Results tagged “stlouiscardinals”

Dodgers manager Joe Torre made sure that his team would not suffer a letdown after their miraculous 3-2 victory against the St. Louis Cardinals in game two of the National League Divisional Series.

For the second consecutive season the Dodgers sweep an NL Central team in the National League Divisional Series - this season the Cardinals played the role of the victim losing 5-1 in game three. Although Matt Kemp had a golden sombrero (four strikeouts), Manny Ramirez and Andre Ethier went 3-for-5 each. Manny knocked in two RBI while Ethier was a single short of the cycle, hitting a two-run homer in the second inning. Dodgers starter Vicente Padilla threw a gem of a game shutting out the Cardinals for seven innings giving up only four hits and a walk while striking out four. The Dodgers now face the winner of the Philadelphia Phillies and Colorado Rockies series.

After the stunning conclusion of Game 2 of the NLDS yesterday at Chavez Ravine, Cardinals’ shortstop Brendan Ryan told the St. Louis Dispatch "It makes me sick, absolutely sick to my stomach." Moments before Mark Loretta sent a looping liner into center field for a walk off winner, I knew how Ryan felt. Cy Young candidate Adam Wainwright had been tying Dodger hitters in knots for eight innings. It was a slow death he was dealing us.

Four hours after the Dodgers improbable 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals to give them a stout 2-0 lead in the National League Divisional Series, euphoria is still running through my veins. The Cardinals had the game won. All left fielder Matt Holliday needed to do was make sure James Loney’s line drive got into his glove. Instead he lost the ball which hit him right in the gut. Whether he lost it in the lights or in the swirling white rally towels the fans were waving around is irrelevant.

The kid gloves come off today for starter Clayton Kershaw. The 21-year old phenom with that devastating 12-6 curveball that Vin Scully called “public enemy #1” will be at the adult table in game two of the National League Divisional Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. While such a daunting could give a kid a case of the butterflies, Kershaw doesn’t envision any problems.

This game was supposed to be an exhibition by St. Louis Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter to display his dominance over a completely overmatched Dodgers club. But what was the name of the game? Let’s leave runners on base! The Dodgers and Cardinals broke an NLDS record combining for 30 runners left on base. Three times the Dodgers had the bases loaded only to bring home one runner - and that was on a hit batsman.

The speculation of postseason rosters, pitching rotation and all that rot is over. October baseball has finally arrived for your Los Angeles Dodgers. The club is feeling confident but ready for a good fight. “I obviously know that it’s a tough task obviously going against a guy who probably was the frontrunner for the Cy Young,” game one starter Randy Wolf said Tuesday about going against St. Louis Cardinal’s ace Chris Carpenter.

When we last left the Dodgers they had a lot of things to address for the playoffs. Manager Joe Torre had no idea who would start in St. Louis for game three of the National League Divisional Series nor who would start at second base. These two questions finally had some sort of closure today. The starter for game three will be Vicente Padilla while Chad Billingsley will start if there’s a game four in St. Louis.

This could be a bad sign for the Dodgers. A 49-year old male vendor died in the Vin Scully Press Box at Dodger Stadium of a heart attack. Being the first open workout a day before the National League Divisional Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, most media members were not in the press box when the vendor died. Access to the press box was blocked off pending the arrival of the coroner, however bags, laptops and cameras were retrieved for the media by several members of the Dodgers staff. More details as they come in.

Seven of eight ESPN "experts" are picking the St. Louis Cardinals to beat the Dodgers. "Baseball Tonight" anchor Karl Ravech is even picking the Cardinals to sweep. The lone dissenter is Eric Neel who is picking the Dodgers in five. I don't get it. Starting Wednesday a new season will begin. What happened in the regular season is irrelevant. So while most people are picking the Cardinals to win because they won the season series 5-2, it means nothing. Just because Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright looked indomitable, it's just hogwash.

The Dodgers got a little contribution from everyone in their 7-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Seven players scored the seven runs with seven players driving in those runs. Everyone in the starting lineup got a hit with rightfielder Andre Ethier and second baseman Orlando Hudson going 3-for-4 with a run each and an RBI each. Billingsley pitched six strong innings giving up only two earned runs on three hits in his first start since tweaking his right hamstring on August 7. “It felt great to get back out there,” Billingsley said. “We played really well as a team.”

When July ended the Dodgers had an eight game lead in the NL West. In August they have gone 6-10 with their lead shrinking to 4 ½ games. With the slump you would expect the clubhouse to be filled with tension. Not so with the 2009 version of this Dodger team. While the team was stretching out on the field before batting practice, Manny Ramirez was laughing like an eight-year old kid at the Batting Stance Guy.

LA Angels defeat Baltimore Orioles 8-5. The Angels used the long ball to beat the Orioles in the final game of their four-game series. Vladimir Guerrero with homers in the sixth inning with one on and in the seventh inning with two on notched his 38th multi-homer game in his career. Maicer Izturis also homered in the sixth inning to help give starting pitcher Ervin Santana the victory. Santana went six innings giving up three runs on seven hits with a walk and five strikeouts. While Darren Oliver pitched two innings of perfect ball, Jose Arredondo came in the ninth inning with an 8-3 lead and gave up a homer to Melvin Mora after walking Matt Wieters with one out. After getting Ty Wigginton to fly out, Arredondo gave up a triple to pinch hitter Nolan Reimold. Manager Mike Scioscia having seen enough brought in closer Brian Fuentes to get the final out and the save. The Angels take three of four games in the series and now go to Cleveland.

The Dodgers dropped their fourth straight game at home 3-2 to the St. Louis Cardinals. At 70-49 they have gone 23-23 at home since going 13-0 to begin the season. Knuckleballer Charlie Haeger got his first start for the Dodgers and his first overall start since 2006. He went seven innings giving up three runs on five hits while hitting one batter. To open up the fourth inning Haeger gave up a solo homer slugger Albert Pujols. After getting Matt Holliday to pop up in the seventh inning, Haeger hit Ryan Ludwick with a 72 mph knuckleball then gave up a homer to Rick Ankiel that he took to right field.

The 27-year old knuckleballer Charlie Haeger will be making his first appearance with the Dodgers this season after being a non-roster invitee to spring training. Haeger’s only start came on May 10, 2006 pitching for the Chicago White Sox against the Angels, his first appearance in the Majors. He was clocked for six runs, five earned, in 4 1/3 innings pitched.

St. Louis Cardinals defeat LA Dodgers 10-0. Chad Billingsley started out strong for the Dodgers pitching a one-hit shutout after five innings. Then the sixth inning happened. Billingsley crumbled giving up two two-run singles and one one-run single. After the dust settled, the Cards put a six-spot on the Dodgers. After Claudio Vargas got two out in the eighth inning with a runner on third, Brent Leach came in and got no outs allowing the runner on third to score (run charged to Vargas) and giving up three more on his own.

St. Louis Cardinals defeat LA Dodgers 6-1. For the second game in a row the Dodgers have gotten 10 or more hits yet lost a game. Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter was just that good. Although he gave up nine Dodgers hits he allowed only one run in seven innings pitched striking out two and walking two. Dodgers starter Randy Wolf had a decent outing going six innings giving up only two runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out four. The Dodgers were in the game trailing 2-1 until the bottom of the seventh when James McDonald came into a game and had his first pitch taken out of the park by Mark DeRosa. Although Albert Pujols would hit a single only to get thrown out trying to advance to second by Matt Kemp, Matt Holliday would reach first thanks to a throwing error by third baseman Casey Blake. After Ryan Ludwick flew out to Kemp and Yadier Molina walked, Brent Leach came in for the Dodgers and gave up an RBI single to Rick Ankiel and Guillermo Mota gave up a 2 RBI double to Brendan Ryan. That was all she wrote.

San Antonio Spurs defeat LA Clippers 86-83. As unwatchable as this game was at least it was more interesting than Monday Night Football. Basically the game was like this: bad team A plays bad team B. Bad team B ties the game very late in the game but gives up a 3-pointer to bad team A with eight seconds left to go. Bad team B loses. Before Roger Mason made that three for the Spurs, the last time the Spurs scored was with 5:20 left to go in the fourth quarter. Both offenses are horrible. Fortunately for the Spurs Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli come back next month.

LA Dodgers defeat St. Louis Cardinals 4-1. Six games, four home runs. Despite the Dodgers losing the last two games, Manny Ramirez has done everything he could to help the Dodgers win. Unfortunately he can only bat once every nine team at bats. He is batting .565 since coming to the Dodgers with an OPS of 1.745. Meanwhile Clayton Kershaw had another great outing going seven innings giving up only one run on three hits and four walks with seven strikeouts. He and Chad Billingsley are shaping up to be great one-two starters for the Dodgers. And just in case you were fearing another clubhouse division to strike the Dodgers, Jeff Kent has gone on record saying he is happy. Phew!

St. Louis Cardinals defeat LA Dodgers 9-6. Four words: Albert Pujols grand slam. That effectively shut the door on the Dodgers. Derek Lowe made his shortest outing of the season (3 1/3 innings) while giving up the most hits and runs of the season (13 hits and eight runs). In the eighth inning with Jeff Kent on deck to pinch hit, the PA announcer announced Mark Sweeney would be the pinch hitter. Joe Torre would argue to no avail. Kent would bat for Sweeney who "batted" for Pablo Ozuna. Kent would strike out, and the Dodgers would complete the game under protest. In the unlikely event the protest is upheld, the game won't necessarily be restarted at the point of protest if the league decides the screw up didn't affect the Dodger's chances of winning the game. So there you have it.

St. Louis Cardinals defeat LA Dodgers 6-4 (11 innings). ANDRUW JONES HIT A HOME RUN! He got things going in the top of the ninth with the Dodgers down 4-0 on the second pitch thrown by Cardinals reliever Ron Villone and took it over the left center bullpen. Closer Jason Isringhausen immediately came into the game, and Isringhausen was being Isringhausen by blowing the save and allowing the Dodgers to tie the game 4-4. Manny Ramirez was 2-for-3 with two walks scoring once. But Ryan Ludwick showed why he was NL Player of the Week for last week by hitting a shot straight to center for the walk-off homer. The game was twice interrupted by rain delays.

LA Lakers defeat San Antonio Spurs 101-71. I was wrong. I really thought the Spurs would be well rested and completely shut down the Lakers. In fact the opposite happened. After feeling each other during most the first half, the Lakers went on a 9-0 run to take a nine point lead in the half. In the second half, the Lakers ran circles around the Spurs swarming like locusts around Tony Parker and Tim Duncan effectively shutting them down. And Manu Ginobli was forced to go to his right all night long. It was a very convincing win for the Lakers, but they have to remember the Spurs are a completely different team at home. Game three will be in San Antonio Sunday night.