Casey Blake - Jed Jacobsohn - Getty Images

Ahh, the Dodgers. How I do love thee, especially when you beat the Giants and I drive to work hearing the local talk shows whine and cry about how bad the Giants are. It is a beautiful day, no matter what the weather, one full of hope and joy, and great bragging….

Man I love living up here when the Dodgers beat the Giants. It’s hard to sum it up in words. I listened to the Murph and Mack show today, which I have come to really enjoy because they talk good baseball. Today, they were lamenting the loss last night…lamenting a lot. Got to love Manny being involved and then my boy Casey Blake hitting the homerun. Talk about Giant killers. Those guys just seem to come alive against the Giants.

The talk radio shows had quite the comments today. There was a Dodger fan who pointed out that the Giants just can’t beat a very flawed Dodger team. The Dodgers sat four of their starters and still came away with the win.

There was another fan who pointed out that ever since Renteria came back from the DL, that the Giants haven’t played as well. There is many a Giants fan who feels that Rowand, Renteria and Molina should all sit now and let the young guys get it done. It is too bad to see Molina not doing well. I respect a longtime Dodger killer, but he just doesn’t have it these days.

Also, there is great trepidation regarding Pablo Sandoval. He was the Giant Panda killer last year, but this year, he’s just another meal at Panda Express. People are eating him for lunch and he just seems to have lost his groove.

The best part of last night was the Dodgers bouncing back from the Yankees defeat. The Dodgers are now 19 and 5 against the National League West and seem to thrive against these teams.

We’ll see tonight as Cain may stop them cold, but one up is the way to start.

I’ve decided that when watching the Dodgers/Giants that you might as well wait until the 7th inning to really park yourself and watch the game. It doesn’t matter what day, whose pitching, or even the lineup, the score is usually close or tied until the 7th, and then the game is won. As long as the Dodgers do win it after the 7th (like last night), I don’t have any problems with the strategy. Go Blue.

CaseyBlake-JeffGross_GettyImages

If you’ve followed this site a bit, you know I’m a huge fan of Casey Blake. He’s not the Manny Ramirez, or the Albert Pujols, but he’s just a great player.   He goes through up and downs with hitting, but he is clutch, plays great defense and is a character on the team.  He’s the guy doing the right thing and stirring up a little bit of controversy.  I think I’m bonded with him, because he’s the type of player I used to be growing up and probaby the type of player I might of been if I was every good enough to play in the bigs.  He’s a guy with great heart, great smarts, a little chip on his shoulder, lots of passion and definitely talent to go with it.

Last year I wondered if he would start a brawl with the Giants because he won’t stand for brush backs.

This year he got on Matt Kemp for lack of sportsmanship for stealing a base late in a game when the Dodgers were killing the Giants.

Last week he accused Ted Lilly of cheating for not properly standing on the rubber.

This week he danced around third (something I used to love to do at first) and got the pitcher to balk to end the game.

Crazy stuff for the Dodgers who just seem to own the Arizona Diamondbacks. (Honestly, the D-backs almost need to just sit their entire bullpen and try some new arms…they are getting killed…10 homeruns in 18 innings?!)

Here’s the video of Casey Blake distracting the pitcher to win the game. Way to go Casey.  (Click Here)

By the way, here’s Casey’s jersey on Amazon if you are interested. I know I’d be proud to wear his number. 

Well, it all started well, and then the bullpen showed that they still need more work. I had a hunch that it would get closer as the game went on, but what a way to start.  The Dodgers were killing the Giants.

Andre Ethier’s grandslam was epic to see. I literally yelled in my house with joy, as I just wasn’t expecting it and it really blew the game open. He is definitely in the zone right now. To win the game on Thursday night, then hit two homeruns last night, he really must just believe that he can be the difference maker. What a cool feeling.

I give Vincente Padilla credit last night.  He finally looked strong.  Still not the ace, but getting closer if he keeps that up.  I keep pulling for Russ Ortiz to get out of his funk, but it just doesn’t seem to be happening.

If you didn’t see the game in the Bay Area last night, you probably missed some of the “added” commentary by the Giants announcers.  Matt Kemp got one high and tight.  Aaron Rowand got hit by a pitch and it ends up got a concussion and two broken bones in his cheek.  Matt Kemp tried to steal a base with a 9-3 lead.  All those things added up to a lot of tension brewing between the teams.  The announcers were convinced that there will continue to be tension, and I think they may be right.  Who knows, my prediction last year that Casey Blake will start a brawl (click here) may actually come true.  (I lean towards towards Matt Kemp starting it at this point).

The added commentary really came though with the hit on Rowand and the steal by Kemp.  Padilla has a history of “head hunting,” so there was no way to know if the hit was purposeful or not.  In reading the SF Chronicle today, even Bruce Bochy didn’t think it was intentional, but we’ll never know.  With the attempted steal by Kemp, they felt just seemed like poor sportsmanship given the lead by the Dodgers at that point of 9-3.  Again, it was probably a little cheap, but as the end of the game showed, the Dodgers gave up 5 runs in 1 inning, so no lead is truly safe.

The best part of the game for me though was that the Giants finally got knocked around a little.  They have been playing really well, but they showed that even they have weaknesses…ironically in their starting pitching.

Today’s game should be good to watch.  What do you think, is there a brawl brewing?

Casey Blake - Matt Sayles-AP

Hope you bought a lottery ticket yesterday because the Dodgers broke all the odds. To win game 2 against the Cardinals and take a 2-0 lead into St. Louis, no one would have believed you. Got to love it.

I was coming back from Vegas yesterday and could only catch part of the game on the radio. Nicely, the only part I caught was the bottom of the ninth. I can’t say it was a quiet listen, as my kids were screaming in the back of the car while I had the stereo cranked up. I should clarify screaming…they wanted to watch Thomas the Train Engine – which we allowed, just to the sounds of the Dodger game. My son kept saying “Sound on, sound on” and my younger daughter kept saying, “mama, mama, mama” with the hope that my wife would turn on the dvd sound since daddy obviously wasn’t going to budge on turning off the game.  Let’s just say chaos is my family sometimes…

In the midst of all that, I heard Casey Blake take the walk.  Then Belliard hit the single, then Loretta hit the single.  Ironic as always that Juan Pierre scored the tying run.  Who knew that the lower part of the lineup would just chip away at the lead.  Dodger fans would…but not the rest of the country.

Great article in the LA times yesterday about how the team thought Casey Blake was the hero with the walk (click here).  I fully agree and have been hyping him all year.  He doesn’t hit like Manny, but he definitely does the other things to be just as valuable.  

So in the midst of all the excitement, I was brought back to earth here in the Bay Area.  I talked to Giants fan co-worker and asked him why he hadn’t congratulated me that the Dodgers won last night…he responded, “You’re not on the team, why should I congratulate you?”  Such it is up here.  At least the Dodgers are in and the Giants aren’t so I can just smile and know he knows the Dodgers are the better team.

Bring out the brooms – let’s sweep the Cardinals!

Bengie Molina - Fox Sports.com

Well, so much for predictions. Vincente Padilla just didn’t have it tonight, and the Dodgers couldn’t get it done. I thought Ethier could do his MVP thing in the 7th…but apparently his magic only works when the game is truly on the line. The Giants looked strong and they just looked like they wanted it more.

Tonight was funny though because there were two things in the game that I’ve never seen before. Ironically they both had to do with Bengie Molina.

First, he hit in a double play which wouldn’t have been special except that it was the slowest double play I’ve ever seen. The ball went to third, Blake sent it to second where Hudson had to step away to dodge the sliding runner. You figured the Dodgers would just get one. Then, it was like time slowed down. Hudson stepped out of the way, twirled, and then realized Bengie was still way down the line and then “decided” to throw down to first.  There was seriously a 2-3 second delay.  It was like there was a time warp and then he realized he could still get the second out. Ironically he threw it to first and still beat Bengie by at least 3 or 4 steps. Cool play that will soon be forgotten, but was something I’d never seen.

The second play was not very long after. There was a pitch by the Giants and for whatever reason Bengie was having problems with the pad strap on his catching gear. You figured he would fix it, but it seemed to be taking too long. Then all of a sudden, you saw a bat boy bringing a whole second set of equipment out to Bengie. First off, who knew catchers had a whole second set of equipment ready at all times? Second, why not just change the leg protectors, instead of everything? It was pretty random, but again something I’d never seen before.

Well, not quite what I expected and the Giants gained a game since the Rockies lost. Here’s hoping tomorrow shines a little more blue.