6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: A Stooges' <i>Pas De Deux</i>: Dodgers 5, Giants 3

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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

A Stooges' Pas De Deux: Dodgers 5, Giants 3

It looked almost like a replay of yesterday's sloppy glove work — this time we got three errors, two by the Giants, and both of which yielded Dodger runs. The first was Fred Lewis' misplay of Andre Ethier's relatively straightforward liner; the second, Juan Uribe's bad throw in the third that allowed James Loney to reach and Andre Ethier to score on what should have been a routine 6-3 putout. Likewise, it was a field day for wild pitches, with the Dodgers doinking four short of the plate (including one by Jonathan Broxton — a fastball that he just missed on), and a couple wild pitches, too.

And yet despite it, neither team really capitalized all that much on the sloppiness; the game had the feel of one that should have gotten out of control, but it never did, testimony to the kind of pitcher that Chad Billingsley has become this year so far. On the other side of the plate, the sixth inning was pretty demonstrative: Matt Kemp walked to lead off the frame, got erased on a 2-6 caught stealing, and eventually the Dodgers managed to load the bases with two out — and got nothing to show for it.

In fact, the craziness also manifest itself with bases-loaded walks for both sides, one by Broxton in the eighth (and why he didn't pitch the ninth is a question I'd like to see answered — perhaps it had to do with the blown save), and one by the Dodgers in the seventh by James Loney against Brandon Medders. (Breaking the spell, Casey Blake then proceeded to bounce into a 1-2-3 double play, in keeping with the night's general disbelief-suspending-ness.)

With time running short, the Dodgers finally broke through in the top of the ninth against Bobby Howry, an odd choice for Bruce Bochy; Manny Ramirez crushed a double into the deepest part of the yard, but after getting the oddly-placed (and struggling) Russell Martin to strike out (in the three hole? Really, Torre?), Andre Ethier hit a laser to knock Manny home. Matt Kemp followed that up with a triple to that part of AT&T that yields so many of them. Will Ohman, not the kind of guy I normally associate with "getting it done in the ninth", did just that against the Giants' 1-2-3 batters. A fascinating game and yet a comedic one, all at once.

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