Dodgers 8, Diamondbacks 3 … a possible awakening

Not by me, mind you. I’m on my last legs, what with it now being almost 2:30 a.m. Eastern time, which is the time on which my day began when the alarm went off at 6 this morning. But I digress … The boys finally worked counts tonight, which was a big reason why they were able to unload on the same Dan Haren who had dominated them just 16 days earlier. Haren had not pitched less than six innings in any of his four previous starts, nor had he thrown more than 100 pitches. Tonight, he threw 106 pitches, and he was gone after 4 2/3. The Dodgers finally seem to be getting what Torre has been preaching since Day 1 of spring training, and what worked so well for Torre’s Yankees teams for so many years. Ironically, the idea is to get the starter out early so you can face mediocre middle relief, and tonight, the Dodgers scored all six of their earned runs off Haren and would have been shut out by the bullpen if not for that two-out dropped fly ball by Justin Upton in the eighth. But whatever works, right? The boys go to 9-12 and move into a second-place tie with the Rox, six games behind the D-backs. Buenos noches. I’m going home and going to bed.

Minor correction: Brazoban hasn’t been promoted to Vegas yet

Sounds like it’s going to happen soon, possibly later this week. But it hasn’t happened yet. Meanwhile, Yhency proved to be human last night in Jacksonville’s win over Montgomery — he actually gave up a hit, just his second of the season in nine appearances. He has now struck out 11 batters in 8 2/3 innings and has yet to give up a run, either earned or unearned. He is unlikely to continue to dominate on that level in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, but he clearly has overcome his injury issues, and Torre said he has even lost a few pounds since the start of spring training.

The lineup — more juggling

SS Furcal
CF Jones
LF Ethier
3B Nomar
C Martin
1B Loney
RF Kemp
2B Hu
RH Lowe

Kent gets the night off. Torre said that way back when he first started managing 30 years ago and he wanted to get a slumping hitter going, he would bat him leadoff. He then said he wasn’t willing to take Furcal OUT of the leadoff spot, so he batted Andruw second instead of first. Someone pointed out a surprising stat during Torre’s pregame session today, that Andruw is second in the league in pitches per plate appearance. Torre pointed out that in this case, that isn’t a good thing because Andruw is taking a lot of pitches that are being called strikes. … Yhency Brazoban is being promoted to Triple-A because club officials want to get a look at him there before calling him up, but Torre hinted that the club isn’t going to stick with an 11-man pitching staff for too long, so that could mean Brazo gets the call in the next few days. … Joe also said he is leaning toward moving Kuo back to the bullpen to relieve the workload on Proctor and Beimel because Kuo, unlike Park and Loaiza, can enter a game after a quick warmup in the pen.

Renovations to be announced tomorrow at Dodger Stadium, but right now on your favorite blog

Actually, they were made public in a release sent out by the mayor’s office that one of my colleagues back at the Daily News was kind enough to forward to me. This is the copied-and-pasted paragraph I took directly from that release, with further comment from your humble correspondent below:

The $500 million renovation and modernization plans include building a new entrance beyond center field, a new plaza inside the stadium gates, a “Top of the Park” outdoor deck area, a modern promenade, restaurants and new Dodger history museum.

This entry way in center field is something Frank has been talking about since he took over the team. I remember him describing it to me in great detail in his office one day early in the 2004 season. It sounds to me like it’s going to be very similar to what they have at Turner Field in Atlanta, if you have ever been there to see it, a big cluster of restaurants and stuff beyond center field. Although in this case, it might not be as prominently visible from inside the ballpark as it is at the Ted. The rest of it all sounds like stuff that won’t dramatically change the look of the park.