Dodger Thoughts

After making all 125 of his starts this season in the cleanup spot, Matt Kemp moves up to No. 3 tonight, while Andre Ethier drops to No. 5.

* * *

So yeah, changing uniforms did nothing to protect Rafael Furcal’s health. From Stephania Bell of ESPN.com:

… Furcal must seriously wonder who or what is out to get him now. After breaking his left thumb in early April on a headfirst slide and then straining an oblique in June (resulting in another month away from the game), Furcal suffered a freak injury while on the road with his new team, the St. Louis Cardinals, this weekend. It wasn’t even an injury sustained during the course of playing baseball. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Furcal suffered a “severe thumb sprain” when he stumbled as a wooden step leading to the batting cages at Wrigley Field broke. In an effort to brace his fall, Furcal’s thumb was twisted resulting in the injury. The bad news? This injury is to his right (throwing) hand. The good news? Well, it’s not the same thumb he broke this spring. And maybe, if things really do happen in threes, his 2011 injury woes are now over. As to when he’ll be able to return, there’s no immediate answer as much will depend on how soon the pain and swelling subside and when Furcal can regain his grip.

Furcal has a .280 on-base percentage and .351 slugging percentage in 83 plate appearances with St. Louis. Alex Castellanos, who came in the trade for Furcal, has a .443 on-base percentage and .771 slugging percentage (including 12 doubles) in 88 plate appearances with Double-A Chattanooga. With Springfield before the grade, Castellanos had a strikeout-walk ratio of 3.9 (94-24), but with the Lookouts, it has been 1.3 (14-11).

Chattanooga is averaging 7.3 runs per game this month.

* * *

From the Dodger press notes:

1) “The Dodgers allowed a pair of first-inning runs on a Carlos Gonzalez home run yesterday at Colorado, but have allowed the fewest first-inning runs (35) in the majors the season. Los Angeles is on pace to allow just 45 first-inning runs over the course of the season, which would be the fewest by a National League team in the live-ball era.”

2) “Nathan Eovaldi will make the fourth start of his career tonight and has posted back-to-back quality starts after allowing two runs over six innings on Wednesday at Milwaukee. Since World War II, the 21-year-old is only the seventh pitcher under 22 years of age to open his career with three consecutive starts of five or more innings, while allowing two or fewer runs and less than five hits.”

It was drama in search of a stage.

In a game that would have been an instant classic if anything had been on the line, the Dodgers got back-to-back home runs in the 12th inning by a pair of would-be Nencompoops, Aaron Miles and Trent Oeltjen (the latter’s coming inside the park) – and still lost.

In the bottom of the 12th, old horse Todd Helton fouled off 10 pitches before doubling to cap a 15-round title bout with young buck Javy Guerra. That cut the Dodgers’ lead to 6-5, and Eliezer Alfonzo’s sharp grounder tied the game and left Guerra bloodied with the first blown save of his career.

Then in the 13th, two-out hits by Mark Ellis and Dexter Fowler (redeeming himself by the madcap mishap in center that led to Oeltjen’s home run) off Blake Hawksworth finished off the teetering Dodgers, giving Colorado a 7-6 victory.

A total of 41 players were used in the game, 556 pitches were thrown and 307 minutes elapsed in the Dodgers’ leave-everything-in-the-ring first extra-inning loss of the season.

I went to my first minor-league game in ages Friday night, and there was a play in the game worth mentioning here. With a runner on second base and one out, the batter hit a grounder that went right through the first baseman’s legs, Bill Buckner-style. The runner raced around third, Ray Knight-style. But the second baseman backed up the play, threw home and nailed the runner. I couldn’t help imagining what it would have been like if that had been the play that happened October 25, 1986.

But instead, it happened in the obscurity of the minors. Today’s Dodger game hit me the same way. I mean, the circumstances were totally different, but it hit me the same way as far as it being an instantly loss classic, one we’ll be talking about for 30 hours instead of 30 years.  It was a heck of a game, the Dodgers battling after their starting pitcher, Ted Lilly, struggled with and then finally succumbed to a stiff neck. Nonetheless, it’s destined for the discard pile.

Rod Barajas, who injured his hamstring in the Dodgers’ 8-2 victory over Colorado on Friday, is waiting to see if he can avoid the disabled list. He joins Andre Ethier (infected toe) and Casey Blake (the mind is willing, the body isn’t) on the sidelines today.

Is Ned Colletti a viable candidate to replace fired Cubs general manager Jim Hendry? Mike Petriello addresses the speculation at Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness.