Archives for posts with tag: Dodger
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.

MY SCORECARDS
Game 69: Rangers 3-Dodgers 2

Everybody got a Joe Kelly jersey last night.

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!

MY SCORECARDS
GAME 68: Dodgers 15-Rangers 2

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!

Teoscar Hernández hits one of two homers against the Cardinals on March 29. Saturday, he would repeat the feat to lead the Dodgers to a series win over the Yankees in New York. Oh yeah, and one of them was a slam! (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

OK, OK, the Dodgers can seem very inconsistent from time to time. Our bats can be dead as doornails one day and unstoppable the next. Our pitchers can strike out the side one inning, then give up home runs like there’s no tomorrow one frame later.

The Yanks, on the other hand, had an 8-game win streak going and the best record in baseball when the Boys in Blue put a stop to it Friday night, edging their longtime rivals, 2-1, in 11 innings. We killed them the next day, 11-3, and made them work for it Sunday, when New York bested us, 6-4.

I’m so glad we beat the Yankees. I was very worried about that series. I needn’t have fretted, however, especially on Saturday, when every Dodger had at least one hit, six of them had RBIs (including six for Teoscar alone). What a game! We had a 4-2 lead going into the 8th inning, then Wham, Bam, Thank You, Maam! — we scored 7 runs in the last two, highlighted by Hernandez’s Grand Slam.

I love the Dodgers. Starting tonight, I will go to five consecutive games. Stay tuned!