The Dodgers got back on track Wednesday in Philadelphia with a 9-2 victory. Randy Wolf had another good start going 6 innings to pick up his second win. Wolf now has a 2.77 ERA on the year and has been a pleasant surprise. But this is where I inject a little bit of reality into the whole situation. He will not keep pitching like this. Case in point: Hitters BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) against Wolf going into the game was .239 and it went down more on Wednesday. Pitchers tend to fall within the range of .280-.290 (Wolf's career BABIP against is .294). What this tells us is that Randy has been unusually lucky on batted balls this season. Chances are that this will regress to the mean throughout the season and Wolf will end up close to his career average. His ERA will rise substantially as a result and it's likely he ends up with an ERA over 4.00. So while we should appreciate Wolfie's great start, we shouldn't read too much into and expectations should stay the same as they were at the beginning of the season.
As for the game itself: It was great to see James Loney hit one out even if it took a pop-up at hitter's haven Citizens Bank Park. Loney had three hits and 4 RBI on the night and hopefully this is the beginning of a hot streak. Russell Martin, Orlando Hudson, and Matt Kemp all reached base three times, and Juan Pierre, Casey Blake, Rafael Furcal and Kemp had two hits apiece. In fact, the only Dodger regular without a hit was Andre Ethier. I have never thought that Andre was only a good hitter because of Manny, but so far he has struggled without him in the lineup. I do think that he is pressing and I also think he will bust out of it sooner than later, but it's going to be interesting to see how he reacts to the criticism and talk that he needs Manny to be successful.
Overall, it was great to see the boys break out and have a good offensive game, even if it came against the ageless wonder (Copyright: Durfee) that is Jamie Moyer. The game tomorrow should be billed as a pitchers' duel as Dodger nemesis Cole Hamels takes on Chad Billingsley in a 10 AM (PST) getaway game.
We're on the same wavelength...as soon as Loney hit the pop-up homerun, I told my buddy that Loney will now go on a hot streak.
ReplyDeleteMuch has been made of the Dodgers' record since the Man Ban, but most fail to note that the offense isn't the problem. Our boys have scored 35 runs in the 6 games since Manny left....nearly 6 runs a game. I won't dispute the huge effect Manny has on the offense, but we're still scoring runs (only 1 game did we score less than 3 runs). The pitching, a weakness we saw before the season, needs to be better.
Phew....big series victory today. If not for Bull's blowup, we woulda won with good pitching and 3 runs....coincidentally.
ReplyDeleteMan that game was a rollercoaster. And you don't wanna overstate the importance of a series in May, BUT that was a huge series win. Bills was great. Good to see Kemp get going again and Loney hit another out. And the resilience to come back and win in the tenth was awesome. This would have been the third late inning collapse since Manny's "injury" if they would have blown this one.
ReplyDeleteThank rollins for that error in the beginning of the game that let in the run or that ruiz double might have won the game, rollins hitting .200, victorino 1 for his last 27, utley no hits in the series, howard maybe had 1 hit in the series, combined with the worst team ERA in the league, this team stinks.
ReplyDeleteThat's why people say, "just make the playoffs and anything can happen." The Phillies were not the best team in baseball last year....they just got hot at the right time (see Rockies 2007). Isn't the 2009 team the same as the 2008 team with Ibanez replacing Burrell? Or did they lose a pitcher that I'm forgetting? Lidge doesn't count.
ReplyDeleteHey Paul,
ReplyDeleteMaybe Ruiz should bat leadoff because the Dodgers can't get him out. That game had some of the worst baserunning I have ever seen
im confident in the phillies lineup, but it was the phillies pitching that was surprising in the playoffs getting good starts from blanton, moyer, and myers was nice to get the phillies so deep in the playoffs, they are really struggling right now, dodgers needed that confidence for their hitting without manny and nothing is better than facing the friendly pitching staff of the phillies to get them going
ReplyDeleteTrue. I think they the Dodgers were able to kind of get going again after Manny's suspension took all the air out of the balloon. Ironically enough, the Dodgers are scoring as much with him as without him (extrememly small sample but still interesting to note). The bullpen has been shaky lately though
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