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| Coco Crisp scores in today's Action. A's won 4-1 on a Yoenis Cespedes walk off homer. |
The Dodgers offense took it on the chin today from a pitcher that has a career chronology that goes like this:
October 29, 2000: Signed by the Seattle Mariners as an amateur free agent.
April 1, 2007: Traded by the Seattle Mariners to the San Francisco Giants for Jason Ellison.
December 6, 2007: Drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies from the San Francisco Giants in the 2007 rule 5 draft.
October 14, 2008: Granted Free Agency.
December 19, 2008: Signed as a Free Agent with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
October 5, 2009: Granted Free Agency.
January 29, 2010: Signed as a Free Agent with the New York Mets.
May 2, 2010: Released by the New York Mets.
May 13, 2010: Signed as a Free Agent with the Oakland A's.
December 14, 2010: Released by the Oakland A's.
February 16, 2012: Signed as a Free Agent with the San Francisco Giants.
May 15, 2012: Selected off waivers by the Oakland A's from the San Francisco Giants.
(source: www.baseball-reference.com)
This isn’t even factoring in stints to Taiwan, Korea and Mexico. Travis Blackley is the definition of “journeyman pitcher.” He’s been released from more organizations than I knew existed. His career against the Dodgers (before today) showed a stat line of 2 IP, 5 H, 4ER, .500 OBP against.
If the Dodgers were ever due to win a game, it would have been today with Kershaw going and Blackley on the mound against them. Yeah, what is it they say about best laid plans?
This ball club is in deep trouble. 2 runs in three games at Oakland against a mediocre pitching staff and poor team is not a good sign. The A's suddenly got good, having won 7 of 8, thanks in part to the Dodgers.
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Can someone teach Juan Uribe that if you fly open and step away from a pitch while swinging, you have a pretty good chance that you aren’t going to hit it? It almost looks like he’s afraid he’ll be hit and he steps in the bucket each time to get a split second to move out of the way. I’ve noticed it all season and I’m just Joe Blow watching the game from my couch. I can’t understand why Dave Hansen, Tim Wallach, Don Mattingly, all experienced hitting coaches, can’t see it and try to correct this flaw. He’s flying open on every pitch. It’s a miracle that he gets a hit now and then.
Don’t tell A’s commentator Ray Fosse though. He raved about Uribe. Said that he’s a dangerous hitter. Just before Uribe helplessly flailed away at a pitch in the dirt for strike three.
Fosse also spoke highly of Loney and specifically addressed him as a power threat. Perhaps the A’s can be a future trade partner if they think so highly of those guys.
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It’s not a good time to be slumping. With a key series coming up against second place San Francisco approaching three games from now, the Dodgers really need to rally and not arrive up there in an offensive funk. After three awful games in Oakland, that appears to be happening precisely. With the Dodger track record in Anaheim, we may be in for a long weekend.
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