Angels 4, Dodgers 2

The Dodgers didn’t lose this game because Gary Bennett threw the ball away on a strikeout, allowing the first run to score. But needless to say, that play took up a good portion of Joe Torre’s postgame media session. More specifically, the topic of how that play might or might not have been related to Bennett’s habit of lobbing the ball on a high, slow arc back to the pitcher. Bennett said there was no correlation. “I just made a bad throw,” he said. “It didn’t slip. I just threw it away. That’s it.” For that matter, he has insisted since spring training that there is no story behind the way he throws other than that he is trying to save his arm from wear and tear. Well, Torre SEEMED to agree that there was no connection between the bad throw to first and Bennett’s never-ending lobs to the mound, pointing to the fact Bennett routinely fires more conventional bullets to the bases on stolen-base attempts and other plays. “That’s the first throw (to a base) that was misguided,” Torre said. “But if you watch him throw to third, first and second, it has never been something he has really thought about. He just lets it go.” However, Joe DID admit after the game something Bennett NEVER HAS admitted, that Bennett throws that way because he isn’t confident throwing it the conventional way. Torre also said it’s something that “comes and goes with catchers,” and that Bennett has been working on it in the bullpen on a regular basis. … The last-minute musical chairs Torre played with his outfielders just before game time, inserting Pierre into left field, moving Kemp to center and Ethier to right and installing Andruw Jones into the DH spot that was supposed to be Pierre’s, was because Jones had a “catch” in his back that bothered him when he ran in the outfield but not when he batted. Guess it must have also prevented him from scampering back to first base on that critical play in the fourth inning, when he casually sauntered back to the bag after turning the wrong way despite the fact Angels 1B Casey Kotchman was sprinting toward him with the obvious intention of tagging him. … Just a personal thought, but Bennett’s error and Jones’ mental gaffe were just a matter of those players being in the wrong place at the wrong time while wearing the wrong uniform. Specifically, they were Dodgers, playing in a Dodgers-Angels game at Angel Stadium. Someone was destined to screw up, because when the Dodgers come down here, someone always does. They have now lost nine of 10 here since the start of 2005. … Dodgers fall to 21-20 and 5 1/2 behind the Diamondbacks.