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Dodgers Battle Back Against Tribe, And…

Man, that one was really disappointing.

We absolutely played like crap, got some breaks, got some drops, scored four runs and tied it in the ninth.

And then we went ahead and blew it…And Takashi blew it too.

Oh goodness, that was frustrating.

I yelled. I wasn’t happy.

Maybe we shouldn’t have put Takashi in for the 9^th, or maybe we should have never come back against a Cleveland bullpen after getting completely dominated by Cliff Lee all game. Man, is he good…he smoked us.

That dude threw his first pitch for a strike to pretty much everyone, and we knew it. We knew he was going to throw the first pitch for a strike every time, dead red fastball, and we still couldn’t hit it.

And that’s why he kept his pitch count down the entire game, because we fell behind in the count right after the first pitch. Every time, couldn’t hit it. He was good.

He threw 76 of his 104 pitches for a strike. But there was a point that he had thrown 49 of 71 for a strike, that’s unbelievable.

In contrast, rookie phenom, Clayton Kershaw, threw 85 total pitches, and threw 47 for a strike.

That’s 28 balls in total for Lee, and 38 balls in total for Kershaw. Cliff Lee threw 10 fewer balls while throwing 19 more pitches. That’s why Cliff Lee is 10-1 (should be 11-1 with a 0.00 added to his ERA), and Clayton Kershaw is a Dodger.

Just another example of something this team does that is unbelievably inexplicable. I have never seen a more misbehaved group of Major Leaguers in my life. They’re like seven year olds.

Matt Kemp is leading the team in RBIs with 42, and Loney is the closest after with 35. Matt Kemp is leading the team in Strikeouts with 69. The player with the closest to that has 45. It’s Andruw Jones still…

It’s the inconsistent play of this team that is ultimately going to be its demise. We don’t play smart, and that’s just not going to win base ball games. We can’t find ways to put the ball into play in important circumstances (Except for that one ball Pierre hit off the pitcher in the 9^th). Juan Pierre is playing decent baseball by the way, he’s doing a good job, but we need Raffy back.

One thing that’s really been missing in our lineup is a two-hole hitter. It’s been missing all year. It would be Pierre if Furcal were playing, but he’s not. We’ve tried Russell, Kemp, Ethier and Blakie-D, nobody has any idea how to hit in the two-hole, it’s the weirdest thing.

I used to love hitting in the two-hole. The two-hole is gritty. The two-hole says I’ll do whatever it takes to help this team win. I’ll take pitches and make a pitcher work; I’ll take more pitches so my runner can move. I’ll Sac Bunt, Hit and Run, hit the ball to the right side, do whatever you need coach. The two-hole is important, it sets the tone. 

I say we either let somebody else lead off and hit Pierre second, or send LaRoche back down and bring up Jason Repko.

We could possibly play Repko in Center if we wanted, and take some of the burden off Kemp and hide him in Right for a while. We could move Andre back to his normal position in Left, but sometimes he would have to sit as well, and so would Kemp, sometimes we’d be way better off without Kemp.

I know that Repko’s not even on the 40-man roster right now, but screw it, he should be, especially with Andruw Jones playing nonexistent.

Delwyn Young can swing it every once in a while, but he might be burning a hole in the bench when we could really be using that roster spot for a very reliable, sure handed, gutsy outfielder who can run the bases and has decent power.

He’s only hitting .263 in AAA, but truthfully, that’s not that bad for a player that fits into his category. He’s got 6 Home Runs on the year, which would be killin’ it on the Dodgers, and his OBP is a solid .359. He’s had 259 ABs already, which would be second on the Dodgers, so he’s proved that he can be relied upon to not run straight through a wall again.

More importantly, he’s got heart, and that’s what’s really missing in the middle of this lineup. Sometimes Kemp and Dre are too cool to show raw emotion, and Loney just doesn’t have the intensity built into him just yet I guess.

Russ had it for a second tonight, and then we all got it ripped out of our chest in the 10th.

Repko could provide that spunk at the top of the lineup. He’s got 12 Stolen Bases too. Repko would play, we could really use him.

On a side note, Jeff Kent is sixth on the team in At Bats, and his .419 SLG is on-pace to be the worst in his career since his rookie season in ’92 with the New York Mets.

Good luck in hell Willie Randolph, it’s been real. 

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 21st, 2008 at 12:24 am and is filed under Delwyn Young, Matt Kemp, James Loney, Clayton Kershaw, aaron sapiro, Blake DeWitt, Jason Repko, Andre Ethier, Takashi Saito, Rafael Furcal, Juan Pierre, Andy LaRoche, Andruw Jones, $35 All You Can Eat, Russell Martin, Dodger Loses, Jeff Kent. 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.