Today's game
I’m not sure what the problem was yesterday with the posts. If it continues, please let me know and I"ll have someone at MLBAM check into it.
Tough loss last night, but on the bright side, we’re still in first. We missed a chance to gain a game on the Pads and they missed a chance to pick one up on us.
Today, we recalled Tim Hamulack and optioned Giovanni Carrara for assignment.
Despite the loss, the lineup is the same tonight as it was yetserday. See below for the details…
Inside the Dodgers 
why hamulack? there are better pitchers down there, hopefully it works out.. lets see wat mike marshall jr does today,
BELIEVE IN BLUE!
Oh boy no, not Hamulack! We’re going to miss Gio, and that’s not neccesarily a good thing 😦
( I also had the comment spam thing yesterday, btw! )
Anyhow, I hope the team comes out swinging today, bent even more on turning in a W. Can’t let yesterday be a setback – let’s go for it, team!
I’ll reserve judgement on Hamulack until he pitches a couple of times. He must have shown something in AAA to be brought up. I hope he learned a few things since this spring.
I’m really surprized to see Martin in there today. He had an extremely tough night last night and Az really pushes it when they get on base. A fresh catcher is a must !! Drew had a great night and I can see him doing it again tonight, lets hope he’s working toward a big finish to 2006. Sad to see Gio go but something had to be done.
Go Dodgers !!
Gary, Martin’s a young pup and can handle it. I’m sure he’s lobbied long and hard to Grady to keep him in the lineup tonight. I think you underestimate Martin’s ability to recover quickly. He’ll play well, just wait and see.
Hamulack bounced up and down a little bit between AAA and the big time start of the year – was great in AAA, was horrid in the majors!
Maybe he learnt something now, but who knows? Let’s see!
Testing out the comment capability, Josh. First time I’ve heard of that (on your previous post), will follow up with our Six Apart partners if further reports of an “anti-spam blocker” experience. Am not aware of it in our past year of MLBlogging. I know there has been a troll on Giants blogs that we’ve had to deal with, and obviously the prime suspect would be a Dodger fan because, well, the obvious. But since multiple people here said there was an issue, I don’t think it’s related to that. Anyone can feel free to comment on my MLBlogs community blog below with any such experience.
Mark/MLB.com
http://mlblogs.mlblogs.com
Best wishes to Lowe.. I hope x rays come out negative.
Oh boy, familiar pattern of badness-y losing coming up for the Dodgers 😦
Nothing positive on this blog at all! Kent wins it for us! Come on people 😛
I’ll bite! Way to go Jeff Kent! What did I say earlier in the week about the pitching getting better against us? Well, San Diego threw us really tough, and Arizona is trying to do the same thing. We need gritty at bats from guys like Jeff Kent, late in the game and pulling off a victory. Way to go TEAM in picking up Derek Lowe tonight. Good thing it’s only the glove hand, so let’s hope he makes his next start.
All-in-all, a good victory for the “Boys in Blue” today.
Way to go Johnny Brox!! Dude throws one pitch and gets the victory!! LOL!! Too funny… Johnny Brox Rocks!
Alex, you got a point. So here’s the all-positive edition:
1) Ned Colletti had been getting a lot of credit for the recent run of success the Dodgers had over the last few weeks. The man tonight, though, was the other mustached Dodger, Jeff Kent. A home run in the top of the 9th not only put the Dodgers up and let Saito get back on track with the save, but reminded us that he can still get the job done.
2) Derek Lowe, were it not for a line drive to the left hand, would have been the game’s hero after going 7 or 8 solid innings and resting the bullpen. He pitched well, though, and (pardon the hearsay) Dodger Thoughts posters report that Vin Scully said that preliminary reports said it was a bruise and the x-rays were negative.
3) Tim Hamulack, the guy remaining from the Duaner Sanchez/Jae Seo trade, had a nasty start. While Gio wasn’t great, one had to wonder how good Hamulack would be. He came back with a 1-2-3 inning, striking out 2, making a good impression after his callup. The next step for him will be nailing Barry Bonds somewhere other than the body armor.
4) You didn’t have to be a current Dodger to have a good night. Shawn Green and Paul LoDuca each had two hits and Guillermo Mota pitched two perfect innings striking out two. Adrian Beltre tied the game with a home run to lead off the 8th inning as the Mariners beat the Red Sox. Good night for Dodgers.
5) At the very surface, Chad Billingsley has an ERA 2 runs less than Livan Hernandez, which would seem to favor Chad. Billingsley had his first 7 inning start of his major league career in Chase Field, so it’s not an unfamiliar park. August has been his best month yet, not only because he’s 2-0 with a 1.57 ERA, but because he’s got more strikeouts than innings pitched, and a K/BB of 2.18, so his peripherals support his success a bit more. Hernandez is durable (unless hit hard early), but clearly beatable.
Thank goodness for Jeff Kent! Before he got it done, something like twelve batters were retired in a row … and the team won’t be a consistently good team until we’ve shaken that bug out of our lineup, and start getting hits after the third or fourth inning consistently.
All the same, a feel-good win, lifting our 1-run record to an approaching OK 13-16 ( but for a 2-run bomb, we would have lost a 1-run game yesterday! )
With the pen really used up, we need to look to tomorrow’s starter to throw strikes and go seven.
Why Hamulack? That’s simple is because none of them pitcher have major league experience except Kuo. Since the mod being picky and delete my post for no reason here are his minor league stats. I know Hamulack wasn’t good when he was call but he’s was going to be call on Sept anyway and his number and the minor deserve his call up now.
ERA G SV IP H R ER HR BB SO AVG
1.42 28 3 38 30 9 6 1 26 44 .222
and btw we shouldn’t let Sanchez/Schmoil go. You guys knew Hamulack was going to come in anyway.
I’m not impressed with those AAA numbers 56 runners allowed and less than 2-1 strikeout to walk ratio and 9 runs allowed. looks like he is still walking too many and not throwing strikes. Gio was having problems out there but I guess we don’t have alot of options.
Cararra was done , he stunk 3 years ago. Hamulack can only get better (I hope). With Hamulack at least there’s an upside.
keep in mind that it’s September on Friday. It’s not unreasonable to think Hamulack can pitch effectively for 4 days, especially if he’s not used in each game.