I’m glad the Dodgers are playing well. I’d love to see a season-long Giants - Dodgers fistfight.
Joe
The Dodgers are playing some mighty weak teams, but the pitching looks fairly solid right now, which gives me a lot of hope. We’ll rack up the wins while we can.
Kuroda bounced back nicely and pitched 8+ innings of 5 hit shut out ball. Yanks won 5-0 with A-Rod finally hitting and tying Junior for 5 all time with Home Runs. Of course we’re probably willing to bet Griffey did it without Roids, and we know A-Rod used.
Wow, what a game by Matt Cain!
Aaron Harang set a new Dodger record by striking out nine consecutive batters, then sat on the bench for a long time while the Dodgers scored four runs, and has now given up three runs in the subsequent inning.
Jeez, that’s only the Dodgers record? What’s the ML record?
Joe
10, by Tom Seaver. On Harang’s attempt to strike out batter #10, he went 3-0 and ultimately gave up a homer. Oh well – it was fun while it was going on.
ETA: Charlie Steiner points out that Harang sat for 22 minutes between batters 9 and 10.
Some major injury news tonight. Jacoby Ellsbury got put on the DL and could be out a long time with a dislocated shoulder, and SF’s closer Brian Wilson needs Tommy John surgery and is done for the season. I saw him in Denver this week and he looked really bad then.
The Blue Jays’ rebuilt bullpen has now lost three of the first eight games of the season.
Equally concerning is that every righthanded hitter on the team looks awful.
The Reds have now scored a total of 23 runs in their first nine games. The lowest amount for the Reds since 1901. Watching them is almost painful. It is not like they are getting unlucky and will break out of it sometime soon. Two-thirds of their lineup seems like automatic outs.
And why Dusty Baker still has a job is beyond me. He has made some really ridiculous decisions, both in making a lineup and in-game, the last couple of days (well, all season, but they have seemed particularly egregious the last couple of games).
Heath Bell hasn’t had a good start in Miami.
In his last three appearances, he’s blown 2 saves, taken 2 losses, and given up 8 hits and 3 walks over 2 innings pitched.
The two guys the M’s got from the Yankees in the Pineda deal almost won the game tonight all by themselves: Noesi pitched eight shutout innings with six K’s, and Montero knocked in three of the four runs, including his first jack of the season. Montero also caught for Noesi.
I’m looking forward to the M’s playing the more “middle-of-the-road” teams in the league. So far, they’re 4-2 against the A’s (arguably the worst team in the AL - both of their losses were against Bartolo Colon), and 1-3 against the Rangers (arguably the best team in the AL).
It is somewhat amusing that, due to the Japan trip causing weird scheduling, the M’s faced Bartolo Colon 3 times in 5 games.
The Dodgers continue to beat up on the poor Padres, having now taken 5 of 6 from them so far this year. Tonight, the Friars sent out a rookie, and Matt Kemp took him deep twice (with Ethier contributing his own bomb). Kemp currently leads the league in home runs (5), RBIs and runs scored. Kemp and Ethier’s combined total of 29 RBIs is more than nine other teams have scored thus far. Oh, and Ted Lilly came off the DL to pitch seven solid innings, giving up just two hits and an unearned run.
We’ll see what happens when the Dodgers have to take on more quality competition, but at the very least, they’re winning the games they ought to be winning. 8-1 is a mighty fine start.
The Rockies, and specifically Todd Helton, are helping you guys out with two consecutive come-from-behind wins vs. Arizona, who came in at 5-1. Tonight was a walk-off two run, two out homer in a driving rainstorm.
I honestly think that’s going to end up a deal that works out well for both teams.
For those that didn’t see the Ellsbury injury, he slid into 2B to break up a double play, the SS tried to jump over him. . .and landed right on him. Like, his entire body weight came down directly on Ellsbury’s right shoulder butt-first while his arm was outstretched. It was ugly. 6-8 weeks minimum, but these have a nasty habit of reoccurring and about 50% come with a torn labrum, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see him for months or possibly not until next year. Dammit!
But hey, who isn’t quaking in fear at the thought of a Cody Ross-Jason Repko-Ryan Sweeney outfield? And soon the corpse of Carl Crawford will return.
Even though I watched the Cardinals-Cubs game yesterday, it was only just now, while reading about it in the paper, that it occured to me that the Cardinals had a Lance filling in for a Carpenter and a Carpenter filling in for a Lance. Lance Lynn is in the starting rotation until at least May, filling in for DL-ed Chris Carpenter, and doing quite well so far; and Matt Carpenter is playing first base while Lance Berkman is out for what I hope is only a few days with a strained calf.
Anyway, the Cardinals are doing well so far this season, and I look forward to the day when I can read articles about the 2012 Cardinals that don’t mention Pujols or La Russa. The main worry at this point is whether Adam Wainwright’s disastrous outing on Friday’s season home opener was just a fluke. (I, for one, am not panicking yet.)
I actually caught the bottom of the 9th of that game (MLB Network was doing a live look-in). I was really happy for the D-Backs loss, but also just glad they got that game over with. It was obvious they really, really didn’t want to suspend the game, but it seemed to me like it was getting dangerous out there.
Matt Kemp is seeking your All-Star votes early this season. He’s 2-2 so far today, having just hit yet another opposite-field home run. No. 6 in the 10th game of the year.