Slumping Sluggers Not Getting Things Done

Zero for twenty in the 2 through 6 spots in the lineup is not going to get it done.  I don’t care how much we second guess Mattingly for his bullpen management or his lineup that omitted Cruz or batting Gonzalez in front of Kemp.  Those things are minor details in comparison to the punchless meat of the lineup.  When Victorino, Gonzalez, Kemp, Ramirez and Ethier go hitless in twenty at bats, I don’t care how many guys Lincecum walks.  You aren’t going to win.

 Giants celebrate win. (photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)

The Giants are getting timely hits with men on base.  The Dodgers never do.  The Giants don’t leave men on base, the Dodgers thrive on it.  The Giant bullpen is getting it done.  The Dodger pen has its struggles.

Ken Rosenthal wrote a column today hinted that the Dodger team chemistry was mixed up too much at too late a date.  The new guys are pressing.  Trying too hard to make an impact.  Over 1/3 of the roster is new to the club and there isn’t clubhouse cohesiveness.  Rosenthal said that he thought that maybe there was time to turn things around, but with 24 games remaining, they better do it quick.

He’s right too.  I thought the trades assured us a playoff spot.  Now I’m hoping that they don’t destroy this team and lead to a group of finger pointers.  The ugliness of the state of the Dodgers is at epic highs.

A couple more observations and I’ll retire for the night:

*Josh Beckett’s effectiveness deteriorates significantly when he pitches from the stretch.  His management of base runners is horrendous.  His delivery is deliberate and too slow.  A.J. Ellis had no chance to throw any base stealers out in last night’s game.  Beckett was nasty from the windup, but a different pitcher once runners got on base.

*Matt Kemp is playing hurt.  His approach at the plate was one of confusion.  He isn’t running at full speed.  I admire that he wants to be out there and help the team, but right now, he’s hurting them big time.

*Alfonso Marquez’s strike zone was something the Dodger hitters complained about a lot yesterday.  But they failed to adjust to it as the game progressed and took far too many strike three calls.  I understand the frustration with borderline calls not going hour way, but there comes a time in a game that you much change your approach and start swinging the bats.

As of this writing (12:00 am), St. Louis is trailing in the top of the 13th 5-4 to Milwaukee, so the Dodgers just may enter tomorrow’s action a mere 1 1/2 games back in the wild card.  Unbelievable that this thing isn’t over yet considering how horribly the Dodgers have been playing.

Giant Lineup tonight

The Giants lineup tonight is as follows:

1) Pagan CF

2) Scutaro 2B

3) Sandoval 3B

4) Posey 1B

5) Pence RF

6) Belt LF

7) Sanchez C

8) Crawford SS

9) Lincecum P

 Brandon Belt and Cody Ross collide in the outfield during last years action. (photo by Tony Medina/Getty Images)

Belt will play his first game in left field since last season where he put up some unimpressive fielding stats, (.940 fielding % with a -8 UZR).   It's not his fault, he's a first baseman.   I only have one thing to say:  HIT THE BALL TO LEFT FIELD!

Reviewing the Final 24

I know there’s no way of sugar coating things.  This team is not getting it done.  Now the Dodgers are about to embark on the toughest part of their schedule with three in San Francisco, 2 in Arizona, 4 at home against St. Louis and the dreaded road trip to Washington DC and Cincinnati for 6.

(photo by George Nikitin/Associated Press)

So many pundits have declared the Dodgers dead, simply based on the remaining games on the schedule while they note that the Giants don’t play a team that is over .500 except the Dodgers for the rest of the season.

Let me introduce some food for thought though.  For years we have known that some of the most dangerous teams to face in September are those that are playing for nothing.  Teams like the Padres and the Rockies.  They are able to play liberally and somewhat recklessly.  They steal, take extra bases, hit and run, run and hit, squeeze, throw out youngsters that are making  MLB debuts and they’re trying to prove themselves.  They hardly hold back.  They throw the kitchen sink at you.  They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.  We saw it the entire 3 game set against San Diego.

Teams like the Dodgers, who must win at all costs are really gripping.  Every out is pressure packed.  You can see the tenseness that the guys are playing with.  It’s almost as if they are striving not to fail rather than just going out and winning.  Every win on this homestand was a struggle and lately, each loss has been torturous.  When Kemp's blast to deep center field was caught leisurely by Maybin as he hopped above the wall, the deflation in the Dodger dugout was palpable.  A loss was practically inevitable it seemed.

So we know the Giants have the easiest schedule if you base it on the record of their opponents for the whole season.  They face the Padres for 6, the Rockies for 7, the D-Backs for 5, and the Dodgers for 6.  If you look at these teams records since August 5th, you’ll find that the Giants actually have some tough contests ahead.

If the season had started on August 5th.  These would be the standings:

San Diego 19-10   .655

San Francisco 19-11   .633

Colorado 18-12   .600

Los Angeles 15-15   .500

Arizona         13-18   .419

Yasmani Grandal and the Padres are the best in the west since August. (photo by Allen J, Schaben/L.A. Times)

The Padres are playing good ball.  The best in the division. San Francisco has a history of struggling at San Diego and the Dodgers only have 3 more games against them this year.  We all know the history of San Diego spoiling things for us. 

The Rockies are going to be tough for the Giants and considering that the Dodgers are done for the season at Coors Field, chalk up another advantage for L.A.

We just saw the D-Backs dominate the Giants in their home park.  The record shows that Arizona has performed the worst of all the NL West teams in the last month, BUT they just came off of a road trip in which they went 4-3 against the division leaders.  The Dodgers only have two games against Arizona remaining, versus San Francisco’s 5 against them.  Another advantage Dodgers.

So what about the Dodgers having to face the two other division leaders and a possible wild card team for 13 games?

Here is the Dodgers record against them this season:

Washington 3-0

St. Louis 4-3

Cincinnati 2-1

If the Dodgers are able to perform as they have against these clubs as they did earlier in the season.  They should be able to weather this storm.  I am fully aware that this is a different Dodger team and that they’ll need to step things up.  But they have done well on the road before and the four against the Cardinals are all at Dodger Stadium.

Granted, this road series against San Francisco must be won by the Dodgers.  A sweep isn’t mandatory, but it’ll certainly help.  If the Blue Crew is able to pull off a miracle sweep, the reeling Giants will then have to leave on a road trip for three in dreaded Colorado and three at Arizona (who just owned them in their own ball park).

As bad as things look right now.  A series win in San Francisco will completely change this pennant race and put the Giants in a very tough spot.  But the Dodgers have to win in San Francisco.  A series loss over the next three days puts the Dodgers out of the division race and a longshot a the second wild card spot.  This is the season folks.  

Donnie, no double switches taking Cruz out of the lineup for Kennedy, okay?  And no saving the bullpen for the off-season.  It’s League and Belisario for three straight days!  Time to get things done!

Unfair to Blame Guerrier

As I watched last night’s game action, a 6-3 loss to the Padres in extra innings, I followed along on twitter to see the comments as the game progressed as I often do.  Often times it’s an opportunity to commiserate with follow Dodger fans on twitter.   Arguably the most diehard and rabid fans of the blue around.  Over the years I have come to understand the emotions that swing amongst our group as a game progresses.  Usually we get quite emotional.  Sometimes irrational even.

Second guessing of Mattingly’s moves are constantly made.  The sabermetric guys rant about wasting outs with sacrifice bunts, or hitters bad approaches at the plate, such as swinging at the first pitch.  The Donnie haters bash him about bullpen management or the failure to double switch.  Then you have the guys that obviously are not experienced with game strategy, that complain about stupid things like his failure to pinch hit a certain player even though history shows he’s hitting .090 against  left handed pitchers or they may complain as they did last night, that Kershaw wasn’t allowed to hit for himself in the 7th, though his pitch count was already at 116.

Yasmani Grandals' two-run shot off of Matt Guerrier tied the game in the 8th inning last night (photo by Mark J. Terrill/AP)

I noticed an almost universal opinion of all tweets that agreed Matt Guerrier is awful.  I am going to take an unpopular stance with many.  I refuse to blame last night’s loss on Guerrier.  I contend that he has been put in an impossible situation and if you really think about it, the poor guy is essentially trying to get in game shape at an March or early April Spring training level, while doing it in the heart of a September pennant race.

It’s unfair to put Guerrier in a game like last night, but Mattingly has little choice.  He’s out of relievers.  Injury has hamstrung the Dodger manager and forced him to insert a guy like Guerrier in a crucial point of these games, when he should be working himself back into game shape during mop up duty or in less stressful situations.

We have now seen Guerrier mostly responsible for the last two Dodger losses.  (Note: there is always the offense to blame too, but I’m referring to the pitching end of things).  He has been serving up some long balls.  Types of mistake pitches that are usually remedied with a bit of Spring Training work.  Guerrier is pitching scared out there and not aggressively.  As a result, he’s been tagged a bit.

The undoing of this team appears to be the depleted bull pen.  Losses of Jansen, Guerra, and Elbert has caused the unfortunate overwork of everyone in the pen.  I think we often forget how valuable Josh Lindblom was to the pitching staff.  He certainly could have been used last night.

Steven "Paco" Rodriguez, pitching for University of Florida earlier this year.

I would be in complete agreement with the ascension of Paco Rodriguez as a left handed situational lefty to this bullpen right now.  The Dodgers are facing a lot of obstacles with the 40 man roster and making room for such a player right now, so unless some more creative 40 man roster maneuvering is completed, we probably won't see him.  They still haven't figured out how to get Dee Gordon and Tony Gwynn Jr. back up to the big club, and both could be used in key reserve roles right now.

As things stand, the depleted bullpen is a major concern and I really see no easy solution to the current state of things.  This pen could really use a complete game tonight leading into an off day before the big San Francisco series.  That would be exactly what the doctor ordered.  Does Harang have it in him?

Cochito Providing the Spark.

A perfect Dodger September continued tonight as they beat the Padres in comeback fashion.  It is the second comeback victory for the Dodgers in consecutive days.  There were key contributions from Hanley Ramirez (homer), Andre Ethier (9th inning game tying homer), Joe Blanton (6 2/3 IP), and AJ Ellis (game winning RBI single).  Additionally the bullpen provided 5 innings of scoreless relief.  The Dodgers kept pace in both the Wild Card and Division race as all players in each race also won as well.

Luis Cruz scores the first Dodger run of the night. (photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

But who can ignore the contributions of Luis “Cochito” Cruz, who sprayed 4 hits out there and is as confident as any hitter I've seen at the plate.  Cruz may be the biggest surprise on the ball club this year and I can’t figure out how he’s doing it.  A career .261 hitter in the minor leagues over nine seasons and nearly 5,000 plate appearances, it's amazing that he has figured out how to hit at age 28 and in the major leagues. I simply want to know what it was that he did to turn himself into a second coming of Bill Madlock.  Cruz may be the most inspirational player on the club, along with hard-working A.J. Ellis.

For a while I figured that we should ride the Cruz wave while he was hot, because he certainly shouldn’t continue the torrid hitting that was obviously an anomaly.  But this hot streak has been going on for about 100 at bats now and Cruz shows no signs of letting up.  His approach at the plate is of complete confidence.  He is taking pitches to the opposite field, he’s driving balls up the middle and he has some pop too.

The “Cochito” Cruz story is the ultimate “feel-good” tale of a kid that is making it at the Major League level for the team he always dreamed of playing for.  Of interesting note though is that Cruz had steadily been improving in the minors for the past 3 seasons.  .281 at AAA Nashville in 2010, .273 at AA Round Rock in 2011 and .318 at AA Albuquerque in the early part of this year.  Cruz’s improved play has continued with his progression into the Majors.

Luis will enter tomorrow’s game with a .308 Avg., .333 OBP and OPS at .778.  He’s 9 for 20 in the last five games.  Cruz, who admits that past organizations that he played for were tinkering with his hitting mechanics, (both Pittsburgh and San Diego had him stop the leg kick), said in interviews a few weeks ago that his dad made him go back to it.  It is a timing mechanism that works for him so why mess with his hitting mechanics.  It looks like the game has slowed down for Luis.

Cruz’s father, Luis Sr., a well known Mexican League star, is Luis’ off-season hitting coach and and  has guided him throughout his entire career.  His dad had a stellar 20 year Mexican League career, complete with 1,671 games played and a .297 lifetime average, with 210 homers, and over 1,000 RBI.  Those are facts that shouldn't be ignored, in fact I suggest that we send a few other players to Mexico to get some more of Luis Sr's tutelage.

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  Clayton Kershaw tackles A.J. Ellis after his game winning single in tonight's action.(photo by Mark J. Terrell/AP)

With all the talk of magic numbers and passing numerous teams in the wild card and scoreboard watching, my belief is that the Dodgers simply need to keep winning and let everything fall into place.  They are in excellent position to make post season play.  With 26 games left in the regular season, the Giants have reduced their Magic Number to 23 games.  It's much too early to be looking at that number still.  The old cliche of taking the games "one at a time" is ringing very true right now.  If the Dodgers can get into S.F. this weekend within striking distance, they'll still have a shot at the division.  I've got to hand it to the Giants though.  They are really playing great baseball and are making the comeback win an art.  How fantastic would it be if the Giants and Dodgers both ended up playing in the NLCS in October?

Now That’s More Like It

Adrian Gonzalez hits a walk-off double in today's 5-4 win over Arizona  (photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

For the second consecutive day the Dodgers pulled out a 1-run win.  Today’s thrilling walk off double from Adrian Gonzalez was reminiscent of so many similar victories that occurred earlier in the season.  It put the Dodgers 1/2 game back in the wild card race behind St. Louis and kept them within striking distance of San Francisco, 4 1/2 back in the NL West.

With 27 games remaining on the season, the Dodgers are in prime position to make the playoffs.  The ultimate goal is always the division crown, but with the Wild Card there for the taking, it’s a nice fall back position.  I’ll put our no. 1 starter against any other no.1. ace in the league in a one game playoff.  The wildcard isn’t a real disadvantage for this team, since we all know that anybody can get hot once post season play begins.  Getting to the post season is the key and the Dodgers are on the cusp of that.

Dodgers celebrate (photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

There is no doubt that the remaining schedule is tough, but this team has won on the road and battles with Cincinnati, Washington and San Francisco away from home are not going to deter this team that is now undefeated in September.  A couple of wins can change the entire make-up of the season, and they have.  Confidence is a funny thing, and going into the San Diego series with a 2 game winning streak has to have these guys thinking positively.

Billingsley Status, Who knows?

Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles reported today that Don Mattingly said in pre-game talk that Chad Billingsley is feeling less pain.  He’ll receive another platelet-rich plasma injection with hopes that he feels good enough to pitch again this year.  I don’t know what that means.  If the man needs Tommy John surgery, it’s probably best that he gets it and starts the recovery for next year, but the medical staff will have to review his progress and make a decision.  I hope it is soon.   

We have got a lot of mixed messages on Billingsley’s health.  First there was no sign of tendon damage after the initial examination.  Then they needed to wait for the swelling to subside for another examination.  That was followed by statements from Stan Kasten that he believed that Billingsley most likely needed TJ surgery.  Then there was a report that he was getting a 1st platelet-rich plasma injection with hopes that he could pitch again.  Now we hear that maybe he’ll be back, but he’ll need another injection.  Sounds like a circus to me.

I don’t think we can count on Billingsley’s return this year.  Let’s see Jon Ely get a start.  I think he might surprise a lot of us.

On Jon Ely

What many seem to forget about Ely was that when he burst on the scene in 2010 with several consecutive quality starts he fell off the map in effectiveness due to an undisclosed illness that weakened him substantially.  After winning 3 of his first four starts, Ely tailed off.  He returned to Albuquerque and toiled with a 5.66 ERA the rest of the way.  He lost twenty pounds and his strength was gone.   If I recall correctly, it was a significant flu or mononucleosis that hit him hard. 

Jon Ely in 2010 (photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

This year, he has been completely healthy and dominating as the PCL pitcher of the year in hitter friendly Albuquerque (14-7, 3.20 ERA , 165 Ks in 168 IP).  I would say he is ready.  He was by far the most effective starter on the Isotopes staff.  He could easily fill in as the no. 5 guy in Los Angeles.  Then there is the surprise factor that he has going, taking on major leaguers that aren’t familiar with his stuff.  I hope we see him in action as I'm eager to see how much he has improved in the last two years.

The Team Has a Heart, but no Pulse

On paper they look awesome.  Inside their core, this team is empty.  In my near 45 years of fandom, this is the most frustrating bunch that  I can remember.  Originally I was going to write that this is a heartless bunch of Dodgers.  A group of guys that don’t care.  That they are collecting their individual pay checks only, but that isn’t accurate.  I see guys out there hustling and scuffling.  They simply aren't getting it done.

I see a guy like Matt Kemp who hustles his tail off and runs full bore, going face first into the Colorado centerfield wall in an effort to track down a game changing fly ball.  I see him playing last night, obviously not anywhere near 100%, stealing a bag, and hustling to take an extra base on a lazy fly ball.  I see his exuberance as he scores on the single that Ethier squirted into left field to tie the game last night.  Kemp has a ton of heart.

I see a player like Luis Cruz who is spanking the ball all over the field and coming up with highlight reel defensive plays, such as last night’s double play starter in the 9th inning.  He's a spark plug.  He's inspired and he's giving it his all.  Cruz tiene un corazon enorme.

I see a scrappy player like new-comber Nick Punto, diving head first into the first base bag after hitting a nubber to shortstop.  I see his excitement as he’s called safe on the play while he claps his hands and urges his teammates to get things going.

Mark Ellis bangs out a two-run single (photo by Mark J. Terrill/AP)

I see Mark Ellis show rare signs of emotion after banging a two out, two run RBI single in yesterday’s action.  

I see Shawn Tolleson come in and retire six straight to get the Dodgers back into the game and Brandon League striking out the heart of the D-Backs order with nasty sinkers that were unhittable.

Those aren’t guys that are mailing it in. They are really trying.  They are giving it their all.  They have desire, passion and grit.  Those guys have heart.  What the team doesn’t have is a pulse.

The Dodgers need someone to activate the electronic defibrillator and get their heart pumping again.  The number 2 through 6 spots in the lineup.  The mashers, made up of Victorino, Gonzalez, Kemp, Ramirez and Ethier went 1 for 20 last night in the 4-3 11th inning loss.

Those are the guys that must get things right.  Those are the guys that must carry this team.  Time is running out.  Things look bleaker than they’ve been all season.  It’s make or break time.  The trades have been made, the roster is set, the team meetings have been held.  It’s time to put up or shut up.  29 games left.  This group needs to play .750 ball.  Is it possible?  Sure.  Likely?  I doubt it.

Back to the grind tonight.  Frustrating, frustrating, team.