Dodgers Baseball News

So its not even one week into the season and it appears that its already over! The sky is falling, our season is over, our pitching is in shambles!!! Before yesterday’s game it was announced that Hiroki Kuroda has already been disabled and will not make his next start!

JAMES McDONALD to the rescue!



Not!

McDonald unraveled in the third inning losing all control. He could not even get the fastball over for a strike! Before that he looked sharp, allowing no hits, with 2 Ks, over two. Then a homer by Young, who had a career night, followed by a bunch of walks. I had never seen the kid lose it like that.

After the game Ausmus noted that he thought the game just sped up on McDonald and threw him off. James noted that the game did seem to speed up on him and that he learned his lessons, throw strikes (duh) and slow the game down if it starts to get out of control. I guess people say that even though the game seems slow that when you are on the field your mind is racing so fast and your adrenaline that things go by alot quicker.

McDonald showed maturity by trying to learn from his mistakes and not getting too down on himself. He went to the locker room to change his shirt and then back out to the bench to sit with his team and support them! Many guys would have hit the showers and sulked all night. McDonald was not a coward, he was able to face and sit with his teammates for a grueling game that only got worse after. I can’t imagine how tough that is to sit there and watch it. I couldn’t even finish watching it from home. And another positive is that he is healthy which is more than we can say for the rest of our pitching.

Now back to Kuroda. It appears as though its a mild left oblique strain but the staff is being cautious to avoid it getting worse. If it was August or September he would still pitch. But since obliques are bad news for pitchers and can sideline them for 2-3 months they want to be cautious and they feel that they caught it early enough to knock it out. Kuroda was lobbying very hard to make the start but Torre shut him down.

Eric Stults is being called up for the start. Although Stults had a whopping 9.49 ERA in spring he is game ready and has proven that he can handle the role. He has a post season victory under his belt and a 3.49 ERA last season with some mop up innings and a couple spot starts.

Today’s game starts at 5:10 PDT at Chase Field in Arizona. Yusmeiro Petit faces Eric Stults and all starters should be in tonight’s lineup again. Let’s see if Torre mixes up the batting order tonight to get something going. Because our offense has been……. well, offensive. And I feel that our pitchers could use some support and some weight taken off of their shoulders.

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