The Angels lead the Dodgers, 2-1, in the bottom of the ninth of tonight’s game, following a tiebreaking home run by Erick Aybar off Kenley Jansen to start the inning.
A.J. Ellis walks obligatorily, and James Loney singles him to third.
Angels right-hander Ernesto Frieri, with a 0.00 ERA, is on the mound. Juan Uribe is up, with Tony Gwynn Jr. and Dee Gordon on deck.
I wouldn’t wait. I would send Bobby Abreu up to hit for Uribe right then.
My feelings are moot. Uribe grounds to short, with Ellis being retired on a fielder’s choice. Loney advances to third on the play and Uribe to second. Gwynn strikes out, and Abreu, batting for Dee Gordon, hits a grounder up the middle that Frieri flags for the final out of the game.
Playing 20 games in 20 days, 10 at home and 10 on the road, the Dodgers won 10 and lost 10.
Both starting pitchers dodged their share of bullets before ending up with no decision. Most notably, Nathan Eovaldi, who remained winless as he lowered his ERA to 1.82, got out of a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the fourth, thanks largely to a Loney-Ellis-Loney double play.
The batter? Aybar, of course – the guy who would later win the game with his first home run since September 18.
And in San Francisco, Matt Cain pitches a whale of a game, matching Sandy Koufax for the most strikeouts in a perfect game with 14.
* * *
Kings broadcaster Bob Miller wrote a lovely first-person piece for the Times in the aftermath of the Stanley Cup.
Anonymous
What a terrible night of baseball.
Anonymous
In the words of Darryl Sutter, “Nobody died.” There’s another game Friday.
Anonymous
Erick Aybar? Sheesh. I understand the logic of bringing in your closer for the 9th in a tie game, but I’ve never liked it – especially when the closer has been getting used day after day.
Angels sure did plug those holes in thier sinking ship in a hurry.
Trout a hell of a player. Trumbo not bad either.
Anonymous
Is Sands the Dodger version of Trumbo or is ti Van Slyke? We may never know because of the need to have bench players Rivera and Abreau playing ahead of them.
Anonymous
Sands played enough to show that he is not now an MLB player and probably not ever.
Anonymous
Or our versions of Dallas McPherson or Brandon Wood?
Anonymous
Much too early to say that. Sands has been inconsistent, but he’s had some excellent stretches.
Anonymous
I have to agree with WBB. Not ready to give up on either Sands or SVS yet. Way too early.
Anonymous
Obviously you don’t give up Sands since it costs nothing to keep him in AAA, but you also don’t give him MLB ABs ahead of Abreu or Rivera when the team is in 1st place. Nothing < Sands < Abreu's Corpse
Anonymous
Actually replying to TiensyGohan–Once Kemp returns and Loney returns to end of 2011 form, I would hope Abreu and Rivera would make up part of a strong bench and Sands would be playing left most of the time.
Anonymous
He did? I think I sort of mentioned Trombo. How old was he when he stopped looking like a struggling prospect and started looking like a MLB stud?
Jason Ungar
Even Colletti was hoping Uribe would be pinch hit for.
Eric Enders
Not a terrible night of baseball. As much as I dislike the Giants, that was really cool. I’m a baseball fan before I’m a Giants hater.
And since I’m always saying terrible things about James Loney, let me point out that that was some stupendous base running by him in the 9th inning. Didn’t know he had it in him.
Anonymous
Hopefully Loney will finish strong again this year.
Anonymous
Congrats to Cain on his masterpiece. Thanks to MLB channel for allowing us to witness history. I believe that’s the first perfect game I have ever seen. The Tom Browning game was on the radio as was the Dennis Martinez game. The Martinez one was a perfect game right? I believe Mike Mussina got to within one out before he gave up a hit.
Anonymous
Back to the disaster that was the 9thlast inning. Why leave Ellis on the base paths? That ball hit to Aybar was not that hard. A faster runner would have made that play close at home.
Jon Weisman
And yet still been out.
Anonymous
The throw needs to be good. The catcher has to make sure of the catch. Then make the tag and hold onto the ball. If any of those elements fail the runner is safe. I don’t agree with the belief that the runner would have been thrown out, especially a faster one. He may have but maybe also means maybe not. Unfortunately Mattingly didn’t give us the opportunity.
Jason Ungar
why not pinch hit for Uribe? Why not use Abreu after deciding not to pinch hit for Uribe and use a far inferior hitter in Gwynn? And then once you use Gwynn, why not use him and his speed and bunt the ball. Or was the 11 career homeruns, .250 avg and .318OBP to good to pass up?
Anonymous
If anything at least he put the ball in play, which for him is an achievement. The error was the baserunning or more specifically the base runner.
Jason Ungar
well to add to it, maybe they still stop a fast runner at 3b on the loney hit. But maybe then on the Uribe grounder a fast runner goes on contact and forces another good throw, catch, hold the ball and apply the tag. And even if he is out at home there is one out and then we can talk about why using Gwynn vs Abreu. :)
Anonymous
That’ s fine. But between Uribe, Gwynn, and Abreu the ball never left the infield :(
Anonymous
Why wouldn’t you save your one decent bat off the bench for Dee?
Jason Ungar
I don’t understand. Wouldn’t you want a guy with 2400 hits who is hitting over .300 this year hitting or a guy with less than 350 career hits who is hitting .265 this year up first?
foul tip
TN, with a relatively small population, has not produced very many major leaguers.
But pitchers with a TN heritage probably never will have a bigger stage than yesterday.
First, of course, was Cain’s perfecto. He graduated high school in a Memphis suburb.
Nashville’s RA Dickey’s second career one-hitter v. the Bucs also was a masterpiece, tantamount to a no-no, though the one-hitter ruling almost certainly will stand.
Dickey (10-1) became MLB’s first 10-game winner and ran his career-best shutout streak to 32 2/3 innings before yielding an unearned run in the 9th. That topped the previous club mark of 31 2/3 innings in a row turned in by Jerry Koosman in 1973.
Losing pitcher David Price (Murfreesboro) (8-4), would prefer people not pay much attention to how things went for him yesterday. Tied for AL wins lead, he gave up a season-high 7 runs on 9 hits in 5+ innings. He walked 3, struck out 8.
But in former Vanderbilt ace Price’s last 5 outings, he has struck out 50, walked 3. He had been 8-0 in his past 10 starts.
STATS LLC says the starting pitching matchup was just the second since 1921 to feature the AL and NL wins leaders in the regular season.
It’d never happen, but those 3 atop some decent team’s starting rotation probably would give it a legit shot at a WS title.
Anonymous
remember a couple years back since kershaw and lincecum was a push the argument was would you rather have cain or billz? yea…blah.
foul tip
Btimmer or other knowledgeable or resourceful DTers–
Where does the recent 7-3 road trip rank in Dodger history? The last few years, at least, seems the team has been more Roadkill than Road Warriors.
And what’s the historical perspective of AJ Ellis’ batting line of 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 Monday night?
Personally I’ve never seen that before. But then I’m a long way from a baseball expert.
Anonymous
First time that’s been done since Ryan Langerhans did it for the Mariners on 4/8/11 against Cleveland. His team lost too.
The last Dodger to do it was Bill Mueller on 4/18/2006. Jayson Werth did it the year before.
Anonymous
Mattingly outmismanaged Scioscia, two out of three. Not hitting Abreu for Uribe borders on managerial malpractice.
Casey Barker
Cain’s game has to be one of the top two or three game scores of all-time.
Casey Barker
Tied for second in a 9-inning game. Couldn’t find a list online last night.
Jon Weisman
105 Wood
101 Cain
101 Koufax
101 Ryan
http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/share.cgi?id=jfm2N
Anonymous
That’s some select company. And also Kerry Woods.
Jon Weisman
A.J. Ellis is the 201st player since 1918 to have zero AB and four BB in a game.
http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/Ucz1w
Jason Ungar
Juan Uribe is on the list. Wow!! So is Chad Krueter
Anonymous
If Uribe walked 4 times he must have had a broken hand and could not hold a bat
Terry Pruett
Well, the team is 40-24, and nobody would have believed it had you told them that in the spring. However, Manager Don, heretofore covered in Teflon, is beginning to set my teeth on edge. The lineup construction continues to be non-sensical as Dee Gordon is rammed down our throat as the leadoff hitter day after day after day. Manager Don also continues to give away outs with his borderline obsessive bunting complex…how many rallies has he shot behind the ear by having his 2-hole hitter bunt with nobody out and a man on 1st? Manager Don obviously has the respect of his clubhouse, and there seems to be a high degree of professionalism regarding preparation, etc. These are good things, important things, and I’m not calling for his head by any means. But in terms of game management, get ready for a frustrating tenure.
Anonymous
What rule was invoked last night when Aybar allowed the ball to roll out of his glove? Why was the dp nullified?
Anonymous
I don’t know the rule number, but if the ball’s intentionally dropped, it’s the umpire’s discretion. If Aybar had let the ball hit the ground first, it would have been OK.
Jon Weisman
NPUT
Anonymous
Why are we giving Mattingly such a hard time about last night? Most managers do not go to their backup catchers until they absolutely must and with extra innings a likely possiblity with KJ in the 9th, you want to hold onto your hitters. You can argue that he should bat Abreu for Uribe, I’ll give you that, but maybe he thought they would walk Abreu if he used him there. Maybe he should have put in Uribe for Gwynn, but then you are stuck with Gordon if they walk Abreu. Not sure it was so black and white as everybody thinks, and maybe he wants Uribe to get going and is thinking long term it would’ve helped Uribe more to be the one who gets that key RBI. There’s a lot more to managing than winning this one game.
Jason Ungar
I agree with this. I didn’t want him to pinch hit for Uribe. I also didn’t want Uribe to bat to be fair. But he’s paid 24 million over 3 seasons and we need his glove at 3b and we need his bat to get going. I do have trouble as mentioned with him using Gwynn before Abreu. Even if they walk Abreu it still forces the angels hand. It’s not easy to walk a batter and then pitch to the next guy with bases loaded. And if they don’t walk him then the better hitter is hitting with less than 2 outs and RISP.