A win and a sellout – Josh Rawitch
Tonight is what Dodger baseball is all about. A sellout crowd – 55,000 vocal, screaming, chanting fans going home with a Dodger victory. I feel like I’m back in my days as a reporter, as I can seek the brake lights in the parking lot while I write from the press box. I can’t say I miss those days…
What I do miss is hearing "Welcome to the Jungle" in the ninth inning, but Danys Baez (pronounced Danny BI-ez, for the fan who asked) has been just as impressive as Eric Gagne, to date. He followed a stellar outing by Odalis Perez with a scoreless ninth for his third save of the season.
Kenny Lofton answered any questions about the health of his leg, flying around the bases on a stand-up triple for his first Dodger RBI.
Tomorrow the Giants will pitch Brad Hennessey, who they’re calling up for the start. Taking two out of three from the Giants sure would be nice and it would give us seven wins, which is what Grady had hoped for.
There was one question on the blog as to why he said he’d be happy if we started 7-7 and the main reason is simply that there are so many new guys, injuries, etc., that getting through the first couple weeks of the season at .500 means that you’re staying afloat and not falling too far behind. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’ll be happy if we finish 81-81…far from it. But he understands that this is a very long season and as we all remember, 12-2 last year didn’t translate into an ideal season.
Heading home happy…
Inside the Dodgers 
That’s smart. Grady obviously wants to know how enough about the club to find ways to be successful, and figures that things will improve as players get to know each other (and as he gets to know them). Not only that, but it’s good to know what a loss looks like in April so that you can avoid it in September.
San Francisco apparently called up a right-hander, so I guess we’re probably not going to see a lineup that includes Alomar, Repko, and Saenz.
And now the correlation between lots of walks and a Dodger win is even stronger. I could smell a win as soon as I saw Furcal take a base on balls to lead off.
Finally, I think we should welcome back the pitching staff to LA, as they clearly are pitching more like Dodgers, giving up only 3 runs in the last two games. And in another move reminiscent of classic Dodger baseball, the Dodgers got a run and the third and one in the fourth, and said “Here’s your lead” to Odalis. A masterful pithing performance, as Felipe Alou even confessed “I don’t remember maybe four or five hittable pitches that he gave us.”
Josh:
I was watching the video celebrating Jackie Robinson when I heard the public address announcer say that this was the 50th anniversary of Don Newcombe’s rookie season. First, he won the Rookie of the Year in 1949, in 1956 he became and remains the only player to win the Cy Young and MVP in the same season and the only player to be awarded all 3, Rookie of the Year, MVP and Cy Young.
Not one to nitpick but I thought you should check on these things before they go out to the public.
Any day where the Dodgers beat the Giants is always a good day!
Thanks for your comments. Actually, I’ve pasted the P.A. announcement below and what they actually said was that it was the 60th anniversary of his first year in the organization, which included the minors. Thanks for pointing these out, as errors are always a possibility, but we try to minimize them whenever possible.
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Also joining us this evening is a Dodger great; 1956 Rookie of the Year, NL MVP, Cy Young Award Winner and teammate of Jackie Robinson. The 2006 season marks the 60th Anniversary of the inaugural season that he first played in the Dodger organization with Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella. He and Campanella signed with then Dodger President and Co-owner Branch Rickey shortly after Robinson did, becoming the first two African-American teammates to play for an affiliated United States baseball team in the modern baseball era. He will be honored by the Jackie Robinson Foundation here in Los Angeles on May 11th at their 2nd Annual “Celebrating Excellence” gala. Ladies and gentlemen, we are honored to welcome the Dodgers’ own Don Newcombe.