Tonight's lineup and community efforts
Most of you probably saw a lot of references to Derek Lowe’s new commitment to the community, as it was covered in several media outlets yesterday, including the L.A. Times, Riverside Press Enterprise and dodgers.com. Derek and the Dodgers Dream Foundation have teamed up with Mattel Children’s Hospital on several events, including the annual bowling tournament on July 30. Coincidentally, he’s also playing in the annual golf tournament and there are still a few foursomes left if you’re interested in coming out and playing a round with some of the current and former Dodger players and coaches. Just call 323.224.1413 for more info.
But I certainly don’t want people to think that just because Derek’s meet and greet with the kids from the hospital yesterday got all the ink that he’s the only person doing stuff this year with local community groups. A bunch of players are doing this, including Rafael Furcal, whose group starts tonight and you can read more about it here.
Among the others with personal community initiatives that they have started are tonight’s starter, Randy Wolf with the Children’s Miracle Network, Juan Pierre with the Blazer Youth Center, Manny Mota at high schools throughout Southern California and several others that have yet to be announced, including programs from Russell Martin, Marlon Anderson, Brad Penny, Nomar Garciaparra, Luis Gonzalez, Jason Repko and several others. It’s been very refreshing to see so many guys volunteering their time and money for good causes, so be on the lookout for more about the other programs in the near future.
Anyway, as for tonight, here’s the lineup:
Furcal, SS
Pierre, CF
Nomar, 1B
Kent, 2B
Gonzalez, LF
Martin, C
Ethier, RF
Martinez, 3B
Wolf, P
Inside the Dodgers 
Ethier’s not sitting against a lefty! Progress!
Ethier will send one out tonight
great move by Grady. Ethier rakes lefties and this gives him confidence which is what he needs!
How cool is this! Randy Wolf will record his 1,000 career strike out tonight against the Hated Ones! (He only needs four to get there). Congrats in advance Wolfman!
It is GREAT to see that Ramon Martinez will be starting at 3B tonight, too. I have a (good) feeling that we may be seeing more of this.
GO DODGERS!
Last night Lowe needed only 5 SO to get to 1,000 career K’s. He got 3 (in spite of everything). So he’s now at 998. Interesting that he and Wolf are so close – though Lowe’s ML career started in 1997, Wolf’s in 1999. Maybe they’ll have a friendly rivalry this year.
It’s great to see some of these guys give back to the community with their time and money, now if only they can start piling up wins. Also Martinez is not the answer at 3rd, but I think management knows this and hopefully fixes it soon.
Hey, 53, why is it good to have Martinez in the lineup?
KSSPARK, I have been to Nampa many times. My in-laws lived there many years before they passed away. I had many fishing trips on the Snake River in Hells Canyon. The drive from L.A. was O.K. except Hwy. 95 from Winnemucca to Jordan Valley.
GO BLUE:
Clayton Kershaw’s performance last night for Great Lakes was magnificent. For my money, he is easily our #1 prospect…
Wow he did have a great night 1 walk with 12 K’s over 6 inn. But for the season he came into the game with 11 walks and 16 K’s….I think Abreu =hitting at a .409 clip at AAA makes him the #1 prospect right now as he is getting some starts at 3rd and not commiting errors.Kershaw keeps that up though and he will be with the Sun’s soon enough maybe even get a late call up.With Valdez cooling off now and Betemit not heating up yet I still hope to see Abreu by mid May if things don’t change.
I disagree. I think that I’m the #1 prospect. Sometimes I have dreams of playing for the Dodgers, and I’m pretty awesome in those dreams.
****…. Hmmmm I think I’ll stick my dream prospect with Milano as Starting pitcher….Who is gonna hit off her?
Martinez is a decent utility player, so I’m happy to see him play tonight at 3B. However, fliegel is right, Martinez is not the answer at 3B. For whatever reason, Betemit is really struggling in the batter’s box and thereby isn’t helping out the team. Don’t get me wrong, I like Betemit, I think he’s a good kid & he’s great defensively, but we need some offensive help. Hopefully, Betemit will wake up soon.
Furcal is struggling as well, but he’s proven that he can be very productive once he gets back into the rhythm of things. He’s basically going through spring training right now due to his injury, so I’m confident that he’ll come around.
With Furcal struggling & Pierre on fire, I’d like to see Little swap their batting order to see if it helps to kick-start Furcal’s offense. With Pierre on base, it would create havoc for the pitcher due to his base-stealing potential and possibly give Furcal better pitches to look at by expanding the pitcher’s focus. Just my $0.02.
fisher928 – I agree with you. I’d like to see the Dodgers move Nomar to 3B, move Kent to 1B, and bring Tony Abreu up from AAA to play 2B. He doesn’t have much left to prove with the 51’s. I’m just not sure who would/could be moved from the active roster to make room for him.
berkowit – You’re partially right… Lowe needed 6 SO’s to reach 1000, but only got 4 to sit at 998.
I hope the Dodgers come back tonight & spank the Giants. We can’t sweep them, but we can still win the series. It all starts with a win tonight.
GO DODGERS!!!
Thank you for the note sward but I don’t think Nomar should go to 3rd unless its to bring Loney up and by the way he is pouting in Vegas I’d leave him there until he grows up and gets a better attitude.Moveing our defence around I think would hurt us.Abreu Has youth and a Very flashy glove I think he can handle the defensive aspects of 3rd base to a point where Betemit gets going and Valdez can move on or back to AAA.If the infield were moved I’d swap Nomar and Kent personally and still put Abreu at 3rd.That is my .02cents
This is not looking good……
there went back to back quality starts for wolf. bonds is on a tear, not looking good for us with that lefty outfield we got. thought clark was gonna start somewhere? whats the point of having him?
Small ball could work very well in this game as long as wolf gets a grip on it now.
I think Kent has said in the past he won’t play 1st. I could be wrong.
On Betemit, I found this quote from Gurnick interesting (from thesportingnews.com):ON THE HOT SEAT: Wilson Betemit hasn’t done much on offense and already would’ve been replaced at third base if the team had another option. The Dodgers are reluctant to move 1B Nomar Garciaparra to third because they fear his body wouldn’t hold up
Gurnick could be wrong, but this means that a. Nomar will not be moved no matter what, which is really annoying and b. the Dodgers feel that LaRoche and Abreu are not ready to contribute. I don’t really agree with that. How can they be any worse than Betemit has been? Thoughts?
Nomar said in ST that he would play anywhere but I agree that 3rd is a major ********************* I JUST BROKE MY chair Arm!!!!!WTG MARTIN!!!!
and as I turn back to the homepage, I see the headline “Little likes Betemit” Greeeeeeeat.
ARGH!!! What the heck?! The Giants have scored 4 runs already in this 1st inning! And Bonds had to hit a HR on top of that… of all the guys to hit one. >
Well, at least the Dodgers came back to score 2. Now Wolf needs to wake up and not wait until the 3rd inning to get it together.
You guys make a good point about leaving Nomar at 1B and putting Abreu at 3B.
LET’S GO DODGERS!!!
Hey Josh I was wondering is Jason Repko traveling with the team? I really hope things are going well for him he really seems like a nice guy & i’m hoping everything is going well with him.
Have we had a good slugfest this year?WTG Wolf.I think we win on Bullpen tonight. Wolf is gonna keep us in it and the bats are gonna just keep hitting we are Gonna come back and win in double numbers.
Wolf is gonna get hit or get a hit.
WOW
I am wrong …HE WALKED!!!!!this is gonna be a slugfest.
Wolf always does this…he has command issues in the first inning over every game he has started and this time it just caught up to him. Thankfully every game he has turned it around after a rough start.
I think Betemit is gone before mid may.
No complaints from me Max…
No way, Grady “likes” Betemit. We all know he’ll be around forever. Could it be that he likes him b/c he was in the Braves system when Grady was there? Cause othewise I don’t get it. I see a Lugo type scenario unfolding…
that is, being in the lineup constantly despite nothing justifying him being there.
Gonzo almost got tossed on that one….LOL
Woo hoo! Wolf struck out Bonds!
An error by Furcal! That’s 3 already this season. It sounds like (I’m listening to the game on the radio here in San Jose) he had all the time in the world & threw it away. Luckily, it didn’t cause any damage. However, the Dodgers as a whole seem to be making a lot of errors this early season.
Martin is Da MAN!!!!!
Yeah here we go!!!
And there we go New Game…
Yeah baby! It’s all tied up. We’re mounting our comeback.
Wow! It sounds like Ethier made a fantastic catch. Way to go!
and a lesson in physics from Vin’s point of view.. Classic…Priceless…
Sounds like Wolf’s curveball is on tonight. We need him to dominate the Giants the rest of the way.
Dear Grady Little,
The Giants’ bullpen is the worst part of the team. If you encourage the players to have longer plate appearances, the Giants will go to their bullpen earlier. Please consider this.
Sincerely,
it was a Great catch sward!
That was bad….
Bonds Strikes out X2
Vin… **sigh** I miss hearing his play-by-play. John Miller, the play-by-play commentator here in the Bay Area is fine, but we’re talking about Vin Scully. Man, you guys are lucky….
Another strikeout for Bonds! Sweet! Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Well, unfortunately, I have to leave the office, but at least I can still listen to the game on the radio for a while. See you guys later. Keep up the spirit!
GO DODGERS!!!
You know I try not to be negative, but this Dodger team frightens me a bit. The pitching is more iffy than we thought. The outfield is VERY iffy. The hitting is becoming very iffy as well.
I think they still have it, but it’s not a given.
Go Blue!!!
that homerun is case in point.
Roberts homers. Feliz homers. Bizzaro world at DS tonight.
Time for Nomar to be a Hero again!
GO Blue 2007!!!!
………….
grady little needs to get a little fire light under him. He’s so passive. He needs to kick these guys in the butt. 5 errors in the last 3 games. All loses.
kday01… I happen to love that drive down 95… the desert is gorgeous… just don’t get stuck in the sun for very long! And very little in the way of Nevada State Police on that route, so you can really open ‘er up on the drive… keep the radar detector on at all times please…
There really is some great fishing out here and you can actually DRINK the water in the rivers here! lol…
Too bad for the Dodgers tonight… but I guess a rivalry wouldn’t be one without the other team winning as well. There’s another game tomorrow and Brad Penny is the one to win it! Keep the ball down Brad and try not to blow away every hitter. Hope Martin can keep Penny on track and not allow the “walk the bases loaded” scenarios again… seems like he does it at least once per start.
Go Dodgers!!!
I hope Randy Wolf figures out what’s been wrong with him the first couple innings of every outing he’s been in.
Is there a pitching coach around there somewhere who can help Randy and some of our other starting pitchers with that same problem?
An ounce of patients is warranted with Betemit. Its still April. About this time last year this blog was full of people calling for Furcal’s job and cursing the signing…. every one relax.
Id guess by the end of May it will all be sorted out.
And LETS WIN ONE TODAY!!! I live in SF and the annoying fans are all over me today.
pellam.1
“Hey, 53, why is it good to have Martinez in the lineup?” – For exactly what he did (1 for 3, with a double, an RBI, and a run scored. But perhaps more important, Martinez almost always makes contact with the ball, something that Wilson Betemit has been unable to do for a month now. I certainly do not believe that Ramon Martinez should be our permanent third baseman, but he is definitely better than Betemit – at least for right now.
I know that hindsight is 20/20, but I believe that Randy Wolf should have pitched around Bonds in the first inning. Bonds ALWAYS hits the ball hard, even on his outs. Pitching to him with a man on third was pretty much a guaranteed run, with a huge risk of him doing exactly what he did – a three-run jack.
That being said, I have to believe that it was Grady’s decision to pitch to Bonds and not Wolf’s or Martin’s. With three consecutive hits and no outs, I believe that Grady decided to throw caution to the wind and pitch to Bonds to try to get the first out in the inning. But how many times have we seen this backfire in the past? (Rhetorical). After the Bonds home run, Wolf retired the next three batters out in order. Had he walked Bonds, it would have been 1-0 instead of 4-0. But again, everything is always crystal clear from the arm chair the next day.
Let’s take the series finale tonight boys!
GO DODGERS!
PS: It was great to meet you at the game last night Jack – although I must apologize as I do not know your blogging name.
Some great news for all of those who listen to the radio broadcast while at Dodger Stadium: The new President of CBS Radio Dan Mason has instituted a policy change so KFWB 980 AM’s broadcast of the games will be once again 100% live. No more 3 second, 5 second or 10 second delay!
THANK YOU!!!! alex that is good news if i ever heard it. hahaha i hated listening to the game like that at the stadium i mean i love to listen to Scully for the begining and then Steiner and Monday towards the end but i hated waiting for the call after i saw it with my very own eyes lol So like i said that is great news for me. As for last night i totally agree with our guys in pitching to Bonds in the 1st but what i dont understand is why throw him a fastball on 0-2 especially to Bonds i think it was just a pour pitching call but if he throws his curve or the slider then Bonds chases as he did the next two times he batted and we get 1 out with runner still on the corners but hey im just a fan!
Thanks to Josh for noting my posts on parking. I went to Friday’s and Sunday’s games, and there were very few problems with parking. Part of that, I assume, was the lighter attendance because of the threat of rain on both days. But I think they are getting the hang of it. Still, there are ways for improving.
Also, great news from the LA Times’ Dodger Notes–“Starting Wednesday, Dodgers broadcasts on 980 AM will no longer be delayed because of a policy change instituted by new CBS Radio President Dan Mason.”
http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/dodgers/la-sp-dodrep26apr26,1,5130516.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-mlb-dodger
I’ve been brining my radio, but it’s really weird. In any case, I have to think that the Dodgers were working on this, and good job–was anyone at CBS really worried that Vin Scully would drop and F-Bomb???
Bob Harvey on Dodger Talk has been mentioning that Nomar had volunteered to play anywhere in Spring, and had told people the same since the season started.
The line-up should be made up of the 8 best hitters in the organization, as long as there is any conceivable way to do it. With 1-7, we’re pretty much doing it. If we feel we need to start Ramon Martinez, do we really have the 8 best hitters in the organization in the line-up? (No offense to Ramon, who is great in a very important role as a utility player.) Don’t we think that that James Loney is very possibly one of the 8 best hitters in the organization (given that he hit .282 in the bigs last season, .343 after his second call-up, .380 in AAA, and .400+ in the spring?). Since Nomar is willing to cross the diamond for the good of the team (and we know that he is a talented ball-player who will play a good quality third base), we know there is a concievable way of getting Loney in the line-up. I’m not panicking, because even with the 3 straight losses, the early season is going well, and I believe we’re going to turn it around tonight. But to win the division, the NLDS, the NLCS, and the World Series, we need the best 1-8 we can get. Loney may not be hitting well in AAA, but some of that is motivation. He has earned as much of a chance as Betemit has had. I bet he’ll start producing when he gets called up.
Fansince53…Same as this…Jack
here’s a thought w/ the Nomar at 3rd thing. The organization won’t do it b/c of possible injury to Nomar. But Nomar (and some say as recently as a week ago) offers to go to third. Shouldn’t Nomar be more concerned about his health (and extending his career) as much as anyone? He’s a professional and knows what he is capable of. If he is willing to do it, why aren’t the Dodgers?
Got it jack.bugaren. Again, it was great to meet you.
GO DODGERS!