6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: One And Counting: Dodgers 4, D'Backs 1

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Tuesday, July 06, 2004

One And Counting: Dodgers 4, D'Backs 1

You don't want to read too much into it; we know of Lima's weaknesses. An awful 5 run outing in a frigid Colorado rain, four-run meltdowns in Montreal, Pittsburgh, and Toronto; most recently, he imploded with an eight-run extravaganza against the Angels. And these are the Diamondbacks, a weak team swirling at the bottom of the division amidst rumors of a Randy Johnson selloff.

But.

Lima's May 2.73 ERA tantalizes, just like tonight's 1-run gem. The mercurial Lima will never be consistent, though; that's not his way. His career 5.11 ERA tells you that; he's spent more years above 4.00 than below it. And to be 7-3 in 21 starts, well, that's a lot of no-decisions.

The offense sputtered, as you'd expect with Bradley and Encarnacion on the bench and perilously close, in Encarnacion's case, to requiring season-ending surgery. Hernandez' solo shot and bunts did the trick for the rest of the offense.

And Gagné came out and got the save. You forget how amazing he's been. Jayson Stark publishes some useless Gagné factoids, just to remind us how lucky we've been to see him pitch for our team:

In that 23-month period in which Gagne was blowing no saves, all those other, slightly more human, relievers combined to blow 969 saves. In fact, there were 28 blown saves just against the Dodgers during the streak.
...
How overpowering was Gagne during this streak? Incredibly, he totaled more saves (84) than he allowed hits (71). And that just ain't normal.

... So how would [Gagné's appearance on other teams] have changed the standings heading into games of Tuesday? Here's how:

The A's (10 blown saves by Arthur Rhodes and Octavio Dotel) would have the best record in baseball (56-24).
The Reds (seven blown saves from Danny Graves) would be 20 games over .500 instead of six over.
The Phillies (with a combined six blown saves by Billy Wagner and Tim Worrell) would lead the NL East by seven games instead of three.
The Angels (eight blown saves by Frankie Rodriguez and Troy Percival) would be 19 games over .500 instead of three over.
The Indians (with six blown ninth-inning saves) would be tied with the Twins instead of five games behind -- although both of them would trail the White Sox by a game and a half.
The Cubs (six blown saves by Joe Borowski and LaTroy Hawkins) would have as many wins as the Yankees.
And the Blue Jays (six blown ninth-inning saves) would be at .500 instead of 10 games under.

He'll start another streak. Today. Starting at one. This one.

Recap

// posted by Rob @ 11:09 PM link // 1 comments