Wednesday, April 27, 2005 |
Hee's Green With Envy: D'backs 3, Dodgers 2
If my earlier fence-sitting made me appear to justify Tracy's decision to pull Choi, today's 4-5 with a home run effort vindicated further time in the lineup. Now that his average is at a respectable .260, doubts begin to evaporate. It won't always be so, especially as Tracy puts him in against lefties and tougher righties, but for the first time since we've seen the young Korean in a Dodger uniform, we know why DePodesta traded for him. Choi wasn't just superfluous junk accumulated along with the prized pitcher. His only failing came in the ninth, when he flied out to center with men on first and second, one out. If you have to have a guy be perfect because the rest of the offense is stalled, Choi's not your man. I can't bring myself to blame him for that.
Erickson pitched brilliantly by his lights, giving up three runs in five innings on four hits and two walks. It wasn't enough; Russ Ortiz outpitched him -- barely -- but still scraped together another win against a listless Dodger offense. The 0-fers included Drew and Valentin, and Bradley only got a single off.
The crowd hated Green, and let him hear it; in response, he went 2-4 and homered to give his new club the lead. To show his manners, he even gave a kid in the audience his batting gloves after the homer. It's sad to me that the home crowd didn't recognize why Green wore Arizona colors; I recall a recent Angels game against the Mariners where Scott Spiezio came to bat, and the audience practically gave him a standing O. That's class, kids, and it's a difference between the two clubs' fan bases. Much as I grew up one, Dodger fans often transcend mere annoyance and skid straight into downright rude, at least, en masse.
The Snakes' starting rotation has shaped up contrary to the preseason expectations of some of the Baseball Prospectus crew; Ortiz so far has had himself a small-sample-sized feast, and the bullpen, after last year's lava-covered immolation, at least found some quality guys to throw back at the division again this year. The quartet of Cormier, Lopez, Koplove, and Lyon managed a zero-run, three-inning effort, not too shabby for a team pretty widely derided as a bottom-dweller in the division. Whether they keep this going over 162 games is another matter, but again, I would tend to be at least a little optimistic. If nothing else, it's evident they're destined -- at least -- to play spoiler this year.
anyway, your reaction to the pitching was totally opposite of what i was thinking the whole game. i thought both starting pitchers looked pretty bad, with lots of hard-hit balls everywhere, but they were fortunate enough that most of them were not hit far enough, or that they were hit right at people. the dodgers did have 10 hits after all, but that darned russ ortiz escaped again with an undeserved win, and erickson was lucky he didn't give up 6 instead of just 3.
also, drew got a broken-bat blooper over ortiz' head, if i recall correctly, so he had a one-fer.
-vishal
: 4/27/2005 12:25:00 AMI even raised the Green question in my post today -- I can't figure out why for the life of me they're booing Green. The man wanted to stay in LA, for goodness' sake, and had some tremendous and a couple slightly disappointing seasons for the Dodgers.
Agree with vishal that both pitchers were lucky. However, last year, our pitcher wouldn't have escaped the fourth inning. The bullpen is better if only because we don't have to use our 10th and 11th pitchers nearly as much this year.
And we just can't have people talking crap about Dodger management. Now imagine if Plaschke was introduced at the beginning of a game...
: 4/27/2005 12:32:00 PMNewer› ‹Older
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