« Tonight's lineup: heavy on the righties, light on the Nomar | Main | Baseball's most predictable pitcher »

Suicidal tendencies

Wilson Valdez and Brett Tomko just pulled off a perfect suicide squeeze, with Tomko bunting up the first-base line. By the time Tomko's bat made contact with the ball, Valdez already was three-fourths of the way down the line from third. That keyed a two-run inning, but the big inning for the Dodgers was the first, when they scored only once. After Rafael Furcal and Juan Pierre made two quick outs on a total of four pitches, the Dodgers -- yes, the same Dodgers you have watched all season -- suddenly started working Dontrelle Willis. Russell Martin eventually singled, and Willis walked the next three batters in a row to force in a run. By the time the inning finally ended, he had thrown 32 pitches. He has now thrown 75 through four. But Tomko, who retired the first eight batters he faced, has since walked Willis, gone to a 2-0 count on Hanley Ramirez before getting him to ground out to end the inning, and walked Dan Uggla to start the fourth. Miguel Cabrera answered the walk to Uggla by flying out on the first pitch. Dodgers 3, Marlins 0, bottom 4

Comments

T.J. I got a question. Do the Dodgers have some type of system in place in their clubhouse where players are fined for say, failing to move a runner over, missing a sign, or errors like the Kent in "la-la land" play last night?

If they do, chances are no writer or fan will ever know about it. That's one of those well-kept clubhouse secrets. But my GUESS is it's left up to the players themselves to decide in the so-called kangaroo court. When I covered the Reds, you could always tell when court was about to be in session (about once a month) because captain Barry Larkin would don this judge's outfit (with this big afro wig) and a bunch of guys would follow him into a room. If the Dodgers have a kangaroo court, they hide it really well

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

TONY JACKSON

Tony Jackson is in his fourth season covering the Dodgers for the Daily News, his eighth season as a full-time Major League Baseball beat writer and his 13th season covering MLB on regular basis. He is a native of Springdale, Ark., and a graduate of the University of Arkansas, although he refuses to root for the Razorbacks again until Frank Broyles is finally out of there. Tony is single and has a daughter who lives in Colorado. His hobbies include working out, reading and taking winter vacations with his daughter to non-MLB cities, usually in Mexico or the Caribbean. And he LIVES to blog.
E-mail Tony

STADIUM PARKING

Going to Dodgers Stadium? Here's your parking guide.
Powered by
Movable Type 4.01