On Tuesday, 15 runs on 14 hits and 5 homers. Wednesday, we almost tied it at the last moment, but the rest of the game was deadsville. And then, last night, with two on and no outs in the 8th, the mighty Mookie struck out. Then the $700-million man struck out. Then “Freddie, Freddie, Freddie” struck out.
To compound the disappointment, in the 9th, after Teoscar Hernández eked out a walk and went to 2nd on a balk, Andy Pages had a full count and, you guessed it, struck out! Next, Jay-Hey saw 9 pitches before he too struck out. And the capper for the evening? Pinch-hitting Clutch Cargo, Will Smith, very feebly struck out, leaving Hernández stranded on 2nd while the Rangers celebrated winning the series.
To quote Kevin Kline in “A Fish Called Wanda,” “I’M DISAPPOINTED!”
Gilbert Romero always in a sombrero. He bleeds Dodger Blue! (It’s a haiku!)
Yesterday, I expressed my fear that we may have used up all the gas in our tank in the first game against the Rangers on Tuesday. Last night, that fear was realized as Texas cowed our anemic offense, 3-2. Ironically, it was beloved former Dodger shortstop Corey Seager who delivered the death blow with a 3-run homer in the 5th. The cheers his return to the Ravine was greeted with quickly turned to vicious boos.
It got exciting at the end, as Jason Heyward — with Will Smith on 2nd and Andy Pages on 1st — clobbered a 2-out double to deep right field, scoring Smith. But Pages missed a sign from Dino Ebel to hold at 3rd, and he was thrown out trying to score the tying run. Game over. Wah-wah-wah. Darn it!
I went to the game by myself, but an old friend from The Times, Carlos Lozano, showed up to keep me company. We had a great time, even though the outcome wasn’t what we wished it had been.
Holy cow! I just hope the Dodgers didn’t use up all their homestand home runs in one game!
What a slugfest that was last night. It was hard to believe it was even happening, there were so many homers and important hits, like Mookie Betts‘ 3-run double that tore the game open in the 4th. In the 6th inning, 10 Dodgers batted, scoring 7 runs on 6 hits (4 of them round-trippers)!
Not exactly the pitching duel I like to watch. In fact, in the 7th, the Rangers (reigning World Series Champions) had their backup catcher, Andrew Knizner, come out with bases loaded and a 14-2 deficit to do their dirty work on the mound. But to tell you the truth, he turned out to be more effective than their real pitchers. He lobbed the ball like it was batting practice, but only gave up a sac fly and one walk. And he had a 1-2-3 inning in the 8th.
The real batting practice came off Grant Anderson in the 6th, when the Dodgers were ahead, 7-1, with one out and Mookie walked. Shohei Ohtani blasted a home run to right field, and Freddie Freeman (who went 3-for-4 by the way) followed with another homer. Will Smith hit a single before Teoscar Hernández did what he does best: he clobbered the ball over the left field wall.
But a 12-1 advantage wasn’t enough for these greedy boys. After a lineout to left by Gavin Lux, Andy Pages smoked a single down the 3rd-base line, and Jason Heyward sent Anderson’s last pitch into the visitors’ dugout. Hey ya!!!
I just hope they still have some in the tank for tonight!
Side note: Whoever posts the pitch counts on the scoreboard kept counting the fourth ball in a walk as a strike, and there were a lot of walks (10 altogether). So the pitch counts were completely wrong throughout the game. What a numbskull!
Piewalla's Dodger Blues 