Apr 26 2010 11:19 AM
After losing 4 of 6 to the Reds and the Nats, the defending NL West champs limp into Citi tonight to start a 3-game set tonight with your surging, white-hot New York Metropolitans. It's a fine time to catch the current Dodgers, ladies and gentleman, because they're a team with a couple of notable injuries and subsequently their roster has more holes than Fman's pre-pubescent mattress. No, enough lame Fman/sex jokes already. More holes than a Tiger Woods... no, not relevant or topical. More holes than Mike Jacobs' swing? That's OK. Maybe shoulda said Catalanotto. Holes anyway. There are holes.
The Pitchers
Tonight, 7:10PM
Hiroki Kuroda (2-0, 2.18)
v. 
Ollie Pee (0-2, 3.71)
Nice numbers for Kuroda, but he comes in after his worst start in Cincy, giving up 3 earned in 5.2 IP. He isn't walking dudes at all (3 in 20.2) innings, but he's given up his share of hits (22), so we can get to him.
Ollie's gonna face a pretty right-handedy lineup and one that's done OK against him, sez MLB.com:
| Perez has a 2.84 ERA in 25 1/3 innings in those starts. His success may be in some jeopardy Monday. Russell Martin, Matt Kemp, Garrett Anderson and Jamey Carroll have batted .486 in 35 composite at-bats against him. |
I ain't skeered.
Tuesday, 7:10PM
Charlie Haeger (0-2, 6.46)
v.
Johan (2-1, 2.59)
Haeger's a knuckleballer all-the-way, including wearing the knuckleballers' #49. Another thing to know about him is that he's not great at preventing baseball hitters from scoring upon him with his pitched balls. In fairness, he K's his share of dudes, but walks waaaay too many (12 BB, 19 K in 15.1 IP) and he's gotten his ass kicked because of it. A little patience Tuesday could go a long, long way.
Wednesday, Gay Dame, 1:10PM
TBA
v.
John Maine (0-1, 8.64)
Vicente Padilla just went on the DL over the weekend, so the Dodgers are shuffling their rotation around a bit, it looks like bumping Haeger up one day into vacated Padilla's spot. If they DON'T do that, LA might call someone up from AAA Albuquerque to go Tuesday, and bump Haeger to Wednesday. Either way, could be a good opportunity to score some runs and get Maine a much-needed "W".
If we get to the bullpen, well that's good news, too. Their relievers have been very hittable until you get to Broxton at the end (7 IP, 0 ER, 1 BB, 11 K). Dodgers bully ERA is 13th in the league at 5.14 and they've walked 37 hitters in 64 innings. Also nice that we're avoiding their ace Kershaw and Chad Billingsley, too, who had a good start last time out against the Nats.
The Batters
Manny, as we know, is on the DL and will miss the circus and the series. Ex-Angel Garrett Anderson or Reed Johnson will get the starts in his place and that should also be good news for us. Here's how the Dodgers should line up:
SS - Rafael Furcal .312/.384/.429
C- Russell Martin .304/.403/.393
RF - Andre Ethier .356/.424/.627
CF - Matt Kemp .316/.379/.645
1B - James Loney .325/.341/.400
3B - Casey Blake .328/.379/.607
LF - Garrett Anderson .143/.184/.257 or Reed Johnson .276/.276/.379
2B - Blake DeWitt .261/.404/.283
Pretty good lineup. Lots of .300's in there (Dodgers lead the NL with a .293 BA) and are second behind the Phils in runs scored (103) and third in OPS (.815). Kemp and Ethier are complete studs and Rafael Furcal seems healthy for the moment and is subsequently not sucking. Casey Blake (ex-Indian) is raking. Work cut out for us.
Ex-Factor
Them: Only Torre, I think.
Us: Cora, Tatis
The Dodgers put up 30 runs in Cincy (and still lost 2 of 3) and then scored only 5 runs in 3 games against the Nats, getting shutout for 7 by Scott F. Olsen yesterday. Great offense for sure, but they're not in good form right and we are, so let's keep this shit rolling, I say.
LGM
