MVN - Most Valuable Network

Peavy Dominates, Pierre Starts, and Penny Roughed up in First

Jake Peavy is really, really good. Just ask the Dodgers offense, which managed just two hits off him on Saturday in a 4-1 loss. He went all nine innings, striking out eight and allowing only one run.

That one run came courtesy of one the most bizarre plays you will ever see, when Padres catcher Josh Bard made a nice sliding catch of a Russell Martin pop foul. But because Bard slid into the dugout while making the catch it was ruled that Rafael Furcal, who made it to third on a triple, be given home plate.

So that’s how the Dodgers managed one run off Peavy- on a play that you just don’t usually see. Besides that play, Furcal had a hit and a walk and Loney had a hit. Everyone else went 0-for. Yes, it’s still early in the season and yes, Jake Peavy is one of the game’s best pitchers coming off a Cy Young season last year. But c’mon. Martin struck out twice in four at-bats. In fact Blake DeWitt was the only starting position player that didn’t strike out. But I’ll get to him later.

The fact of the matter is Martin needs to be Martin. I think he will be. He started the season off without a hit in the first three games, which is no reason to lose any sleep. That happens to good players quite often (see Matt Holliday). For that reason I won’t seriously worry about anyone’s hitting, but I’m ready for Andruw Jones to show me something. I can deal with a low batting average (although I expect him to raise it from the .167 it’s at right now), but Ned Colletti brought you here for a reason. I’m a guy who loves small ball, but I need Jones to hit a home run so I will at least know that he still can.

Then there’s Matt Kemp. So he’s got two hits in 15 at-bats, but like most people I am really high on this kid. I think he can flat out play and that he has the highest ceiling of any of our young players. But it’s not going to happen if he doesn’t play. For the second game in this young season Torre put him on the bench in favor of Juan Pierre.

Now let me make this clear. It’s not that I don’t like Juan Pierre or the way he plays. As I already said I love small ball and that is clearly Pierre’s game. But he doesn’t have a spot on this team. We don’t need his horrible on-base percentage at the top of the lineup when we have a guy like Furcal. And we definitely don’t need his weak arm anywhere on the field. I love his speed and from everything I hear I love his work ethic. But we paid way too much money for a guy that we don’t need. I get that Torre puts him in for Matt Kemp to take advantage of that lefty-righty matchup, but you’ve got to let Kemp get his season started. According to Dodgers.com Pierre’s agent called Colletti for a clarification of Pierre’s role on the team and Colletti pretty much told him the better he plays in the opportunities he’s given, the more opportunities he’ll have. Barring outfield injuries, his days in blue are definitely numbered if another team will take on his crazy contract.

Now to the Dodgers’ pitching. The Peavy-Penny match up definitely didn’t live up to my expectations as Penny went six innings and gave up four runs on ten hits with three K’s and a walk. Clearly not what the Dodgers were looking for from the staff ace. The thing is though, all the damage was done in the first inning. All four runs and six hits came off Penny in the first. He threw 38 of his 71 pitches in that inning. That’s all pretty weird for a guy who gave up only nine first-inning runs all of last season.

Taking another look at Dodgers.com, apparently Penny went to warm up in the bullpen a half-hour before the game started, but there wasn’t a catcher there. So he tried to get an usher and then a member of the grounds crew to warm him up, but they both declined. He finally found a Dodgers fan in the stands who played catch with him from the fifth row.

Are you kidding me!? Is this little league? No wonder Penny had a horrible first inning. Just about every player has a pre-game routine and this is especially true of pitchers. The Dodgers need to take a serious look at why there was no catcher in the ‘pen before the game because that is just bush league.

Blake DeWitt didn’t do anything offensively, but that was true of the whole lineup. I still really like what I see out of him. He had two tough balls come his way in the first inning that he couldn’t handle. He didn’t let it get to him and came right back the next inning with a great diving play to rob Brian Giles of a hit.

Speaking of great plays, Andre Either made one in the fourth. That guy is a gamer.

Another day game tomorrow with what should be good pitching as Lowe goes up against Chris Young. I hope the bullpen catcher shows up.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 5th, 2008 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Ned Colletti, Matt Kemp, Blake DeWitt, nathaniel edelstein, nate edelstein, Andre Ethier, Derek Lowe, Juan Pierre, Brad Penny, Rafael Furcal, Andruw Jones, Russell Martin, Joe Torre. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.