6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: Joe Torre Gets Serious: Dodgers 6, Angels 3

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Saturday, May 17, 2008

Joe Torre Gets Serious: Dodgers 6, Angels 3

Yesterday, the Angels got crucial runs gifted to them by Gary Bennett and Hiroki Kuroda, the former for his infamous toss over James Loney's head, the latter for his two wild pitches that allowed Maicer Izturis to take third and eventually score. That the Angels needed both those runs should tell you how dire the straits their offense is in these days. Aside from their big ten run game against Chicago last Monday, the Angels haven't put together a lot of big offensive games lately, and the decrepit (and in Torii Hunter's case, slumping) outfield is significantly to blame. If the opposition is so dumb as to provide you with offensive holes in the top of the order and defensive holes at a crucial position, the Angels can beat those teams handily.

Joe Torre apparently learned his lesson, and Juan Pierre aside, wrote in a 2-3-4 lineup of Ethier, Martin, and Loney, which is to say, he actually earned his pay for the day. Pierre went 0-for-4 but thanks to Ervin Santana's other weakness — i.e., day games (lifetime 5.78 ERA going into this game) — it didn't much matter, because he was wild and not nearly as effective as he'd been previously (though four earned runs in six frames is hardly terrible). Mike Scioscia still thinks of Gary Matthews, Jr. as a Valuable Member of the Team, though it's pretty clear he's just an aging journeyman and a dreadful mistake by the previous GM.

Chan Ho Park pitched a surprisingly good four innings, not enough to get him the win but enough to get the Dodgers through to a win. Hong-Chih Kuo went most of the rest of the way and did a fine job keeping the Angels off the basepaths for the most part; once it came down to a battle of the bullpens, as expected, the Angels lost. Chris Bootcheck in particular was his usual ~~mediocre~~ bad self, and based on tonight's performance, could have been shipped to AAA where he could join Dustin Moseley in asking, "Whahappen?" Bootcheck, in fact, has had exactly one outing in which he has not given up one or more runs. His clock is ticking, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him DFA'd before the season is out.

Finally, about Blake DeWitt's two-run jack: I understand the replay showed the ball was as Scioscia said, a fan intercepted it on the way out, making it not a home run but a ground-rule double (?). Two points on that:

It didn't matter anyway, since the Dodger margin of victory was more than two runs.
Good for DeWitt. This can only mean fewer excuses for Torre to keep him out of the lineup.

Others have suggested elsewhere that Andy LaRoche should start playing second base, especially in light of Torre's loss of faith in Chin-Lung Hu at short. Just so, then. This team desperately needs a wheat-from-chaff moment, particularly in the Vetruhn Presence Dep't, but if somehow LaRoche can dislodge an ineffective Jeff Kent from his sinecure at second, well, bully for him and the Dodgers.

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