Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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1) using profanity or any euphemisms for profanity
2) personally attacking other commenters
3) baiting other commenters
4) arguing for the sake of arguing
5) discussing politics
6) using hyperbole when something less will suffice
7) using sarcasm in a way that can be misinterpreted negatively
8) making the same point over and over again
9) typing "no-hitter" or "perfect game" to describe either in progress
10) being annoyed by the existence of this list
11) commenting under the obvious influence
12) claiming your opinion isn't allowed when it's just being disagreed with
You might have thought that the only way the Dodgers would score a 10-0 victory was if major league baseball converted to Base 3. Nothing would boost the Dodgers' offensive totals like a little bit of new math - which still treats a shutout like old math would.
Instead, Base 3 refers to where Juan Pierre ended up on the first of his four extra-base hits Tuesday, kicking off a pristine Dodger victory. It was the feel-good night of the year, with once-and-future maligned Dodgers like Pierre, Luis Gonzalez, Nomar Garciaparra, Tony Abreu, Brad Penny, Yhency Brazoban and Brett Tomko providing peak performances in the very same game.
Say what you will about the roster of Tuesday's opponent, the Washington Nationals, but the team had won 12 of their past 17 heading into the game. The Dodgers deserve credit for taking it to their opponent – even though it took them 6 1/2 innings to put the game out of reach.
I was kicking myself after the game for not buying low on Pierre and suggesting he was due for a big night soon. As much as I would like to see someone else playing center field, Pierre has been underperforming even our lowest expectations for him. He has always had this game in him, and it would have been a good time for a hunch bet. In any case, I'm thrilled that he did it – but no longer holding my breath for the next one.
There was something sad about Tomko coming out to mop up (even in a good way) when 20 days earlier, he was throwing 5 1/3 innings of no-hit ball at Florida. But that's what the game is for mediocre players like Pierre and Tomko – as always, it's not that they can never do well, it's that they can't do well consistently.
On a different scale, some will be wondering whether the second-half spike will again drop on Brad Penny, he of the season-long homerless streak and scintillating ERA. Dodger Thoughts commenter Bhsportsguy points out (in comment 428) that Penny has improved his groundball ratio to better than 2:1, so even without massive strikeouts, there is hope for him to maintain a good chunk of his effectiveness. My own feeling is that Penny's continued health will play as much a factor as anything. Penny can't go through the entire season without allowing a homer, but I'm hopeful that he can avoid the utter collapse of 2006 Part Deux.
One final note: Yes, Russell Martin should have been removed from the game in the bottom of the seventh. While he didn't need the rest coming off an off day, this was an opportunity to give him something extra at no cost. More importantly, had Martin gotten hurt in the final innings, it would have been the darkest moment of Grady Little's tenure here. There was no need to take the risk.
More prudent was Takashi Saito, who asked for some time off to rest a tired shoulder after pitching or warming up five consecutive days.
But the morning after 10-0 is not a morning I want to rain on anyone's parade. After so many close games, it was so nice to have a cakewalk.
* * *
Jason Schmidt has his first rehabilitation start at 11 a.m. with the Inland Empire 66ers of the Class A California League.
Tuesday night, Rancho Cucamonga's Anthony Ortega took a no-hitter into the ninth inning against the 66ers, but Blake DeWitt's bloop single broke it up. The teams were scoreless until the 12th inning before RC colaed the IE, 7-4.
* * *
Times beat reporter Steve Henson said he will be joining former colleagues Tim Brown and Dave Morgan at Yahoo! Sports. Whether Kevin Baxter, Ben Bolch or an outsider will replace him on the beat does not seem to have been officially determined.
All my best to Henson on this move.
Btw, First post!!! :D
For those who watched the game, were Pierre's hits "good" hits in the sense of being struck well, or was there a fair amount of luck involved (e.g. were they bloopers they just happened to fall in the right place)?
From what I can tell, this game wasn't really so different from his typical game these days. He saw a total of 13 pitches in 5 PAs (a ridiculously low 2.6 P/PA), and he hit 5 non-groundballs. If his 3 doubles and 1 triple were the product of a different approach to hitting, that would be one thing. But from what I can tell, he just did what he has done all year: not take pitches, and not hit groundballs.
I guess it was only a matter of time before his flyballs found grass instead of leather, but unless he actually did something different, I'm inclined to chalk it up to "luck" and expect him to return to 1-4 type games.
he also had a very questionable ball called on a 1-0 pitch during one of his at-bats.
vr, Xei
Washington: Barry,
Given that the Dodgers are in town I thought the timing of this question appropriate. Do you know why seats in the mezzanine have the Dodger interlocking "LA" on the sides? I take it that RFK bought some surplus Dodger Stadium seats a long time ago, but I've always found it bizarre.
Barry Svrluga: Wow, I haven't seen that. I'll check it out.
That's great news.
This seems out of left field. Martin's risk of injury was no greater last night than it is at any other time. Even if he had been injured last night, I don't think it would have been Grady's fault for leaving him in.
The concern about overplaying Martin is not that he'll risk an injury, but that he'll wear down over the course of the season.
If anyone cares, Kobe asked to be traded.
I'm telling you, if Martin had gotten hurt in the eighth inning last night, people would have gone ballistic.
For entertainment purposes only, of course.
Setting aside players and focusing only on cities, Chicago has been bantied around, and New York seems like an option as well. It's hard to see him going to a small market.
That would seem to be the most likely scenario, assuming you mean that he will stay with the Lakers.
As others have stated, the triple was a bit of a (310 ft.) floater that benefited from a shifted outfield, and all the other hits were well struck. His only badly hit ball was the only time he was retired. JP tomahawked at what I believe was high cheese and popped it up. He was probably feeling hot so he took a hack.
Hmmm...then what explains all of his previous hacks this season...?
why little didn't do it i have no idea. i rarely criticize grady, but he needs to do a better job of protecting our most valuable player.
I was just reading a Suns blog about proposed trade scenarios and they were talking about trading Marion and Amare.
*I haven't watched an NBA game for a couple of years. I just read the interwebs about these guys.
See... that's just the thing. It seems like they told him they had a plan. Unfortunately, that plan is in the same vault as Nixon's '68 plan for Vietnam.
They did win a title last yaer. Sure he is old and slow, but he is still draws the double team and makes his teammates better.
That is just begging for a rule-5-violating follow-up.
35 Free MILB gameday audio.
The Dodgers' were very effective in using the strategy of "hit the ball in Guzman's range but not actually right to Guzman." Watching him, I think Olmedo could get to more balls at short. I was wondering if they'd pull him like Frank Robinson did with LeCroy after like 7 guys ran on him.
That was the first time I had attended a game where the Dodgers played and they won, also Odalis Perez did not pitch and JD Drew did not go 0-5 for either team, bringing the Dodgers record in games I've attended to 1-2. In all three games, one team scored 10 runs. I don't know if this is a good sign though: In the first game Odalis Perez started, in the second game, Tomko started and Odalis pitched out of the pen, and in the third game, Penny started and Tomko pitched out of the pen.
Philly or Chicago in the East?
1 BB, 3 Ks
This is my starting point daily for dodger stuff.
Screaming kids...
Creepy.
This is my first stop for Dodger news. If there's news and it's not in Jon's post, it's either in the comments or in one of the sidebar blogs.
It's funny: I write this blog with the assumption that it is no one's first stop for Dodger news. Hence, you'll almost never see a game recap or notes that the beat reporters have, unless I have some commentary to add to them.
A few things have changed since then:
1. I rarely eat breakfast anymore
2. If I do, it's in front of my computer catching up on the latest baseball news
3. I get baseball news instantly from the internet, so there's nothing new for me by the next day
4. No local sports to care about
Plus, the LA Times beat writers are pretty mediocre at best, so there's not much incentive anyway.
BTW, Penarol1916, do you read newsprint?
by the way, did you guys notice this?
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=381
appeared yesterday--no doubt it provoked Pierre's performance.....
ps--the Yanks stink right now but not enough to take Tomko &/or Hendrickson off yr hands...
Denker just hit a double.
The twin pillars of MLB.TV and DT changed my baseball consumption habits.
Why Kobe? Why?
He is still in there for the 6th!
(pretty much says it all)
Six strikeouts, eight flyouts, two hits, a walk and a caught stealing.
Never, ever trade superstars bc its impossible to get equal value.
Kobe's too much of a competitor to tank games.
If the Lakers trade Kobe, I'm done with the Lakers until they sell the team. The Buss family has killed that organization over the last several years, starting with the Shaq trade.
Depending on how many pitches he threw and since he only faced 20 batters, it was probably in the 75-85 range, if his velocity was improved from his previous efforts this year, we could very well see him pitch against the Pirates on Monday or San Diego on Tuesday.
More blame is on Jim Buss and Jerry Buss for putting Jim in charge. Jim wants to run everything and he is not very good at his job at all.
I am not sure who that source was with the Lakers who supposedly told the Times that Kobe was involved but that was different to the tale they had been telling us since the trade was made.
That said, someone needs to step in soon.
It seems that Dodgers.com is always playing up Pierre as if to make up for all the negative press he recieves elsewhere.
For example, here are the first 2 paragraphs of the Dodgers.com write-up:
*To Moneyball disciples who worship on-base percentage, the Dodgers' signing of Juan Pierre and his recent promotion to leadoff hitter are compound head-scratchers.
Pierre made some sense out of it Tuesday night with a career-high four extra-base hits to support Brad Penny's seventh win, while the Dodgers toyed with the Nationals, 10-0.*
Now I don't mind them playing up our players a little bit, making them seem better than they are, but the whole thing, especially with Pierre, smacks very much of a PR department in panic mode.
Also, the sports pages are reading material during morning ablutions (insert scatological joke here).
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