Rockies 8, Dodgers 3
Game story in tomorrow's paper will provide all the reasons why, most of which you already know anyway. But there was a very cool story hidden behind this ugly loss by the Dodgers. Tanyon Sturtze, the veteran reliever whose contract was purchased from Las Vegas on Thursday, finally got into a game -- his first major-league game since May 13, 2006, for the Yankees against the A's. Since then, he has lost most of one season to right shoulder surgery and all of another season when his recovery from that procedure didn't go as smoothly as he thought it would. He was in camp with the Dodgers in 2004, then was sent out before opening day and traded to the Yankees on May 15 of that year for the unforgettable Brian Myrow. I was new on the beat that year and didn't arrive in camp until March 4, so I must confess I never made an effort to get to know Sturtze. But I met him for the first time on Friday, the day after he was called up, and he seems like a really good dude. And although he gave up a double to the first major-league batter he faced in more than two years, Troy Tulowitzki, he came back to get the next three guys in order, all on fly balls to the outfield, without Tulowitzki advancing, then took a seat. All in all, it was a triumphant return. Good for him. ... Dodgers fall to 64-61 and a game behind the Snakes.
5 Comments
Leave a comment
About Inside the Dodgers
Tony Jackson has covered the Dodgers for
the Daily News since 2004 and has covered Major League Baseball on a
regular basis since 1995. He previously covered the Colorado Rockies
and Cincinnati Reds. He is a native of Springdale, Ark., and a graduate
of the University of Arkansas.
Well good for Sturtze then! At least something positive came out of this game for the Dodgers.
What a horrible pitching night. They had their chances with runners in scoring position several times, but no one could come out in the clutch and drive in those runs. Meanwhile the whatever D-Backs won in San Diego. We need another hot streak!
Ah yes...the journey 'e' reverts to form his: ofer 5, 3 strikeouts, 2 feeble pop outs & 3 runners left stranded on base. A fine, fine job...heh heh heh
: )
That was 5th Outfielder ladies and gentlemen...he'll be in the lounge all week...Enjoy the veal!
Just as we start to shore up our hitting, (although last night’s performance with RISP doesn’t provide very good evidence of that), we have two young pitchers come into their own, obtain a crafty old geezer as our #4, our #3 starter starts to look like Bad Penny or D. Lowe and our bullpen completely falls apart. Just as we fix one glaring problem area, another even larger problem raises it's ugly head and we start to come apart at the seams.
I don’t want to over react here, but for heaven’s sake, look what’s happened to our bullpen! We have no closer and no set up men. Our best long guy was worked for two inning stints a few games in a row and his arm is either falling off or he’s suddenly lost command of his fastball and power slider.
How do we win the west with no bullpen? Even if it only takes a .500 season, we’ve got to have more help in the pen to even have a long shot of winning.
Sturtze might be a great guy but he has no right being in our bullpen. He was never any good to begin with and after over 2 years out of the majors he's not going to get any better (Not to mention he's 37!!). The fact is the only reason he is in the majors now is Joe Torre. His career ERA is 5.20 and he has never never had an ERA lower then 4.42 and that was 7 years ago. He is just another one of Joe's man crushes in the bullpen and he's even worse then Scott Proctor and Brian Falkenborg.
Also Russell Martin has caught in 122 out of 125 game this year. That is a joke. Joe Torre needs to give him more days off. Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness has a good post about it. It's obvious Russ is in a downward spiral and Joe really isn't helping him out much.