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By Jon Weisman
The radical, four-on-the-floor finish to one of the crazier 3-2 games you’ll see might not soon be forgotten. Then again it might, if these kinds of extreme defensive shifts become more commonplace.
Two things strike me about this moment of the Dodgers placing four fielders between first and second base:
- How close it came to working to perfection. Even with Dee Gordon’s throw bouncing home, the Dodgers missed the inning-ending double play by a hair.
- Because Andre Ethier was still officially a center fielder at this point even though he was stationed at first (with Adrian Gonzalez to his right), we just missed seeing a 4-2-8 double play.
Gordon had some rough times in Friday’s loss to the Padres, going 0 for 6 with a throwing error, though he hit a monster fly ball with one on in the fifth that deserved to be a go-ahead home run (inside or outside the park), only for Rymer Liriano to flag it at the top of the fence.
Actually, the lingering sensation from Friday’s game might center on Hanley Ramirez, who came within a triple of the cycle even though he injured himself again, this time slipping on a wet base – and then getting called out via replay on his attempt to make it back to first. Ramirez, who hit an even more monstrous fly ball in the eighth to actually tie the game, looked Pedro Guerreroesque circling the bases (fans of a certain age will recall Guerrero hurting his back on a home run swing and barely making it around the diamond).
The Dodgers have had a welcome week’s worth of good news on the injury front, but that’s now in jeopardy.
Michael Green
Granting that this isn’t the point, I look at that photo and think, four fielders inside the 90 feet between the bases. That would suggest that Donnie B. thinks that each of them has the range of, well, to recur to Jon’s brilliant comparison, Pedro Guerrero. We know better, but it still looks a trifle silly.
oldbrooklynfan
Hanley has certainly proven one thing, or two things. He’s a great hitter but he can’t stay healthy. It looks like this thing is going down to the wire with the Giants trouncing the Brewers and the lead down to a measly 3 1/2 games. The Giants are simply too strong to ignore.
Lloyd Denny
would someone please tell mattigly that Jamie wright is not a good reliever anymore.he has blown a ton of games lately and for some strange reason dummydon cannot see it. there has got to be more options than putting wright into a game with it on the line.