Thank the Lord for the Giants. I’m hoping this series works out like the last ones because that St. Louis series was ugly. Don’t get me started on how the Dodgers will do in the post season if they can’t win one game on the road against the Cardinals. The bullpen is really hurting right now.

Here are my picks for the next three games. It could be really good or really bad for both teams as both have been on the skids of late.

James McDonald vs Madison Bumgarner

I give this one to the new Giants rookie.  McDonald is fresh out of the shoots and I don’t know if he will have it yet.

Clayton Kershaw vs. Tim Lincecum

I have to give this one to Lincecum.  He’s too hot again.  Kershaw should bounce back fine, but I don’t know that he can get the win.

Chad Billingsley vs. Barry Zito

I give this one to Billingsley.  He’s due for a win here and I’m not as confident in Zito any more.

I give these predictions, but especially in the first two games, it could come down to the bullpen.  Broxton has been shaky of late as a middle reliever, so he could go back to the old Broxton of not being able to beat the Giants.  If he can only work 3 batters, he may be all right.

Tonight’s game is on the network channels, so it should be a good time.  Go Dodgers.

So I came really really close to the All-Star game this year…I was just a few days off. I spent the week before at Disneyland and drove right by the park the Friday before the game. It was cool to see all the banners they had around the City. They also had special Mickey Mouses painted around the city with all the Major League teams. Sadly, I didn’t have tickets to the Home Run Derby or the All-Star Game, but I did what millions of others did…I watched it on TV.

At first I was bummed that David Ortiz won the Home Run Derby. I love David Ortiz, but he happens to be on my fantasy baseball team and the homerun derby is notorious for ruinning guys’ homerun swing after the derby. Here’s hoping he breaks the trend. He looked like he owned the competition, so hopefully his hot hitting will continue.

I am glad that the National League finally won.  I still don’t know if the Dodgers can get that far yet, but it would definitely help them to have home field advantage.

I alwasy root for Dodger players and always hope they don’t blow it in front of a national audience.  I’ll never forget Eric Gagne choking at the All-Star game.  Furcal, Ethier and Broxton did well…but as it would figure Kuo couldn’t hit first base on a routine throw.  Thankfully it didn’t matter, but not a way to show off your good stuff.

For those of you who didn’t see the L.A. Times today, Dylan Hernandez had a hilarious piece at the end of his article on how Kuo responded when back at practice after the game.  You can find the article here, but I copied the specific piece below. 

“And the Dodgers had a lighter moment in their early workout, which had Torre laughing as he recalled it later.Hong-Chih Kuo. In the All-Star game, Kuo fielded a grounder by Joe Mauer and threw the ball far above first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, starting a sequence of events that led to the American League’s taking a 1-0 edge. (The National League came back to win, 3-1.)

When the Dodgers started fielding practice for pitchers, standing at the front of the line was

In the drill, Kuo fielded a similar grounder. This time, his throw was on target.

“Everyone gave him a round of applause,” Torre said.”

Anybody got a coin going into this week? Should be a good series. The Giants are slightly ahead in the standings, but the Giants just lost 2 of 3 to the Red Sox and the Dodgers lost 2 of 3 to the Yankees.

My gut says the Dodgers should still take 2 of 3, because they seem to come alive against the Giants. But…and it’s a big but…the Dodgers lost last night to the Yankees with Jonathan Broxton.

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that I personally believe the Dodgers should sit Broxton against the Giants. He has done decent this year against them, but in years past he has truly been the weak link. If he blew one yesterday (which he did), and he is overworked (which he is), then this could be the receipe for disaster.

Game 1 – Zito vs Billingsley.
Zito has slipped of late and Billingsley is coming fresh off the DL, so I give this one to Billingsley.

Game 2 – Ely vs Cain
I give this one to Cain. John Ely has been slipping of late and Cain always plays the Dodgers hard.

Game 3 – Padilla vs Sanchez
Padilla also is coming off the DL and did good against the Yankees. I give this one to Padilla.

So there you have it. I lean towards the Dodgers…unless they give the ball to Broxton. We’ll see. Go Blue

Casey Blake - Robert Gauthier - LATimes.com

So I’ve been letting the Dodgers loss simmer a little. Honestly, it still stings. So much promise going into the series with the Phillies, and then to absolutely watch the pitching fall part. The offense didn’t totally go away, but it was like the pitching just lost it. Mind you, the Phillies can hit. But it still seemed like the Dodgers just couldn’t pitch. I shared the collective gasp with all other Dodger fans when Broxton walked Matt Stairs and the rest of the game just fell apart.

What strikes me in looking back though is that “THEY” were right.  By “THEY” I mean most typical baseball analysts.  Even in spring training the thought was that the Dodgers couldn’t win it all because they didn’t have big name pitching.  There wasn’t a solid #1 and #2, and therefore they would do well, but eventually they would fall apart.  Well, “THEY” were right.  That’s exactly what happened.  They proved everyone a liar and had the best ERA in the National League, but then it fell apart.  The Dodgers could hit, but in the playoffs it is about big time pitching.  The big Phillie hitters finally found a way to pick away and then destroy the Dodger pitching. 

I didn’t think I would ever think this, but I actually missed Jeff Weaver in the last series.  He was held off the roster, but I think the Dodgers would have used him 2-3 times.  He fell apart at times during the season, but I saw him more than once clean up the mess from a starting pitcher and hold a team scoreless for 3-4 innings.  Billingsley tried to do it, but wasn’t totally successful.

So, if ”They” were right, then we should probably listen to them.  Giants fans have been giving me a hard time for losing, but it’s now time to look ahead.  Ned Colletti is now signed long term, so goal one is a number 1 pitcher.  Kershaw may be #2, but they need a lead horse. 

With the divorce between the owners, who knows what will happen.  They’ve already put on hold the improvements to Dodger stadium, so I bet money will be held up too.  I’ll write more posts on that, but it really smears the Dodgers name through the mud.  The Giants fans are having a field day with the Dodgers collapsing internally.

Well – THEY were right, and now we can watch the Yankees and Phillies in the Ice Bowl.  As for me, I’ll root for the Yankees.  Yes, I know there is a rivalry with the Dodgers, but I don’t have any real reason to root for the Phillies given how they destroyed the Dodgers. 

Any thoughts – is the number one need starting pitching?

Scott Work Cube Day 2

Well, the sweep didn’t quite happen. Tim Lincecum did his thing and the Dodgers bullpen just couldn’t hold out long enough.

I was checking in on the game since it was during work and knew it would come down to the end. It was tied when I left work and I told my Giant fan co-worker, “You better hope they put Broxton in so you have a chance…” It ended up that they didn’t need Broxton, Mota did just fine. I knew he was in trouble with that first walk.

No sweep, but the Dodgers still showed why they are in 1st place.

What was interesting tonight was in listening to the talk shows after the game. Let’s just say the fans and talk show host were livid. I mean livid. Livid first at the umpires, livid second at the Giants for having no offense, and livid third at Brian Sabean for getting them into this mess.

I’ll be the first to say the umpires had a bad series. Literally one fan called in and thought the Giants probably would have gotten better calls down in LA. Those calls did affect the game, so I can see their disdain.

The offense though of the Giants is weak. As the talk show host said it, “when you have to depend on Juan Uribe to be your walk off homerun guy…you’re in trouble.”   Enough said.

Even more, as much as I think Brian Sabean has done a pretty good job this year with what the Giants have, this talk show host felt he should be fired now. He found real fault that the Giants went into the year planning on Bengie Molina being an acceptable clean up hitter. He felt that all the veterans (including Molina) should be canned and the young guys should take the team where it needs to go.

I see where he was going, but it was a bit extreme. The Giants are way better than expected already, so the comments are pretty harsh. I think the real problem is that the plan was never to win the World Series, just to compete this year. I think the fans have gotten a taste of the wildcard and now have expected that this was the potential all along. It never was.   They still have a chance at the wild card and that should be the goal to be realistic.

Anyway – the highlight of the day was this morning listening to the talk shows. They played the sound clip of Manny Ramirez hitting his homerun last night and in the background they also played someone throwing up. It was the most realistic throw up sound clip I’ve ever heard and it was hilarious to hear it next to Manny’s homerun. High points to the Murph and Mac show (click here) on KNBR for really funny radio.  I’m totally biased because I love Giants fans wanting to barf at Manny’s success, but it was great.  If anyone can find the sound bite, send it to me and I’ll post it to the next post.

Special thanks again to all the extra hits over this series.  Keep the comments coming. 

Coming up next – a response to a few of the comments from the last few days.  The biggest one being – how far is too far in terms of rivalry gloating?  More specifically when is the rivalry fun, versus mean?  Most Giants fans up here actually wish the rivalry were meaner like it was in the old days at Candlestick Park.  What do you think – is the Dodgers/Giants rivalry too soft, or too hard?  Let me know and I’ll compose the comments in the next post.