My view of Shohei completing his tour of the bases in the 7th inning last night. I love how it wasn’t so exciting that the guy in front of me forgot to grab his girl’s ass!
The Dodgers swept the Giants last night, but the big news was the dam has been burst, the ice has broken, Shohei Ohtani is a virgin no more! His homer not only earned him a sunflower seed shower, but also made the difference in a tight game as we edged San Francisco, 5-4.
Tyler Glasnow was great again through five innings. He hit a snag in the 6th, but managed to get out of it with the lead intact, thanks to heads-up defense by Mookie Betts, Max Muncy & Freddie Freeman.
Every guy in our lineup got on base, and Miguel Rojas hit his second homer of the year. (We need to rename the area at the end of the left-field line Miggywood!)
But the big news was, it finally happened. What the world has been waiting for. Shohei started earning some of that gazillion dollars they’re paying him with a beautiful bomb to center-right. (The goon squad immediately collected the girl who got the ball in the Right Field Pavilion and ushered her into the depths of Dodger Stadium, pay-day imminent!)
It wasn’t just the end of his dry spell, it was also what proved to be the game-winner, after Daniel Hudson dealt Jorge Soler a pitch he knocked into the Left Field stands in the 8th.
With another Evan Phillips save, we sewed up the sweep and finished the home stand 6-1 and in 1st place!
Dodgers on the corners with Will Smith (batting .500) at the plate. I like our odds.
Great, no-doubt-about-it win last night. I like that. When we take the lead, keep the lead and don’t have to work in the bottom of the 9th.
Lots of solid hitting, including a 3-run bomb from Téoscar Hernàndez (his 4th in 4 games). We also got dependable pitching despite walking 6 batters. I never heard of James Paxton before, but the new pitcher got the job done.
It’s always nice to beat the dreaded Giants. Let’s hope the trend continues tonight!
J.D. Martinez singled and doubled as one of three starters for the National League in the All-Star Game in Seattle on July 11. The Dodgers also sent starters Freddie Freeman & Mookie Betts, and as substitutes, catcher Will Smith and pitcher Clayton Kershaw.
Not only did the Dodgers have three of the starting nine players for the National League in the All-Star Game on Tuesday, we also swept the Angels in spectacular fashion a few days earlier, winning the Freeway Series 11-4 on Friday (July 7) and 10-5 on Saturday (July 8)! It was so sweet to see those smug American Leaguers in our house having the pants beaten off them! And we tied Arizona for first to boot! Way to finish the first half!
Then — wonder of wonders! — I went to Vegas to place a bet on my perennially disappointing NL All-Star team, and miraculously, with a very scary finish, we WON! It was the first time since 2012!
What a fucking nail-biter, though! I could only barely watch. Actually, in the bottom of the 9th, after swapping 1-run leads with the AL all night, when they announced Craig Kimbrel as the closer in a 3-2 game, my PTSD set in. I felt like I would faint, or throw up, or both. So I left the room.
Phillies closer Craig Kimbrel used to be a Dodger, and fans of the Boys in Blue have PTSD over the experience.
My brother thought I was nuts. He yells to me in then other room, “Pammy, he got the first guy out!”
“Give him time,” I say, remembering all those 9th innings last year when the Dodgers had the game sewn up only to see that Chicken Man cluck it all to hell.
“Pammy! He’s got two outs, and two strikes on the third batter!”
“Been there! Done that!”
Back in those dark days, watching his stupid wing-spread windup, I couldn’t help thinking “the first two outs are the easy ones, it’s the third that counts!”
“Oh no!” I hear from my brother.
Kimbrel has gone from an 0-2 count to walking the batter. Not once, mind you, but twice! (I wonder what catcher Will Smith was thinking. He was behind the plate on many of Kimbrel’s meltdowns for us, and now here he was on baseball’s biggest stage reliving horrors from his past.)
Two men on, two outs, two strikes. I felt like my heart would likely explode when I heard the inevitable CRACK! of the home run, and the roar of that American League stadium.
But no! After the epic disappointments we Dodger fans have suffered at the hands of Craig Kimbrel, he finally made good, striking out the Guardians’ Jose Ramirez and actually saving the game for the National League.
And not only that, but he was also one of the pitchers in 2012 when the NL won the last time. Pretty sure that’s just a coincidence. I still think he sucks. He just got lucky this time.
Piewalla's Dodger Blues 