Today In Dodgertown – June 20th, 2012

The Dodgers are not getting any luck with the Oakland Athletic’s this week. For a pitching staff on a sub .500 team, we have run into two incredible pitching performances. Tommy Milone, pitched a 112 pitch complete game and only allowed one run in nine innings, and at one point, retiring 14 batters in a row. To prove this was no fluke…after just allowing that one run, his home ERA actually increased. Ridiculous, right? I thought the same thing.

In the second inning, the Dodgers took the lead with a two out double by Juan Uribe that scored Juan Rivera. Dodgers lead “Juan to nothing.” ….Sorry, that was terrible, but I had to. From then, I was thinking to myself that this could be the day that Nate Eovaldi could finally get his first victory after some great outings. Nope. In the fourth inning Nate gave up the tying run with a double by Seth Smith that scored in Yeonis Cespedes. In the fifth inning, after not getting any help offensively, Nate began to show his youth and inexperience on the field. With runners on first and second with no out and a man with a lot of speed comes to the plate, you can almost guarantee a bunt will be called. When this happens, it is the pitcher’s job to focus on the ball and let his catcher tell him where to throw it. Weeks bunted the ball straight to him, and Nate decided to look to third after he fielded the bunt instead of going straight to first. This gave Jemille Weeks plenty of time to reach first safely, and no outs were recorded. This gave them the bases juiced with a lot to work with. Nate did get Josh Reddick to ground into a double play, but that also allowed a run to score. Dodgers trailed 2-1. With a runner on third and two out, Yeonis Cespedes hit a sharp double that scored Coco Crisp. Dodgers then trailed 3-1 and that would remain the score when Eovaldi came out of the game.

Scott Elbert came in to relieve him and was facing Yeonis Cespedes when he barely missed a homerun. This was a towering shot to left that Bobby Abreu jumped to make the catch at the fence. I was relieved for a brief moment, until the next batter, Brandon Moss, hit a solo shot to the other end of the park and extended the Athletic’s lead to 4-1.

Clayton Kershaw looks to end this weird skid and get the Dodgers out of Oakland with a win. The game for tomorrow is scheduled for 12:35 pm PT.

Then the team will travel to Anaheim to play the Anaheim Angels for another three game series, then head back up to Northern California to play the hated Giants.

Be sure to follow Dodgers Insider on Facebook and Twitter for live, in-game updates as well!!

Today In Dodgertown – June 19th, 2012

Today the Dodgers played, to say the least, a very strange game in Oakland. Not weird in the typical sense, like blown calls, or interesting plays — no, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about an interesting day for Aaron Harang. In a year where he has had overall success, (5-3, 3.59 ERA) he could not find the strike zone. Ironically, he did not allow a hit past the first inning. The problem is, he only lasted 3 2/3 innings and managed to walk a career high eight batters, allowing three runs all the while. But hey, for what its worth, Sandy Koufax also had an outing in 1955 where he also walked eight batters (in five innings) and Koufax ended up to be…pretty good. 1955 also wasn’t a bad year for the Dodgers either, seeing as we won our very first World Series. So if by some weird chance, this outing is an omen…I wouldn’t mind that.

Strangely enough, Harang wasn’t the story of the night. Unfortunately for the Dodgers, Brandon McCarthy, making his first start since June 7th, pitched an absolute gem tonight. McCarthy allowed only two hits, struck out five and only allowed one free baserunner with a walk in an outstanding 81 pitch outing. There are sometimes when you come up against a great pitching performance, and you have to give credit where credit is due. Tonight — the credit goes to Brandon McCarthy.

The Dodgers bullpen had a long, but very effective night as they didn’t allow another run to keep the Boys in Blue in the game. Overall, it wasn’t as bad as a performance as you would typically think a 3-0 loss would be. We ran into a pitcher that had an amazing outing and sometimes you just have to accept that, move on to the next game and keep truckin’.

The next game is scheduled for tomorrow at 7:05 pm PT. Nathan Eovaldi still seeks his first win since being brought up for the Dodgers despite an incredible 1.82 ERA. Hopefully we can find a little bit more luck against Tommy Malone, who is taking the mound for the Athletics.

Be sure to follow Dodgers Insider on Facebook and Twitter for live, in-game updates!

Clayton Kershaw Becomes A Dad On Father’s Day? Kershaw’s Challenge — Inspirational Story

I wanted to quickly give a shoutout to Mrs. Ellen Kershaw. In all honesty, she had me rolling in laughter today by the way she decided to celebrate Father’s Day. I logged on to Twitter and saw that she had posted something. What I ended up reading, however, I was flat out NOT expecting. Let me show you…

Now I don’t know about you…..but I definitely thought that Clayton Kershaw was about to be a Dad. My body went through about a thousand emotions ranging from shocked, to happy, to confused, to shocked again, back to happy…but again…didn’t want to speculate on anything. And keep in mind…that’s just me we’re talking about — the last person that should be emotionally involved in this situation, considering my  non-existant ties to the Kershaw family, other than admiration. I can only imagine what Clayton thought when he saw it. When all this was going on, amidst the tears and excitement (haha ok now I’m getting out of hand, I never actually got to that point, but still) Ellen rocked my world yet again…and hit the Twitter world with this shot:

Well played Ellen…well played. You 100% had me going and I hope Clayton had a kick out of it as well. Enjoy your Father’s Day!!

Want to learn more about this awesome couple? Be sure to check out their book, Arise, and order it (click here for the link) if you’d really like a great read. It’s a very inspirational story about their faith and their journeys to where they are now; with Clayton playing professional baseball, and Ellen traveling to Africa to not only help orphans in Zambia, but to also share their faith in the Lord with the kids.

They have started a foundation called Kershaw’s Challenge where, among many other things, Clayton donates $100 for every strikeout he records to “Hope’s Home” in Africa, which is a home for “vulnerable children living in desperate conditions in Lusaka, Zambia.” Their hope is to ultimately hire “parents” that can live in this home and raise these children with Christian values. Personally, I think its amazing that God has blessed Clayton with the ability to raise as much money as he has with his strikeouts. It’s amazing to see what the Lord can do when you put your talent in His hands. After the foundation was started, and Clayton decided to donate money for every strikeout, as we all know, he went on to lead the entire league in strikeouts along with winning the Triple Crown, and Cy Young. That’s no coincidence, people.

“It’s been a cool season to see how the Lord can use baseball to expand His Kingdom,” Ellen said in regards to the 2011 season.  “And we hope, as I always say, with every pitch that Clayton throws that the Lord is glorified in that.”

I really do encourage you to visit their site and see what they are all about. The Kershaw’s are so inspirational and completely give what God has given them for others, rather than for themselves. They understand that no matter how successful you are on the field, or even in Zambia, you never do anything by yourself. To watch an amazing video on Clayton Kershaw talking about exactly that, watch this video, called I Am Second.  The entire website is an incredible way to spend just a couple moments of your time, and I can almost guarantee you won’t regret browsing around the site. Until Next Time!

Today In Dodgertown – June 17th, 2012

The Los Angeles Dodgers walked off today….twice. Confused? So was I…along with everyone else, including the umpires. In the sixth inning, with the Dodgers trailing by one, Elian Herrera did what he does best and got the ball just where he needed to allow Matt Treanor to tag up at third to score the tying run — so they thought. The third base umpire, Jerry Meals, decided that he thought Treanor did not tag up, and ruled him out at third. Then the fun started. Now keep in mind, originally, Mattingly didn’t have a good enough view of the play to argue the play, so he was going to leave it alone, what would ensue however, would be one of the greatest Dodgers ejections I’ve seen since the Tommy Lasorda days. Here’s how it went down.

Matt Kemp started yelling at Jerry Meals at third about the call. Meals then, turned to Matty, and saidsomething along the lines of, “You can’t argue because you’re on the DL.” Once Donnie heard that, that is what unleashed the tornado storming out of the dugout.

“I really went out to protect Matt,” Mattingly said. “I didn’t go out there to argue the play.” Donnie went out to merely say, “Oh yeah? I’m not on the DL. Let’s play that game.” (Paraphrasing, ofcourse) It was when Meals said that he was one hundred percent certain about his call that sent Mattingly off into a fit of rage and what lead to well over two and half minutes of pure entertainment.

“I understand close calls and bang bang and you can’t see things and trying to see that at fast speed is different than replay,” said Mattingly, who added the replays showed Treanor’s foot was on the bag for 40 clicks — 1.3 seconds — before taking off. “It’s hard for me to believe you can overturn a run if you are not 100 percent sure you got it right.”

The ejection was Mattingly’s fourth of the career and seventh as the Dodgers manager. What I think is even funnier, is that he was ejected on both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day this year….interesting. Leads you to wonder what his relationship is like with his parents, but hey, we won’t get into speculation.

I feel like I can’t talk about this game without also mentioning the incredible pitching performance of Chris Capuano today. He pitched a season high eight solid innings and also recorded 12 strikeouts. Jose Quintanilla also pitched an amazing game and quite frankly, outduelled Capuano overall. Luckily for the Dodgers, he was pulled after just 77 pitches in the ninth inning which allowed the Dodgers to score their “first” and “second” walk off runs.

That leads me to my first point I brought up. The Dodgers scored in the ninth to tie it up, which in all reality, would have been the original walk off hit. Then scored again in the tenth which was in all reality, their second walk off run. It was quite a game and I’m really glad this call didn’t come back to bite us.

The Dodgers have now been apart of 31 one-run games, and as Vin Scully put it, “They just keep pulling the rabbit out of the hat.”

Our Boys in Blue took the series over the White Sox 2 out of 3 and now prepare to travel north to play the Athletic’s in Oakland on Tuesday where Aaron Harang will take the mound against Brandon McCarthy for game 1 of this interleague game.

Scheduled Start time will be 7:05 PT. Be sure to follow Dodgers Insider on Facebook and Twitter for live, in-game updates as well!!

Dodgers Lineup – Chicago White Sox – June 15th

After a much needed day off following the maximum 20 straight games, the Dodgers return to the field for interleague play and are facing Chris Sale and the Chicago White Sox. Interleague is always fun (despite the Dodgers track record in previous years) to watch because you get to see matchups that you obviously, typically wouldn’t get to see. Tonight is no exception. We get to see two of the best left handed pitchers in the game right now. Our Ace and Cy Young Winner Clayton Kershaw and Chris Sale, who is currently on a five game win streak to run his record to 8-2 on the year, and who is also posting a 2.05 ERA so far in 2012. He is also becoming quite the strikeout kid as well. In the last 36 and 1/3 innings, he has punched out 43 batters, including a career high 15 strikeout performance on May 28th.

“We’ve seen a lot of them in Spring Training,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said of the White Sox. “We are out there in the same complex. I haven’t got into the reports or looked at what is going on with them right now. He’s good. We see him in Spring Training. He throws the ball good. He’s got good stuff.”

Juan Uribe is again getting the start at third despite going 1 for 7 since coming off the DL. Elian Herrera, however, is still getting a start as well, and he gets to test the waters over in Left Field for the first time this year and allow Juan Rivera and Bobby Abreu to come off the bench to pinch hit. Tony Gwynn will remain in Center and ‘Dre will keep dominating Right to round off the outfield. We’ll see what happens tonight as the rested Dodgers get a chance to turn their recent bad luck at home around (1-6 in their last seven games at Dodger Stadium) and get back to their winning ways in Los Angeles. The Dodgers will also be looking to get a win to celebrate the Birthday of Josh Lindblom, who, along with his wife Aurielle, just launched the “Josh Lindblom Foundation” two days ago before the Angels game. Happy Birthday Josh!

Here are the Lineups for tonight’s game:

Dodgers

1. Dee Gordon, SS

2. Elian Herrera, LF

3. Juan Rivera, 1B

4. Andre Ethier, RF

5. Jerry Hairston, 2B

6. A.J. Ellis, C

7. Juan Uribe, 3B

8. Tony Gwynn, CF

9. Clayton Kershaw, P

White Sox

1. Alejandro De Aza, CF

2. Gordon Beckham, 2B

3. Adam Dunn, LF

4. Paul Konerko, 1B

5. Alex Rios, RF

6. A.J. Pierzynski, C

7. Alexei Ramirez, SS

8. Orlando Hudson, 3B

9. Chris Sale, P

Chad Billingsley Hosts Charity Golfing Event On Day Off

Bills has spent the last seven years on the Dodgers participating in the Dodgers Dream Foundation Charity Event. He has participated every year and this year, during Spring Training was approached to be the first player to officially host it, and he was very excited to say yes.

When asked about his favorite thing about the event — “Golf,” Bills said. “Us starting pitchers, we like to play golf. It’s a great event for a great cause. For me, I get to play golf and meet people. You can’t beat that.”

Former Dodger, Paul Lo Duca said he loved coming out to the course for similar reasons. “I got to see some people I had not seen in a while and relive some memories,” the former catcher said. “The day I got traded in 2004 was a tough day for me, so a lot of those memories are coming back.”

Stan Kasten also participated this year and it was his first fundraiser with the Dream Foundation. “This Dream Foundation is among the finest in all of sports and to be able to observe it in person and hopefully make contributions to it is a really thrilling prospect,” Kasten said.

Stan spent most of the day shaking hands with sponsors, and meeting new people, and joked when asked if he would participate in the event. “I won’t be playing, because I don’t have time for that. The way I play it would take way too long to play a whole round.”

According to the Dodgers official website, the event raised $100,000 last year, and Dream Foundation fundraising manager David Brennan estimated that they were on pace to raise about the same this year.

 

This Day In Dodgers History – June 13th

To help everyone forget about the Freeway series…let’s just go back in time. What do ya say?

 

June 13th, 2000…just 12 years ago.

 

Eric Karros was wearing Dodger Blue at the time and was playing the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium. He knocked his 229th homerun as a Dodger over the left field wall and became Los Angeles’ All-Time Homerun Leader. Karros finished his career with 270 homeruns and still owns the record to this day. Will a current Dodger break the record? Kemp maybe? Only time will tell.

Dodgers Drop Freeway Series to the Anaheim Angels

I can honestly say I have no idea where to begin or what to even write about this game. It was…embarrassing. I don’t know about any of you reading this, but there was zero emotion or energy until the ninth inning, when it was WELL too late. I don’t know what has happened to our gritty, always coming at the opposition type play that I loved watching. I hate to say it…but for the first time this season, our injuries are starting to show. Our offense is just not producing runs like we used to be. Especially, and I mean especially, when Nathan Eovaldi takes the mound. This poor kid. In four starts, his ERA is SUB TWO (1.93). He’s getting us deep enough into the game (averaging around the sixth inning, tonight the seventh), and his record is 0-2. He’s the Dodgers version of Cliff Lee. In four games, the Dodgers have backed him by scoring — are you ready for this? Buckle up –two runs. In four games.

I’ve been reading a lot of threads and forums saying “Jansen blew the game again,” this and that. Not to me. This was entirely and one hundred percent a team loss. It would have felt weird to win, because the bottom line was, we didn’t deserve it. Jansen had never given up a homerun when the ballgame was tied in his entire career before tonight. It was a fluke pitch, and a lucky swing by Aybar, who has no power to begin with. I know I’m not in my usual, “let’s look at the good things” type attitude, and I apologize. Maybe it’s seeing the Giants celebrate in perfection or maybe its just an accumulation of both that and tonight’s game, I’m not sure. All I do know is that seeing players like Uribe consistently in the lineup night after night just bums me out. Uribe is 1 for 7 since coming off the DL (shocker to us all, I’m sure) and he is the last person I’d want to see up when the games on the line. I’d honestly rather see Kennedy in.

But my job isn’t to bash players, so I won’t. I’ll have to end this here, and maybe bury this post with other posts that are a little more enjoyable to read. The Dodgers get a very much needed day off tomorrow, so check back to see some posts I don’t get to do very often. Maybe I’ll throw in an interview or an interesting historical read. I’ll surprise ya. In the mean time, have a good night Dodgertown. Until next time…

Aaron Miles Opts For Retirement at Age 35

Aaron Miles is set to retire at the age of 35, according to the Isotopes. In this season with the ‘Topes, Miles has struggled a bit and hit a line of .235/.297/.338 with six fielding errors in 18 games.

Most of you know Miles for what he did last year with his stint on the Dodgers. An underdog to even make the team, Miles impressed who he needed to impress and would go on to make the big league roster and get 454 at bats. He finished last season with a .275 batting average. He ended up holding out for more money than any team was willing to pay and became a free agent.

After debuting with the White Sox at age 26, Miles spent two years on the Rockies after being traded for Juan Uribe, and he became their primary second baseman and finished fourth in the NL Rookie of the Year balloting. He then spent three years with the Cardinals which were his better years. 2008 turned out to be his best year, hitting .317 in 379 at bats. Unfortunately, that big year made him too expensive to keep and he went on to sign with the Cubs for a 2 year, $4.9 Million deal that proved to be a waste of money, seeing as he hit only .185 in 157 at bats in 2009.

Matthew Poullot writes that “Miles never really looked the part of a major leaguer. He wasn’t even really taken seriously as a utilityman initially because it didn’t look like he had the arm to play shortstop or third base. Miles, though, ended up playing in 932 games. He even started at shortstop 97 times. He also was the preeminent mop-up man among position players over the last decade. Five times he pitched for the Cardinals, allowing two runs in five innings.”

Josh Lindblom Debuts Launch of Foundation at Tonight’s Game

Tonight, before the rubber match against the Anaheim Angels, the Dodgers will show their support in backing Josh Linblom and his wife Aurielle, as they host over 500 people  at Dodger Stadium in pregame ceremonies. They are going to be debuting their new organization called, The Josh Linblom Foundation.

The Josh Linblom Foundation’s Mission, according to their website, is to promote awareness and raise funds for families and children in need and to provide financial support for other charitable organizations. The foundation also strives to facilitate the dreams of others.

Josh and Aurielle were both born and raised in West Lafayette, Indiana. Both are alumni of Harrison High School and attended Purdue University, Aurielle graduating in 2010. The couple was married in January of 2011.
This past season, the dream of becoming a professional baseball player came true for Josh as he made his Major League Debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 1, 2011, and has been turning the heads of L.A. fans ever since. He can attribute many of his accomplishments in his career to those that mentored him in the Lafayette community. Through this dream and the paths their lives have taken, Josh and Aurielle felt the need to give back to the people and community where their journey began.

Come help celebrate the exciting new chapter that this couple is beginning with this Foundation and help kick it off in a big way.