensive heroics of the rest of the lineup, who seemed to take to the challenge by rising up. Yasiel Puig was 2-for-5 with 4 runs scored; Adrian Gonzalez was 2-for-5 with a run and an RBI; and Matt Kemp was 4-for-5 with a run and 4 RBI, two of which came on a third-inning HR to right field. Hanley Ramirez went 2-for-4, Carl Crawford went 2-for-5, A.J. Ellis got when 1-for-5 to raise his average (don't get me started). In fact, the only 0-fer in the starting lineup was Dee Gordon (0-for-5). All in all, a pretty good day with the bats: 16 hits in total in the victory.

What's more, the Padres took to their camouflage outfits and completed the sweep of the Giants, dropping Ryan Vogelsong and the Giants 8-2. According to MLB.com, "in eight games since their euphoric 9-0 rout of Los Angeles on Sept. 12, the Giants are batting .201 (52-for-259) with 14 runs scored. They've mustered two runs in five of those games and have been shut out twice."

So the Dodgers' magic number for winning the NL West is now three. And serendipitously enough, the Giants' magic number for securing a wild card spot (over Milwaukee; the Pirates are tied with the Giants for the two wild card spots) is also three. So three truly is a magic number.

Hat tip to Dusty for referencing this song (I think!) in the GT. I didn't see it until afterward, but it appears we're on the same wavelength. As Sons should be, I suppose.

1 comments:

spank said...

I'm pumped the fuck up for tonights game.

hateHateHATE