Category: Dailies

Series finale

It wasn’t nine scoreless, but Stults came up big last night…and the offense went off for the first time this season. Here’s hoping there are a lot more of those days to come and that Randy Wolf can do the same on the hill.

If you’re coming to tomorrow’s game, please be sure to come out early. Auto gates and turnstiles open at 10:40 (two and a half hours before first pitch) to help try and alleviate traffic issues. As you can imagine, whenever there’s a packed house on a day game, just about everyone drives themselves from the office and we get close to, if not more than, 20,000 cars on site. Plenty to keep you busy in the morning, from batting practice, to shagging home run balls in center field, to Autograph Alley, to pregame ceremonies. I promise you won’t be bored and it’ll help the flow in and out of the stadium. 

Here’s the lineup today in AZ:

Furcal, SS

Hudson, 2B

Manny, LF

Loney, 1B

Martin, C

Ethier, RF

Blake, 3B

Pierre, CF

Wolf, P

Kuroda, Stults, etc.

Eric Stults takes the mound today in place of Kuroda and while it’s obviously a bummer that Hiroki hurt his side, I’m glad that our medical department is smart enough to try and nip this in the bud now before it gets to be a bigger issue.

Here’s hoping that good things continue to happen to good people, as Stults is one of the nicest guys in the game. Every so often, I like to escape my job in the press box and watch the game from some place in the stands so that we can see the Dodger Stadium experience from a fan’s perspective. Well, last year I did that with one of my front office counterparts at a June game and it turned out to be the day Stults pitched a complete-game shutout. I was so happy for him because of how hard he’s worked over the years. Plus, with the recent passing of his mother, you’ve got to be pulling for this guy.

He may go on to have long MLB career and he may continue to go back and forth to the Majors, but he’ll always be able to point to that game against the Sox as the day he dominated in the bigs. Let’s hope there are a lot more of those in his left arm.

Here’s today’s lineup:

Furcal, SS

Hudson, 2B

Manny, LF

Loney, 1B

Martin, C

Ethier, RF

Kemp, CF

Blake, 3B

Stults, P

Desert Excursion

Heading into Arizona this weekend and here’s the lineup, followed by some good historical info on J-Mac.

Furcal, SS

Hudson, 2B

Manny, LF

Ethier, RF (Birthday boy, for all you Ethierholics)

Loney, 1B

Kemp, CF

Blake, 3B

Ausmus, C

McDonald, P

James McDonald will join some select company in Dodger history tonight when he makes his first Major League start in Arizona while beginning the season in the Los Angeles rotation. The last two Dodger pitchers coming off a full season in the Los Angeles minor leagues to make such a leap are Fernando Valenzuela (1981) and Don Sutton (1966).

Sutton spent only one year in the Dodger minor league system in 1965, posting a combined 23-7 record in 31 starts at Single-A Santa Barbara and Double-A Albuquerque. At age 21, Sutton went 12-12 with a 2.99 ERA in 37 games (35 starts) in 1966 to help the Dodgers win the National League pennant. Sutton also gave Los Angeles a rotation with three future Hall of Famers, along with Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.

The Dodgers purchased Valenzuela’s contract from Puebla of the Mexican League on July 6, 1979. He went 13-9 with a 3.10 ERA in 27 games (25 starts) at Double-A San Antonio in 1980. After a September 1980 promotion, Valenzuela went 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 10 relief appearances.

Both Sutton and Valenzuela faced lofty expectations. Sutton was joining the starting rotation of a defending World Series champion with no previous Major League experience. Valenzuela was asked to make his first Major League start on Opening Day at Dodger Stadium after injuries sidelined veterans Jerry Reuss and Burt Hooton. The 20-year-old Valenzuela calmly responded with a complete-game shutout against the Astros.

In his first eight starts, Valenzuela went 8-0 with a 0.50 ERA, five shutouts and eight complete games to trigger “Fernandomania” throughout the United States and his native Mexico. He remains the only player to win both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Awards in the same season and still the only Major Leaguer since 1981 to win his first eight career starts.

Series finale…

It’s day baseball down in San Diego and Blake DeWitt gets the chance to show his stuff at shortstop. Joe Torre has said that he wants to make sure that on a day game after a night game, we don’t push Raffy too hard, too early. He also mentioned that Russell will get tomorrow off in AZ.

Here’s the lineup for the game today…

DeWitt, SS

Hudson, 2B

Manny, LF

Ethier, RF

Martin, C

Loney, 1B

Kemp, CF

Blake, 3B

Kershaw, P

 

Game 2 of 162

Yesterday was a great start to the season, with 161 more to go…

Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about the ITD tour of Dodger Stadium…it’s coming. Just need to work through a few more details.

Here’s the lineup that’s down in SD tonight.

Furcal, SS

Hudson, 2B

Manny, LF

Ethier, RF (good to see him make an opponent pay for walking Manny yesterday)

Martin, C

Loney, 1B (speedster stole a base yesterday)

Kemp, CF

Blake, 3B

Wolf, P

Opening Day has arrived

It’s a great day but I didn’t start it off very well by failing to post the lineup early. Apologies to all. But right now, we’re in the top of the fourth and the first inning brought a great rally off Jake Peavy, the third inning saw Andre Ethier make someone pay for walking Manny Ramirez and now James Loney continued his quest for a 1.000 average this season with his second hit (and first steal). Still six innings of baseball to go, but you’ve got to be encouraged for the first three innings of nearly 1,500 frames this season.

Meanwhile, it’s a perfect day here in San Diego. The park is filled, the weather is nice, and let’s be honest, we’ve all been waiting several months for today to come. Enjoy it

Jim Lefebvre

Programming note: Tomorrow from 2-7 p.m. on KABC, you can hear an extended version of DodgerTalk with Ken Levine and Josh Suchon…among the guests they’ll have on are Ned Colletti, Eric Karros and a number of different reporters from around the NL West breaking down the division. They’ll also give regular updates about the game in San Francisco.

And now this, from team historian Mark Langill…

Rookie second baseman Jim Lefebvre had big plans for his first Opening Day at Dodger Stadium on April 20, 1965. After spending the first week on the road to begin the season, the Dodgers played host to the lowly New York Mets and their 43-year-old starting pitcher.

Lefebvre, who grew up in nearby Inglewood, invited his friends and family to the team’s home opener. By the end of the night, he was fuming after going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts against future Hall of Famer Warren Spahn, who scattered eight hits in a 3-2 victory. It was one of the last gems for Spahn, who went a combined 7-16 with the Mets and Giants during his final Major League season in 1965.

After the game, Lefebvre angrily made a scene near the dugout tunnel and began tossing bats when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and saw a familiar face.

According to Lefebvre, pitcher Sandy Koufax calmly advised, “We don’t do that around here; we save the fight for the field. You might as well go back to the minors if you’re going to act that way.”

Lefebvre, who went on to win National League Rookie of the Year honors in 1965, recalled that story last summer visiting Dodger Stadium as coach of the Chinese national baseball team during preparations for the Summer Olympics in Beijing. He also had a chance during a stadium tour to show Team China a photo of the final out of the 1965 World Series at Minnesota in which Lefebvre and first baseman Wes Parker are rushing to congratulate Koufax after his 2-0 victory in Game 7.

Lefebvre, who played with Los Angeles through 1972, is now the hitting coach of the San Diego Padres.

Back at Dodger Stadium!!

The first game of the year is tonight, and everyone’s awaiting your arrival here.

The lineup looks awfully close to what we’ll see on Opening Day:

Furcal, SS

Hudson, 2B

Manny, LF

Ethier, RF

Martin, C

Loney, 1B

Kemp, CF

Blake, P

Wolf, P

We’ll be on KCAL for the game tonight and then after, switch to PRIME TICKET for a special Dodgers Insider on Manny Ramirez at 10:30. It’ll be everything about the guy, from the time he arrived through his return to the club at Camelback Ranch! 

Ask the booth…

With today’s game on dodgers.com/mlb.com exclusively, we decided to utilize the email address askthebooth@ladodgers.com, which is usually utilized by Ken Levine and Josh Suchon during DodgerTalk on KABC.

Rick and Charley mentioned the address in the first inning and immediately had 30 questions. The next time I dropped by the booth, it was over 100. So it’s good to know you’re out there listening…and asking questions. I’m not quite sure how or if we’ll utilize this during the season, as it’s much easier to veer off the subject of the game during Spring Training, but it’s been an interesting experiment to say the least.