Dodgers Diaries

Casey Blake talked his way into a Dodger victory Monday night. With the game tied at 4, thanks to a double error by Kelly Johnson that allowed two runs to score, Blake found his way to third base with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. The bearded one who had called out Ted Lilly a few days earlier for not being on the rubber started pretending to steal home. His darting caused D’backs reliever Esmerling Vasquez to step off the rubber, but not before he apparently flinched his left leg.

The balk was so slight that it never should have been called. You hate to see a game decided on something as picayune as this. The point of the balk rule is to prevent the pitcher from deceiving the runnner. Vasquez was not trying to deceive Blake, so there was no reason to call the balk, even if his left leg did flinch a tiny bit as he was moving his right leg off the rubber.

Go back and look at the tape and you'll see Blake and and third base coach Larry Bowa flail their arms in hopes of persuading the umps to call a balk. It worked. The second base umpire didn’t call a balk until after he saw them going crazy, and the third base ump did an "I'm Brian and so's my wife" after he saw everybody else.

Just like you can’t argue balls and strikes, you can’t argue a balk, which is why Arizona manager A. J. Hinch didn’t. The way his team has been playing, it’s just one more way they’ve found to lose a game lately. He probably figured they were going to lose one way or another. At least the balk got everyone home early.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL