MVN - Most Valuable Network

Nomar and Jones Go Down, But Martin Wins Game in 13th

What a night.

Emotionally, I’m exhausted. Back and forth in the game’s early innings. Colorado takes the lead in the top of the second. We tie it up in the bottom half of the inning. Rockies take the 4-1 lead in the top of the third. We come right back and take the 6-4 lead. Colorado makes up a run in the top of the fourth. We come back in the bottom half and add a run.

Then the Dodgers took a little break and the Rox played catch-up, ultimately leading to Matt Kemp scoring the winning run in the 13th inning on a Russell Martin sac fly.

But a lot happened in between.

First, Andruw Jones fouled a ball off his left calf in the third inning and was later replaced by Kemp. He is day-to-day. Somehow, I think the offense will manage.

Then in the ninth inning the unthinkable happened. That’s right, Nomar got injured. Scott Podsednik doubled down the left field line and Nomar strained his left calf muscle, an injury he has dealt with before. He would have to leave the game.

I’m not going to ramble on about the fact that the very same day I questioned how Nomar could be the everyday third baseman. Because this was Russell Martin’s moment on Russell Martin’s day.

Forget the fact that he raised his batting average 40 points to .276 by going 4-for-4 with two walks and two RBI. Forget the fact that he hit the 13th inning sacrifice fly to win the game. When he took off his catcher’s gear in the ninth and ran out to third base with the same business-like expression he plays with everyday, we were all reminded how lucky we are that Russell Martin is a Dodger.

He played five innings at third base. He didn’t have any balls hit his way (he almost had a play on Willie Taveras’ bunt in the 11th, but Chan Ho Park tried to make the play). But what gamer.

At the same time, it was quite unsurprising that Nomar got injured. I think we all figured it would happen at some point. I wonder if Torre (and Martin) had planned all along that when he did get injured, Martin would take over at third. It just seems too predictable a situation to not prepare for it at all.

Now Nomar is expected to be placed on the 15-day disabled list and Blake DeWitt can redeem his frequent flyer miles for a trip back to LA as the everyday third baseman.

Meanwhile, last night with Double-A Jacksonville Andy LaRoche went 1-for-3 with a double, two strikes, and a walk to make him 3-for-12 in three games. One would think it won’t be too much longer until he is ready. That will be interesting.

A great outing in relief from Chan Ho Park. After Takashi Saito blew his second save of the season, Chan Ho entered the game in the 11th inning and threw three scoreless. He allowed two hits and two walks and was exactly what the Dodgers needed to stay in the game. Watching him pitch like that definitely gave me flashbacks to 2000, before he signed his mammoth deal with the Rangers and fell off the face of the earth.

Rafael Furcal also came up big in the game, making a key play in the fourth inning. He only went 1-for-6 on the night and was one of a few Dodgers caught stealing, but somehow he always manages to make a positive impact.

Podsednik was on second after an RBI-double that put Colorado within one. Troy Tulowitzki laced a grounder in the hole between shortstop and third, which Furcal not only managed to get to, but then made an amazing throw to first as he was fading backward. Only his cannon of an arm would have been able to get Tulowitzki out at first and save a run from scoring. On a night in which each run was so important, that could have been the game changer.

Looks like Pierre will get the start tonight with Jones hurt. If batting him in front of the pitcher can get him three walks like he did last night I will take it. Plus, I would be wrong to ignore his two-run single in the third that gave the Dodgers the lead. I still hate his arm, but it’s not like Torre has a choice at this point anyway.

Tonight Brad Penny (3-2, 2.62) takes on Mark Redman (2-1, 5.23) and it would really help if Penny could eat up some innings. The Rockies happen to be his favorite opponent with a career 12-2 record and 2.92 ERA against them, going 2-0 last year.

With Torre finally settling on Esteban Loiza to start on Sunday, there’s been a lot of talk about Clayton Kershaw in the last couple days. Last night he was on the mound for Double-A Jacksonville and threw six scoreless innings for the no-decision. He allowed only two hits and struck out eight, lowering his ERA to 1.40. We’ll see how Loaiza does on Sunday, but I can’t imagine they can hold Kershaw down much longer.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 26th, 2008 at 1:15 pm and is filed under Clayton Kershaw, Nomar Garciapara, Takashi Saito, Esteban Loaiza, Blake DeWitt, nate edelstein, nathaniel edelstein, Russell Martin, Dodger Wins, Brad Penny, Andy LaRoche, Chan Ho Park, Juan Pierre, Andruw Jones, Rafael Furcal, 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.