6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: In Which The Meek Inherit... A 12.00 ERA: Dodgers 11, Pirates 2

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Wednesday, April 16, 2008

In Which The Meek Inherit... A 12.00 ERA: Dodgers 11, Pirates 2

Look, if you can't beat the Pirates, who can you beat? That thought was circulating through my head late Monday after the Dodgers choked the lead up on a surrendered home run to fourth-outfielder-camoflaged-as-a-first Nate McLouth. It's not that McLouth is without power so much as the Dodgers closer shouldn't be throwing cookies that even Cesar Izturis in his dotage could hit out of the park.

For that reason and so many more, it was immediately a relief to see the Dodgers score a trio of runs for their starting pitcher in the fourth, even though Hong-Chih Kuo wasn't able to last five frames, mainly due to a predetermined pitch count of 75-80 pitches. Since he expended 32 to get out of the first (including consecutive four-pitch walks to Xavier Nady and Jason Bay), his fate was sealed early.

That ultimately led to an unusual five inning appearance by Esteban Loaiza, who performed admirably in that role, allowing only a run over those frames. As Jon pointed out, it was the last time since Kevin Gross threw five innings on July 31, 1991 against the Mets that a Dodger reliever came up with a win while pitching five or more innings. It's not that unusual throughout baseball, though, as there were three instances last year:

Mark Redman did it on September 12 for the Rockies against the Phillies after starter Denny Bautista only lasted two frames.
Shawn Chacon of the Pirates notched a win on May 17 following starter Tony Armas' failure to get past three.
14-appearance pitcher Kei Igawa of the Yankees beat the Red Sox April 28 for one of his only two major league victories. With a $26M posting fee, and currently pitching for AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Igawa ranks as one of the biggest Japanese free agent busts in recent memory, and perhaps ever.

That aside, there were lots of good things to come out of this game, and all for the Dodgers: Russ Martin got his first homer of the season (off Evan Meek), Matt Kemp tripled, and Jeff Kent drove in three while going 2-for-4. It's unfortunate that it had to come up against a collapsing has-been like Matt Morris, but you take the wins how they come.

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