Dodger Thoughts

This pinch-hit post is dedicated to Vic Davalillo.

Game 1 of the Series of Great Import between the Dodgers and Giants at AT&T Park ended with the gentlemen in the orange jerseys winning 5-2. The Dodgers offense acted like someone trying to grow a garden by buying a bag of seeds and then pouring them on the sidewalk and wondering why he doesn’t end up with 40 heads of lettuce.

The Dodgers had 13 men reach base, seven of them on walks by Giants starter Tim Lincecum. However, the Dodgers could only get two of them home. One run scored on a ground out by Matt Kemp and the other came on a home run by Adam Kennedy that scraped the top of the right field fence. The Dodgers didn’t ground into any double plays. They just couldn’t get a hit with a runner in scoring position

The Giants pinged out 10 hits, all singles, with few of them being hit hard. However, the Giants parlayed their scoring chances into runs with annoying and relentless effectiveness.

After the Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the third, the Giants tied the game on a Brandon Crawford single, a Lincecum sacrifice, and an RBI single from Angel Pagan.

After Kennedy’s homer in the sixth, the Giants used a bunt single by Pagan, a stolen base, a ground out, and then an RBI infield hit by Hunter Pence to tie the game.

The seventh inning was one of those innings that tries manager’s souls. Mark Ellis led off with an infield hit. Shane Victorino was given the bunt sign. After failing to get the first attempt down, Victorino took a called strike, an event that Victorino seemed unable to fathom. Don Mattingly kept the bunt on and Victorino struck out bunting foul on an attempt that seemed quarter-hearted at best. After Adrian Gonzalez walked to end Lincecum’s night, Sergio Casilla got Kemp to ground out and then struck out Hanley Ramirez.

In the bottom of the seventh, Hector Sanchez singled. Pinch runner Gregor Blanco stole second. Crawford walked. Bruce Bochy then sent Manny Burriss up as a pinch-sacrificer. Burriss did his job. Angel Pagan was purposely passed to load the bases. The question now before the House was: should Josh Beckett stay in the game or should Brandon League come in to pitch to Marco Scutaro?

Beckett stayed in. Scutaro looped a single to right, two runs scored. The Giants would score another run in the eighth, aided by a pair of infield hits.

And now the Dodgers must wait to see how the Cardinals game against the Brewers turns out. It’s tied 4-4 in the 10th as I type this. (There was a lengthy rain delay at the outset.) The Pirates were demolished by the Cubs, 12-2.

Chris Capuano versus Matt Cain Saturday afternoon. Enjoy!

Update: The Brewers beat the Cardinals, 5-4 in 13 innings in a game that ended after 2 am St. Louis time. Ryan Braun’s 39th homer of the season was the decider. The Cardinals remain 1 1/2 games up on the Pirates and Dodgers for the second wild card spot.

Also, more surprisingly, the Cubs stay alive for another day!

It’s a little funny to end a night at the Happiest Place on Earth and find you’ve been missing the Greatest Night in Baseball History.

Wow.

I will admit I saw .108-hitting Dan Johnson on MLB Gameday hit the game-tying homer in Tampa Bay on my phone just after the parade on Main Street ended, but otherwise, I’ll leave the coverage of the night’s events to those who saw them. I hope you were among them.

In the meantime, congrats to Matt Kemp on his 39/40, MVP season, congrats to Kenley Jansen on his MLB-record 16.1 strikeouts per nine innings, congrats to the Dodgers for finishing their season stunningly strong (and without a bad taste in our mouths from another final-inning collapse) with a 7-5 victory tonight in Arizona, congrats to Dee Gordon, Jerry Sands, James Loney and Ted Lilly for their rip-roaring Septembers, and a laurel and hearty handshake to Eugenio Velez, the new Sheriff of Rock Ridge.

Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting and being part of the Dodger Thoughts family this season, from near and from far — it was, as always, a pleasure — and get ready for the offseason. It all starts Thursday.

Don Mattingly did the right thing by having Javy Guerra pitch the ninth inning with the Dodgers and Diamondbacks tied, 4-4, in the ninth inning Tuesday.

But after following his perfect ninth by coming back out for the 10th inning, Guerra ran out of gas. With two out and two on, Guerra walked Paul Goldschmidt and Chris Young on eight total pitches, forcing in the winning run for the Diamondbacks in a 5-4 victory.

Guerra ended up throwing 38 pitches in taking the first loss of his career, one in which Arizona rallied from a 4-2 first-inning deficit.

Stephen Dunn/Getty ImagesDon Newcombe hugs Matt Kemp after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch Tuesday.

Dodger starting pitcher Chad Billingsley had a mixed outing. He gave up a two-run home run to cleanup-hitting catcher Miguel Montero with two out in the first inning and another run on three baserunners in the third inning. He then retired 11 of his final 12 batters, leaving the game with the bases empty with one out in the seventh inning.

So it was a pretty nice salvage job for Billingsley, but there still has to be concern. He struck out only two batters, meaning that over his past nine starts, he’s averaging 3.33 strikeouts per game, with almost exactly that many walks. Something still isn’t right.

Nevertheless, the Dodgers put Billingsley in position for the win – while also perhaps putting a nail in the coffin of Ian Kennedy’s Cy Young Award chances – by scoring four runs in the bottom of the first inning off the Arizona starter. Dee Gordon doubled to lead off the game, and Justin Sellers blooped him to third. Matt Kemp hit a sacrifice fly, before James Loney, Aaron Miles and Jerry Sands (2 for 2 with two walks, on base in seven of his past eight plate appearances) each followed with RBI hits.

But the Dodger offense had no runs on four hits and three walks over the final nine innings of the game, which was rather lackadaisical while Billingsley and Kennedy were in there –  and rather heated right after they left.

After striking out pinch-hitter Collin Cowgill, reliever Hong-Chih Kuo threw a first pitch to Gerardo Parra high and inside, forcing the Arizona leadoff hitter to duck out of the way. Parra acted as if he thought Kuo (who has not exactly been masterful with his location this season) was headhunting with the tying run at the plate.

Parra soon took a 3-1 pitch over the fence in right-center field to deadlock the game, and in doing so did that stand-and-watch thing that’s become so popular with the kids nowadays. This infuriated folks in the Dodger dugout, perhaps no one more than Clayton Kershaw, who will be starting Wednesday’s game.

If you’ll recall, Kershaw was ejected and suspended last summer for a retaliatory shot at the Giants’ Aaron Rowand, and all I want to say to the Dodgers’ young Cy Young candidate is that my friend, Gerardo Parra is not worth your time. You don’t need to prove anything to anyone – not now.