Dodgers can't find their way, fall 5-2 to Padres
One night, the Dodgers make all the plays. Look like defensive wonders.
The next, balls skip off gloves, are not hung onto or constantly seem just out of reach.
Saturday was the next night, the Dodgers unable to come up with key defensive plays when they were needed, and the Padres handed them a 5-2 defeat before an announced crowd 34,453.
At least Andre Ethier extended his career-high hitting streak to 26 games, second-most in Los Angeles Dodgers history.
Early on, Hiroki Kuroda and San Diego’s Tim Stauffer were locked in a pitching duel.
The game was scoreless in the bottom of the fourth when Ethier kept alive his hitting streak with a one-out single to left.
Matt Kemp singled Ethier to second and Juan Uribe walked to load the bases. James Loney’s fly to left was deep enough to bring home Ethier.
The Padres, however, came back with two runs in the fifth inning. Cameron Maybin led off with a double to left that Jerry Sands couldn’t glove cleanly, went to third on a groundout and scored on a sacrifice fly by Stauffer. Ethier made a nice diving catch on the play and threw cleanly to catcher Rod Barajas, who applied the tag in time but couldn’t hang onto the ball after the collision at the plate.
The Dodgers tied the score with a two-out rally in the seventh. Barajas doubled and Jamey Carroll was hit with a Stauffer pitch before the Padres called on reliever Luke Gregerson. Tony Gwynn Jr., released by the Padres in the offseason, greeted him with a run-scoring single.
San Diego charged back with three runs in the eighth inning against reliever Matt Guerrier after leadoff singles by Will Venable and Jason Bartlett. Ryan Ludwick’s sacrifice bunt advanced the runners, and after an intentional walk to Chase Headley, Nick Hundley popped up.
Briefly, it appeared Guerrier would pitch out of trouble. At least until he bounced one in the dirt for a wild pitch that allowed Venable to score the go-ahead run.
Maybin then singled sharply to left, easily scoring Bartlett. Headley was also waved home and Sands came up firing, his throw at the plate in time, only for recently subbed in catcher Dioner Navarro to drop the ball as Headley slid into him. This time Navarro was charged with an error.
Ethier added a second single in the eighth, giving him 40 for the month, tying the club record for the month of April, shared with Mike Piazza (1996) and Rafael Furcal (2008).
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-- Steve Dilbeck
Photo: Padres center fielder Cameron Maybin scores as Dodgers catcher Rod Barajas can't hang onto the ball after applying the tag in the fifth inning Saturday night at Dodger Stadium. Credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times
Alright!
Hokey pokey!
Back to .500!
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[ Game notes ]
sands will be back down in AAA (soon) - 13 k's in 42 at bats, 0 hrs)
If you like guerrier don't blink... you'll miss his arm falling off (soon)
If you don't like navarro don't fret... it could be worse (soon) - gimenez .143
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Posted by: 16blows | 04/30/2011 at 11:13 PM
you can play great defense and pitch really well, and even if you do that, the odds are you lose a game if you only score two runs.
Posted by: derek | 05/01/2011 at 12:23 AM
Barajas and Ellis, nothing wrong with that. Sands needs a bit more time to develop, the call up was too soon. I personally like Gwynn in left field and hitting lead-off, Jamie Carroll is great at shortstop. That said, I'm not holding my breath for the Dodgers to win the pennant, let's give our minor league prospects more time to develop and if Loney fails to recover from his slump we can figure out what to do with him at the trade deadline, no real hurry there. Considering the mess the McCourts created, .500 win percentage isn't all that bad. What's really sad is so much of the Dodger's payroll is tied up with players no longer with the Dodgers -Pierre, Andruw Jones, and Manny. Oh well, at least I'm not a Clippers fan.
Posted by: Dodger's No.2 Fan | 05/01/2011 at 12:39 AM
go kung foo panda!
Posted by: 16 blows (2 brian wilson's beard/muff) | 05/01/2011 at 01:02 AM
those last 6 outs are becoming something of an item...again, we give up 3 runs...on this night, its the difference between needing to just move one runner around in either (8th inn. 9th inn.) final at-bat verus needing to stage a 3-run rally...that's a huge honking difference.
Posted by: alanw19 | 05/01/2011 at 04:59 AM
Cant sweep the NL Worst Fraudres? Cant sweep the lowly Cubs?
yep, these dodgers suck!
Posted by: These Dodgers Suck! | 05/01/2011 at 07:50 AM
This is not a good team. In fact, it's a bad team.
Posted by: Chumpy Kemp | 05/01/2011 at 08:09 AM
reliever "gay-rear" is this year's "tron-cost-co," as he's over-used in April &, thus, useless the rest of lonnnnnnnnnnnng season!!!!
Posted by: NeedSumRelief | 05/01/2011 at 10:17 AM
Hey! Dodgers are a .500 club. They win. They lose. They win. They lose.
Posted by: Hollywood Dodger Mark | 05/01/2011 at 10:21 AM
Note Dioneer has picked up where he left off, picking up the ball he dropped at home. Way to go.....NED!
This team is not great, it's good sometimes, you have to be to win two or three in a row to get back to .500 or go one over .500, and it's bad sometimes.
The definition of mediocrity.
Posted by: Native Angeleno | 05/01/2011 at 10:59 AM
This how a .500 team plays. I hope Sands follows Jansen back to the minors where they both can develop. Gwynn, Jr. would have made a couple of plays Sands has been able to make. He isn't a hitter, but right now, neither is Sands. The hole in LF will continue to be the one we all expected. Might as well go back to the Thames/Gwynn tandem and learn to live with it. I don't see any improvement with Navarro over Ellis. It's only the same numbers game with him having no options and Ellis still having them.
A healthy Furcal and Blake could help this team inch ever so slightly over .500, but not too much.
This is a team Frank can be truly be proud of.
Posted by: Since '58 | 05/01/2011 at 01:30 PM