Don Mattingly’s first game as Spring Training manager in 2010 was part Goofus, part Gallant. Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com has details:

… Somehow, the official lineup cards the Dodgers submitted to plate umpire Brian Runge and to the Arizona Diamondbacks for the Cactus League game had Matt Kemp hitting third and Andre Ethier fourth, the exact opposite of every other lineup posted around the facility, including those given to the press box.

Mattingly said that after Ethier flied out to center to end the first and Kemp did the same to start the second, Runge informed Mattingly that they had batted out of turn and that the Dodgers had “established a new order.” Mattingly took that to mean they would continue to bat in that order the rest of the game. But after Kemp flied to left and Ethier grounded out to end the third, Runge came back to the dugout.

“He said, ‘I think we have a misunderstanding,”‘ Mattingly said later. “The way I understood it, we had re-established the order. But [bench coach Bob Schaefer] said he thought that was wrong, and it turned out that it was.”

So, in an effort to resolve the situation, Runge made a decision that seemed to make no sense and would wreak havoc with the postgame box score. He decreed that Ethier, who had been the next-to-last batter in the third, would lead off the fourth so that he would follow Kemp in the order.

So Ethier did lead off the fourth. And drove an opposite-field homer to left-center off Bob Howry, tying the score at 1-1.

“It was right on our lineup card, but obviously, we got it wrong [on the official card],” Mattingly said after the game. “I should have checked it, which we usually do. Schaef puts it on the [official] card, but it’s my job to check it, and I didn’t do that.”

Mattingly, who had been in a relaxed mood all day, then smiled.

“But wasn’t it great to get that out of the way in spring training?” he said. “In that sense, you have to look at it as a positive.” …

That was the sausage – here are the links:

  • According to a Venezuelan newspaper – as interpreted by Roberto Baly of Vin Scully Is My Homeboy – missing Dodger reliever Ronald Belisario “has missed three dates with the U.S. embassy for paperwork, which is the reason he has yet to report to Camelback Ranch.”
  • Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com is en route to Taiwan and has begun a travelogue.
  • With so many Dodgers in a Taiwan-bound airplane, several players from minor-league camp got into today’s game, including Kyle Russell, Brandon Watson, Andrew Lambo, Pedro Baez and Christian Lara. Russell had an RBI single.
  • Ramon Ortiz has started the spring with six strikeouts in five shutout innings.
  • Tony Abreu batted leadoff for Arizona and took it to his former team with a single, triple and homer.
  • The Dodger Thoughts March Madness group is forming. When the NCAA men’s basketball bracket is announced, fill out yours here. “Kershaw” is the password.