Opinion of Kingman's Performance

Sunday, July 1, 2012

That's the 2012 Season We Remember!

Dee Gordon steals the first of three bases in the Dodgers 8-3 win (photo by Christine Cotter / AP)

For the first time in a long while the breaks went the Dodgers way.  During this bleak losing string, if this team had any luck, it was all bad.  Today, the tables turned.  The Mets made miscues.  The Dodgers took advantage, all after L.A. did it’s level best at giving the game away.
With the Mets spotted a 3-1 lead in the 3rd on a couple of throwing errors committed by Dee Gordon, the Dodgers came back by taking advantage courtesy of the New York Mets impression of their ’62 ball club. 
First it was Ronny Cedeno botching a sure double play turn in the fifth.  Later in another sure double play ball, this time of the 1-2-3 variety, Mets catcher Nick Nickeas simply failed to catch the throw from pitcher Miguel Batista, resulting in two more Dodger runs.

Kersahw, 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 9 SO, 116 pitches (photo by Christine Cotter / AP)
With their first lead in over a week.  The Dodgers held it after 7 stellar innings from Clayton Kershaw, who should have easily made it into the 8th inning with better defgensive support.  Kershaw gave up one earned run and struck out nine while picking up his 6th win of the season.  Also impressive was Ronald Belisario who threw nasty sinking stuff that sawed off a few Mets bats in the 8th and Kenley Jansen who retired the side in an uneventful 9th,
Other highlights to note:
Dee Gordon stole 3 bases, knocked in a run, scored another and banged out two singles.  It was a splendid recovery after an embarrassing start of the game for the young Dodger on national television.   It also should be noted that Dee leads the major leagues in stolen bases with 28.  He’s on a pace to steal 56 bags this season.
James Loney snapped an 0-28 streak by ripping an RBI double down the right field line.  In previous at bats, Loney looked awful as he flailed away at pitches well out of the strike zone.
Adam Kennedy also double into the right field corner in a key at bat in the bottom of the 6th.
A.J. Ellis continues to work counts and get key hits.  His contributions make him in my eyes, the MVP of the team thus far when you consider all the stars that are injured.  He certainly deserves consideration.  He started off the Dodgers scoring in the first by doubling to right center before being knocked in two batters later by Juan Riivera.

Juan Uribe continues to struggle at the plate.  Perhaps the Dodgers can activate Tim Wallach and move him from the third base box over to the other side of the white line.  
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Dee Gordon pulled up lame after an 8th inning ground out and was removed from the game.  Hopefully it’s nothing serious, but it sure looked like a muscle pull or strain.  I guess it’s time to watch the newswire to see what happened.
With Justin Sellers out with injury, Jerry Hairston at short doesn’t seem to be a good option.  Jerry has struggled there.  Herrera maybe can handle it, but he’s seen only 2 innings of major league action at the position.
A lot of people are calling for Gordon’s head and I’m sure they were very vocal after the two errors in the third inning today, but who are you going to replace him with?  The way the Dodgers are going on the injury front, I wouldn’t be surprised if the injury is something that sidelines him for a few days.

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On ESPN tonight it was announced that the Dodgers have pulled the Carlos Lee trade proposal off the table.  After waiting for an answer from Lee for 3 days, the ball club has decided to go in another direction.  Who can blame them?  As much as I thought the deal would be good for the Dodgers, maybe it's for the best that he doesn't come to pass.  He obviously doesn't want to be in L.A., and that is never good for team chemistry.

2 comments:

  1. I hope you are not looking at the Dodgers short-lived one-game winning streak as a return to the first part of the 2012 season, Evan. If you are, you are setting yourself up for a serious heartbreak. With the current Dodger roster, Sunday's one-in-a-row winning streak was an aberration, not a return to grace.

    I suspect that you were merely trying to find a glimmer of hope in an otherwise hopeless situation. If not, I might suggest some counseling, my friend.

    If the Dodgers can somehow limp into the All-Star break remaining within 2 games of the Giants (and remaining ahead of the hard-charging D-Backs), I will be a little more open to your vision of "...returning the 2012 Season We Remember" (because of the anticipated return of Kemp and Ethier immediately following the break). That being said, accomplishing this monumental task is kind of like spitting up a rope (or something like that).

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  2. Believe me Ron, that one game winning streak was simply reminder of what things were like for the first 2 months of the season. The Reds quickly put things back into perspective the next day.

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