Archives for posts with tag: San Diego Padres
Dodger pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu gets one of three hits against D-backs pitcher Ian Kennedy on Saturday.

Dodger pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu gets one of three hits against D-backs pitcher Ian Kennedy on Saturday.

I’ll bet Matt Kemp is looking at Hyun-Jin Ryu right about now and thinking, “I’ll have what he’s having.”

In a 14-hit game, you expect one or two of the players to have multiple hits, right? But a rookie pitcher from Korea who has only been batting for two weeks? Give me a break. Ryu not only pitched well, got the win and struck out nine, he also got three hits — including a double — off Arizona pitcher Ian Kennedy.

Matt Kemp led the league this time last year in all major batting categories.

Matt Kemp led the league this time last year in all major batting categories.

A year ago, Kemp was leading the league in all major batting categories. Granted the season is only two weeks old, and he had surgery on his shoulder in the off-season, but he is really getting a slow start and striking out a lot. His batting average is .190, he hasn’t yet gone yard, and he has only 4 RBI. I’m sure he’ll come around, but in the meantime, it makes it just that much harder for the Dodgers to win games. He has stranded more men than Fletcher Christian.

As for Ryu, I heard Charlie Steiner razzing Chad Billingsley about Clayton Kershaw — who hit a home run on opening day — now being a better hitting pitcher than Bills is. Well, step aside, boys. That title on the Dodgers now belongs to Ryu.

Pitcher Clayton Kershaw had his first loss of the season.

Pitcher Clayton Kershaw had his first loss of the season.

Even the spectacular Clayton Kershaw is entitled to a bad day. But that’s when our bats have to come alive and make up for it. Didn’t happen this time, but at least no fist-fighting broke out.

I’m glad Matt Kemp didn’t get suspended for the melee in San Diego on Thursday. And Hairston just got one game, so that isn’t really a punishment. As for Carlos Quentin, he got off light: eight games. His actions cost the Dodgers our second best pitcher for eight weeks. It would almost be worth breaking my boycott just to jeer Quentin when he walks onto the field Monday night at Dodger Stadium. But I’ll probably be able to hear the boos from my house.

42Speaking of Monday, it’s Jackie Robinson Day, celebrating his breaking the color barrier in 1947. It’s also a huge promo for the new movie “42,” which I saw yesterday. It was pretty good. The acting was fine, especially Chadwick Boseman as Robinson. Harrison Ford did a good job as Branch Rickey, although it might have been better to have someone who naturally looks like Rickey, like Stephen Root or John Goodman, play him, so that it didn’t look like it was Indiana Jones with wild eyebrows.

Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson in "42"

Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson in “42”

The only thing is the movie didn’t have a lot of depth. It tells the story, and there’s some ugliness in the racism of some of the other players, the fans and some managers. But for me, it was a little too much on the surface. The script didn’t capture the very complicated man that everyone says Jackie Robinson was. Also, the racists are too easily won over. In the movie, the drama of the struggle wasn’t as agonizing or heart-wrenching as it must have been in real life.

But as my husband said, “It’s exactly the movie I came to see.”

Dodger pitcher Zach Greinke stands his ground against charging Padre Carlos Quentin.

Dodger pitcher Zach Greinke stands his ground against charging Padre Carlos Quentin.

Benches cleared, punches thrown, bones broken. I know Padres fans love to chant “Beat L.A.” but this was ridiculous! That Carlos Quentin, whom a livid Dodger Manager Don Mattingly rightfully called “stupid,” should be kicked out of baseball. He leans over the plate on a 3-2 count and then charges the mound when he gets hit? As Mattingly says, he doesn’t even know how the game works. What a maroon!

Now our No. 2 pitcher, Zach Greinke, is out with a broken collar bone.

I’ve never seen Mattingly so pissed off. I swear I saw steam coming out of his ears as he spoke with reporters after the game. He said Quentin should not be allowed to play until Greinke is able to pitch again. “If he plays before Greinke pitches,” Mattingly said, “something is wrong.”

The Dodgers won, miraculously, 3-2, on a pinch-hit solo homer by Juan Uribe, of all people. (It was Uribe’s second home run of the series.)

I was listening to the first inning when Adrian Gonzalez gave the boys in blue an early lead with a two-run homer, and I thought maybe it would be that breakout night when we would score tons of runs and embarrass the shit out of San Diego. But no. Those tons of runs were all left on base as we stranded 12 more runners, making our LOB in this early season a whopping 75. That has to be a record.

In fact after the brawl in the bottom of the sixth, the Padres tied it up, 2-2, making Uribe’s eighth-inning shot the game-winner. Woo hoo! But also, boo hoo! Greinke will be on the DL for up to six weeks, and Matt Kemp and Jerry Hairston face possible suspensions for their actions during the melee.

So we won and lost all at the same time.