The Ultimate Heartbreaker

It was the kind of game that makes you turn away from it for good.  A punch to the gut loss that simply makes you say "this isn't worth it."  It was one of those games that you'll always remember as the one that broke your heart and spirit all in one.

(photo by Jayne Kamin Oncea - USA Today Sports)

You can second guess Mattingly and curse up a streak but truth is, what are you supposed to do when you have the best pitcher on the planet pitching with a 6-1 lead in the sixth inning?  The weak middle relief corps did the Dodgers in because Mattingly didn't trust it enough to insert it into the game in the 7th inning.  Though Kershaw was getting tagged batter after batter, he was left out there to die.

That was a once in a lifetime loss, but the Dodgers have had quite a few of them over the years and I hate to say it, but they're probably done this post season.  I mean, how do you recover from that?   It'll be the game that Giant fans gloat about, even though they had nothing to do with it.  Cardinal fans will remind us of it for years to come (and they had everything to do with it).  

It makes you wonder if we're being punished for some unknown reason.  Did any of us really believe that the late inning comeback was anything more than a tease?  Just a little more salt to pour on the open wound that opened up in the top of the 7th inning.  That tying run standing 90 feet away from home was simply there to raise false hopes.

So we go into game two in a "must win" situation.  Zack Greinke takes the ball and we hope the tide turns.  There's no such thing as a safe lead against this St. Louis club.  A ball club that we frankly thought didn't have that type of offensive prowess in them.  You've got to hand it to them, they came back from the dead and stole this one.

Man, it hurts bad.  This loss is about the lowest of lows I've ever felt watching this club.  If the Dodgers are able to come back from this it'll be the epic-est of epic recoveries.  Baseball is certainly a cruel game.