Summary for Sunday June 3rd

Dodgers 5 – Pittsburgh Pirates 4 – “Thank God for Solomon Torres”

Angels 4 – Baltimore Orioles 3 – No doubt walk off blast by Vladdy . . .

Dodgers Win 5 to 4 against the Pittsburgh Pirates

•  The #2 ERA guy Brad Penny was a bit shaky today. Gave up home runs for the first and second time this season. Pittsburgh seemed to score a run seemingly each inning, so Penny wasn’t really sharp. On the other side, the #3 ERA guy Tom Gorzelanny was amazingly good for 6 innings. Dodgers then chipped away at him as he got tired and eventually got him out of the ballgame. Bring on that Pirate bullpen!

• As I put in the teaser, I was reading the Dodgers Message board on today’s game and someone’s post put it best. “Thank God for Solomon Torres.” The Dodgers just had to strike against the demoted closer and they got it done courtesy of a monster shot by Andre Ethier.  I was thinking to myself that today was going to be the first day this season the Dodgers would drop out of first place, but apparently they were able to pull out a victory.

• The only thing I’ll say is, everyone was then talking about Ethier and how clutch he is. Sure he did it for 2 Sundays in a row. But he still hasn’t shown me that he’s hitting better than Gonzo or Martin so that he should be hitting 5th or 6th. I’ve watched Andre since he’s come up last year, and while he shows that he can hit for average, he has yet to have shown he can hit when it counts. Like I said yes he did it for 2 days out of the week, but all you have to do is take a look at his numbers with RISP (.288) Usually that number is suppose to be a lot higher than the Batting Average for a “clutch” player. Last year it was (.297) again lower than his BA last year. I’m not trying to be down on Andre, but that has been his only problem. I think its mental more than anything else.

• Ok the more important news is Takashi Saito pitched to one batter in the 9th and had to go out with an injury. Now I didn’t get to see what happened, but from what I’ve been able to gather it was his hamstring. They talked to Joe Beimel, who came in and got the save, after the game and he said that the manager was telling him to be ready because Saito’s hammy was feeling tender. If that was the case maybe they shouldn’t have put him out there in the first place. Should have just had Beimel come out for the 8th and give Broxy the save chance. Lets hope that Saito coming out was only precautionary.

Angels win 4 – 3 against the Baltimore Orioles

• Santana pitched pretty well again today. I mean 3 runs given up in 7 innings is a quality outing. But on the other side it was almost like the Dodger game.  As I was writing this, the game wasn’t over yet. So I was going to praise the outing by Orioles pitcher Jeremy Guthrie who pitched 8 innings of 3 hit baseball giving up only two runs only one earned.  Again just like the Dodger game, bring on that bullpen!

• Baltimore closer Chris Ray came on in the 9th for a save situation. The Angels were down 3-2. Now that Guthrie was out of the game, it was time for the Angels to make their move, and boy did it happen fast. A couple pitches and Chone Figgins gets on with a clean single to left. Enter Super Vlad. He takes a called strike, that he was actually upset about. Next takes an outside fastball. Then a high fastball in and goodbye baseball. I was in the middle of writing this and all the sudden I look up and the game was over. Walk off home run. Wow.

• Just like the Dodger game, you have to give praise to the Angel’s bullpen to keep em in the game. While the Dodgers have a guy like Chad Billingsley to keep the team close, the Angels don’t have that established middle reliever. Today though Darren Oliver and Chris Bootcheck we’re able to pitch scoreless innings and give the Angels a chance at a win. Good stuff.

• It always happens, a starter who is dominant goes out of the game and the bullpen can’t hold it. Gives the other team new life. And we saw that today. Makes you feel lucky to to be a Dodgers and Angels fan with their lights out bullpen.

• Garret Anderson came back today and went 0/3. Hillenbrand played 1st base today and got a key hit to score a run. O.C. got the day off, and Kendrick againt continues his struggles (0/3) even though he got an RBI.

Other News:

• Chris Pronger gets suspended for game 4. Maybe it gets the Ducks a win again…

•  I forgot to put this yesterday but King James is getting ready for his coronation. Wow Cleavland gets to the NBA Finals for the first time, and LeBron James gets them there “almost” by himself. Rookie (42nd pick) Daniel Gibson had 31 points scoring 19 of them in the 4th period. So the Cavs have a 1-2 punch after all. The Spurs wont be surprised by him though…

Fantasy Stats of the Day (for my Fantasy Baseball team)

(Good)

Johnathan Broxton (1.0IP, 0Hits, 2Ks, 1 H) – I was reading the Dodgers message board and people we’re scared of Broxton coming in when the Dodgers took a one run lead. Like I said previously, Broxton is “nails” when he’s coming into a save situation. Put him in a tie or losing game and  the edge isn’t there.

Andre Ethier (2/4, 2RBI, 1 Run) – Talked about it above already

(Bad)

Oliver Perez (7.0IP, 4Hits, 3 ER, 3BB, 5Ks, 1 Loss) – A Quality start like Ervin Santana’s but Oliver got out dueled by Doug Davis of the DBacks.

Travis Hafner (0/3, 1 BB) – From good to bad. But that’s ok it happens… Just hope not often.

Outlook for tomorrow:

Derek Lowe goes for the Dodgers to finish off the Pirates. Kick em while they are down Derek!… Jered Weaver goes against Boof Bonzer of the Minnesota Twins. I’m still on the fence if I want to play Jered. He has not been sharp and I probably need to wait to see him make some real progress before I can start to rely on him again.