At Least Russell Martin Homered
April 8, 2010 at 12:02 am | Posted in Clayton Kershaw, Joe Torre, Jonathan Broxton, Russell Martin | 9 Comments
When he wasn’t getting sandwiched by victorious Pirates…
Some short thoughts after a long day:
When you have a gift go-ahead run on 3rd with no outs in the 9th inning of a tie game, you must score. The Pirates were begging the Dodgers to take the lead, as Jamey Carroll got an easy double when Andrew McCutchen foolishly dove for his base hit, and then Octavio Dotel’s wild pitch pushed Carroll to third.
At this point, all you have to do is hit the ball to the outfield. Yet Rafael Furcal weakly grounded out to the pitcher, Matt Kemp watched strike three, and after an Andre Ethier walk, Manny weakly grounded out to second. Opportunity wasted.
Clayton Kershaw was killing me… After all the talk about how he should have been the Opening Day starter and how Vicente Padilla’s bad start wasn’t a big deal… Kershaw was brutal. He threw 109 pitches in just 4.2 innings and walked six – including the opposing pitcher, twice. If not for Jeff Weaver coming in to fix the bases loaded, two outs mess he left in the 5th, this could have been a lot worse. This wasn’t the Kershaw I saw dominating the Reds last week in Arizona; this Kershaw was wild and seemingly afraid to challenge. Though at this point, I’d be afraid to even make eye contact with Garrett Jones.
…but not quite as much as Joe Torre. I know the traditional move says to save your closer until you have a lead on the road, but I can’t express how much I hate, hate, hate that idea. You can’t get to a lead if you’ve lost the game beforehand, and watching undead Ramon Ortiz blow the game while Broxton watches is infuriating. I can’t restate this enough: your best reliever never entered the game, while three non-roster invites (two of whom, granted, performed well) did. I will never understand this.
Don’t forget the early game tomorrow (9:35am on the West Coast! How do you people do this?), but more importantly don’t forget this: tomorrow I will (through my relationship with Heater Magazine) be posting my first article in the new “Fantasy Beat” blog section over at Baseball Prospectus, focusing on relievers. If you’ve got a subscription, come on over to harrass me for talking about two NL West teams who aren’t the Dodgers.
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How does Carroll not come home on the Furcal ground out? You are right, the team needs to bring him in. However,
Comment by Br!an— April 8, 2010 #
Sorry about the half post.
However, how does Carroll not immediately bolt when he sees Dotel off the mound? Dotel would have had to backhand the ball to the plate or pull a spin throw home. This was not a hard call.
Comment by Br!an— April 8, 2010 #
Mike,
I need some sanity. Are we seeing a few rough starts from some banged up or tired players? Or an awfully mediocre 2005 retread team? A VERY emotionally-based question, I know. Two games in, long season, and all that. God, they have just looked horrible though (including the last 7 ST games). I must say, the umpiring tonight was totally inconsistent and the bullpen looked good except for Ramon Ortiz.
Comment by Harrison— April 8, 2010 #
It’s unbelievable how many fastballs they kept having Clayton throw. He clearly didn’t have command of it, yet only a handful of sliders and change-ups, at best. Do you happen to know if it’s Torre or Honeycutt calling the game?
Comment by KempKershaw— April 8, 2010 #
Wow … that photo has symbolic meaning beyond words.
Couldn’t agree with you more about using your closer in extra innings.
Comment by Greg— April 8, 2010 #
Man, if you just learn some of the subtle AP style guide rules such as how to use commas, quotations, and little things like its/it’s, you’d be on your way to a professional gig. You have the voice, just develop the skills. Take a journalism class at your local college. C’mon man. Do it!
Comment by Hawk— April 8, 2010 #
What in the hell are you talking about? There’s not even any quotes or uses of its/it’s in this post.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— April 8, 2010 #
Disagree with Torre’s move- ok…but it was the conventional play. Jeez…once last year Torre put Brox in the 8th because of matchups and Sherril in the 9th, and you would have thought he just invented the double switch or something by all the reaction. That’s how locked in we all are on THE CLOSER.
The rigidity of the “closer strategy” is its only weakness. Though baseball in general is sold on having “the guy” for only that save situation, sometimes that weakness of inflexiblity is pivotal. How many times have I been heartened sitting at Dodger Stadium while the team trailed in the ninth because anyone can see the other team’s closer doesn’t have it that particulat day? The reason is that I know the manager won’t take him out until the game is blown…after all, he is “the guy,” and if they go down, it will be with him on the mound. Unfortunately, the other side of that coin bit the Dodgers this time… you can’t bring him in without a save.
Comment by David Sheridan— April 8, 2010 #
[...] April 8: I know the traditional move says to save your closer until you have a lead on the road, but I can’t express how much I hate, hate, hate that idea. You can’t get to a lead if you’ve lost the game beforehand, and watching undead Ramon Ortiz blow the game while Broxton watches is infuriating. I can’t restate this enough: your best reliever never entered the game, while three non-roster invites (two of whom, granted, performed well) did. I will never understand this. [...]
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