6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: Mad Dog, And Hoary: Cubs 4, Dodgers 1

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Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Mad Dog, And Hoary: Cubs 4, Dodgers 1

So with the Cubs in town, it was simply impossible for me to miss the series, but with things busy at work and elsewhere, the question came down to which game. With Maddux on the mound, it was a question that answered itself.

And I must say, I want a third of my money back; I paid for a good three hours of entertainment, but the Cubs and Dodgers finished their contest in under two. Maddux, ever the magician, mystified the Dodgers through eight innings of the one hour and 59 minute contest. He even managed to make Rafael Furcal disappear before our eyes — well, catch him in a rundown — and collected an RBI hit in his own cause, an event that occaisioned boos from the Dodger faithful, and cheers from the Cubbie-blue-wearing throng we sat amidst. Naively, the native audience somehow expected Brett Tomko to actually make an out against the pitcher; they were apparently unaware of his priors, or else they would have dismissed his pitching from the get-go.

I have been predisposed to hate this team since its construction, and principally because of signings of aging, injury-prone placeholders like Nomar Garciaparra (who is still on the DL and has yet to play a regular season game in a Dodger uniform) and Kenny Lofton (who just came off the DL). Jon suggests Lofton "would be at best a rather glorified role player disguised as nominal starter" and so we should have lesser expectations for him. It doesn't help that he's had a 1-11 start, but I still don't entirely buy it; years and years of San Francisco players like Marquis Grissom and Edgardo Alfonso make me think Lofton-as-a-starter was a real, honest-to-Sabean plan.

Finally, here's the game WPA graph: