Casey Blake - LA Times

Yee Ha!  What a way to start.  Big wins are always fun…especially when you live up here.  Sadly I won’t be at work the next few days for the weekend, because it would have been really fun to talk about this game.

I’m making it official.  Casey Blake is my favorite player on the Dodgers right now.  If you’ve read this blog, you know I’ve been partial for a long time.  I like Manny and Loney and Pierre, but Blake just gets the job done.  He is a good guy and a great player.  Sometimes up, sometimes down, but he is clutch when they need it.  I’m glad to see his body seems to be ok after resting for a bit. 

My prediction rang true that the Dodgers would have the advantage, but it definitely wasn’t what I expected.  Matt Cain is a good pitcher and the Dodgers ate him up.  It’s interesting how Manny is just playing smart these days.  He’s hit a few homeruns of late, but he’s trying to hit to the right side and he was involved in driving in runs tonight.  I agree with people that something seems a little off, but he’s a good enough player that he’s still contributing.

It was great to see Loney playing well too.  He has a sweet swing.  I still think he’ll win the batting title some day, but he when he connects, man does he drive it.

We saw history tonight too.  Buster Posey is the Giants true catching prospect, and he made is major league debut.  They’ve been talking about this guy for weeks as he just tore up the minors this year.  What was interesting was that they’ve had him in the majors for almost a week and he hasn’t been in a game.  Bruce Bochy said he was waiting for the right time, but it was weird that they waited so long.  I guess that being down 7-1 was long enough.  Based on his stats we’ll be seeing a lot of him, and he seems to be the heir apparent for Bengie Molina.

It was real interesting reading the local papers today to see what they said about the series this weekend.  What was interesting was that there wasn’t a lot to read.  The Giants are on the cusp of not making the playoffs and everyone knows the Dodgers are better, they just hope they can stay close to still catch the Rockies.  The Giants are playing the Dodgers this weekend, but the focus is the next series with the Rockies.  As a Dodgerfan, I wanted the big story on how important this series is…but none of that was there.  The focus was Tim Lincecum’s back, Buster Posey being in the bigs, and the hope to catch the Rockies.

Bring on tomorrow and Sunday.  If anyone is going to the game on Sunday, let me know and we can meet up.  The Willie McCovey statue might be a good place before the game.  E-mail me at scott@sfdodgerfan.com.

Go Dodgers.

Here’s the pitching match ups for the 3 games:

Friday
Hiroki Kuroda, RHP (5-6, 4.15)
Matt Cain, RHP (13-4, 2.51)

Saturday
Vicente Padilla, RHP (10-6, 4.63)
Jonathan Sanchez, LHP (6-11, 4.03)

Sunday
Chad Billingsley, RHP (12-9, 3.93)
Brad Penny, RHP (9-8, 5.15)

Learned something new tonight – The Dodgers have a great probable pitchers write up that gives a great comparison of each of these pitchers.  (Click Here)  It’s a good write up on their recent performance, but it stays nuetral on who will win….

I won’t stay neutral.  Here’s my picks.

Friday – Advantage Dodgers.  Matt Cain will out pitch Kuroda, but as always, the Dodgers will break it open against the bullpen.

Saturday – Advantage Dodgers.  I think Padilla can beat out Sanchez.  Sanchez is pitching well of late though.

Sunday – I hate to say it since I’ll be there, but Advantage Giants.  Billingsley just doesn’t seem to have it right now, and Penny is a man on a mission to stick it to the Dodgers.

Bottom line – they will be close…especially if Broxton does the closing.  The Dodgers again need to take 2 of 3 to stay on top and show who should take the division.  The Dodgers were fortunate not to face Lincecum this series.  That is the big concern up here is whether his back will be ok.  He is their Ace and they want him back.  There were even conspiracy theories up here that he was kept out a game to set him up against the Rockies on Monday.  It doesn’t ring true though because they need him to win every game he can…not sit on the bench.

I was hoping for a Padilla/Penny matchup to see if my brawl prediction comes through, but it could still happen.  If Padilla brushes someone back, Penny may try to finish it off the next day.  I should have plenty to write about if their is a brawl when I’m there on Sunday.

Keep coming back – more to come each day of the series.

Bengie Molina - Fox Sports

The Giants have been a tale of feast or famine this week. They got swept by the Angels, but then they swept the Rangers. I have to admit that I love the fact that my second favorite team, the Angels swept the Giants!

The Giants are still right in this, and even Barry Zito, their very overpaid pitcher took a no-hitter into the seventh today. I’m still waiting on rumors of who they may of after to make a playoff push.

I did hear a rumor yesterday that the Dodgers may go after Jarod Washburn of Seattle before the All-Star break. I’m both ways on him. He wasn’t bad with the Angels, but he’s been pretty middle of the road of late. I am confident that Ned Coletti will pick up someone though. He always does.

The big thing the Giants are pushing this week is their Vote for Bengie campaign. He’s their main All-Star potential other than Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain, but he is often overlooked as a catcher. Actually he had slightly better numbers than Russell Martin last year, but didn’t get to go. This year, he is having a great year. He is under .300 now, but his 10 homeruns and 40 RBI’s truly carry this team. He’s definitely clutch for them in everyway and deserves to go to the All-Star game.

By the way, here’s a great article looking into why Russell Martin is sliding so bad this year. It’s from Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness (click here).  Thankfully Russell finally hit a homerun this weekend, so hopefully he is on his way back.

Until next week – Go Blue.

Dodgers Mob James Loney - Brian Vander Brug - LA Times.com

I was gone for a few days to go see the Dodgers in L.A., and when I got back a Giants fan I work with told me that he was hoping that I didn’t get back until Thursday.  With the beating the Giants took on Monday, he hoped I was gone at least until the second game of the series, hoping the Giants would win and level out the series.  He felt if the Giants won game two, that he could point out that Monday was just one game, and wasn’t all that significant.

Well – sorry Jon.  No luck.  I came back, AND the Dodgers won game two.  The Dodgers are still better.  He even told me yesterday that the Giants were better than the Dodgers because all time they still have a better winning percentage than the Dodgers.

Again – sorry Jon.  Maybe so, but this year so far is all Dodgers.

I’m not sure if Dodger fans are aware of this, but Matt Cain is still 0-6 lifetime against the Dodgers.  He always pitches them well, but continues to come away with a loss.  It really became obvious last year when he consistently held them to less than 3 runs, but then once he left the game, the Dodgers beat the bullpen and won the game.  Last night Casey Blake got the best of him, but he pitched well…the Dodgers just beat the bullpen.

Got to love Casey Blake and Clayton Kershaw.  Blake is the 8 hitter and has 3 homeruns.  He may hit 30 this year.  Kershaw strikes out 13 and looks brilliant.  Running tally – the Giants have struck out 24 times out of 54 at bats in 2 games.  That has to be rough for a pitching coach.  Between Stults, Wolf, Billingsley and Kershaw, Ned Colletti obviously knew something more about the pitching staff than we all did.  They could still use one more arm, but they look great right now.

You could have an interesting debate as to if Loney was trying for walks in two of his at bats last night, including the one to win the game.  He stared down multiple beautiful fastballs, and then took the walks.  You could say he was afraid to hit and wanted the walk, or you could say he just knew the pitchers would end up throwing balls, and therefore he just let them do it.

I don’t buy that he was afraid to hit as he has been hitting the ball like crazy the last few days.  I think he’s just a smart hitter who knew the power of a walk, and was going to let the pitchers do it if they couldn’t throw strikes. How bitterly sweet that the Giants walked in the winning run.

Brian Wilson is a good closer, so tough luck to him, but to the Dodgers gain.  Even if the Dodgers lose tonight, the series has been won.

Travis Ishikawa hit 2 homeruns for the Giants (David Zaluboski_AP)

So yesterday was the first day of Spring Training and the Giants won their game against the Indians 10-7. The Dodgers on the other hand lost 5-3. I don’t put a lot of salt in Spring Training games, but hope always abounds going into Spring Training, so the Giants were very happy with their win.

The Giants fans I heard were stoked about their exhibition of offense and I even heard one talk show host say, “Who needs Manny?” The other host just laughed at him because they both know that this was just an anomaly and they definitely still need a power boost. It seems that the talks of Manny are gone up here with just some remaining fans hoping it could work out.

Either way, it was comedy to me that the fans were bragging about “their offense,” knowing it probably won’t last.

It is funny though to take the first day and project it. The Giants had a pleasant surprise and won. The Dodgers hit decently, but then couldn’t pitch and ended up losing. Sound like the playoffs anyone? They still need more pitching.

Apparently the Dodgers made a new offer to Manny yesterday. Fine by me, but there is a clause where Manny could opt out next year. The potential of having to do this whole negotiation bit all over again next year should cause heartburn in every Dodgerfan.

The Dodgers and Giants square off today in their first interleague game. It is getting some hype because the Dodgers have “joined the Cactus League,” and this is their first game against the Giants. The game starts at 12:05pm and it is Wolf against Cain. Go Blue.