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

The New York Times uncorked a doozy today when they broke the story that the FBI is investigating the St. Louis Cardinals for hacking into the Astros' network and stealing proprietary player data.

The Astros hired Mr. Luhnow as general manager in December 2011, and he quickly began applying his unconventional approach to running a baseball team. In an exploration of the team’s radical transformation, Bloomberg Business called it “a project unlike anything baseball has seen before.”

Under Mr. Luhnow, the Astros have accomplished a striking turnaround; they are in first place in the American League West division. But in 2013, before their revival at the major league level, their internal deliberations about statistics and players were compromised, law enforcement officials said.

The intrusion did not appear to be sophisticated, the law enforcement officials said. When Mr. Luhnow was with the Cardinals, the organization built a computer network, called Redbird, to house all of their baseball operations information — including scouting reports and player personnel information. After leaving to join the Astros, and bringing some front-office personnel with him from the Cardinals, Houston created a similar program known as Ground Control.

Which suggests that Luhnow and others in the Houston front office didn't bother to change their passwords from their time at St. Louis. It also suggests that the Cardinals store their passwords in plaintext, which, why?

Fangraphs has a fine piece on the legal ramifications:

The primary law implicated by the Cardinals’ alleged hacking would appear to be the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The CFAA was originally passed back in 1984 to protect both the government and the financial industry from electronic espionage. The law was later expanded in 1996, however, to cover any unauthorized, remote access of another’s computer.
Under Section (a)(4) of the CFAA, anyone who “knowingly … accesses a protected computer without authorization” in order to “obtain[] anything of value” is subject to potential criminal liability for the hacking. Similarly, Section (a)(5)(B) of the law prohibits “intentionally access[ing] a protected computer without authorization,” should it result in any damage being inflicted on the computer’s owner.

The act provides for a five year sentence per instance of access, which could mean life imprisonment for ongoing spying. Also, the Electronic Espionage Act of 1996 makes the entire Cardinals organization possibly complicit in criminal activity, but only if the government can show high-level Cardinals knew or should have known about the matter.

But is that likely? As one of the commenters at a Facebook group observed, commissioner Rob Manfred has been pleased to use stolen evidence when it suited him; how hard can he really come down on the Cards? (Ignoring for the moment the consequence of criminal investigations, and assuming that there will be repercussions at the MLB commissioner's office.) One thing's for sure, there'll be a lot of billable hours among all parties.

Labels: astros, cardinals, front office, scams

When I heard about the Hanley Ramirez trade, sending Nathan Eovaldi and minor league pitcher Scott McGaugh to the Marlins for Ramirez and reliever Randy Choate, I was at least skeptical. Ramirez is two years away from a good season, but continues to be paid as a star. But, as MSTI pointed out,

As for Ramirez, there’s risk here for sure. He’ll be 29 in December, and from 2007-10 he was an MVP caliber player, mixing power, on-base skills, and speed together to make for a very productive package, though he was probably always miscast as a shortstop. Last year, slowed by back and shoulder injuries, was nothing short of a disaster, as he played in just 92 games, hit .243/.333/.379, and probably got his manager fired. After an offseason dispute with the Marlins about moving to third base, he was expected to bounce back in a healthy 2012, but has hit only .246/.322/.428 and has recently missed time after a bizarre incident in which he cut himself on a fan and then didn’t take antibiotics, leading to infection. Ramirez is signed through 2014 with something like $36m remaining, which the Dodgers will apparently be paying all of.

So the concern is obvious: Ramirez is expensive, moody, and a poor defender. (Why does that sound so familiar?) Yet he’s on the right side of 30 and undeniably talented, and players like that rarely come available in the free market. Offense, particularly infield offense, is so hard to find these days that you’re going to have to take some risks in order to try to find production. The hope is that Ramirez can be a good change-of-scenery guy, and while his attitude is indeed a concern, running a solid clubhouse is one area where Don Mattingly has proven to be adept. It remains to be seen where Ramirez plays, but my guess is he’ll stay at third for now, since he’s hardly a top defensive shortstop and since Luis Cruz has been an adequate fill-in, especially with the glove.

I'm not as sanguine about Ramirez' chances overall; it seems to me that the left side of the diamond is a tough place to make a living, especially for someone who is a power threat and claims to play shortstop. Nomar Garciaparra comes to mind, particularly, and while he had a wrist injury from which he never really recovered, Ramirez is a couple years away from 30 still, which is kind of a big deal. The hope, certainly, is that way from the toxic atmosphere of south Florida he might be able to pull himself together. This strikes me as somewhat wishful thinking, but it is all we have at the moment. That, and the fact that he's better right now than Juan Uribe.

The pessimist's view is that while that latter's true, it is also the case that he has put up sub-100 OPS+ numbers for the last two years at a position normally assumed to be power-first if he is to take over the third base slot for the Dodgers. It's also worth mentioning that the new Marlins park isn't really well known enough to understand how it plays, but the early returns seem to indicate it's a slight hitter's park. However it breaks down, the Dodgers owe him $31.5M over the next two years, plus the prorated remainder of the $15M remaining on his 2012 salary.

The Dodgers scored no runs today that did not involve Ramirez, either hitting or scoring, so there is that, but the real questions lie down the road.

Update 7/26: This move reminded me substantially of Manny Ramirez's star turn in his Dodgers debut, which ended with a thud when he hit into a double play with nobody out in the bottom of the ninth. In that regard, this Ramirez did much better, but still, it seems futile at this point in his career to expect a lot. Indeed, an overall nobody-wins-this-trade vibe seems to be the sense I'm getting from the BPro review yesterday.

Dodgers recap • ESPN Box

Labels: cardinals, dodgers, recaps

I saw it and I still don't believe it, Scott Van Slyke coming up in the absence of Matt Kemp, and driving across the game-winning runs at home in front of his dad and national TV, and against the team he grew up rooting for.

I am not much on "magical" and related sorts of adjectives, but it seems to me that this team is, at least, charmed. They find ways to win, improbable though that often seems to be.

Apparently there was a scuffle in the parking lot after the game that resulted in a man being hospitalized (where his pregnant wife went, too). Not a lot of details yet.

ESPN Box

Labels: cardinals, dodgers, recaps

• Per the Times, the Angels signed Kendrys Morales to a $3M/1 year deal.
• The Brewers have signed former Cub Aramis Ramirez worth $36M over three years with a fourth year mutual option.
• The Cards re-signed Rafael Furcal to a one year deal worth $14M.
• The Dodgers non-tendered Hong-Chih Kuo, though the team is interested in re-signing him. The Dodgers did tender contracts to Andre Ethier, James Loney, and Clayton Kershaw.

Labels: brewers, cardinals, dodgers, ex-dodgers, hot stove, transactions

Several versions of this interview with Deidre Pujols, wife of slugger Albert, have appeared on the Interwebz, but I'm linking to the NBC Sports version because it contains all the key pieces you need to know. In particular:

“I understand you’re talking to us, then one TV station, and that’s about it,” is how Sandi Brown, morning show host at 99.1 Joy FM in St. Louis, opened her conversation Monday with Deidre Pujols, the wife of new Angels first baseman Albert Pujols.

“This is the moment of truth for us,” Deidre replied. “Four days have passed and most people are probably sick of hearing our name by now, but I’m ready to let people have our side of what has happened and be able to make better judgements.”

...

“When you have somebody say, ‘we want you to be a Cardinal for life,’ and then only offer you a five-year deal, it kind of confused us,” said Deidre, calling the offer an “insult.”

So, tainted by that "insult" offer, and a subsequent arrangement that would have deferred $30M of his salary (the Angels' deal is 100% current with no deferments), Pujols eventually decided to become an Angel. This annoys me to some degree, because Pujols' decline is already to some degree evident. I am not convinced the back half of his deal will be of any value to the team that likely just signed the final contract of his career. However you may feel about that, it's a business decision, and we'll see whether Pujols becomes synonymous with Mo Vaughn or some of the other expensive free agent disasters in Angels history.

Related: Scott Miller of CBS Sports tweets that Pujols is contracted to the Angels for the first decade past his presumptive retirement when this contract ends. Yow.

Labels: angels, cardinals, hot stove, transactions

• Steve Dilbeck takes a look at the potential list of suitors for the Dodgers. Just say no to Chinese tongs.
• Maury Brown reckons the Dodgers could fetch up to $1.5 billion. Unfortunately, he doesn't explain how that happens, but argues that the minimum bid for the Dodgers would be at the Forbes valuation of $800M. Of course, that opens a significant question: why is it that the creditors have to be made whole? Presumably, that gets into how trustworthy MLB as an entity is, and they're not going to ever let that happen (especially with the hired help, doubly so with labor negotiations ongoing). Unfortunately, that sets a floor of about a billion dollars on the sale price, making me wonder what kind of ultra-rich guy (or guys) would have the scratch to buy, and what would the add-on effects be of spending so much money up front.
• You may have heard that Tony LaRussa announced his retirement on the day after his Cardinals won the World Series. The hole in St. Louis' coaching situation may well be filled by an ex-Cub, Ryne Sandberg, who was the Phillies' AAA manager this last season. Sandberg was passed over for Quade two years ago.
• the Cubs announced Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer, and Jason McLeod are all coming to the Cubs, in the roles, respectively, of team President, general manager, and scouting director. Compensation to the Red Sox and Padres has yet to be established ...
• The Dodgers named Sue Falsone head athletic trainer, the first woman so named in any major sport.
• Three Dodgers and three Red Sox (and one Angel!) won Gold Gloves; the Dodgers were Clayton Kershaw, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, and the Angel was Erick Aybar.
• The Dodgers made their first signing of the offseason by giving Juan Rivera the starting left field job on a one-year deal with a team option for 2013, dollars unknown.
• Bill Shaikin just tweeted that there will be no minimum price for the Dodgers, but potential buyers will be approved by MLB before bidding starts.
• Update: Peter O'Malley-era GM Fred Claire is active in a group seeking to buy the team.

Probably to be updated as the day wears on ...

Labels: angels, awards, cardinals, cubs, dodgers, hot stove

A lot of other people are going to write about this game, and everything that was wrong with it; for starters, the five errors (three by the Cards, two by the Rangers) that, to my mind, set some kind of recent record for single game screwups. Then, Tony LaRussa's mangling of pinch hitters: getting Edwin Jackson announced but not used in the 10th was about as egregious a misuse of players as I have ever seen, save for the now-infamous screwup in Game 5 in which he used Lance Lynn to intentionally walk Ian Kinsler.

Forget all that.

Tonight might have been Texas' best shot at a title. The last team to win a World Series as an away team in Game 7 was the 1979 Pirates. And it slipped away from them, multiple times, with the Cards twice tying two-run deficits to force bonus baseball.

Damn, it's moments like this that I just love this game.

Update: Nice article at Yahoo's Big League Stew about the fan who grabbed Freese's walkoff homer.

ESPN Box

Labels: cardinals, rangers, recaps

I watched this game diffidently, Clayton Kershaw rendering his first godawful start of the year; during the game, Josh Fisher tweeted

If this is what a Kershaw disaster start looks like now, I'm in. All the way in.

But that was appreciably before Kershaw gave up five runs in less than five innings (4.2 IP, actually, expending 111 pitches). I'm still high on Kershaw, too, and like any pitcher, you occasionally have to forgive the bad outing. But the majority of Dodger fans are not so forgiving, and the announced attendance of 31,614 was the smallest for a home Saturday game since 2002. Yesterday's loss was the fifth straight.

The McCourts have put a bad smell on the park, and they're not going away anytime soon ...

ESPN Box • Recap

Labels: cardinals, dodgers, recaps

Chris Jaffe finds the worst of the "best"; that lowly winner is the 1987 Twins. But the 2006 Cardinals were darn close. The main reason, though, for the Cards' appearance there was injury; once healthy (which they were once they got to the postseason), they were able to put it together for a ring.

Labels: cardinals, dodgers, history, postseason, twins

And first off, let me say that I'm grateful some kind soul put up a definition at Urban Dictionary for that acronym; Ryan Theriot is out the door to the Cardinals, replaced on the 25-man roster by the not-terribly-impressive Blake Hawksworth. To get anything of value is something like a miracle, so goodbye and enjoy whatever time remains to you in the majors, Mr. Theriot.

Labels: cardinals, dodgers, hot stove, trades, transactions

Aaron Gleeman reports that Tony LaRussa will return to the Cardinals on a one-year deal for 2011, with an option for 2012.

Labels: cardinals, managers

Stuff About Yesterday: Angels 3, Mariners 2

The offense was barely good enough, but considering the opponent was Felix Hernandez (who provided his team a complete game loss), that's no small thing. The Mariners helped out Jered Weaver, who lasted seven innings himself, by erasing themselves to end two separate innings (Michael Saunders in the fifth, and Chone Figgins in the eighth). Helen counted, and aside from Ichiro, there's only one Mariner with a batting average over .260.

Ironies: the two ex-Angels on the team were doing terribly, Casey Kotchman so much so that you begin to wonder whether he'll even be in baseball next year. He grounded out to short to end the game, and there was something immensely sad about it. I had really high hopes for him.

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Dodgers Lose Two In One Game: Cardinals 8, Dodgers 4

Manny Ramirez didn't survive the first inning (hamstring strain), and Russell Martin may end up forced to the DL with a thumb injury. The rest was the usual crap against the Cards in St. Louis, including a four-inning start by Chad Billingsley, who's looking more and more vincible this year.

ESPN Box • Dodgers recap

Labels: angels, cardinals, dodgers, ex-angels, injuries, mariners, recaps

Dodgers Sweep Cards: Dodgers 4, Cardinals 3

How did this happen? I was as shocked as anybody to see the Blue blow past the Cards, who have given them trouble every year the last decade, it seems. Doing some research, it turns out that the last time they got a three-game home sweep of St. Louis, it was a very magical year indeed: 1988, and specifically, July 18, 19, and 20 against a fairly weak Cards team (finishing 74-88).

Manny Ramirez (first inning homer) and Blake DeWitt (a two-run single) drove in all the Dodgers' runs, and against Adam Wainwright, of all people. When Clayton Kershaw gave up Ryan Ludwick's no-doubter to left in the fourth, the immediate thought was, oh boy. But he settled down and finished seven innings. Broxton got himself into some little trouble in the ninth — but with the help of a there-but-for-the-grace-of-God ground rule double off the bat of Yadier Molina that prevented Albert Pujols from scoring from first, no further damage occurred. In the end it was a narrow thing.

ESPN Box • Dodgers recap

Angels Maul Oakland: Angels 7, A's 1

Sort of retribution for the previous night's 10-1 battering. Great game by Hokie Joe, who went the distance.

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Dodgers Hired A Psychic

The McCourts so don't deserve to run this franchise.

Frank and Jamie McCourt paid him to help the team win by sending positive energy over great distances.

Shpunt says he is a scientist and a healer, not a magician. His method could not guarantee the Dodgers would win, he says, but it could make a difference.

"Maybe it is just a little," he said. "Maybe it can help."

In the five years he worked for the Dodgers, he attended just one game. Instead, he watched them on television in his home more than 3,000 miles from Dodger Stadium, channeling his thoughts toward the team's success.

Shpunt's work was one of the best-kept secrets of the McCourt era. The couple kept it hidden even from the team's top executives. But from e-mails and interviews, a picture emerges of how the emigre physicist tried to use his long-distance energy to give the Dodgers an edge.

The McCourts, who are embroiled in a contentious divorce, declined to be interviewed about Shpunt. Through their representatives, Frank said it was Jamie's idea to hire him and Jamie said it was Frank's.

Update: Noted in the comments at MSTI's piece on this topic:

At one point, Shpunt also tried to heal a player. In 2005, Jamie referred outfielder Jayson Werth to him for treatment of a wrist injury, after Werth had told her of his interest in alternative medicine, according to Cohen and representatives for Frank and Jamie.

Werth had one in-person healing session and one distance healing session, apparently not successful. In 2008, as he emerged as a star with the Philadelphia Phillies, Werth said Dodgers doctors had misdiagnosed the injury and that he did not get proper treatment until he went to the Mayo Clinic on his own. He made no mention of Shpunt.

Labels: angels, athletics, cardinals, dodgers, mccourts, recaps, stupid ideas

And So, Goodbye, Jered: Cardinals 6, Angels 5 (10 Innings)

Three runs, two earned (the unearned run coming due to Erick Aybar's throwing error in the fourth that allowed Brendan Ryan to take second) against an admittedly slightly-below-average offense (11th in the league with 196) — the league's worst bullpen (5.33 ERA!) guaranteed he would finish the day without a win. If anybody wonders why Jered Weaver will join John Lackey on the east coast when his current contract is up — either with the Yankees or Red Sox — you don't have to wonder anymore.

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Dodgers Can't Finish The Sweep: Tigers 6, Dodgers 2

The MLB.com game recap blames Kuroda's three-run first, but really he did his job; why the bullpen imploded is another story, as is why the offense wasn't able to do much past the pair of runs they scratched out in the fifth.

ESPN Box • Dodgers recap

Labels: angels, cardinals, dodgers, recaps, tigers

Scott Kazmir made it look easy from the third through the sixth, retiring 17 consecutive batters after giving up a pair of runs in the second. With the Angels offense on a tear, it looked like a runaway game, but that was before Bobby Cassevah got into the game. He proceeded to give up four runs, readmitting the Cards to the game, but Fernando Rodney finally got the last two outs of the game.

Kendry Morales went 3-for-5 in the five-hole, largely against Kyle Lohse. Something about it seemed funny given Howie Kendrick's 1-for-4 afternoon. I still have hope for Howie, but so far this year, he's more Howard than Howie.

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Labels: angels, cardinals, recaps

Top 4th: A grand slam to the pitcher, Mr. Ex-Cardinal Joel Piniero? Couldn't you have sent them a different sort of present, maybe shaving mugs?

Update: Bill Plunkett notes the last time the Angels gave up a grand slam to the opposing pitcher was in 1969 to Fred Talbot of the Seattle Pilots.

ESPN Box

Labels: angels, cardinals, live blogging, recaps

Tony LaRussa, Mike Scioscia, Jim Leyland, and Joe Torre have been selected to consider the possible additional uses of in-game video for adjudicating contested calls. Chaired by Commissioner Bud Selig, the committee will meet next month.

"This is not a reaction to some of the things that happened during the playoffs," Selig said. "I'm not saying that it didn't keep moving me along in this direction because it did, but frankly I had this in mind for a long time."

The group will examine scheduling, umpiring, the strike zone and pace of game, which again became an issue when Yankees catcher Jorge Posada made frequent trips to the mound during the postseason.

Via David Pinto.

Labels: angels, cardinals, dodgers, managers, rules, tigers

Dodger Front Office Maneuvers In The Dark (Of The McCourt Divorce)

• Dennis Mannion will become Ned Colletti's boss. This impresses me as an admission that Frank won't be able to handle day-to-day operations issues in the face of his impending divorce.

  Joshua Fisher:

  I should be very clear right away: this is not how I want my baseball team run. I do not want player payroll to be highly correlated with the previous winter's season ticket sales. Why? Two reasons.

  1. Investment in the organization should not be a year-to-year decision. ...

  2. That 2010 payroll decisions are based on this winter's revenue forecasts suggests that the Dodgers are indeed running on perilously slim margins. ...

• The Dodgers named Vance Lovelace to be head of professional scouting; Eric Stephen noted Lovelace was the return on a trade that sent Ron Cey in his twilight years to the Cubs.

McCourts Amicably Resolve Spousal Support Issue

I'll believe it when I stop reading about it in TMZ.com.

Despite a consistent refrain from Dodgers executives and Frank McCourt's lawyers that the club has been conducting "business as usual" despite the divorce proceedings, McCourt said in the filing that the "distraction is . . . creating a hardship for the Dodgers management."

...

Jamie McCourt, who claims she is a co-owner, has asked the court to set a later trial date. Frank McCourt's lawyers called that "gamesmanship" in Tuesday's filing, charging that she is stalling "in order to exact a more favorable settlement."

Joe Torre In 2011?

It could happen.

Snakes, Tigers, Yanks Near Big 3-Way Deal

A monster:

• The Diamondbacks get Edwin Jackson from Detroit and Ian Kennedy from New York.
• The Tigers get pitching prospects Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth from Arizona, and Phil Coke and OF prospect Austin Jackson from the Yankees.
• The Yankees get Tigers' center fielder Curtis Granderson.

It certainly gives the Yanks options up the middle, and solves one of their more vexing problems, as they haven't been very good in the last decade at producing young talent. Jay Jaffe has an analysis of this trade, and basically calls it throwing in the towel for the Tigers, who were only able to contend to the last game of the season.

Granderson's performance collapsed against lefties (.183/.245/.239 in 2009) and during the final week his routes to the ball looked awful, but he's basically a plus defensively according to the major systems, and a relatively affordable player ($5.5/$8.25/$10 million in 2010-2012 with a $13 million club option and $2 million buyout for 2013). The Yankees' big-picture desire to decrease payroll from their 2009 level wound up costing them a decent prospect whose upside may be Grandersoneque in Jackson (#7 on Baseball America's list of top International League prospects).

It's not a good move for Arizona, who loses their #2 pitching prospect along the way in Schlereth. Very puzzling indeed.

Update: AZ Snakepit has a good roundup of blogosphere and local opinion on this topic; Rob Neyer and his pals are very down on this deal ("All my friends seem to have this one the same: Great for Yanks, good for Tigers, terrible for Diamondbacks. My friends are usually right."); one interesting perspective for the other side is Arizona Republic sportswriter Nick Piecoro, who thinks the Snakes have given up on Scherzer, while liking what they saw in Arizona Fall League of Kennedy, who used the opportunity to fix some problems in his two-seamer (so he claims). Robothal observes that the Snakes turned a pair of relievers into a pair of starters. As the Dodgers' deal for Jae Wong Seo proved, those can blow up if the starter turns out to be pretty bad. Kennedy might have a resurgence in the NL, though.

Brad Penny A Cardinal, 1 Year/$7.5M

The ex-Dodger could make up to $1.5M more in performance incentives. I'm kind of surprised he went to St. Louis, but I suppose he wore out his welcome in San Francisco, too.

Peter Gammons Leaving ESPN After Winter Meetings

He'll join MLB Network. There's less and less reason to watch ESPN for baseball, and you have to wonder whether their Sunday Night Baseball series will be worth a damn in a year or two.

Labels: cardinals, diamondbacks, dodgers, ex-dodgers, front office, mccourts, tigers, trades, transactions, tv, yankees

Well, sorta:

"It might be me," former Cub Mark DeRosa said afterward as he saw Chicago media headed his way. "It better not be because I'm not retiring for a while."

Then he thought and added with a slight smile:

"This is three years in a row. It is me."

Gee, and the Cubs might think about bringing him back as a free agent?

Of course, DeRosa could more easily have blamed his teammates, because he had more hits in the series (five) than any other Cardinal, including Albert Pujols.

"It is what it is," DeRosa said. "I'll keep grinding."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Bernie Miklasz blamed the Cubs for Thursday's loss (no, really!):

Those lucky Dodgers, leading a charmed life and enjoying outrageously good fortune.

The Dodgers thought they were playing the Cardinals in the 2009 NL Division Series.

Instead, the Chicago Cubs showed up again.

Really? So, I suppose in the Mound City, the worst epithet evar is to call somebody a Cub. Amazing.

Via BCB.

Labels: cardinals, cubs, dodgers

Top 3rd: The St. Louis fans have nothing to root for so far, as the Dodgers get a run in the first on a Manny Ramirez RBI double, and now in the third, Andre Ethier clocks one to deep right field to make it 3-0 Dodgers. Manny doubles, and James Loney reprises his role in Game 2 of Player Who Reaches On Opposition Error (Joel Piñero fails to catch Pujols' lob), but this time he doesn't score, as Piñero ends up getting Casey Blake on a 5-4 groundout.

Bottom 3rd: Vicente Padilla, lone wolf, pitching for his career, gets Albert Pujols to pop out to shortstop Rafael Furcal to end the inning for a clean third. If he's got two more innings in him, Padilla just increased his asking price for next offseason.

Top 4th: With two down and Ronnie Belliard on second, Rafael Furcal whacked one up the left field line to cash him in, making it 4-0 Dodgers. I ... I love you guys.

Ryan Franklin struck out Kemp to end the frame, but the Cards need a grand slam to tie it.

Bottom 4th: Holliday lines out to right, but then, ignoring the TBS broadcasters' comments about how St. Louis batters haven't been hitting Padilla hard, Colby Rasmus belts a one-out double past Casey Blake to put a baserunner in scoring position for the Cards. Yadier Molina bounces out to Blake for the second out, advancing Rasmus to third. Mark DeRosa's line drive finds Padilla's glove for the final out, nabbed as if it were a drink he ordered from the bar back of home plate.

Top 5th: My God, the Cardinals fans are depressed. But they have something to cheer about, briefly, as reliever Dennys Reyes strikes out both Andre Ethier and Manny Ramirez for the first two outs of the frame. James Loney's groundout to short finishes a 1-2-3 inning for St. Louis, the second of the game.

Bottom 5th: After a long eight-pitch battle with pinch-hitter and ex-Dodger Future Of Second Base Joe Thurston, Padilla gets Skip Shumacher to line out for the final out of the fifth. Padilla's eligible for a win now, and has pitched shockingly well for a guy who's making his first professional postseason appearance.

Top 6th: John Smoltz comes in and immediately gives up an infield single to Casey Blake, who sneaks one under the glove of shortstop Brendan Ryan. Smoltz is a little wild and throwing just under the bottom of the strike zone. Belliard strikes out, bringing Russell Martin to the plate — who strikes out swinging to make the inning's second out. Vicente Padilla strikes out to make it a trifecta of struck out batters, with Padilla facing the 2-3-4 batters in the bottom of the frame.

Bottom 6th: Padilla strikes out Albert Pujols looking on an incredible strike three that gets Pujols jawing with the umpire. On the first pitch, Matt Holliday pops out to the catcher, and suddenly the Dodgers are nine outs away from advancing.

Top 7th: After striking out the first two batters for five consecutive, Andre Ethier clocks one over Colby Rasmus' head for a clean triple. Manny whacks a line drive over the hole at short, and it's now 5-0 Dodgers. James Loney adds to the Cards' worries, singling to right, with men on first and second.

After a protracted battle, Smoltz finally gets Casey Blake to fly out to Matt Holliday, who catches it just to prove it can be done.

Bottom 7th: Padilla gets Rasmus to fly out to left — a "room service fly ball" as Vinny says — but then Molina whacks one down the left field line past Casey Blake for a double, but then makes a tragic (for the Cards) mistake on a bouncer to short, attempting to reach third. He's easily erased, and while Mark DeRosa reaches first on the fielder's choice, it's cold comfort to the St. Louis fans, who are watching their offense frozen out on a cold night. Brendan Ryan flies out to Matt Kemp to finish things, and the stillborn rally ends quietly.

Bottom 8th: Padilla's gone, and what a job: a seven-inning, four-hit shutout; George Sherrill's in, and he immediately gets Jason LaRue on a pop up. Unexpectedly, Sherrill walks Julio Lugo. Ludwick hits a ball 373 feet to left to the bullpen gate at 375 feet, and Manny sends it back to the infield without damage. That's it for Sherrill, and Jonathan Broxton enters the game for the last four outs.

Oh, yes, and to face Albert Pujols.

Broxton gives up an RBI single to Phat Albert, and it's 5-1 Dodgers. Holliday flies out to Ethier, and the Dodgers are three outs away from advancing.

Top 9th: Ethier hammers one one off Ryan Franklin the opposite way down the left field line, to DeRosa's bafflement, expecting him to pull, putting a man in scoring position with two out. He's a single away from a cycle.

Manny bounces out to end the frame, but the Cards have a mighty big hill to climb in the bottom of the ninth.

Bottom 9th: Rasmus swings and misses at a third strike to make it one out in the ninth. Two more to go.

Molina bounces one up the third base line, a swinging bunt that amounts to an infield single. He reaches second on the first pitch to DeRosa, who then taps to the box for two out.

Broxton strikes out pinch-hitter Rick Ankiel to finish the game, and they'll see the winner of the Phillies/Rockies NLDS. One "murmur of protest" (thanks, Vinny) of the Cards to vaporize "the eraser" from the Times comment that it would be the Cards in three.

ESPN Box

Labels: cardinals, dodgers, live blogging, postseason, recaps