Tuesday, June 29, 2004 |
An Old-School Win: Dodgers 2, Giants 1
After the Yankees game I attended earlier, the Giants crowd -- still rowdy by usually staid Dodger Stadium standards -- hardly had any fire left in them, especially as Giants rookie Noah Lowry pitched seven innings of one-run, two-hit ball. Chants of "Yankees Suck" could be heard in the stands, or maybe it was "Giants Suck", or maybe "Barry Sucks". I really couldn't tell, as it was a pretty feeble cheer, and always, it seemed, by a few leather throats several sections away.
Not that there was much to cheer for; only Werth's solo shot enlivened the first seven frames, marked mostly by Blue futility. Tracy once more trotted out Green in the 3-hole, where he proceeded to go 0-4, with two strikeouts. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the 15 he wears on his back represents the number of millions of dollars he should give back the team based on performance. Paulie, on the other hand, cashed in a runner and got the game winner.
From the other side of the plate, Jeffy gave up quite a few hits without striking out many, but scattered them nicely for the best appearance in memory. Mota, shaky again, bent but never broke, unlike Felix Rodriguez. As Baseball Prospectus put it, the Felix Rodriguez from 2001 isn't likely to ever show up again, but he's still competent -- 3.00 ERAs don't grow on trees, even for middle relievers. And of course Gagné put the nail in it. In my comments about Tracy earlier, he's the one player I forgot -- and the one who would be the quickest missed among Dodger fans. It felt very odd having to explain all this to a non-baseball-fan coworker recently from the east coast I brought to the game, telling him about Gagné and how "Game Over" wasn't just a joke or a taunt but how Gagné had just won the Cy Young last year and he really was that dominant. I had to explain the whole thing where everyone stands for him leaving the bullpen, and for the last out.
You could see how near a thing it was, though, and that's not encouraging. The season hangs in the balance, the future of some key players rests on this week's games, and all they bring to the table is a home run and a lousy RBI single. This was a textbook, old-school win from 2003.
I'll take it. The question is, will DePodesta?
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