6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

OT: Spiral Dog Cases

Last Thursday I mentioned that our bad dog had a serious tumor on her rump, and that we took her to see the emergency vet, who was only able to make her comfortable. She had surgery on Friday at Veterinary Surgical Specialists, a small animals practice in the middle of what is one of the most colossal expanses of veterinary medicine I've ever seen. Not only is there a specialist surgeon there, but the business park they're in has a cluster of related veterinary medical practices, including an ICU (where Hannah stayed after her surgery, and still is) with 24 hour care, an oncologist, an allergist, a radiologist, and so on.

Helen visited our dog yesterday, and Hannah's in increasingly good spirits, amazing considering she's on a morphine drip and has tubes everywhere. We still don't have the final lab results back from her tumor, but we expect them in by Friday. The surgeon, a very soft-spoken Briton whose accent reminds me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Anthony Head, wasn't able to excise healthy tissue around the site owing to its size. So, she'll have to undergo additional treatment to knock out the remaining tumor micro-fragments.

The other dog-related news, which I did not relay at the time, is that our boy dog, Foley, has developed a chronic nosebleed and snores at night. Snoring isn't a big deal; nosebleeds are. He also will sometimes flinch when we pet his head, or sometimes even when he scratches his face with his left paw. X-rays of his head at our local vet showed an irregular sinus cavity, and so we took yet another trip to Tustin for a CT scan of his head. We got the CD of the images yesterday, and while we haven't sent them back to our regular vet, and I have no idea what they mean, they are pretty cool. The link above is a 1.6 MB animated GIF of his CT scan, which may have been assembled in the wrong order in some places, since you see a "pop" in places, but you can pretty clearly make out the skeletal structures and teeth. (You can also see the breathing tube, the perfectly round object in almost all the images.)

The doctors are sounding cautiously optimistic notes for both animals. We'll know more as the week progresses.

Update: The radiologist says it's an inoperable tumor that's pierced the sinus/brain barrier, a "life-altering" event, if I remember the euphemism. We won't have biopsy results until Friday, so there's still some solace to be taken there. This really sucks. Foley was — no, is — the best, sweetest dog you'd ever care to know, a happy, gentle soul who never hurt anyone. Why him?

Words Fail: Brewers 9, Dodgers 5

Grady Little has moved the lineup around a bit, so typical batting order now looks like

CF Pierre
SS Furcal
1B Garciaparra
2B Kent
 C Martin
LF Gonzalez
RF Ethier
3B Betemit/LaRoche
 P

Last night, the "P" was Brett Tomko, busy reverting to the form we all knew he had, which is to say, brutally inconsistent. I somehow forgot that this game was going, thinking the Dodgers had a day off; that was next Monday. What's amazing about this game is looking at the box score and noting Tony Gwynn, Jr. with a .345/.410/.418 line; he hasn't been getting much respect as a prospect despite his last name. I'm sure his soon-to-be-inducted Hall of Fame dad is proud.

Prince Fielder hit his 13th and 14th homers of the year, tying him for the NL lead with teammate J.J. Hardy.

With the loss, the Dodgers' lead in the NL West is only a half game. On the other hand, as the Kamenetzky brothers opined, it's the most runs the Dodgers have scored since the start of the Freeway series. ¡Ay, carumba!

Recap • Yahoo Box

Roster Notes

• Via The Trolley Dodger, the Boston Globe claims that Hideo Nomo wants to make a comeback.

  Hideo Nomo and Mac Suzuki are eyeing a return to the major leagues. Nomo has been rehabilitating from elbow surgery in the Los Angeles area. According to his agent, Don Nomura, Nomo definitely wants to pitch again. "He's a little bit away from a return, but not too far away," said Nomura, who is also trying to get Suzuki a minor league deal. Suzuki, 31, last pitched for the Royals in 2002. Nomo, 38, last pitched for the Devil Rays in 2005.

• The Angels are allegedly interested in bringing Jason Giambi back to the AL West, according to the unreliable New York Post.

  The Angels’ interest in Giambi, who was in a 1-for-26 slump and batting .268 going into last night’s game, was before the recent controversy surfaced. It’s likely the Angels, who have 30 homers, will wait to see what MLB does before pursuing a deal the Yankees would have to listen to very seriously.

  The Angels have utility man Chone Figgins to move as well as backup catcher Jose Molina. And their farm system is loaded with young arms. However, if the Yankees have to eat a sizeable portion of Giambi’s salary to make the trade they would want more back for Giambi. As for Giambi, he has a blanket no-trade clause. However, the Angels play 20 minutes from West Covina, where he grew up, and an equal distance from the Orange County beaches Giambi enjoys.

  Mo Vaughn, Part 2.
• Milton Bradley was held from playing the field after defensive drills didn't work for him. It sounds like he'll be playing injured a good part of the year.

Labels: angels, athletics, dodgers, injuries, offtopic, recaps