Wednesday’s game at Dodger Stadium thankfully had no brawls, with all the hitting coming off the bats of the Diamondbacks and Dodgers bats.
Arizona banged out 20 hits, 17 of them singles, to break through against Ronald Belisario and Brandon League in the 12th to win 8-6.
The highlights for the Dodgers all came in the fifth, when they erased a 3-0 lead, scoring four times, highlighted by a Hyun-Jin Ryu triple (helped out by an ill-advised dive by Gerardo Parra).
Then the Dodger bats fell silent. Rookie Chris Withrow made his MLB debut in the 7th and couldn’t hold the 1-run lead.
After the Diamondbacks scored four times in the 12th, the Dodgers tried to come back with a home run by Ramon Hernandez (who also stole a base), a single by Yasiel Puig (who did not start because of a shoulder strain, although he appeared OK in his limited action), followed by a walk to Skip Schumaker. Nick Punto grounded to first and may have been able to beat the throw at first, but he opted for the headfirst slide, and he was out.
Puig scored on Mark Ellis’ ground out. Adrian Gonzalez walked, but pinch hitter Tim Federowicz grounded in to a force play to end the game.
Thursday is an off day for the Dodgers as they head off to Pittsburgh. The Pirates are the only team the Dodgers have swept at home this season. The Pirates are 39-26 on the season and 23-11 at PNC Park. The Pirates go for a series sweep against the Giants Thursday.
Disciplinary action for Tuesday’s Pier One brawl (I think there was a lot of rattan involved) should be handed out Thursday.
Anonymous
You can’t say it wasn’t gritty.
Anonymous
The most frustrating team in baseball, and we all have to suffer. Ugh.
Linkmeister
Discouraging, too.
Anonymous
Can Brandon League please get into a brawl with himself and punch himself in the face,breaking both his pitching hand and his nose? He has replaced Marc Sweeney as the Dodger I hate most.
And yes, I realize Belisario was as bad or worse.
Anonymous
Triple threat hell in a cell inferno match:
Belisario vs League vs Mattingly
Anonymous
Belisario got out of one tough situation, but he’s been overworked lately. League does it even when he’s fresh.
Mario Luevanos
Frustrating to watch. I’m going to take a couple of games off and not follow.
Anonymous
I too am getting discouraged, I may give it up. Another game we could easily have won but we didn’t. Even AGon isn’t hitting anymore. It seems our players know they can’t win and the other teams know they own us. We have lots of culprits who should be shown the door (Thanks,Ned), but we have some good players who just aren’t showing it. Sad but true, replacing the manager is the only solution that will break the spell.
Anonymous
Doubtful. It is exceedingly rare for a mid-season change in Managers to have any lasting positive effect on a teams performance. Mattingly is not the problem. Shaky bullpen, lack of timely hitting can’t be fixed by changing the manager.
Anonymous
NPUT