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Recently in Los Angeles Dodgers CategoryTaking Joy Where You CanPosted on August 29, 2011 at 9:53 AM
Been a while since we chatted about the team. Let's catch up.Wednesday (9-4 loss vs Los Angeles) Hero: Skip Schumaker. Four hits, a run and an RBI. On a day when there wasn't much of interest, Skip had a fine one. Goat: Jaime Garcia. It appeared that his mental focus slipped yet again. Six earned runs in the third and twice he didn't back up home plate on throws in. While that contract is still a good one, I heard that he's 1-4 with a 5.00 ERA since he signed that deal. You wonder if the Cards are wishing they'd waited a bit on that one. Notes: The bullpen, save for Kyle McClellan, pitched very well in this one. Not that it mattered since the Cards didn't do most of their scoring until the game was out of hand, but it's still nice to see some scoreless frames. Matt Holliday had two hits and Gerald Laird hit his first Cardinal home run. Thursday (8-4 win vs Pittsburgh) Hero: Matt Holliday. He only had the one hit, but it was a big three-run home run that sealed the game and made the ninth very anti-climactic. With the way this bullpen can go, anytime you can get that, it's a big deal. Goat: Yadier Molina. Tough night for the catcher, going 0-4 with a strikeout. Notes: Albert Pujols walked three times, once right in front of Holliday's blast. Hopefully that patience will translate into a torrid September. Marc Rzepczynski was finally used in a close game, though Tony La Russa did pull him after he gave up a leadoff hit in the eighth. I'd have probably let him continue, but Jason Motte did a fine job. This was also Social Media Night, about which I'll have more to say later on. Friday (5-4 win vs. Pittsburgh) Hero: Lance Berkman. His two-run home run turned an eighth-inning deficit into an eighth-inning lead, one that McClellan was able to preserve. Goat: Jake Westbrook. While he wound up going six, that first inning, where he gave up three runs, almost proved to be his undoing. Yadier Molina saved him there, but he gave up another run later on. I guess four runs in six is about the standard we'll be getting from Westbrook, but that doesn't mean we have to like it. Notes: Three-run home run by Molina, as he continues probably his best all-around offensive season. Pujols went 0-3, dropping his average under .290. You know the Pujols watch will continue all the way through the next month, with little else to focus on. Saturday (7-0 loss vs. Pittsburgh) Hero: Yadier Molina. The only batter with two hits and none of the pitchers were that exciting either. Goat: Chris Carpenter. Not that the loss meant anything, what with the race being over a while back, but it's still disappointing to see Carpenter come out and give up six runs in five innings. Notes: Interesting to see Fernando Salas pitch the eighth, especially since he had pitched Thursday and it shouldn't have been that he just needed some work. I didn't see the post-game wraps so I'm not sure exactly what the reasoning was there and it might have bit the Cardinals had they needed Salas to lock down Sunday's game. Hero: Ryan Theriot. We don't get to say that very often, so let's do it while we can. Theriot had two hits and drove in two runs. Goat: Gerald Laird. I was going to go with Kyle Lohse, but Lohse did get the win and, save one bad inning, did OK. Laird was the only hitter to not get a hit in the game, so we'll go that direction. Notes: Lohse did turn it around, but his pitch count meant he had to leave after five innings. Still, he got his 100th win, which was nice. This time of year, you have to find the joy in every situation, because a lot of times, it's not that obvious. Interesting to see that Berkman had some choice words about the mid-afternoon starting times for the national games on Saturdays. It used to be that those games started at one, I believe, which may have helped with some of the shadows, especially this time of year. We'll see if the Cards can break their Saturday FOX shutout streak this weekend against the Reds, as that game will also be nationally televised. Somewhat surprising news in that John Mozeliak thinks that Eduardo Sanchez will return to the club this year after rosters expand. When I was at Busch Thursday, I noticed (OK, Christine Coleman pointed him out to me) that Sanchez was out there shagging flies during batting practice, but I didn't think it was anything more than an injured player hanging out with the squad. Maybe he will get back, but I'd still bet that we don't see much of him, if anything. This week's biggest news will likely be the callups when rosters expand Thursday. One has already been finalized, as Brandon Dickson will pitch that night against the Brewers. Garcia gets skipped in the rotation, giving him more rest and perhaps letting him think about his lack of fundamentals in the last outing. Nice to see that Adam Wainwright is going to travel with the team this visit to Milwaukee. He's going to continue his throwing program and, probably even more importantly to him, be involved in the team's fantasy football draft tonight. I'm not a football guy, but that has to be a fun activity for those players, even as it is a sign that their season is winding down. After the jump, I'll talk a little bit about Social Media Night and my trip to St. Louis this week.
Continue ReadingFiled Under: Heroes and Goats
| Los Angeles Dodgers
| Pittsburgh Pirates
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It's Either Laugh or CryPosted on August 24, 2011 at 6:44 AM
At the end of yesterday's post, I wrote the following:We as fans know that this season is over from a postseason perspective. All we can hope for now is winning, non-frustrating baseball. Is that too much to ask? Some games are over early. This one was pretty much done in the first, when Matt Kemp launched a three-run homer in the top half while the Cards got two on against Clayton Kershaw in the bottom of the inning before Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman struck out to end the threat. After that, it was all over but the padding, which the Dodgers did plenty of. Obviously, Kyle Lohse had nothing last night, making him the Goat. I mean, you give up eight in three innings, it's just not your night. I thought it was an interesting comment that was made on the Fox Sports Midwest postgame show, I believe by Rick Horton, that wondered about how the absence of Dave Duncan might have affected Lohse, being that he's still trying to get adjusted to some different mechanics. I don't think it would have made all the difference, but possibly Duncan could have helped him get back on track. No telling. If you have to award a Hero for last night, I guess go with Allen Craig, who had two hits. Probably the only other positive was that the Cards scored two in the ninth against old friend Blake Hawksworth, but that was after being down 13-0 and it wasn't like the Dodgers were pushing to get outs. And, even so, the game ended on yet another double play. At least the team is consistent in that regard. Also, Tony La Russa dug Marc Rzepczynski out of mothballs and let him pitch some garbage time. Because that's what we wanted to get out of the Rasmus deal, that "win now" move. The most exciting part of the night was probably the top of the ninth, when Skip Schumaker got to add to his utility guy resume by pitching an inning of relief. Skip actually looked pretty good, at least in results. He hit 91 on the radar gun and struck out two of the five batters he faced. Most importantly, though, there was a collision of scrap, one to make sure that Matt Sebek is busy all day long. Former Cardinal Aaron Miles, who was usually in this "position player pitching" position as noted by a wonderful blog title, came up to face Schumaker and wound up belting a two-run home run on the first pitch. Lots of entertainment there, but when that likely will wind up on the season's highlight reel, you know there are problems. The Cards are now double-digits behind Milwaukee, so I think the team can stop scoreboard watching. (Really doesn't matter, the Brewers win every day anyway and I'm not sure even the SI Cover Jinx can stop them, at least not enough to make it interesting.) All they can do is go out and play as good of baseball as possible each day. Whether they can do that or not is completely up in the air. Just a programming note, you won't see anything in this space until likely Saturday at the earliest, as I'm leaving out tomorrow morning early for St. Louis to be at Social Media Night that evening, then heading back here Friday. Just letting my two readers know! Afternoon game for the Birds today. Jaime Garcia at home is usually a pretty good option to avoid a sweep. How has he fared against the Dodgers?
Hiroki Kuroda goes for the Dodgers. This was a guy that a lot of people thought the Cards might look at around the trade deadline. Instead, he stayed with the club (exercising his no-trade clause).
Let's see if the Cards can't bring us just a little bit of sunshine today, because getting swept wouldn't do much for some of the exasperated and resigned moods around the fan base!  No WordsPosted on August 23, 2011 at 6:49 AM
There comes a point in this season where you just become numb to it all, doesn't there? While I don't think the fan base is quite there yet, if Twitter is any indication, they've seen enough of this season to know when something bad happens. It's like watching a movie and yelling at the screen for the character not to go in there. Of course, the character never listens.As I've said before, Monday nights are not a good night for me as I have a Promise Keepers meeting at church and as such really don't get to watch much of the game. I heard Lance Berkman hit his home run on the way to church last night and the pace of the game meant I was able to hear the top of the ninth on my way home. Before we get into that, though, how about the outstanding game Chris Carpenter pitched? Out there without a safety net, just a solitary run, he goes eight-plus innings, allowing no runs to score while he's out there, striking out seven, and not even reaching 100 pitches. It was an impressive outing, one worthy of better than the sullied ending. So I'm on my way home and as I turn it on, I hear that Carp's still in the game, but he's hit a batter to start the ninth. As soon as I hear that Arthur Rhodes is warming up, I get concerned. When TLR makes the move, I'm hollering at my radio (effective, right) that this is not going to end well. Rhodes surprises me by striking out Andre Ethier. Turns out he's done very well against Ethier (0-7, 3 K before last night, according to Matthew Leach on Twitter) so I'm a bit at ease. Then, of course, TLR has to go to yet another pitcher to try to finish this off. Now, look, it was a one run game and all and I can't say I'm surprised that the move was made, but it's not like it was Matt Kemp coming up next. It was Aaron Miles, and all apologies to the wonderful ladies at the site with his name on it, but Aaron Miles should not be a threat. Granted, Miles is hitting .304 against lefties and Rhodes doesn't do well against righties, so maybe that move should have been made. The thing was, a move didn't have to be made at all. Chris Carpenter is your best member of the rotation. He's a bulldog type that doesn't concede anything. You've let him throw 120+ pitches numerous times this year. So why pull him after 99 in the ninth? I don't think there's anyone on this staff that Cardinal Nation trusts more in that situation than Carpenter. Leaving him in would seem to be the logical idea. Put it this way: if Carp blows the lead in the ninth, I think most of the fanbase would be more accepting of that than turning it over to a bullpen that, while better, has had issues. But, if you are going to pull Carpenter, why not bring in Marc Rzepczynski? The man hasn't pitched since last Wednesday. He's a guy that can get both lefties and righties out. That way you don't have to make yet another pitching change in the ninth. Did TLR just decide that someone had to take Colby Rasmus's place in the doghouse and he'd put the new guy there until further notice? It seemed like overkill to do Rhodes then Fernando Salas. While Salas has been good, you shouldn't need the biggest hammer to take care of Aaron Miles. Save the fact that Salas plays around with Miles and runs the count full before throwing a changeup that gets smashed into the gap rather than a strong fastball that likely would have gotten him out. Jason Motte comes in and does his job, for the most part, but the ground ball he hits bounces off the glove of Rafael Furcal, who had come in for defensive purposes even though his hamstring was apparently bad enough to keep him out of the lineup. Have to give Salas the Goat for that one, because Aaron Miles should never, ever beat you. The bottom of the ninth could have had Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman, but even if it had, we've read this script before. The odds are one of them would have gotten a hit at best, but nothing would have come out of it. Stirring ninth-inning rallies really aren't the purview of this team, not recently. Of course, that didn't happen anyway. Pujols was still in there (and popped out to make a 1-4 night--after his hit in his first AB he was up to .291, but fell back to .289 after three consecutive outs), but Berkman had been replaced for defensive purposes and Holliday had left with a moth in his ear. So as predictable as parts of this game were, you still never know what you are going to see at the old ballpark. Just for funsies, the Brewers split a doubleheader with the Pirates, so the Cards are now nine games back. Could be double-digits by time Thursday's Social Media Night rolls around. That'll make for a lot of interesting conversation, I'm sure. The two teams are back at it tonight and the odds of a Cardinal victory sure aren't strong when you look at the pitching matchup. Clayton Kershaw, the ace of the Dodgers who is putting up a Cy Young-type season, takes the hill for Los Angeles. Here's what the Cards have done against him in the past:
Kyle Lohse is on the other side of the equation. The numbers:
We as fans know that this season is over from a postseason perspective. All we can hope for now is winning, non-frustrating baseball. Is that too much to ask?  Hello, String? It's the Cardinals. Let's Play.Posted on August 22, 2011 at 6:48 AM
You know, as Bill and I talked about last night on Gateway To Baseball Heaven, even if the Cards had a good month, say 19-6 in their last 25, they'd still be three games behind the Brewers. What Milwaukee is doing is amazing and will be part of the lore for their fans for many years to come, especially if they wind up doing damage in the postseason. So let there be no mistake, Milwaukee won this division.That said, the Cards didn't have a good month. They are 10-9 in August and over their last 25 games, they are 13-12. So you can easily see why they (along with the rest of the division, which didn't play much better) got buried so quickly. This road trip was a symbol of that and of the frustration that this team can cause. Already hanging on the fringes of the race due to their middling play and Milwaukee's run, a successful team would have gone through these two opponents, a Pittsburgh team that's come back to earth and a Chicago team that hasn't done anything all year (but has played better recently) and at least done some damage. I said I thought they needed to go 5-1 in that stretch and a contending team could have easily done that. Instead, they dropped the first two games to Pittsburgh and won the last, then did the same thing in Wrigley Field (which means it was doubly aggravating). We're five and a half weeks from October and while Milwaukee's magic number is not yet in the single digits, it really looks like the Cards are playing out the string. Let's take a quick look at Saturday's game. It can be quick because the Cards put up absolutely no offense in the game. Five hits, two from Jon Jay and two from Skip Schumaker, is all the team could muster against Matt Garza. (We'll give Skip the Hero because he had one less at bat, though it's good to see Jay hit that well.) Edwin Jackson pitched a very solid game, allowing only the three runs in seven innings and two of those came on a home run by noted Cardinal killer Aramis Ramirez. If he pitches that well every time out, he'll win a number of games. On the downside, well, you could pick any number of batters who went 0 for the day. I guess we'll go and give it to Allen Craig, because with Jay getting two hits ahead of him, a hit here or there might have at least helped break the seal on the scoring and who knows how that could have affected the rest of the game. As for last night's game, as Bill said on the show, it just shows how frustrating this team can be because we see what they can do when all the pieces click. The power was there--Hero Yadier Molina capped a big weekend for himself by hitting two homers, Albert Pujols hit one among his four hits and Jay also got one--plus the pitching showed up as well. Jake Westbrook wasn't dominant, allowing nine runners in seven innings, but he was effective, allowing only two runs. That'll do most nights and it was nice to see that as well. (BTW, we'll go with Schumaker as the Goat this time out since he went 0-4 in the leadoff role, even though he did drive in a run.) For the most part, this turn through the rotation was very nice for the starting pitchers, even if they didn't get the results they wanted. Seeing some good pitching down the stretch would perhaps ease the sting of a season that didn't quite turn out the way we drew it up back in spring training. As we saw the good and the bad from Schumaker this weekend, it's interesting to note the article that came out talking about his contract status. Will the Cardinals offer him arbitration or non-tender him? It seems impossible to think that Schumaker won't be back on this team next year, but what if Tony La Russa decides to hang them up? Would a new manager want Skip on the team? Can the Cardinals afford what his market rate might be? It's obviously not the biggest issue facing the Cards this offseason, but one I hadn't really thought much about. With all the shuffling that could happen this winter, Skip might be somewhere else in 2012. Rafael Furcal sprained his thumb this weekend, tripping over some rope before the game on Saturday. Because that's exactly what the team needed, another injury. It's unknown if he'll be able to play in this series against his most recent former team that starts tonight. It doesn't sound like it is serious, though since Ryan Theriot has also aggravated his hamstring, Daniel Descalso might get a little extra playing time in the next couple of days. Cards and Dodgers tonight at Busch. Chris Carpenter goes for the Cardinals, which is always a good thing. Here are the numbers:
The Dodgers send rookie Nathan Eovaldi to the hill tonight. I like to think that I've at least heard the name of a lot of the current major leaguers, but I'd never heard this one. Looks like he's making his fourth career start, which bodes ill for a Cardinal team that tends to not like seeing unfamiliar pitchers. Obviously (and ominously), no one on the Cardinals has faced him before. Episode 2 of Conversations With C70 went up this weekend. If you've not seen that in your iTunes subscription (and if you are using iTunes, please consider submitting a review!) you can find it online as well. My thanks to Dathan Brooks for sitting in the hot seat!  Filed Under: Chicago Cubs
| Heroes and Goats
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Role ReversalPosted on April 18, 2011 at 10:37 AM
Last Monday, I wrote that if I'd written over the weekend, the tone of the post would have been much more negative, but the Sunday win had helped clear away some of those depressing feelings. This week, flip that on its head. Writing on Saturday or Sunday would have been an upbeat situation. Today, there are issues. Let's quickly recap the games with the Heroes and the Goats and then get into the discussion points.Friday (11-2 win) Hero: Albert Pujols. Two hits, two home runs, three RBI. There were a number of choices in this game, though. Lance Berkman also had a multi-homer game, tacking on numbers five and six for this week. Yadier Molina went four-for-four as well, starting to show a little life in the bat. Goat: Skip Schumaker. A tough call since he did score a run and drive in one, but he was the only starter without a hit. As I've said before and will say again, not all Goats are created equal. (Neither are all Heroes, but usually it comes into play more on the negative side.) Notes: Kyle Lohse continues to show that we possibly just haven't seen the real Lohse the last couple of years. Two runs in over seven innings, with six strikeouts to boot. In the early going, Lohse has been outstanding. (BTW, you can keep up with how Lohse is doing via Bob's Lohse-o-Meter, which I know was put up at least in part to tweak Bill Ivie.) Also in the pitching department, Jason Motte had another solid outing, striking out two in an inning worth of work. After a rough start, Motte in his last three outings has thrown 3.2 innings and allowed only a single hit while striking out three and walking one. I'm not quite ready to put him into the closer role (we're getting to that topic) but it makes you feel a bit better about the late innings. Cardinals Continue To HitPosted on April 15, 2011 at 10:05 AM
At times, you really have to like the law of averages.For the fourth straight day, the Cardinals scored eight runs or more. A team that struggled to get two a game now seems to regularly put that up in an inning. While this run likely won't last, the surge to pull them up to what would be average has been fun to watch. This time, the team did it against a guy that had been very tough on them in the past. I think Lance Berkman might have had a bit of an eye on the general fanbase when he uttered this quote, which I really think sums up a lot.
"Opinions tend to swing a lot this early in the season. I wouldn't say that we're the '27 Yankees based on the last four or five games. And I wouldn't say we were done before that." Completely true. I think fan confidence is probably double where it was last week, if not more, but if the team slides into another scoring funk, that confidence will erode. Baseball may be more of a marathon than a sprint, but for those that follow it, it's a daily rollercoaster. As much as we know we should take the long view, it is hard to see past the current hill on the ride, living in the current moment rather than the whole season at once. If you are a fan of the offense, there were a lot of good things for you. Hero Matt Holliday went three for five, collecting three RBI. Apparently, he's always hit the Dodgers well so this could be a fun weekend for him. The Lance Berkman Fan Club was out in full force as well, as he raced down the line to beat out an infield single and tacked on another hit as well. Albert Pujols's run of multi-hit games was snapped, but his one hit was a home run, which was great to see. Interestingly, this was the first game of the season where the Cards didn't draw a walk. I guess when you are pounding 16 hits, the opposing pitchers are staying around the plate. The pitching side of things wasn't quite as pleasant, though you can handle it more when the offense puts up nine and wins. Mitchell Boggs had another good outing, with three strikeouts in his two scoreless innings. I think the back is fine and I'd expect Boggs to start getting those eighth inning assignments whenever the Cardinals play another close game. That was about the extent of real highlights from the pitching staff, though. Jaime Garcia struggled a bit, but was able to limit damage. There were many times it looked like he'd give a lot of run, but he made the pitches to keep the Dodgers to one. He noted some numbness in his foot after running the bases in the top of the fifth (getting thrown out trying to go first to third) and that gave the Cards a convenient reason to lift him after he pitched the bottom of that inning. It apparently cleared up before the game was over and there's not expected to be any lasting problem. In games like these, it's hard to find a Goat. Obviously during the season all Goats are not created equal. That said, for last night I'm going to go with Ryan Franklin again. I know it appears that I'm picking on Franky, but here's my thinking. Everyone's been concerned about you, afraid any time you are warming up. There's a five-run lead. Throwing a perfect inning in this outing would have been a good idea, helping to at least ease fears a little bit. Instead, he allows a home run to Matt Kemp. In relation to the game, no big deal, but it doesn't help the confidence level of the faithful, though. That was all he gave up, which is a positive, and it is always hard to judge closers when they come into non-save situations, but Franklin really needed to have a clean outing and he didn't. Fernando Salas made his first appearance of the season, giving up a run in his inning. Sounds like it could have been more, but Jon Jay made a nice catch. (By this time in the game, I believe I was huddling with the family in the bathroom as the tornado sirens went off. But if they hadn't been, I'd have been asleep by that time anyway, so I was missing it either way.) Let's see what we have on tap for tonight. First, Kyle Lohse versus the boys in blue:
Jon Garland's history against St. Louis is also interesting:
It's a great day to be playing the Dodgers as well because it is Jackie Robinson Day around the big leagues. Many of you remember when this day first came about, back in 1997. I still remember watching that rainy game in New York with the Dodgers facing the Mets when they announced that 42 would be retired throughout baseball. I remember Ken Griffey a few years later wanting to wear 42 to honor Jackie on his day, a trend that quickly spread. I believe the Cardinals might have been the first team (or at least one of the first) to have everyone wear 42 for the game. This year, MLB is rolling out Iam42.com to honor Jackie Robinson. A number of videos are up on that site, including Cardinal pitcher Jake Westbrook and Cardinal Hall of Famer Lou Brock. Check out the various tributes and realize that today's game is so heavily impacted by what happened back in 1947. While we are talking about web sites, I want to note that the Diamond Diaries ladies have a new location! Be sure to head over and check out the place. Not sure what they would like for a housewarming gift, but I'm sure leaving a comment will do just fine. Congrats to them on their move! Another late one for the Cardinals tonight. At least tomorrow's Saturday, right?  Turning The TablesPosted on April 14, 2011 at 7:33 AM
It's a lot more fun to be on this side of a team scoring in every inning. Tuesday night, Arizona wasn't held scoreless until the seventh. Wednesday, the Cards got into the act, scoring in every inning until the six, with crooked numbers being the theme. Remember when the offense was a big topic of conversation? When it took three games for the Cards to score eight runs, the amount they scored in the second inning last night? Whether it's a resurgence in the offense or just a strong fondness for Chase Field and Arizona's pitching staff, either way it was a fun series for the most part. Tough to decide who the hero should be, as there was no shortage of offensive exploits. Skip Schumaker had a three-run home run. Colby Rasmus had a full night with three hits, three runs and two RBI. Albert Pujols continued to show that there's a reason not to worry about him, as he got two hits, including a double, scored three runs, and had two RBI. Even Gerald Laird, who was hitless on the season going into last night, had three hits! Talk about an offensive onslaught! All that said, I think I'll go with Lance Berkman again, as he delivered a series that likely will get him Player of the Week. Yet another home run, this time a grand slam, and another RBI tacked on for good measure. Berkman turned the game from a nice lead into a laugher, which was probably a good thing given who was on the mound. Jake Westbrook has to get the Goat tag from last night, as he was about the only person to struggle. Staked to a huge lead and you can't get out of the sixth? That's not going to be an acceptable outing. Westbrook lowered his ERA, but only because 1) it was really high to start with and 2) three of the five runs behind him were unearned, as Pujols and Theriot both made errors. Westbrook threw just over 100 pitches and recorded just one out in the sixth. While it's hard to judge a pitcher when he's pitching with the big lead, because they are often going to challenge hitters and allow a little more than they would otherwise, that's really not acceptable. If nothing else, you should throw fewer pitches with a lead like that because you are challenging guys. Put the ball in play and let your fielders make the outs. So far, Westbrook hasn't had a single good outing, being the weak spot on an otherwise solid rotation. I was encouraged when he threw two scoreless innings early on, but he's got to do more to keep a team in a ballgame, because they aren't going to score double digits every time he's out there. Matt Holliday and Ryan Theriot both hit by pitches and apparently the Cardinal starting staff didn't care for that, especially for Holliday's. BJ Rains commented on Twitter last night that a number of the pitchers were yelling at Ian Kennedy after Berkman's grand slam, in the vein of "that's what you get". The way Kennedy was throwing last night, I'm fairly sure he wasn't trying to hit people. It just doesn't sound like he had much of anything. I don't know what the players saw, whether they thought Kennedy was just frustrated or what, but that HBP loaded the bases and that's never something you want to do. One of those "had to be there" things, I guess. You can't talk about last night without mentioning Eduardo Sanchez. Sanchez made his first appearance in the majors, being activated when Brian Tallet was placed on the DL yesterday, and had a great debut, striking out five of the six batters he faced. Great start to what will hopefully be a great career. So how much did the team like Arizona? The team batting average went from .229 to .269 in the span of three games. I know it's early, but you still have to really rake to have a boost like that. Berkman went from questionable to powerful, and even Pujols seemed to get on track. You think we can just hang out there this weekend instead of heading to LA? Bernie Miklasz takes on Yadier Molina and his offensive approach. Yadi really is not looking good, but hopefully a day off yesterday can help get him on track. Or I could dog him on Twitter, like I did Laird yesterday before he went off for three hits. Cards head back to California to take on the Dodgers in another late-night tilt. (It's going to be a little strange next Tuesday when they actually play at 7:15!) If you didn't last night, I urge you to give a listen to the UCB Radio Hour, because we had Alex from Dodgerfan.net on talking about this upcoming series, as well as some social media stuff. Jaime Garcia takes the mound against the Dodgers tonight. Not surprisingly, since Garcia's only been in the league basically one year, they don't have a lot of experience with him.
Not much there to work with. The way the Dodger hitters have been going, though, Garcia's going to have to be in top form to be competitive tonight.
 Filed Under: Arizona Diamondbacks
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Playing Pepper 2011: Los Angeles DodgersPosted on March 9, 2011 at 11:01 AM
Two years ago, I started a series I called Playing Pepper, where I asked questions of bloggers of each major league team about the season to come. Not only was that informative and entertaining, it led to the spawning of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. With spring training coming up, it's time to get back into shape by again playing a little pepper. Los Angeles Dodgers (80-82, 12 GB and fourth in the NL West) The Dodger franchise used to be one of stability. Same managers, same players, same success. It's not like they've never been controversial--remember, this is the franchise that moved from Brooklyn to LA--they have been, on the whole, a well-oiled machine. That has not been the case as the divorce of owners Frank and Jamie McCourt has shadowed the team's performance on the field. After a trip to the '09 NLCS, expectations for a repeat of that were high out on the West Coast, only to see them stumble through the year. I rounded up a couple of Dodger bloggers to talk about their team. Matt writes for Feeling Dodger Blue, another member of the Blogs By Fans family and is the head of the BBA LA chapter. You can also find him over in the Twitterverse. Alex and Chris Volk write for Dodgerfan.net. Not only are they members of the BBA, but they are one of the few blogs that has been offered media credentials by the Dodgers. You can keep track of them on Twitter as well. Follow on for more talk of the McCourts and how it'll impact the 2011 squad. Who Are These Guys?Posted on July 19, 2010 at 10:34 AM
Is it possible that, during the All-Star Break, aliens abducted the St. Louis Cardinals and replaced them with clones? Or that Tony La Russa gives an amazing motivational talk when he has three days to prepare? It could be, perhaps, that this is a great starting team, as they tore up the beginning of the first half as well.Whatever the reason, it hardly seems like the same squad that frustrated us so much in the first 81 games. After winning the first two games, it'd have been easy to see things slip away. Instead, the Cards pull off the sweep and tie their longest winning streak of the year. Of course, when you have Adam Wainwright going at home, no matter what half you are in, you are looking good. After Saturday's game, Waino is 10-0 with a 1.31 ERA at Busch Stadium. If I remember the stat from SportsCenter correctly, that ties Hal Neuhauser for the best ERA at home this deep into a season. What I also found interesting is that Wainwright is now second in the NL in ERA, passing up Ubaldo Jimenez. He's only one win behind Jimenez, who has been the frontrunner for the Cy Young for quite some time. Josh Johnson is a threat as well, with his 1.62 ERA, but if Waino keeps it close in that category, the fact that right now he has four more wins than Johnson should come into play. There was a line of thought that Waino had peaked too soon, finishing in the top three in the Cy Young the year before his contract rewarded him for it. It's looking like top three just might be where he's going to reside for a while. With the heat, TLR didn't push Wainwright, so you have to give credit to the bullpen, who had done great work the night before and held the Dodgers scoreless in this one as well. Save the occasional hiccup (of which we will discuss soon), the bullpen has been fairly solid most of the year, the Colorado series excluded. Kyle McClellan has especially stepped up, posting an ERA under 2 and, in a world where there were some bullpen arms (say, perhaps, Chris Perez and Jess Todd), he'd have made his bid to be that fifth starter. Instead, he's made himself too valuable to move out of the 'pen. On the downside, Colby Rasmus really looked lost in this game. Three strikeouts in a 0-4 day is not what we want to see out of the youngster, though the report afterwards that he's feeling some weakness in his legs may have led to some of that. It also makes me worried that, at least for some folks, he's going to become the next JD Drew--a talented outfielder that doesn't show much emotion and often has some sort of ailment. I never was one of those that was hard on Drew and I don't think people are going that way with Rasmus now, but the similarities are starting to be there. So the series is won, the heat is strong, and so TLR runs out the scrubs on Sunday, with no Rasmus, Albert Pujols, or Yadier Molina. There is no way this team wins this game in the first half of the season. Yet these clones found a way. Honestly, after Mitchell Boggs had done his meltdown and allowed three runs in the game, I was fairly sure the game was over. I mean, a four-run lead with the big guns in the Dodger bullpen available? I really was thinking that Matt Holliday's flyout with the bases loaded and two out the inning before was the game-changer. A hit there, they get a lead, things maybe are different. 4-0 with these guys, though? Pack it away. And yet, it wasn't. Allen Craig had the two innings of his life so far in the bigs, driving in the first two runs and then, down to the final strike of the game, tying it up with a single off of Jonathan Broxton. Everyone did their part, as Pujols even got the count to 3-2 before hitting it sharply to short for the last out of the eighth. Those extra pitches added up for Broxton, and after Craig's tying single, it was just a matter of time before the Cardinals won. Holliday didn't make them wait long with his long RBI walk-off single. It's the first time in a long while that I have been so wrapped up in a game. I was able to watch almost all of Sunday's contest and, even though the temptation was there to turn it off after Boggs's outing, I'm glad I stayed with it. The eighth and ninth were impeccable dramas, the kind that it seemed teams earlier in the last decade turned out with semi-regularity. It's hard not to feel that a special second half is coming. And I've given a lot of grief to Brendan Ryan over the months, so I have to salute him when he comes through. He had a hit, drew two walks in situations where, as he did Friday night, he could have been too aggressive and swung, and then got down the sacrifice in the late rally. (Trust me, I think he could hear me yelling to get the bunt down after he popped up his first attempt!) I'd like to see Ryan make the comeback as well, though he's looked like he was in the past and then regressed. The Reds lost yesterday, so the Cards are in first by half a game as they face the Phillies while the Reds get the Nationals (and, on Wednesday, Stephen Strasburg). If the Redbirds are still in first when they hit Chicago Friday, look out NL Central. Mark McGwire has been pretty quiet this season. It's a little jarring when they pan the dugout and you see him there, white beard and all, taking notes and watching the action. There hasn't been a lot stirring around him, though there have been questions whether he's been effective with the team. After this weekend, though, he's pretty proud of his charges. Perhaps they have finally adjusted to the new guy. We'll have to wait and see. The last comment on yesterday's game: I note in the McGwire story the note that Joe Torre, who was having his birthday yesterday as well as Allen Craig, had a worse birthday game when he managed St. Louis, being up 11-0 and losing 15-12. That is one game that is burned into my brain. I still remember watching that one, since we got the Houston sports station back then, and just couldn't believe how the Cardinals were collapsing. It's proof that, in baseball, it ain't over until it's over. We sit now 13 days from the trade deadline. John Mozeliak, fresh off his well-deserved extension, is going to have to make a move for a pitcher since it looks like, at this rate, we've seen the last of Brad Penny and we can't be entirely sure when Kyle Lohse will return. There's no way a championship-level rotation should have both Suppan and Blake Hawksworth in it. If nothing else, it wears down the bullpen. What Mo is going to do, I don't know, but hopefully he'll come up with something. Cards and Phillies tonight on FSMW and ESPN. St. Louis does face noted Cardinal killer Kyle Kendrick. Statistics against the current crop of Birds:
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