Archives for posts with tag: Josh Beckett

Series StatsThere is no logic in baseball. Look at those series stats. On paper, they out-hit us, out-scored us and played better defense. We should not have taken three of four games from the Philadelphia Phillies. But we did.

The Dodgers won a completely comfortable 6-1 victory yesterday, and they all looked relaxed and playful while they were doing it. The problem for the Phillies was that ⅔ of their runs and 40% of their hits were all in the one blowout game on Friday night, whereas the Dodgers spread things out among the other three games. That’s what I’m talking about.

Only four games from the top at the halfway point. Not bad (even though it still is last place). But the momentum of the entire division has shifted, and we are making our move.

I wish the management weren’t such money-grubbing bastards. The Top Deck is and always has been the people’s perch, the home of the truest of True Blue fans. But they have monetized it to where it’s almost as elite as Field Level. What a shame. I’d be going to the ballpark every night to root on this team.

Matt Kemp makes the last out in the top of the ninth with two men on to save the Dodgers' bacon.

Matt Kemp about to make the last out in the top of the ninth with two men on to save the Dodgers’ bacon.

OK. It’s official: The Dodgers are hot all of a sudden.

The way this season has been going, the fact that the Dodgers won their fourth in a row (for the first time this year) and advanced one game on every other loser in the division means the team is on roll.

The 6-5 win over the Giants was a nail-biter, huh? I stopped watching when they brought Brandon League in, because it’s kind of like watching “Of Mice and Men.” You know what’s going to happen, and it’s just too sad to think about.

“Brandon, as you know,” Vin Scully so gently put it, “has been through some frustrating times this year.”

So have us fans, but we have other beautiful things to remind us why we love the Dodgers: Scully himself, for one; Mark Ellis; Matt Kemp.

I feel so very sorry for Brandon League. He really does seem to want to excel, but something is making that not happen. He cannot pitch, and it would be very depressing to be a pitcher who cannot pitch. I just hope Don Mattingly will admit what all the fans already know. There is no scenario, except — maybe — a lead of 7-10 runs, in which League should be allowed to take the mound. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point, and it just makes it worse for everyone.

But on the bright side, we won! We beat the Giants! We took the series! Clayton K-K-K-Kershaw is pitching tonight! Home runs are popping out all over! It almost feels like we might be somewhat going someplace. (I don’t want to jinx it.)

Blog note
I have decided to link to the box score from my posts from now on, so if you want to see the stats, click on the link above (where the score is mentioned in the text).

Back-to-Back Home RunsNot only did Adrian Gonzalez and Hanley Ramirez hit back-to-back home runs in the 9th inning today (the first time for any Dodgers this season), but they won, believe it or not, for the second time in a row. Wow! That constitutes a string for this team.

The two dingers lifted the Dodgers out of a 1-1 tie just in time to call in Kenley Jansen to save the thing. So a 6-1 win Saturday, and a 3-1 victory Sunday, that makes a great weekend, even if it means a split series and no ground gained in the standings. At least no ground was lost, either, right? (I’m trying to make lemonade out of the lemons we have all been handed as Dodger fans, all right?)