Dodger fans rallying to voice their protest on the Time Warner deal at Short Stop bar in Echo Park on Apr. 16, 2014. (Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times)

Though closer Kenley Jansen looked more like Brandon League out there in the ninth, the Dodgers held on to prevent a sweep by the Giants, winning 2-1 in a weird Thursday afternoon game by the beautiful San Francisco Bay.

Too bad it wasn’t available to most of us on TV. Good thing I have a phone with MLB At Bat, the only app I gladly pay for every year, just in case I can’t reach a radio or television set.

My old L.A. Times colleague (and my good friend) Chris Erskine has started the ball rolling on a protest movement, rallying True Blue Fans, like me, to take to the streets (or in this case a bar around the corner from Dodger Stadium) and let $tan Ka$ten and those Time Warner terrorists know that WE WANT OUR DODGERS ON TV!

Among Chris’ points in this great article from today’s paper: This deal jumped the shark, stripped the fans of watching what could be Vin Scully’s last year, and needs a top-level peacemaker, say Bill Clinton, to step in and get the two sides back to the bargaining table.

Dodger fat cat $tan Ka$ten need to get his monocle out of his ass and see how unhappy his precious fans are.

But in the meantime, $tan Ka$ten’s lip service is just a lot of hot air. Before the season, he said: “I am now concerned that some fans are not going to be able to see games. And that’s disappointing and shouldn’t be happening.” I call bullshit on this one! If Ka$ten thought even once about the fans, he wouldn’t have taken away the 50 completely free games (nearly one-third of the season) we all got every year on broadcast TV. I miss Tuesdays on KCAL-9, I miss Eric Karros’ and Gary Miller’s bobbing heads. 

I got news for you, Mr. Moneybags (aka Ka$ten), we Dodger fans are not going to bail your ass out of this one. We aren’t going to switch providers (many of us don’t even have the option). We aren’t going to force our own providers to bend over for TWC. You and the terrorists are going to have to figure out how to get the Dodgers into my home all by yourselves.

I’m sure I’ll end up paying way too much for it in the long run anyway.

Rally host Chris Erskine vents to Fox reporter Olga Ospina at the Short Stop.

So our star right fielder has a hit out on him, our Cy Young winner (well, one of them) is on the D.L., and most Angelenos can’t watch what could be Vin Scully’s last season calling games. It’s a weird year to be a Dodger fan.

We can’t do anything about Yasiel Puig’s death threats from Mexican drug cartels except duck if we hear gunshots. We can’t fix Clayton Kershaw’s back, we just have to wait patiently like he is. We can, however, express outrage and disappointment at the miserable fiasco that is SportsNet LA.

Last night, while the Dodgers were losing, 2-1, to the dreaded Giants, I joined my friend, L.A. Times columnist Chris Erskine, at a rally to let Dodger management and Time Warner Cable know we want our Dodgers, and we want them now!

Here is an excellent Fox 11 report on the protest, which was also covered by KNBC and KCAL:

The salient points raised by Erskine and his legion of diehard Dodger fans are that:

● Dodger management promised to make things better for fans that withstood the Frank McCourt era, and cutting a deal that blacks out 70% of all L.A. fans from seeing the games on TV is more about the Big Green Bucks than the True Blue Fans.

● This could be Vin Scully’s last season announcing games, and most of us can’t watch them. Three innings before Charley Steiner and Rick Monday on radio is just not enough Vin. No Vin? It’s a Sin!

● It’s not the fans’ job to put pressure on the cable companies to make a deal. We are the ones who are going to have to pay for it in the long run, we shouldn’t have to be the ones getting it done in the short run.

$tan Ka$ten and TWC better start realizing how angry Dodger fans are. And if they can get Angels games on TV, some Dodger fans might just start switching their allegiance from Blue to Red.

Now is the time to cut your losses and get a deal done that puts the Dodgers back on everyone’s televisions.

ENOUGH WITH THE LIP SERVICE, THINK ABOUT THE FANS!

And by that I mean ALL fans, not just the rich ones.

I agree that the only time the Dodgers can afford to bring relief pitcher Brandon League into the game is if they have a 6-run or more lead. But even then, it’s not a safe bet.

Witness yesterday’s ninth-inning near-disaster.

The Dodgers have an 8-2 lead coasting into the bottom of the ninth after another great start by Zack Greinke against Arizona.

Mattingly brings in the universally dreaded League to close up the game. Now, I’m sure Brandon League is a perfectly nice guy, and I know the Dodgers owe him a lot of money, but they will never win a World Series if they rely on him to contribute. He should not be in the big leagues anymore. He is done. He should take his millions and go surfing at Waikiki. Anytime the announcer states, “Now pitching for the Dodgers, Number 43, Brandon League,” every true blue Dodger fan cringes, some even recoil in horror. And almost always, their fears are realized.

First D’Back to the plate singles, second is hit by a pitch, third flies out (advancing first guy to third), fourth guy walks to load the bases. You can almost smell defeat breathing down our neck.

There is a coaching visit to the mound. Ya think?

We used to joke that what Kirk Honeycutt is saying in those visits is, “OK, the bases are loaded, now throw them something they can hit, so that we lose this game.” Our pitching staff has gotten better since then, with one exception.

League gives up a sac fly to score one run, then serves up a two-run double to Mark Trumbo, cutting our lead to 8-5.

It physically hurt to listen to this potential debacle unfold.

But luckily, Mattingly saw the error of his ways in time (instead of his usual waiting ’til it’s too late) and brought in Kenley Jansen to save the day.

The Dodgers held on to win, 8-5.