Brewers 5, Dodgers 3
There are a lot of reasons why the boys lost this game. All the two-out, run-scoring hits given up by Penny. The leadoff walk by Penny of opposing pitcher Carlos Villanueva to start a decisive, three-run fifth for the Brewers. The club's failure to score more than one run after starting the fourth inning with three consecutive hits, including a leadoff triple by James Loney. But the way the game ended is rather baffling to me. How does Juan Pierre pop up on the FIRST PITCH from Eric Gagne immediately after Andruw Jones worked Gagne for a 10-pitch walk? With the tying runs on base? I mean, Gagne has been struggling, blowing five of his first 14 save opps, and he already has thrown 22 pitches in the inning, including 18 just to Martin and Jones. Don't you have to at least take ONE PITCH, maybe even two? But then, what do I know? I've never played this game. Only covered it for 14 years. ... Dodgers fall to 19-19 and slide to 4 1/2 behind the Snakes, who finally won a game.
Steve Lyons said last night that the Dodgers are third from last in the NL in combined average for innings pitched by a starting staff at 5.1 innings per start. The point being that the Dodger starting staff isn't going very deep into their games.
So I pose the question: Is it perhaps a pitching "philosophy" that is hurting our starters? Or is it a question of talent that is not quite up to league par? What is it that makes the Dodger pitching staff so easy to run up the pitch counts? And if it is philosophy of work, then who's to be held responsible?
Is it Rick Honeycutt? Is it the training regimine of Stan Conte? Does the team need to make a change?
This has been going on with our pitching staff for three years or more now. Gee... who got hired three years ago?
This isn't the kind of Dodger pitching that I grew up remembering and I'd like to have them back again. I'd like to see what a complete game looks like again too. Oh yeah... and while we're at it, I'd like to have four Dodger players hit 30 or more home runs together in a single season... that'd be real nice to see again too.