Archives for posts with tag: Kenley Jansen

Dodger HRsWow! That was a lot of hits last night. The Dodgers have finally found power and consistency, and it’s about time. The season is now more than half over, and we remain 2½ games behind Arizona. But look at all the spectacular baseball we are playing!

Highlights of last night’s 10-8 win over Colorado were of course the four home runs, one each by Juan Uribe, Adrian Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez and Matt Kemp. Also, the first run when Yasiel Puig scored from second on a routine ground out. That was unexpected, to say the least.

With 17 hits and double-digit runs for the first time this season, the Dodgers have finally come alive, and while you’re watching them you feel confident and optimistic, as opposed to doubtful and depressed. I don’t know if one thing — like the appearance of the Manna From Havana — is responsible, but the chemistry and just sheer joy that the team exhibits now is undeniable and really great to see.

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.

Shortstop Hanley Ramirez roars his mightiest after scoring the walk-off winning run.

Shortstop Hanley Ramirez roars his mightiest after scoring the walk-off winning run.

It didn’t look good after blunders in the top of the ninth tied the game at 3. I bet the whole outfield and Kenley Jansen were feeling more heat than even the sweltering temperatures warranted. But for some reason, I was sure we were going to score in the bottom of the inning. I just had a feeling that it would be all right.

Catcher A.J. Ellis is hoisted aloft by right-fielder Yasiel Puig after hitting the walk-off RBI single that made fans forget Puig's ninth-inning blunder.

Catcher A.J. Ellis is hoisted aloft by right-fielder Yasiel Puig after hitting the walk-off RBI single that made fans forget Puig’s ninth-inning error.

And it was! Hanley Ramirez singled on the first pitch off Phillies reliever Justin De Fratus, and a couple batters later, A.J. Ellis did his usual schtick of seeing many pitches and then slamming one down the line into right field. It was a beautiful thing. And outfielders Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig led the assault on the hero after he made their ninth-inning miscues meaningless.

So with that 4-3 win over the Phillies, the Dodgers move to only five games out of first place. A week earlier, it was 9½, so they have made up considerable ground by playing like the team they should have been from the start.

Let’s keep it up, guys!