Tonight's lineup: Ethier sitting
Can't figure this one out, to be quite honest. Hottest player in baseball not in the lineup. Unless he just needs a rest. Dodgers ara facing a lefty, and Ethier hitting just .244 against lefties for the season, but they faced a lefty last night, too, and Ethier played. The most interesting thing here is that Pierre is playing but not leading off. I'm not 100-percent sure about this, but I believe it's the first time he has batted second behind anyone other than Furcal this year.
Martin, C
Pierre, CF
Ramirez, LF
Loney, 1B
Blake, 3B
Kemp, RF
DeWitt, 2B
Berroa, SS
Kershaw, P
According to Josh Rawitch, Ethier left town for personal reasons. I know his wife was due any day.
Tony this doesn't bother me too much. Ethier deserves a blow. De la Rosa is a tough lefty. BTW, to say his average against lefties is ONLY .244 is misleading. His average was BELOW .200 not too long ago. He's been raking.
This is also Pierre's 2nd mercy start of September. He won't get any more than 4 total if the race goes to the last day. But, if Torre insists on using him, he needs an opportunity to start once a week.
Come on Tony. Be a journalist.
Ethier's gone because his wife is giving birth.
"De la Rosa is a tough lefty"...Sorry but I hope that's sarcasm. He's got an ERA over 5.3 and his BAA to lefties is close to .300. Dre isn't benched he's with his wife so Slappy gets a sympathy 0-4 today uh I mean start today. Any day Pierre gets a start regardless of the situation it's bad for the team. We'd be better off with 8 guys in the lineup tonight. Also, how laughable is it that Slappy is batting in front of Manny! He's gonna see a lot of fastballs which he'll pop up to the short stop or the left fielder.
How about Matt Kemp batting 2nd today? Imagine what he'd do with those fastballs.
It was pretty well known that Ether's wife was due any day...
As for De La Rosa being a tough lefty, pretty funny considering his ERA is over five and lefties are hitting .298 against him.