September 18, 2001

Playing just their second game since the season was halted for a week because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Dodgers lost again, falling to the San Diego Padres, 3-2, at Dodger Stadium before a crowd of 28.473. The Dodgers record fell to 78-67, four games behind first place Arizona, although the Giants were two games ahead of the Dodgers.

Dodgers manager Jim Tracy started Terry Adams against San Diego's Kevin Jarvis. And Adams got an early lead in the second. Left fielder Gary Sheffield led off with a walk. Catcher Paul Lo Duca flied out. First baseman Eric Karros then grounded a hit-and-run single to right to move Sheffield to third. Third baseman Adrian Beltre singled in Sheffield.

After giving up a leadoff double to Rickey Henderson, Adams set down 12 straight Padres until third baseman Phil Nevin walked in the fourth with two outs. Right fielder Bubba Trammell followed with a home run to put the Padres up 2-1.

Trammell's homer was the last hit Adams would give up in his eight innings of work. Adams struck out five and walked two in eight innings of work. However, Jarvis was just as good, giving up four hits, but only one run.

Matt Herges came into relieve in the ninth for the Dodgers. He gave up a one-out single to Ray Lankford, but got Nevin to strike out. But Herges walked Trammell and then gave up a single to first baseman Kevin Witt to give the Padres a 3-1 lead.

In the ninth, Trevor Hoffman came in. He gave up a leadoff single to right fielder Shawn Green. Green stole second and came around to score on a fly out by Sheffield and a ground out from Lo Duca. But Karros struck out to end the game.

The Dodgers didn't fare too well after the interruption to the season. They went 8-11 once play resumed and finished the season in third place with an 86-76 record, six games behind Arizona. The Giants finished in second, two games out, but were knocked out of playoff contention by the Dodgers on October 5 when the Dodgers pulled out an 11-10 win. The game featured Barry Bonds record-setting 71st home run (as well as his 72nd). But Green hit his 49th and center fielder Marquis Grissom hit his 21st. The game took 4:27, the longest 9-inning game in Major League history.

The Dodgers had two great corner outfielders in 2001 in Green, who hit 49 homers, drove in 125 runs and batted .297 and Sheffield, who hit 36 home runs with 100 RBI. Although Grissom hit 21 home runs, he batted just .221 with a .250 OBP. Lo Duca hit a career-high 25 home runs and batted .320. Beltre missed much of the season with complications from an appendectomy and batted .265 with 13 home runs.

The Dodgers pitching staff was not its strength. Chan Ho Park had his best season, going 15-11 with a 3.50 ERA with most of his success coming at home. He had a 2.36 ERA in Los Angeles and a 4.83 ERA on the road. Adams moved between the rotation and the bullpen and went 12-8 with a 4.33 ERA. Eric Gagne was expected to help out the starters, but he was 6-7 with a 4.75 ERA. Rookie Luke Prokopec raised hopes for a while, but the Australian finished with an 8-7 record and a 4.88 ERA. Kevin Brown, the expected ace of the team, was limited by injuries to just 20 games and went 10-4 with a 2.65 ERA.

Jeff Shaw led the bullpen with 43 saves, but had a relatively high ERA of 3.62. Herges pitched in 75 games and was 9-8 with a 3.44 ERA.

The season was topsy-turvy. The Dodgers lost on May 1 to the Cubs 20-1. And on July 21, the Dodgers won in Colorado by a 22-7 mark.

The pitching staff would be overhauled in the off-season. Park and Adams left as free agents. Shaw was not given a new contract and he retired. Prokopec would be traded to Toronto for a new shortstop, Cesar Izturis, and middle reliever Paul Quantrill.

And the return of an old hero and some new blood thanks to a disgruntled left fielder would help out in 2002. But Dodgers fans wondered if there was going to be a suitable replacement for Jeff Shaw.

Thanks to the Los Angeles Times, Baseball-reference, and Retrosheet.

Posted early this morning after reading the Jackson article. As far as the call-up of Broxton is the reason that no other Suns are coming up do to service time issues? The rest part seems a bit weak. Another bat or perhaps a first baseman like Loney would seem to be very useful?

Best. Show. Ever.

As for James Loney, I just don't see the big need for him. The Dodgers literally have more first basemen than they know what to do with.

Lord but I'm glad this is almost over. This season has been one long, slow slide. The highlight for me was the Adam Dunn Scouting Excursion (the night Freel ran freely). As Jon said, it's a bad season when Gagne's injury doesn't even make the final cut for lowlights.

Perhaps it's my oversensitivity but the media, especially the locals, seem to be greeting the Dodger struggles with the barely disguised glee normally seen in those people who show up at fires and cheer for the flames.

It's also 2-0 Cleveland in the third.

So nobody has wistful remembrances of the 2001 season?

Some folks at BTF have said that the Gagne/Prokopec thing was never a choice. The Jays either really wanted Prokopec and he was their prime target or the Dodgers didn't want to give up Gagne.

I can't seem to remember the circumstances and I could be totally wrong on this one.

http://www.all-baseball.com/dodgerthoughts/archives/013894.html

Artfully phrased.

Which is why I wouldn't mind seeing Loney now. The Dodgers remind me of a time in my life when I was caught between two unsatisfying relationships. I didn't know who I wanted to be with. Neither of the women involved were sure they wanted to be with me. Every date ended up in a long, searching conversation. It seemed like it would never end, and then I met someone else who was unlike either one of them, was incapable of having a long, searching conversation, and off I went into a decade of uncomplicated happiness.

I hope next season's roster is devoid of Phillips and Choi, and that Saenz is pencilled in as a part-time player and pinch hitter extraordinaire. For good measure, I also hope we have a new manager. And I hope all of this happens within a week of the World Series so this crowd can find something else to talk about for the off-season.

I actually recall enjoying much of the 2001 season, except for September. Wasn't that the year Sheffield, who'd been having a great year, disappeared in September?

Pitching pitching pitching pitching...

8-0 Cleveland after 3. Lima's ERA is 6.95 now.

So how did the Dodgers lose to him?

I guess Lima is a "big-game" pitcher.

His ERA is 6.84.

Surprisingly, he gave up no home runs.

vs

Winn CF
Vizquel SS
Feliz 1B
Bonds LF
Alou RF
Durham 2B
Alfonzo 3B
Matheny C
Lowry P

We need to hit the ball to the OF as much as possible...

While I do not agree with some of Tracey's moves I do not think he deserves to be fired. In my opinion he bears only a portion (a small portion) of responsibility for this season's failures and if you fire Tracey you better fire the Owner, GM and some of the players. That said, I would not mind seeing Tracey exercise his opt out. Not because I want him gone but because if we are going to employ a new philosophical approach (new to the Dodgers, at least), then lets give it its best chance. Let's do it with everyone on the same page. If the experiment is to succeed, or fail, lets get all the the parts moving in the same direction at the same speed. Not some in one direction, others not moving at all and some in the opposite direction. Only then will we know if the "master plan" can work. For me, that is the only reason JT should go.

One last thing, at least for today,I have reached the unsettling conclusion that we should have Bradley back. Do I want him? No. Do I like him? No. But the other options are prohibitively expensive or too unproductive.

And Choi doesn't start against righties because Tracy does not want to take away the success that Choi has had against righties by having him face other righties.

Lowry is around 60 pitches right now, looks like it could be a short game for him if he can't keep the counts a little lower

Which just means, of course, that I agree with him.

Why did he decide to have a few good months once he joined the Giants? Why couldn't he play at his old miserable Seattle-Tampa Bay like quality?

Late season game between Dodgers and Giants has three guys making random comments about it.

Phillips in the ondeck circle. Everyone can get their Phillips-hatred out early.

On October 8, Cal travels to the Rose Bowl in the "Bob Timmermann Internal Conflict Bowl."

Can Robles?

It was a hit and run. Robles had to swing.

13 games left of Buntermaker... Nothing like stealing another inning with a hit-n-run. Robles takes and its bases juiced.

Somehow, I think Moreno will make some money off the deal.

Despite the Angels' much better record in recent years, Dodgers games still get better ratings.

Navarro's got a bright future on the Dodgers.

But the L.A. record is 72, not 62. The Dodgers got hit 72 times in 2003 thanks to the presence of Mike Kinkade.

Werth almost got another break on that pitch from Kinney.

Drew got to 5.....

Matheny gives Kinney a chance to pick up the win!

Unreal.

He had Fick sacrifice.

In 5 innings, Russ Ortiz has thrown 100 pitches. He has given up 6 hits, walked 4 and hit a batter.

Colorado has stranded 8 runners so far.

This game is classic Russ Ortiz.

Surprisingly, the DBacks haven't done much against Jeff Francis, who was serving up BP to the Dodgers earlier in the week.

Of course it's not likely his spot will come up again.

1) the Dodgers have scored a ton of runs and are ahead
2) the Giants scored about six or seven runs in the bottom of the eighth.

Somewhere the ghost of Don Drysdale wails in anger.

Cynic that I am, pitchers who did that would be warned repeatedly and then ejected. Barry's BOX OFFICE, man!

Go Padres! Beat the Nationals.

In his 8th season in the majors, Alex Cora has been hit 57 times!

I have no idea what this next thing means for Kuo. But the Bonds homer likely means he's done for the season

Tracy said he's waiting for the right situation to get Kuo back on the mound.

"Will we get to that in the last two weeks of the season? We'll get to it," Tracy said.

Honeycott must have left or some reason (he was our extra Sept coach). Now we get Jerry Royster. If Venafro gets called up, he and Tracy will make sure Venafro plays every game

Prediction: Angels will beat the Giants again in the 2005 World Series, only this time, the Halos will score the winning run and win the 7th game when, on an 0-2 count in the bottom of the ninth, Armando Benitez hits Daren Erstad with a pitch with the bases loaded.

Of course, this makes sense, so Tracy probably wouldn't buy it.

The Dodgers and DBacks will finally catch up in the number of games played a week from tomorrow when the Dodgers play and the DBacks are off.

The Padres magic number is 9.

The Giants magic number for clinching second place is 12.

For the record, I don't advocate any pitcher deliberately trying to injure another player. But pitchers don't try to intimidate Bonds in any manner it seems.

Craig Biggio wears one also. Is it coincidental that he has been hit more than anyone else not named Hughie Jennings?

"I had a long conversation with some of the best managers, Jim Tracy, Dusty Baker. They said why not do it, why risk losing" I butchered the last part (I don't have the best memory for quotes), but that's the general idea. Jim must be quite happy to have his bullpen tactics compared to Dusty Baker

Ortiz
Aquino
Villareal
Worrell
Bulger
Cormier

The earliest day the Padres could clinch would be Friday at Arizona.