Dodgers acquire veteran right-hander Justin Germano from Texas Rangers.

The Dodgers have acquired veteran right-hander Justin Germano from the Texas Rangers for future considerations, Rangers vice president of communications John Blake wrote on Twitter.

The 32-year-old from Claremont had started 21 games for Round Rock of the Pacific Coast League and posted a 4.51 earned-run average. Germano has been assigned from Round Rock to Albuquerque.

The Dodgers lost Triple-A right-hander Stephen Fife to Tommy John surgery on Wednesday, ruling him out for the remainder of this season and likely 2015 as well. The Dodgers can transfer Fife to the 60-day disabled list in order to make room for Germano on their 40-man roster.

Germano has pitched 96 major-league games for seven different teams in a career that began in 2004. He’s 10-30 with a 5.40 ERA in his career.

Albuquerque Isotopes brawl with Reno Aces [video].

The Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate, the Albuquerque Isotopes, were involved in a massive brawl this evening during their game against the Arizona Diamondbacks-affiliated Reno Aces. Ten players were ejected:

Ben Ross of KOLO-TV in Reno provided the video and the play-by-play on Twitter:

Ross deleted the video, but we have a couple more videos below:
Continue reading “Albuquerque Isotopes brawl with Reno Aces .” »

A brief postscript to the Albuquerque Isotopes’ forfeit loss.

Albuquerque Isotopes manager Damon Berryhill spoke to Examiner.com briefly about having a walk-off win changed to a forfeit loss on Tuesday.

“We got caught up in basically a paper move and just made a mistake in a transaction that ended up costing us a game,” Berryhill told reporter Chris Jackson.

That’s essentially the same explanation that Dodgers vice president of player development De Jon Watson gave us, and it lacks specifics about how the mistake was made. There are “easy mistakes to make”; this isn’t one of those.

With or without specifics, the Dodgers and Isotopes don’t come away looking good. The Isotopes have a 44-55 record and are 12 games out of first place, so one game might not matter much in the long run.

The “real victim” in all of this? Albuquerque pitcher Juan Abreu, who had a win stricken from his record by the league on Tuesday and was released from his minor-league contract Thursday. Here’s to better times, Juan.

Dodgers’ Triple-A team is forced to forfeit a victory.

A simple yet obvious bookkeeping error resulted in a forfeit loss for the Albuquerque Isotopes, the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate. Here’s the full text of a Pacific Coast League release explaining why:

The Pacific Coast League has announced an official change to the result of the July 9 game between the El Paso Chihuahuas and Albuquerque Isotopes. The game, which had been suspended due to rain and completed the following day, ended in a final score of Albuquerque 7, El Paso 6. However, that has now been declared an El Paso victory by way of forfeit.

Following the completion of the game, the Pacific Coast League determined that a 26th player was improperly added to the Albuquerque roster prior to the game. Major League Rule 2(c)(2)(b) stipulates the active roster limit for Triple-A teams is 25 players. The violation occurred as a result of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Isotopes major league affiliate, activating an Albuquerque player from the Disabled List without making a corresponding transaction to remove a player from the Triple-A club’s Active List, which was already at the 25-player limit.

Thus, the game becomes a forfeit in the favor of the El Paso club and corresponding adjustments will be made to the teams’ respective won/loss records. Per the Official Baseball Rules, even though the final score will now be listed as a 9-0 El Paso win, individual and team statistics from the game, including runs scored, will count in the official records. However, the pitching records — win, loss, and other — will be erased.

More to come as we get it.

Dodgers option Pedro Baez to Triple-A.

The Dodgers optioned pitcher Pedro Baez to Triple-A Albuquerque after beating the San Diego Padres 1-0 on Sunday at Dodger Stadium. The corresponding roster move will be announced after the All-Star break. Baez pitched a scoreless inning Tuesday at Detroit in his most recent major-league stint.

Overall, Baez has allowed two runs in two innings with the Dodgers this season. The right-hander won’t have anywhere to pitch until Thursday, since the Pacific Coast League is in the midst of its own All-Star break.