Stephen Fife allowed six of the first nine Giants to reach base and pitched four innings before getting a strikeout.
Matt Kemp went 0 for 5.
Ronald Belisario blew a two-run lead in the blink of an eighth-inning eye.
Kenley Jansen gave up consecutive base hits to start the 10th inning.
And still, the Dodgers broke through, ending their 38-inning scoreless streak in San Francisco and pulling out a 5-3, extra-inning victory.
Hanley Ramirez, whose bat launches balls like no Dodger infielder we’ve seen since Jeff Kent, hit his second high, sky-splitting drive in four games as a Dodger, this one clearing the left-center wall with Andre Ethier (2 for 4) aboard to break a 3-3 tie in the 10th inning. Ethier had walked on a 3-2 pitch that looked as unconvincingly like ball four as any Dodger walk I’ve seen this year, but so be it.
Jansen struck out two batters after allowing the tying runs to reach base in the bottom of the 10th, then got Joaquin Arias to fly to left field.
Shawn Tolleson, something of a surprise to pitch the bottom of the ninth with the score tied, retired the side in order and ended up with his first major-league win – a victory that appeared destined for Fife after he not only survived to pitch 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball, allowing nine baserunners while striking out two, but also delivered a fifth-inning double to lead to the Dodgers’ first runs.
Los Angeles left eight baserunners during the game, San Francisco nine. Dodger first basemen James Loney and Juan Rivera combined to go 4 for 5, accounting for a third of the team’s 12 hits.
Anonymous
I can see the Hanley glasses thing catching on with the fans, could be fun.
KT
It means “do you see me…I see you”
veryolddodgerfan
i see it getting a player hurt
Anonymous
I prefer the other side enjoy trying to generate the opportunity to return the favor with a similar comic gesture.
Anonymous
Not a fan of the recent trend of players on base offering showy pre-ordained gestures back to the dugout (this, beast mode, that interlocking-hands thing the Rangers do, et al). Although it does beat the old chest-bump point-at-the-sky thing.
Anonymous
LAT’d – just sayin’ gotta love Fife out-pitching Cain at AT&T in his 1st road start.
And seeing Hanley make a couple real nice plays at 3rd shows he can handle the hot corner.
veryolddodgerfan
i liked the looks of Hanley at 3b. I hope he stays there. and in a couple years move to 1B.
KT
VODF…if you were watching post game they just showed it again…only into the dodger dugout so the Gnats announcers are trying to start something…I won’t put it pass them to try to fire up their team…you know bulletin board material
veryolddodgerfan
ok thanks KT. he still shouldn’t do it. you know, look like you’ve done it before instead of a bad winner.
KT
Your right he should but he hadn’t done it before for his new team
Anonymous
I remember Grumpy. When it was (unkindly, and unjustly) pointed out that he had Ramirez behind him, he got beside himself.
Anonymous
I guess if Hanley had spun a 360 out of the batter’s box like Barry Bonds, Kruk and Kuip would have been fine with that.
KT
and flipped the bat
Jason Ungar
and then undressed his body armor.
Anonymous
I think the word everyone is missing is “pirouette.” Remember, according to the Plachkean school of Dodger history, Bonds doing a pirouette after hitting a home run off of Chan Ho Park in 1997 destroyed the Dodgers franchise for several years.
Because, everything in history is just based on one event.
I really wish Plaschke could have done something about Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Anonymous
Not to mention watching the entire flight of the ball before leaving the plate. Just once I wanted to face Bonds so I could drill him in the ear for that.
Jon Weisman
The least of my worries after Barry Bonds hit a home run was what his mannerisms were.
Anonymous
I wanted to see Pedro Martínez, preferably in a Dodger uniform, throw inside to him.
Anonymous
Or at least about Gavrilo Princip
Anonymous
A player will keep doing it until he takes one in the ribs. It would have been great to see Bonds face Gibson or Drysdale.
Anonymous
As far as Tolleson being a surprise what we had left was Tolleson, of course, Jansen who Mattingly prefers to save for the save, Guerra who threw 30 pitches last night, and Lindblom who I was glad not to see but who, I learned from Ken Gurnick’s very well done game re-cap at dodgers.com, was being rested; so while Tolleson was a surprise to me as well he should not have been since Lindblom, who has allowed at least a hit in every one of 6 appearance since Fife’s first start on July 17 when he (Lindblom) pitched a 1-2-3 inning, pitched on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday throwing 7,9 and 15 pitches resp.
Jeffrey Thomas III
Man, I’m glad I wasn’t home following along here during the game. I was overjoyed during Hanley’s home run, seems you guys didn’t like it so much. Bunch of kill-joys eh? Let the man celebrate his first Dodger home run, a big one at that. And I’ve seen guys celebrate more on fly outs.
KT
I agree
MilesAwayEnt
Fife delivered a fifth-inning Dodger? As in “presided over the birth of”? And then did this newborn Dodger subsequently figure into the–as you say–Dodgers’ first runs? And if so, WOW!
Anonymous
Even if Hanley’s gesture elicits payback, that’s not a problem today with Zito on the mound.
foul tip
Can’t say Fife hasn’t faced top pitchers. One of the best things he has going is he doesn’t seem to lose focus or get rattled.
He has said he was sure to follow some advice he’d been given before his first start….slow down and take it all in before his first pitch. That kind of composure would be forgotten by a lot of pitchers making their first MLB start. Bodes well for his future that he seems to have a strong mental game, even if he’s not exactly the second coming of Nolan Ryan.
You guys who’ve actually seen him…who among past Dodger pitchers does he remind you of? Or non-Dodgers?
foul tip
Also, who knows how long Fife will stick around….but based on performance so far, he’ll be seen again.
So he may need a nickname. Maybe the obvious–Barney–or Deputy…or ?
Anonymous
Those of us irritated with blackouts on Extra Innings and MLBTV should
read
http://www.sfgate.com/athletics/article/Bud-Selig-MLB-and-TV-blackout-blunder-3742436.php
foul tip
While I’m running off at the keyboard, the money-doesn’t-much-matter philosophy of new ownership has me wondering if the Dodgers actually be able to compete with NYY for absolute top-dollar talent in certain future situations.
As for how fans are responding, this link from dodgers.com says the team has crossed the 3 Mil ticket mark, on pace for 3.3. Per game average up 4500 over last year.
Season ticket sales highest since 2007….nearing levels last seen in ….1988. Interesting, that.
http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120727&content_id=35666072&vkey=pr_la&c_id=la
Anonymous
Wonder how much merchandise sales are up
scotte
your article was good until you linked Ramirez with Kent
foul tip
Then it’s still good. Disagreeing–or whatever–with one thing does not negate the value of the rest.
Jon Weisman
I’d like to hear the explanation of why the linking was bad.
scotte
simply put, Kent was a cancer on the Dodgers, when he left the Dodgers started playing better and made the playoffs….
Anonymous
I’m not dead set on getting another starter, but if the Cubs want to give us Dempster cheap, why not??? But if Ned can get us Kendry Morales and Soriano, I’ll give him a 5.0 grade.
Anonymous
Would have to take Wells and his salary to get Morales. This winter he is definately bait
Jon Weisman
Nathan Eovaldi makes his Marlins debut tonight.
Anonymous
It will be the first time someone can complain “Why did the Dodgers let go of this promising pitcher?” That person would likely have been the same person complaining that Eovaldi “Didn’t know how to win.”
Anonymous
perhaps I am taking this above comment too literally but:
“It will be the first time someone can complain “Why did the Dodgers let go of this promising pitcher?””
Pedro Martinez says remember me
Anonymous
I hope he does well and, in a few years, returns to the Dodgers as a premium free agent.
Anonymous
I wish him well. Long and continued success against all but the Dodgers.
I’m not going to complai bt, but I do wish he could have been retained.
Anonymous
Mine was more of a observation that it seems that everybody at some time wants some guy the Dodgers let go to come back.
There are many people who miss Juan Pierre and I would guess that there are even a few people who miss Andruw Jones.
Anonymous
Isn’t Juan Pierre hitting better than Abreu/Gwynn/Rivera?
Anonymous
It was hard to miss Andruw that year!
Anonymous
Jones has an OPS+ of 112 since leaving the Dodgers with whom his OPS+ was 35
Anonymous
Nobody misses Andruw Jones. Not possible.
Anonymous
As there are people who miss
Eugenio Velez
Anonymous
I miss both of them, and Velez, at every opportunity.
Anonymous
Understood. I’m just getting my thoughts on record. Wish they could have kept him, necessity dictated otherwise.
Anonymous
U-less was quite a clever nickname.
Anonymous
Big surprise dept. The T.O.L.M (team of light-hitting middle-infielders) acquires Marco Scutaro!
Anonymous
In that context, though, Scutaro is a huge upgrade.
Anonymous
B-R says the #2 most similar player to Scutaro is Mark Ellis, and the #6 most similar at age 35 is Jerry Hairston Jr.
Anonymous
Those who think Mattingly’s line-up decisions are arbitrary, a position with which I completely disagree, should note this quote on the coming 6th place hitter decisions:
“We’ll try to get guys behind [Ramirez] that can hit the pitcher that game,” Mattingly said.
You have to check hitters stats vs the starting pitcher if you want to predict the line-up correctly; also the pitchers splits and to a much smaller degree (too small I think) the Dodger hitters splits.
As of now there are just 2+ decisions LF and first base with an occasional catcher decision when the team plays in extreme heat which most likely will not happen again this year.
Jon Weisman
NPut