Dodgers Diaries

I’ve been to two Dodger games this year, and the team has lost both of them. But Sunday’s was so much more satisfying than the April 17 9-0 loss to Lincecum and the dreaded Giants. In that game, Charlie Haeger pitched in and out of trouble all afternoon, surrendering 7 runs in 3 innings, and was emblematic of all that plagued the Dodgers’ pitching staff. The defense was lousy, and the Furcal-less, Manny-less, Blake-less offense was inept, mustering just seven singles and a double, and not getting a runner to third base until the ninth inning.

Sunday’s game, but contrast, was more of a near miss. The Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 lead, courtesy of a Miguel Cabrera rocket off starter Hiroki Kuroda. But the Tigers scored in the first inning of the two previous games, only to go silent for the next five or six innings thereafter. And Sunday was no exception. Kuroda shut down the potent Detroit offense through the sixth, and would have pitched into the seventh had his spot not come up with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the sixth.

Manny Ramirez, hitting for Kuroda, grounded out weakly, though in his defense, his meager grounder was in the direction of Mannywood, even if it didn’t get out of the infield. In the tall tale of Manny being Manny, they’ll probably omit this deflating moment. That episode too was symbolic of this game. The Dodgers had many chances to win it, but kept coming up short. Mostly, they lost because they kept hitting the ball right at Tigers’ starter Rick Porcello, who will take his black and blue marks as long as they gave him the victory.

Porcello snared a Matt Kemp line drive in the first and turned it into a double play. An inch to the left or right and the ball goes through the middle for a run-scoring single. In the 4th, James Loney hit Porcello with another grounder, but the pitcher fielded it in time to get Kemp at second, and almost turned another double play. If that ball gets by Porcello, a run scores and there’s one out with men on firs and second instead of two gone and runners on the corners.

In the 8th, Ronnie Belliard hit into a double play subbing for Blake DeWitt, who made a nifty play in short right field, and Russell Martin hit into a tough ground out double play to end he game in the ninth. If the team had been scuffling all week, we’d point to this as another example of its ineptitude. But because they’ve been playing so well, I’m happy to chalk it up to the way the ball bounces over a long season.

The other constant in both games has been Garret Anderson starts in left field. Correlation with losing? You be the judge.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL

With their second straight victory over the Tigers, and their 16th in the past 20 games, the Dodgers are finally playing the way we all thought they could. Maybe even better than they could. During their nine-game win streak May 9-18), starting pitchers took the victory eight times, the lone exception being Jeff Weaver’s opportune entrance into the May 14 game against San Diego right before Matt Kemp hit a two-run homer.

That masked a mediocre performance by Ramon Ortiz, the fifth starter and lone weak spot in the rotation now that John Ely has solidified his hold on the No. 4 spot. Ely was his usual self again Saturday, mixing pitches and speeds to baffle the Detroit lineup for six-plus innings. His streak of 89 batters without a walk ended in the first inning, when he gave up two runs. He scattered hits over the next five innings without giving up another walk or a run to keep the Dodgers in the game, and the offense was up to the task, scoring their usual six runs.

In Andre Ethier’s absence, the load has been shouldered by a variety of players. Saturday, it was Casey Blake with three hits and a standout defensive play to help Jonathan Broxton preserve the lead, James Loney with two hits, Matt Kemp with his first homer in over a week, and Blake Dewitt with a two-RBI triple. We don’t hear much about Ronnie Belliard taking over at 2B these days, as Dewitt has quietly done a good job. Still no homers, but a .359 OBP is impressive enough from a guy who still hasn’t celebrated his 25th birthday.

With an off day Monday, the Dodgers don’t have to worry about a fifth starter until Saturday, May 29 at Colorado. I’d love to see Carlos Monasterios get another shot. He might not give you six innings, the way the rest of the rotation has been doing of late. But if he can go four or even five, the bullpen has been getting plenty of rest, and should be able to carry things the rest of the way.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL

No amount of Andre Ethier offense was going to make up for the Dodger pitching staff’s woes on Saturday. If Ethier had come to the plate 8 times, he probably couldn’t have hit enough homers to mask this ugly loss.

Charlie Haeger couldn’t throw his knuckleball for a strike, and the Giants waited on him to make a mistake, which he did plenty of. He was gone after three innings, trailing 7-0.

The Giants trailed 7-0 after two innings Friday, but managed to rally to come within 10-8 by the time it was all said and done. The Dodgers on Saturday mailed in the rest of the game.

Of course, Tim Lincecum was pitching, and he makes it easy to look like you’re not trying. But lazy and poor defense also came before, during and after the Giants’ offensive outburst. Even Joe Torre seemed to concede this one before it had even started. He rested not only Russell Martin for a day game after a night game, but also Casey Blake, Manny Ramirez and Rafael Furcal. I can’t blame him. Their replacements didn’t do much: Rafael Belliard missed an easy grounder in the first inning and Jamey Carroll, despite getting two hits, made an error in the fourth that opened the door to a big inning. Garret Anderson was involved in one of the weirder fielder’s choice plays I’ve ever seen (as a left fielder, no less), but whiffed twice in an 0-4 night.

Troubling signs the Dodgers have not held an opponent under 4 runs in over a week (Friday’s 7-3 win over Florida). They’ve gone 3-4 in that skein, thanks largely to timely hitting. I don’t hear any more talk about the Dodgers’ average with RISP. For them to win consistently, they’re going to have to pitch better, not hit better.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL

What does Blake DeWitt have to do to win a roster spot with the Dodgers? Fill in admirably at third base when both Nomar and LaRoche go down with injuries in 2008? Check.

Fill in admirably at second base when Jeff Kent goes down with an injury? Check.

Shuttle back and forth between Albuquerque and L.A. without a word of dissent throughout 2009? Check.

Hit the tar out of the ball in spring training 2010? Check.

So when Joe Torre says the fact that the team is only going to carry 11 pitchers at the beginning of the year is what allows them to keep DeWitt on the big league roster, it’s quite a backhanded compliment. The unspoken assumption, therefore, is that as soon as Hong-Chih Kuo or Ronald Belisario is ready to return to the team, Dewitt could be optioned back to AAA.

I’m not sure I see how this helps a young player’s development, something the Dodgers are going to be doing a lot of as the team scrimps and saves in the wake of the McCourts’ divorce.

DeWitt is the victim of a numbers game. Unlike pitchers Charlie Haeger or Carlos Monasterios, he can be returned to the minors without penalty. Unlike Ronnie Belliard or Jamey Carroll, he does not have a guaranteed major league contract. He may be better than either of these two utility infielders, but he has the least amount of leverage to contest a roster move. Why the Dodgers signed two utility infielders, neither of whom can play shortstop, is beyond me.

If it were up to me, I’d throw DeWitt into the starting job at 2B and let the other chips fall where they may. If that means cutting Ronnie Belliard and eating his $800,000 salary, so be it. With his weight issues, I wouldn’t be surprised if Belly ate some of it himself. If it means keeping 11 pitchers instead of 12 or 13, that’s fine too. I’ve always thought Torre overuses his bullpen. If you can’t win a pennant with a six-man bullpen, you’re doing it wrong.

If it means the team has to cut Nick Green and go without a true backup shortstop, then Rafael Furcal will have to man up a bit more and play all nine innings. He’s only 32. If he gets injured to the point where he has to go on the DL, Chin-Lung Hu is a phone call away. The harder call will be if Furcal has to miss 5-7 games -- too short a time to open up a roster spot.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL

Being a travel writer, I have to name Brian Barton as my new favorite Dodger. Being well-traveled isn’t exactly a feather in one’s cap in baseball terms. And indeed, the 28-year-old outfielder has seen his share of minor and major league towns since being drafted.

If he never sticks with a big league club, Barton has a promising career ahead of him as an aerospace engineer. I’m rooting that he gets to go out and play for a while before he settles into a desk job.

For a complete interview with Barton see the following story from the Riverfront Times.

Barton is among the 33 players who will make the Dodgers’ trip to Taiwan next week. Of course he is. With experience visiting more than a dozen countries, he’s better traveled than the rest of the roster put together. What’s interesting to me is how little international travel experience the rest of the roster has. From the Dodgers’ PR staff:

SEEING THE WORLD – A survey of the Dodgers’ Taiwan roster reveals that there are several international travelers in the group. Among the more unique places that Dodger players and coaches have traveled are Spain and Morocco (Jon Link), England (Josh Towers), Holland and Cuba (Chin-lung Hu), Brazil and Japan (Manny Ramirez), Belgium (J.D. Closser), Colombia and Panama (Ronnie Belliard), Germany and Italy (Lucas May), Argentina and China (Xavier Paul) and Saudi Arabia (John Shoemaker). Brian Barton is the most seasoned traveler, having visited more than a dozen countries, including Ethiopia and Peru.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL

Included on the list of players who will accompany the Dodgers on their March 10 trip to Taiwan is Ronnie Belliard. Yes, the same Ronnie Belliard who showed up to camp a couple of pounds over the 209 his contract requires. It’s a pretty lenient contract, however. All he has to do is be 209 or under at any point during spring training. A long flight across the Pacific might be enough to dehydrate the last two pounds out of him.

Others on the Taiwan excursion include James Loney, Manny Ramirez (the optimist says it’s so the Dodgers can keep an eye on him; the pessimist says it’s so he can restock his supply of performance-enhancing herbs), Eric Stults, Xavier Paul, Lucas May, and of course Taiwan natives Chin Lung Hu and Hong Chih Kuo.

On a separate note, Dodger Stadium looked a little bedraggled on Sunday for the college tournament. The signs on the outfield wall looked like they hadn’t been changed since October; there was still a “Postseason on TBS” banner in centerfield.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL

The Dodgers re-signed Brad Ausmus and Ronnie Belliard to deals worth $850,000 and $825,000 respectively. At those prices, it’s hard to argue that they made a mistake. But sometimes you measure a deal not in dollars and cents, but in opportunity costs.

Both players stand in the way of talented youngster’s development. I hope the Blake Dewitt era isn’t pushed back by the signing of Belliard, a free swinger who in my opinion lacks a good head for the game. Ausmus isn’t really thwarting the development of AJ Ellis, a 29-year-old minor leaguer, but it seems his greatest contributions were from being on the bench, something he could do as a coach without taking up a roster spot.

Finally, the Dodgers now have two utility infielders in Belliard and Jamey Carroll, neither of whom can play shortstop. With a rickety Rafael Furcal and his history of injury, they’re going to need yet another guy to play short once a week.

With Joe Torre’s habit of carrying 12 pitchers, that leaves a bench of five players: 1) Ausmus, 2) Carroll 3) Backup SS 4) Repko or some other 4th outfielder 5) Belliard/Dewitt whoever doesn’t start. Not exactly Murderer’s Row. Combined, these guys probably don’t hit a whole lot better than the pitcher they’d be replacing.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL

Joe Torre made an unexpected move by naming Clayton Kershaw his Game 1 starter. But if you factor in a desire to have Vicente Padilla start at home, the choice isn’t that surprising after all. Given the choice of moving one of his lefties to the road, Torre opted for the more seasoned Wolf, who spent the first eight years of his career in the city of brotherly love and is almost assuredly itching to show the Philly faithful what he has left in the tank.

The rest of the roster filled out almost in lockstep, with the same 11 pitchers as in the NLDS except for Kuroda replacing Garland. The hitters include the usual starting eight, plus Belliard (or Hudson if you consider Belliard the new starting 2B), Castro, Ausmus, Pierre, Loretta and Thome. Sorry Jon, but you didn’t see any action in the NLDS, and you definitely won’t in this series. Then again, neither did Chad Billingsley, who started the season as the Dodgers’ ace. Baseball is a funny game.

With the Phillies’ abundance of left-handed pitching, it would have been nice to add a right-handed bat to the bench, especially one that could play the outfield as a defensive replacement for Manny Ramirez in the late innings. Problem is the Dodgers don’t have a player like that in their system. Xavier Paul is probably their best outfielder not in the starting lineup, but he too is a lefty. The only right-handed bat in the system is Jason Repko, known more for his glove. And after Mark Loretta’s heroics against St. Louis, there’s no way the Dodgers were going to bump him from the roster.

With Jim Thome taking up two roster spots (one for himself and one for somebody to run for him should he reach base), the Dodgers’ bench is going to be short again. After Thome and Pierre pinch-hit, there isn’t much pop on the pine. Unlike the pitching staff, where the strength is in the late innings, the Dodgers' offensive attack is going to have to come from the front lines.

--- JOHN ROSENTHAL

First, let me say it was a big Dodger win Wednesday night against the Cardinals. And it was a team effort. Joe “I never met a pitching change I didn’t like” Torre used six pitchers to capture a 5-3 victory. The Dodgers came out swinging at Chris Carpenter, a guy who had mastered them in all of his previous starts. After Randy Wolf loaded the bases and allowed a run to score on a bloop before his infield bailed him out with a sweet double play, Rafael Furcal and Matt Kemp gave the team a lead they’d hold all night. Kemp’s homer was classic Kemp, hard and deep to center field.

Now for the griping.

The game was interminable. Three hours and 54 minutes, and it felt longer. Maybe it was the half-hour of waiting to get from Sunset into the parking lot. Or the hour I spent in the parking lot after the game creeping up to the exit. All in all, I left my house at 5 p.m. and didn’t get home until midnight.

Then there was the extra minute of commercials that TBS requires for national television every inning. At the stadium, you could feel the boredom of the crowd and the players as they waited for the broadcast to return so they could start the game again. Second, there were the 12 pitchers used by Torre and Tony LaRussa, the Fischer and Spassky of baseball. Those guys must get frequent flyer miles for their trips to the mound. Sure, some of the moves were dictated by the situation, but LaRussa couldn’t resist a three-pitcher sixth inning.

And there were the baserunners: 23 hits, 13 walks, four hit batsmen adds up to 40 men on base. That’s in contrast to 51 outs recorded (the Dodgers didn’t bat in the ninth). There was only a single 1-2-3 inning, Ronald Belisario’s perfect sixth. The Cardinals left 14 men on base, the Dodgers left 16.

It felt like offense was being squeezed out of a clogged toothpaste tube, a drib here, a drab there. The only crooked number on the board came in the first inning off Kemp’s homer. The rest of the night it was fence posts and knot holes. The box score reads like Kilroy was there.

Ronnie Belliard was almost the goat. He ranged far out into the outfield on Ryan Ludwick’s bloop, distracting Matt Kemp from catching it. He then looked or swung at six straight strikes to kill rallies in the first and third innings. But he turned that game-saving twin killing, and, curiously, walked twice on eight straight balls late in the game. I still don’t understand what Orlando Hudson did to play himself out of a job. The guy brought nothing but energy and outstanding defense to a position where it was sorely needed. He also hit for a higher average and on-base percentage than Belliard. Hudson came into the game as a pinch-runner in the eighth.

Finally, there was an odd moment I have to consider a coincidence. As soon as Manny Ramirez grounded into a double play to end the seventh inning, the Dodger Stadium scoreboard played the Partnership for a Drug Free America’s public service announcement warning kids that steroids don’t produce great athletes. A message to Manny? I don’t think so. But it was delightful irony.

--- JOHN ROSENTHAL

The Dodgers played Monday’s matinee against the Pirates like they were trying to lose. They made three outs on the basepaths in the first two innings alone, and Mark Loretta compounded his mistake by throwing away an easy ground ball to start the bottom of the second. That allowed five unearned runs to cross the plate, and the game was effectively over, the champagne put on ice for at least another day, and the Dodgers flying all the way across the country with their tails between their legs.

I have to question why Loretta was even there in the first place. I understand that Joe Torre’s first two options at third base, Ronnie Belliard and Casey Blake, were both injured. But why Loretta? He’s not an everyday player. Who does Blake DeWitt have to please to get into the lineup? How much would he have enjoyed being on the field as the team clinched its second straight division? If he’s the second baseman of the future, he needs to be a part of this team now, even if he’s not in the playoff plans.

Ordinarily, I might question Hiroki Kuroda’s performance, but the unearned runs played a big part in the game, and the entire team played so poorly that I have to chalk this one up to the fact that baseball has a long season, and sometimes you get murdered by the worst team in the league.

The Dodgers are now in a position where they may clinch the division some time around the third inning of Tuesday’s game against San Diego. If the Rockies lose to Milwaukee, the Dodgers will back into the playoffs win or lose. Will they celebrate on the road after a loss? Winning a division is always cause for celebration, no matter how the final straw falls. But the way they’ve been playing lately, perhaps they should save the bubbly for a more opportune time. Like after the NLDS.

The nice thing about the long season, though, is that two games of good baseball can erase a horrendous 3-4 road trip. Hopefully, they turn it around and are able to nurse injuries to Blake, Belliard, and Manny in time for the playoffs.

--- JOHN ROSENTHAL

Color me puzzled by this acquisition. Reports say he can fill in at first base, second base and third. But he can’t play shortstop. So that means the Dodgers still have to keep Juan Castro around to spell Rafael Furcal.

The Dodgers already have a guy who can play first and third in Mark Loretta. Belliard’s .246 average and .296 OBP are hardly better than Loretta’s .230/.309. His five homers are hardly what I’d call power.

About the only thing that he adds to the Dodgers is dreadlocks. Maybe the Dodgers thought he’d help Manny with his haircuts? Who knows.

I do know that if I’m Blake DeWitt, I’m pissed. He’s a lefty bat off the bench who can play third and second, and can fill in at short on an emergency basis. Why the Dodgers won’t give him a shot at that role is beyond me.

Belliard’s signing also points out the lack of a power bat on the bench. Juan Pierre is the first pinch-hitter off the bench, but he’s not going to Matt Stairs anyone. Nor is Ronnie Belliard. Jason Giambi would have been a better signing.

If the Dodgers get to the World Series, the need for a big bat becomes even more acute as they will have to sport a DH. Manny Ramirez fits that bill, but all it really means is adding the light-hitting Pierre to the lineup. --- John Rosenthal.

The Dodgers won a pair of games over the weekend like they did when they were the best team in baseball. Good bullpen holds the other team and offense unloads for a bunch of runs, or just enough to win in extra innings, with a different hero every night. Sunday’s was Juan Castro.

The cynic says, “It’s only the Reds,” the last team that the Dodgers swept and a team they usually own. If you’re supposed to win a game, does it take the fun out of it? I hope not.

Lost in Sunday’s game may have been Clayton Kershaw’s performance. If the Dodgers had managed to score three or four runs for him, we’d be talking about how he has been unhittable. But because he left with a Randy Wolf-like no decision, the night belonged to the bullpen.

Oh, and just let me say this:

Ronnie Belliard?

--- John Rosenthal.