Results tagged “torontobluejays”

With the Friday trade deadline rapidly approaching for Major League Baseball, teams are looking at themselves in the mirror asking the perennial question: “Are we buyers or are we sellers?” With a one-game lead on the New York Yankees for the best record in baseball to coincide with their eight-game lead over the Colorado Rockies in the NL West, the Dodgers are clearly buyers.

LA Dodgers defeat Arizona Diamondbacks 1-0. For the second straight night James Loney was the hero for the Dodgers. Leading off the sixth inning he hit a triple past the glove of a diving left fielder Gerardo Parra and came home on Casey Blake's sacrifice fly to Parra. Meanwhile Chad Billingsley and the relievers did their job to keep the DBacks off the scoreboard. Bills struck out nine in six innings of work while closer Jonathan Broxton came in wanting to blow away the DBacks hitters. His last pitch was a 100 mph fastball to Ryan Roberts that was swung on and missed badly. The Dodgers are now 37-18 for the season with a 9 1/2 game lead in the NL West and a four game lead for the best record in baseball. The second place team in baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies, will make their roost here starting tonight for a four game series.

LA Dodgers defeat Arizona Diamondbacks 6-5. Going into the game everyone knew what the Dodgers game plan would be: wait out Dan Haren, hope the game doesn't get out of hand and pounce on the decimated bullpen. Haren went seven innings giving up only one run on two hits. He made the Dodgers look more like the Nati(o)nals. But he gave way to Tony Pena in the seventh inning and the Dodgers pounced. Matt Kemp led off with a single. With two outs, the Dodgers did their damage. Trailing 5-2, Loney cleared the bases with a double tying the game off of Daniel Schlereth (yes, the Big Stink's son). Casey Blake singled Loney home giving the Dodgers the lead. Jonathan Broxton used 15 pitches to get the DBacks out in the ninth. As SI's Jon Heyman tweeted, "anyone who doesnt believe in dodger magic isnt watching now."

LA Lakers defeat Houston Rockets 111-98. For a while there I was expecting a penalty box to be set up. Derek Fisher was thrown out of the game for a flagrant two on a hard body check to Luis Scola. Ron Artest was thrown out of the game after yelling at the refs for calling a foul on him against Kobe Bryant in the fourth. Bryant got a technical for jawing to Shane Battier saying, "You still can't guard me." Von Wafer was thrown out of the game by his head coach Rick Adelman before the fourth quarter started. Even Jack Nicholson got in on the action giving the refs a lovely gesture. All that said, the Lakers finally looked like they understood that these playoff games are the road to their NBA championship. Bryant led all scorers with 40 points while Pau Gasol was strong with 20 points and 14 rebounds. Yao Ming was in foul trouble getting only 12 points in 26 minutes played for the Rockets. While game one was physical who knew it would be a prelude to this game? This has officially become a series, and it will be a great one to watch. And I'll issue a mea culpa now: I have underestimated the Rockets. Meanwhile it remains to be seen if Fisher gets suspended for his hit.

Toronto Blue Jays defeat LA Angels 4-3. One mistake was all it took for Ervin Santana to get the loss. In the sixth inning, Santana threw a pitch down the middle of the plate and a batter like Lyle Overbay knows what to do with it. It went out of the park, and that's all it took for the Canadians to salvage a game in the series.

LA Lakers defeat San Antonio Spurs 89-85. The Lakers looked dead facing a 20-point deficit with just over 5 minutes to play in the third quarter. But Kobe Bryant and the Lakers found a way to go on a 14-0 run at the end of the third and overtake the Spurs in the waning moments of the fourth quarter. The Lakers take a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals and host game two Friday night.

LA Angels defeat Toronto Blue Jays 3-1. Angel's start John Lackey pitched a masterful game against the Chicago White Sox in his season debut on the 14th but didn't get the win. So Lackey came out Tuesday night and pitched just as well giving up one run on seven hits in seven innings while the bullpen pulled through to give him his first win. Things got interesting in the ninth inning when Angel's closer Francisco Rodriguez walked three to load the bases and went 3-0 on Alex Rios. Rodriguez got Rios to strike out on the next three pitches to end the game. Angel's shortstop Erick Aybar left the game in the first inning after dislocating his pinky while fielding Alex Rios' grounder. A trip to the DL might be in the future for him.

Fuck Bill Plaschke. Fuck TJ Simers. Fuck the LA Times. Fuck Grady Little. Fuck Ned Colletti. Fuck Frank McCourt. Fuck Jeff Kent. Fuck the Dodgers. When I read Plaschke’s column Wednesday morning that basically put Matt Kemp in the hangman’s noose, my blood started to boil. How does he have the unmitigated gall to scapegoat Kemp and let the veterans have a free pass just because they have “experience”? This entire mess became public...

I’ve had it with this Dodger’s team.

Psychologically I was going into the Dodger’s Tuesday game at the Toronto Blue Jays a little glum to say the least. The Dodgers have lost 20 of their last 21 road interleague games and was completely manhandled by the Jays over a week ago at home.

Being the last real home game before they go on a 10-game roadtrip, I really wanted to witness the last game of the Met’s series Wednesday night. I’m sorry, but I think interleague play is a complete farce even if it is against the Angels.

While LAist still thinks the Angels will wind up winning the West, Bill Stoneman and Mike Scioscia need to be very concerned about the team's hitting. The Halos are 10th in the AL in runs scored, and 13th in both On-Base Percentage and Slugging Percentage, ahead of only the Seattle Mariners. It's almost embarrassing to play 18 innings against the Blue Jays and score just one run off seven of their pitchers.