Nomar went for an MRI this morning and unfortunately, he does have a tear in his quad. Grady has said that he’ll be extremely limited, mostly pinch-hitting, for the rest of the series. James Loney will start tomorrow, but the rest of the lineup is not yet set.
We’re back in L.A. and as Grady and Ned have said, we’ve got the Mets right where we want them. OK, so maybe one win or two would’ve been nice in NY, but the home team is the one that’s supposed to win. So if we win the next two and have the momentum heading to NY Sunday night, I like our chances.
There’s a workout at the stadium today for both teams, so we’re obviously still pretty busy. But I wanted to let you guys know a couple things.
First, we’re really hoping that everyone who comes to the games the next two days is wearing blue. As you know, Tommy Lasorda calls this place Blue Heaven on Earth and we should actually make it look like that.
Second, I have to admit that Shea Stadium was rocking over the past two days and we have to keep pace with them. Every two-strike count, every big situation, the crowd there was on its feet. It’s up to you guys, the die-hards, to prove to the world that Los Angeles fans aren’t passive like people think we are. Get this crowd up on their feet and get them going. This place should rock like the ’04 NLDS or any of the great games down the stretch this season.
That’s all for now. If I get a lineup today for tomorrow, I’ll post it in a while.
Most of you already know today’s lineup…same as yesterday, with Lugo replacing Betemit at third base in the No. 8 spot.
We’re five hours from first pitch and the first bus got us here about an hour ago.
Think tonight’s game is a big one? Yeah, I guess I agree.
Enjoy!
Unfortunately, Joe Beimel won’t be able to make it. Here’s our roster and thanks for pointing out the typos in the postseason guide. I knew you guys would be able to catch stuff, given how quickly it gets put together, so we’ll fix for next season.
Pitchers (10)
58 Chad Billingsley
51 Jonathan Broxton
30 Mark Hendrickson
56 Hong-Chih Kuo
23 Derek Lowe
36 Greg Maddux
31 Brad Penny
44 Takashi Saito
41 Aaron Sele
35 Brett Tomko
Catchers (2)
22 Toby Hall
55 Russell Martin
Infielders (8)
10 Wilson Betemit
15 Rafael Furcal
5 Nomar Garciaparra
12 Jeff Kent
29 James Loney
3 Julio Lugo
18 Ramon Martinez
8 Olmedo Saenz
Outfielders (5)
21 Marlon Anderson
7 J.D. Drew
16 Andre Ethier
6 Kenny Lofton
17 Jason Repko
Looks like I can post tomorrow and Thursday’s lineup, if you want them. Grady gave it to the media today, so here you go:
Furcal, SS
Lofton, CF
Nomar, 1B
Kent, 2B
Drew, RF
Martin, C
Anderson, LF
Betemit (vs. a righty)/Lugo (vs. a lefty)
Lowe/Kuo
Grady said not to hold him to this, but obviously this has pretty much been the lineup the last few weeks, so why mess with what works?
Just thought I’d let you know that our owner, Frank McCourt, will log on tomorrow morning at 10:30am PT for a live text chat before the Dodgers-Mets game at 1pm PT. As with recent road trips down the stretch, Frank will be in New York supporting the team, but he was quick to volunteer to chat with the fans. So, if you have the time, log on and get his perspective on the team heading into the postseason.
Also, in case you haven’t seen it yet, we have some competition from another Dodger insider blog during the postseason. Derek Lowe has agreed to post a blog during the playoffs. In his first post, he talks about his expectations heading into the Division Series.
I hear Rally Monday was a great success. A great crowd of the Dodger faithful showed their true blue loyalty at CityWalk last night. I hope those of you who were there got to enjoy it. Here is a picture taken from above the event, taken by a co-worker of mine, who admits she isn’t the best photographer in the world:
We’ve got a 3 p.m. workout (ET) at the stadium, so I’ll be leaving the hotel in an hour and a half for good ol’ Shea Stadium.
If this works right, you’ll have plenty of reading leading up until tomorrow with the postseason guide you’ve asked for:
It’s 7:51 and we put our postseason guide to bed about half an hour ago. I’d like to publicly thank everyone in our department who helped crank out 111 pages of information practically overnight. Joe Jareck, Crystal Fukumoto, Mary Logue, Mark Langill, Ryan McGrady, Oscar Delgado and Jorge Martin were all here until the wee hours of the morning putting out a really cool guide.
The cover, as you might have heard, was painted by Brett Tomko and features the six "kids" on the team – Ethier, Kemp, Broxton, Billingsley, Martin and Loney. My counterparts in other cities were also up overnight churning this thing out so that the broadcasters and media have good information to pass along to you all starting tomorrow. It will get printed and bound today and shipped out overnight to my hotel in NY tomorrow morning.
We leave on our flight at 10:30 today, with workouts at Shea tomorrow at 1 p.m. (Mets) and 3 p.m. (Dodgers). Vin Scully will be on the trip, to answer your question. He’ll do the first two innings and the last three on KFWB while Rick Monday and Charley Steiner call the middle four innings.
As for the NLCS, the Dodgers would not have home field advantage against St. Louis, even though we have a better record. The Wild Card cannot have home field advantage. But it was really great to see us finish as co-champions of the division, having won six games on the road to force a tie.
I’m off for a little walking tour of the stadium now to see what our auxiliary press conference area looks like. Imagine a concourse under the field level that goes from being a storage area to a place where hundreds of media members from across the world will be hanging out during the next week, covering a bi-coastal playoff series. Pretty crazy stuff.
Tomorrow is Rally Monday, and the playoff-bound Dodgers will be throwing a rally from 6-8pm at CityWalk at Universal Studios Hollywood. The rally is free to all fans, and Universal is generously offering free parking to the first 2,000 fans who park in the Curious George or Frankenstein parking lots.
It promises to be a great event, with emcee Adam Carolla, musical performances by the Donnas and Whiskey Falls, appearances by former Dodger greats Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, Sweet Lou Johnson, and other surprise guests. And if that isn’t enough incentive to come out and support the team, there will be a raffle for Division Series game tickets! If you need directions to CityWalk, they can be found here.
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to participate in the festivities, as the team will be heading to New York tomorrow morning. But I will be there in spirit, so head out and show the other teams what we already know – that Dodger fans are the most supportive and dedicated fans in baseball.
Show your true blue Dodger spirit and come out to CityWalk tomorrow for Rally Monday. And remember, someone will walk away with tickets to Saturday’s game at Dodger Stadium, which are going fast.
First off, thank you for all the kind words about our work this year. It has been truly enjoyable from our end, too.
One of the really cool things I noticed this morning is how much of a community this has become for Dodger fans. There’s a personal connection amongst you all where you feel comfortable talking about surgeries, family losses or positive things going on in your life. The common thread is the Dodgers and wins and losses aside, that’s really great to see.
Today’s lineup that’s going to try and win the NL West is:
Repko, CF
Ethier, LF
Lugo, SS
Loney, 1B
Betemit, 3B
Kemp, CF
Hall, C
Martinez, 2B
Stults, P
This game really does mean something because IF we win and the Padres lose and IF we were to beat the Cardinals/Astros in the NLDS and IF the Padres were to beat the Mets then we would host San Diego in Game 1, 2, 6 & 7 in the NLCS. That’s a lot of ifs, but it could happen and hopefully it does.
Inside the Dodgers 