By Jon Weisman
(Insert Karl Malden voice) You fall behind 8-0 in the top of the second inning. What’ll you do? What will you do?
You start hitting home runs. Adrian Gonzalez and Andre Ethier (pictured above) went back-to-back in the fourth inning to put the Dodgers on the board and raised bemused hopes of doubling the fun of the 4+1 game.
You string together some hits. The Dodgers had four in the fifth inning, including Matt Kemp’s first hit, double and RBI of the year, to score two more runs.
You get some phenomenal relief. Jose Dominguez, Brandon League, Chris Withrow and Jamey Wright combined for seven shutout innings from the third through the eighth, allowing one baserunner while striking out 10.
Perhaps surprisingly, you start running. Hardly in conservative mode, the Dodgers stole three bases (two by Dee Gordon, who also raised his on-base percentage to .476) while trailing big, and had a fourth before a safe call benefiting Hanley Ramirez was overturned.
If you count steals, walks and HBP, Dee Gordon has 15 bases this season off of 20 plate appearances.
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) April 4, 2014
“I think we want to keep playing,” Dodger manager Don Mattingly said. “You want guys to be pretty sure (they’re going to be safe), but it’s part of us trying to take advantage. You can’t just quit playing.”
As a result, the Dodgers had more than one look at a game that might have seemed over before the smoke from the pregame fireworks faded. They scored those four runs and had at least one additional runner in scoring position in every inning from the third through the sixth.
Depending on your point of view, it either softens the blow of the way the game began or heightens the heartbreak.
Hyun-Jin Ryu retired the Giants’ first three hitters (Angel Pagan, Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandoval) with ease. Unfortunately, he faced nine players between Pence and Sandoval, in an excruciating, six-run first inning that featured three bloop hits, including one lost in the sun by Dee Gordon and Adrian Gonzalez for an infield double and another RBI hit by opposing pitcher Ryan Vogelsong.
In another peculiarly perverse circumstance, Ryu retired the first three hitters of the second inning as well, but the first reached on a Hanley Ramirez error, leaving the door open for two unearned runs to score, sending Ryu to his earliest exit as a Dodger.
“Overall, my physical condition was completely fine,” Ryu said. “I think the first walk (to Sandoval) in the first inning was critical and changed the face of the game. … Overall, I just should have pitched better.”
Said Mattingly: “He gave up hits. We didn’t help him (defensively), that’s for sure.”
But rather than send the fans home empty-handed, the Dodgers tried to climb back. Their best look at the game might have been in the bottom of the fifth, when they had cut the lead to 8-4 and had two runners on with one out. Juan Uribe, who had doubled in his last at-bat, hit a shot heading down the line, but third baseman Sandoval went to his knees to snag it.
From love-8, the Dodgers were that close to sending the tying run to the plate with the game barely half over.
Instead, they settled for a home opener that reminded them in equal parts of their fallibility and their resiliency.
oldbrooklynfan
That archilles heel that keeps showing up in the middle of Dodger rallies waved it’s ugly head again as the Dodgers just couldn’t do very much with RISP. Today’s another big one, as they’ll all be this year, raising the pressure, with the Dodgers being such heavy favorites.