Normalcy returns…
The media contingent was down to about 10 people today after yesterday’s crush. Manny is actually at-bat right now and the boo birds are out, but plenty of Dodger fans are here and cheering him, too.
Manny just homered…wow.
Not even sure what else to say…most importantly, Happy Fourth of July. Enjoy the barbecues, celebrations and time with your family and friends.
Inside the Dodgers 
Let’s hope Manny turns that homer into a big game to give Wolf a win. The Dodgers haven’t won the middle game of a 3 game series in the last 3 attempts.
Happy 4th of July everyone…..Amazing !!!!!!!Manny cracks one out!!!!!
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GO DODGERS!!!!!!
With O-Dog resting, why would you want to bat Ethier second (where he absolutely raked last season) when you can bat the great Russell Martin there? Great thinking there, Joe…
Wow RIP McNair that suck.
http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=10643962
WOW..amen, shad, Rest In Peace…
Maybe it has something to do with Martin going to get some good pitches to hit in front of Manny,
SOB Wolf that was terrible bunt
Sigh Geer 3 for 3 against us and he was 3 for 19 that hurt.
actually make that 4 for 20.
http://myespn.go.com/s/conversations/show/story/4306275
Come on Dodgers!!!!!
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RIP McNair…
Big Strikeout! Now let’s stop wasting opportunities and score some runs.
If Manny was a left handed batter he would be safe
but than again they probably would had that shift on.
Hi everybody
Just checking in on the game.
I’m at a barbacue, next door and it’s good to here that Manny went deep in his first AB today.
Disappointed that I have to listen to the Padre feed.
(No Dodger feed.) No MLB.TV before 7:00PM ET on Saturday.
That’s crazy 1 2 3 innings after that last crappy innings so typical of Wolf.
Brooklyn, I’ve got the Dodger feed on MLB.com gameday audio.
Awwwww! frustration. We can’t catch a brake.
SF 6-0.
Don’t worry about the jints, Kemp is going to come through here.
Well, at least we got SOMETHING out of this inning . . . .
Should had PH for Castro or used the suicide squeeze apparently Torre don’t used. I hate having a runner on 3rd with 1 out and nothing. Damn come on Belisario.
This is why matt kemp shouldn’t bat in the bottom part of the order. If bats 8th he’ll get walked in those types of situations and if he bats 7th he’ll get walked for guys like juan castro and ausmus in those situations. what a waste
Drat!
Thanks alot here come another ND by Wolf.
Damn you Ethier that was dumb sorry you had a play at the plate.
Why have beli pitch to the padres best hitter when he obviously didn’t have it. Joe was slow to go to the pen, which is funny considering how he usually burns through relievers when we are up 5 runs but can’t seem to get someone warmed up when he really needs too. drives me crazy
lol people giving him crap on the main dodgers board unreal.
What is wrong with Torre?? He keeps using Belisario too much and then he keeps him in there when it obvious he doesn’t have it today. Joe’s got lots of fresh pitchers available, but he blows the game instead.
Belisario just didn’t have it today. Too bad – he’s been outstanding.
Your right sparkle. It’s the first runs he’s given up since June 6th and the most runs in any one outing this year.
Nice starts Furcal come on Martin let get a homerun.
Great play by Casey! WTG!!!!
Good bunt by JP . . . C’mon Andre!!!!!!
Oh boy here come Pierre can he produce a clutch hit.
n/m he would bunt
Let’s go Ethier let make it 2/10.
wow
Damn Castro
Now he brings in leach to face agone…would have been nice to see him when Beli was going downhill.
Ok A stinker. we’re due one every so often.
Castro= Ramson yeah right
I knew we should be PH from Castro with runners on 1st and 3rd with 1 out when we were up 2-1.
I guess games like this one reminds us that the team is human and subject to setbacks.
Come on Castro you need to make up for that dp.
Sigh come on Kemp they will give you 2nd base
lol from a team that won’t make the playoff chanting beat LA seriously.
A game we gave away so sad.
Shad, we’ll get them tomorrow and win the series
As we’re heading for the second half of the season, somebody please tell me how Castro and Loretta will help the team to the playoffs. They had some good moments early in the season, but do they really look like they belong on a team with the best record in the majors. Just another couple of washed up bums, which, as we know, is Ned’s specialty. Unfortunately we don’t seem to have any hot prospects in the minors to bring up and take their place.
Look at Hector Luna but than again he might be a product of that hitting park in the minor.
Luna don’t qualify as a hot prospect that why Mitch Jones should had stay up here.
I hope so and Bills really need to give us a win.
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/Fielding/J/Mitch-Jones.shtml
Jones can played 1st, 3rd and both corner OF’s?
lol dump Pierre or Castro now
Jones is probably gone, since we had to DFA him, and he didn’t really have a chance to prove himself major league worthy. I don’t think we’ll have room for another outfielder for another two years, since that’s how long Pierre will be with us, and I’m assuming that Manny won’t back out of his next year under contract with us. In the meantime, DeWitt isn’t doing anything to get himself ready for the majors, and I don’t see any other names coming up.
RIP Allen Klein
For the record, I liked the result better when Manny was 0-3 with 1 BB.
Just saying…
But it won’t be long.
I didn’t realize we had the best fpct% until we made those 3 errors. Ouch so we had the best pitching and fpct at the same time that’s so rare for us.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggregate?statType=fielding&seasonType=2&group=8&typereg&split=0&season=2009
Randy Wolf averages 6 innings per start. Randy Wolf has a ton of no decisions. Randy Wolf has won three games in three + months. Randy Wolf is a soft-throwing lefty veteran. He has no one to blame but himself for his results. He fails to close the deal on a regular basis. He’s the king of coulda, shoulda, woulda. Kershaw is a kid still learning, so he has an excuse. Kuroda was out two months and he’s still building his stamina, so he has an excuse. Billingsley usually goes deep into games so he doesn’t need an excuse. The four-headed beast known as Stults/McDonald/Milton/Weaver doesn’t count. Can you tell I’m down on Wolf?
Relax Kahli…. When I was at Petco back in April, this Dodger fan was saying in a soft voice when Manny was at the plate, “reeeelax, Manny, reeeelax.” He was also gesturing with his hand to relax. It was funny, my friend Lore and I still laugh about it. We kinda repeat it at Dodger Stadium when Manny is at the plate. Anyway, heading back to the stadium soon. Friday was so crazy there. Let’s go Billz! Let’s go Dodgers!
Emma
http://crzblue.mlblogs.com/
I understand and agree with everything that you say about Wolf, kahli. It seems like some pitchers just have a winning instinct, and that seems to carry them a long way, regardless of who they are up against. Wolf is NO WINNER. There are a lot of them around with the sheer number of pitchers needed in the major leagues. Why does Ned always have to find the No Winners, no guts for our team?
I agree with you for the most part Kahli, but as I was watching the game yesterday I told my wife, watch Joe take Wolf out even though he’s pitching one of his better games. Sure enough 2 outs and here comes the righthanded JP in Swetta. I honestly at that point would’ve let Wolf bat for himself and try tossing another inning because there’s no way they score with Loretta anyway.
Biggest problem yesterday though was that SD was making some outstanding plays. Otherwise we’d have had an extra 2-3 runs.
I also don’t know why Joe keeps taking out Manny in the 6th for JP. Once you are down, then there’s no chance to comeback with JP.
Enchanted ~ I was asking myself the same thing about JP. Not only taking over for Manny, which sounds ridiculous, but he puts him in the 3-hole which is a joke. If you insist on playing Juan, at least do it with a double switch so he is batting in the 9th spot where he belongs. Oh, I forgot, Joe doesn’t do switches, does he? What irks me even more is the fact that Matty is still batting 8th! Why in hell wouldn’t you give one of your best hitters more, not less, at bats?!
Good Morning ITD readers and writers!!!
I hope everybody had a great 4th of July. I didn’t see the game at all yesterday so I can’t comment on the game itself, but taking Manny out early is not such a good idea until you know you have a very good lead or we are losing with no chance of coming back, which this season hasn’t seemed the case with the exception of a few games. On top of that, putting JP in the 3-hole is just crazy!!!
BTW – dodgereric says “hi”. He and Chris were in San Francisco, and then stopped by here to celebrate 4th of July at Tru’s house. I am sure he will have his thoughts and opinions on these subjects when he gets back to his own computer.
messagebear – how are you doing with Manny’s return?
Thanks for asking, nelly. I’m doing fine and hope that Manny*roid does well for us. Like I’ve said before, if all the lists were open to the public, I’m sure every team would have its own steroid suspects. Sad, but part of the times. For better or worse, I’m sure we’ve got Manny for this year and next, and we have Pierre for another two. In the meantime, I’m getting disappointed with Andre. He may have his spurts of power, which are always exciting, but is he going to be just a .250’s hitter. If that’s the case, Torre will find all the more reason to platoon him, and he won’t make a long term future with the Dodgers. I had hoped otherwise.
I was reading the comments about Wolf and I have to disagree with the Wolf bashing. He is averaging 6 innings a start and in 11 of his 18 games he has given up 2 runs or less. I wish he was averaging 7 innings a start but we do not have a starter capable of that. Bills is averaging under 7…If Wolf had gotten any offensive support he would have 8 or 9 or more wins. For someone to say he is not a winner has not watched him pitch this year. He can only control what the other team does and if I have a pitcher that has held the opposition to 2 runs or less in 63% of his games that is pretty darn good. He is a very good #3 starter on a contendeing team…
It seems people just want something to complain about and if Wolf were our biggest problem..then we are ok. The issue with this team is that we need a TRUE ACE..Bills is trying but he is still too young. We need a Roy Halladay type that goes 7 plus innings and allows the BP to rest once every 5 days…the BP is going to wear down in the 2nd half because of all the 3-4 innings games that they have to throw.
We need to be concerned about the Gnats, their top 2 pitchers seem to go 7 plus innings and their top 2 are better than ours..I want the feeling that when Bills pitches we have an automatic win and in the last month I have not felt that. YOur ace cannot give up 4-1 leads in back to back games in the 6th innings..He has to close the door. I feel he will become that pitcher, but he has not yet….
messagebear – I am worried about Andre too, and I hope he figures it out before, like you said, Joe gives him a reason to platoon him with JP.
I agree with you both about being worried what Torre might do if his batting average doesn’t start going up, which I believe it will. Messagebear, I agree that you can never trust how the Dodger’s may view things where he’s concerned, but he’s never been and I don’t think ever will be a .250’s hitter. He hit over .300 his first year and last year and hit .284 his second year even though he was jacked around in the lineup a lot that year. The main reason his average is so much lower this year is because of the month of May, which was terrible for him, but I really think the toe injury was bothering him a lot more than he let on. I could be wrong, but it seemed like he winced a lot when he would hit it on a base during that time and I’ve noticed lately, he seems fine when that happens. I do think he puts too much pressure on himself at times and needs to learn to reign it in without losing the passion that makes him the player he is.
Yeah, Kahli! I’ll take Dre any day too!
Sorry, but I’m going to keep hammering Wolf. Stats are great…but results matter. It’s like the little story where the coach tells the scrub, “get in there for Jones.” The scrub answers, “I’ll try coach.” The coach answers, “Sit back down…Jones is TRYING.” Wolf consistently does funny little things to lose…lead-off doubles to pitchers that eventually tie games…double-play sacrifice bunts…on and on. Is he the only baseball player guilty of these mishaps? Of course not. But they always seem to find him. Like I said, a soft-throwing lefty veteran should pitch deep into games. Joe doesn’t help…but Joe doesn’t lose focus, either. At the end of the day, a player is either a winner or a loser. Andre Ethier is a winner. I don’t care what his batting average is. In the clutch, I’ll take him over almost anyone but Manny.
I agree, Kahli and trublu. I just hope that Torre realizes it. He has still produced more than anyone on the team even with his BA not being what it normally is. I would still like to see him get it back where it normally is or close to it because he’s too good of a hitter for it not to be, but it hasn’t kept him from driving in runs, which is the most important thing to the team.