Dodgers Drop Series to Marlins

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The Dodgers bullpen collapsed again this weekend as L.A. dropped another three-game series to the Florida Marlins falling to 2-4.

Traditionally, the Dodgers have owned the Marlins on the road, but this weekend Jorge Cantu torched our bullpen and sparked a Marlin comeback in back-to-back games to take the series.

After hitting the game-winning sacrifice fly Saturday night, Cantu hit a three-run homer in the fourth yesterday to pull the Marlins within a run, and then he added a two-run go-ahead double in the seventh to help Florida pull away. When the weekend was over, Cantu racked up seven RBI in the series and again the Dodgers bullpen (that was so stellar last year) folded.

Saturday night’s game winning sacrifice fly came off Dodger reliever George Sherill whose late-inning struggles have become perplexing–perhaps more perplexing than Torre’s decision to go with Sherill in the first place. Meanwhile, closer Jonathan Broxton watched in the bullpen as Sherill gave up three runs in the ninth Saturday (two of them earned) and lost the ballgame.

For a reliever that was so good down the stretch last season, Sherill was equally as bad in the playoffs and his struggles have continued into spring training and the regular season. So far Sherill has retired only one of the five batters he’s faced with an E.R.A of 22.50. Ouch.

Jonathan Broxton has only allowed one hit in one-and-two-thirds innings of work. He also has three strikeouts. Note to Torre: stick with what works.

Dodger slugger Andre Ethier missed most of the series with a sore left ankle, but he managed to come off the bench and hit a two-run pinch-hit single in the eighth Saturday night. However, Ethier ended a potential Dodger comeback in Sunday’s contest when he grounded out with runners at the corners. Kemp and Loney also also couldn’t come through in the ninth after L.A. led off the inning with a walk and a single.  All in all, the Dodgers ended the game with 16 men left on base.

For the most part,  Charlie Haeger was very impressive Sunday in his first start of the season throwing a career-high 12 strikeouts. Catcher A.J. Ellis (who was just called up Sunday) did have a tough time catching the knuckleballer allowing three-wild pitches, two of them coming on third strikes allowing runners to reach base.  Ellis was brought up after an injury to placed veteran catcher Brad Ausms on the DL.

The Dodgers hope to rebound with their home-opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks late Tuesday afternoon which will kick off the first of six straight games at Dodger Stadium. Kershaw has the task of slowing down one of the hottest teams in baseball right now (Arizona almost broke a MLB record with 13 runs in the fourth inning yesterday), and also avoiding L.A.’s first 2-5 start since 1998.

The Dodgers should feel more comfortable at home. They are 98-64 at Chavez Ravine since the beginning of the 2008 season. The Chicago Cubs are the only NL team with more home victories over that time span.

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First Ever Nut-Up Award: When in Doubt, C. Your Way Out

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The Dodgers have an ace in the hole, and his name is Chad Billingsley.

Because of this, Chad Billingsley is the first to take home Matt Gullette’s Semi-Weekly Nut-Up Award: Players that Step it Up in the Clutch, Volume 1.

According to Webster’s dictionary, defiance is a disposition to resist; a willingness to contend or fight.

Defiance.

That’s exactly the kind of game Chad Billingsley pitched this afternoon. It was a statement. Yes, he beat the Pirates, but it was an urgent message sent across the radio waves loud and clear: Chad Billingsley is here to stay.

Message received.

C. Bills, as I like to call him, pitched his first game of the 2010 season. Billingsley, as the name on his jersey likes to call him, won his first game of 2010. And Chad Ryan Billingsley, as his mother probably calls him, threw a gem this afternoon and avoided a potential Dodgers sweep at the behest of the strangely-competitive-during-the-first-week-of-the-season Pittsburgh Pirates.

Maybe to some it was just the third game of the season. But to Chad, it was a fight for a spot in the rotation, a fight to earn back some of his respect, and more importantly, it was a fight to show the kind of defiance we want from our Ace of Spades.

That fight earned Bills and the Dodgers the first win of the season. Third time’s the charm.

We can’t deny that this Dodger team is just as talented, if not more talented, than last year’s squad that made it to the NLCS for the second-consecutive season. That being said, we also can’t deny that we have a pitching problem too. And no, his time it has nothing to do with Jamie Schmidt.

Chad was our go-to-guy for most of the last season, winning his first five decisions and hurling more K’s than an Eastern European brunch menu.

But we all know the dreadful end of that story. After he made his All-Star Game debut, Bills had a tough run late in the season which ended in a 12-11 finish and an E.R.A above 4.00. That is why the Dodgers invested money into the volatile Vicente Padilla and chose to selectively expose C. Bills to anymore postseason stress than necessary. In other words, they hid him in the bullpen.

But while the Dodgers were en route to dropping three straight games to Pittsburgh (yes, the Pirates), Billingsley came up huge. He threw five and a third strong innings with seven wiffs and only one earned run. He even buckled a few knees with the good ole Uncle Charlie. That’s something you’d expect from a guy born and raised in Defiance, Ohio.

This is what I’m saying: Chad Ryan Billingsley is the future of the Los Angeles Dodgers. After all, Chad’s mother didn’t raise no punk.

Bills is only 25, and with Kershaw at number two in the rotation, plus a pretty darn good bullpen to fall back on, there’s no reason why the Dodgers shouldn’t give him a second chance. Joe Torre, take heed. What more can we lose? Plus, the combination of Billingsley/Kershaw in the playoffs: I’m talking more K’s than an entire Czechoslovakian restaurant.

Belliard leads L.A. over Pirates, avoid sweep

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The Pittsburgh Pirates are the toughest team to beat the first week of the season. They certainly gave the Dodgers fits.

It’s not until about, oh, the third or fourth game, when the Pirates come back down to reality and lose the rest of their games–as has been the tradition for the last 17 years (1992 was the last year Pittsburgh had a record above .500).

But with the heart of the Dodgers line-up taking the day off and Chad Billingsley on the hill, Joe Torre’s crew managed to hold off the invincible Garrett Jones and Ronnie Belliard led the Dodgers with three extra base hits (a single shy of the cycle) as L.A. avoided an embarrassing opening-series sweep from the Bucs, 10-2.

Today the Dodgers sat out five regular starters including Andre Ethier (sore ankle), Manny Ramirez, and Casey Blake, but the Blue Crew still managed to rack up 16 hits and  sent four different Pirate pitchers to the showers. The Dodgers strung together base hits like they did most of last season when they actually led the NL in hits (fourth in the NL in runs scored).

Phew….nostalgia.

Speaking of nostalgia, Ronnie “Big Belly” Belliard, after having lost his second base job to Blake DeWitt, moved into third base to replace the usual starter Blake and made an impressive argument for a starting spot going 3-for-5 with two runs, four RBI, and a two-run shot in the fifth to help the Dodgers pull away 4-0.

Much has been said about Belliard’s weight in the off-season (hence the move to DeWitt), but love handles or no love handles, the guy hits the ball with the same kind of zeal as a chubby fourth-grader in the cafeteria line. He really gave us a boost in the latter part of last season when Blake’s bat went into an August-September slumber. Over a span of 24 games, Belliard hit a belly-busting .351 with five homers and 17 RBI. Give the man some credit and a Little Debbie snack or two. I believe he’s earned it.

Aside from Ronnie, the middle part of the order hit the face off the ball.  Batters 1-4 (1. Raffie, 2. Reed Johnson, 3. Matty K., and 4. Loney) batted an unconscionable 10-for-18! with three extra-base hits and four runs batted in. I’m not sure what kind of slugging percentage that is, but I do know this: it’s going to win you ball games.

My personal favorite, Matt Kemp, is always Mr. Consistent at the plate proving that he can hit from anywhere in the line-up. I really like Kemp at the three-spot, though, because he hits well with runners in scoring position (.280 in 2009). In fact, last season Matty hit from every position possible  hitting the best  in the seven-hole (.328 with eight home-runs and 30 RBI). He is prone to the strikeout (had two today), but I’ll take 2-for-4 to the bank any day of the week.

However, one of the best stories of today probably goes to Reed Johnson who went 3-for-4 in his Dodgers debut. Might I be the first to say: welcome to L.A., Mr. Johnson.

The Dodgers signed the outfielder in the off-season after he spent two years as utility-man for the Chicago Cubs. With the absence of Mark Derosa (who’s now with the Giants–ugh), Johnson was one of the scrappiest players for the Cubs and could always find ways to manufacture runs. Today he scored a couple of runs including the first of the ball game on Loney’s single to center.

The other best-story nominee definitely  goes to Chad Billingsley who got his first win today–hopefully there’s more where that came from. Today he threw a solid five and a third innings and served up 7 sweet-baby-K’s. I know as well as you know he struggled late last season. He knows struggled late season. And I know that you know that the Philadelphia Phillies know he struggled late last season.

But the 25-year-old hurler IS our ace, and it was Chad who should have started Opening Day (I’m not sayin’….I’m just sayin’). I think after having some time to adjust to the role, Bills will be more comfortable as our go-to-guy. And I’m more than willing to give him another chance. The only negative is that he did have four walks, but when you can keep serving up wiffle balls, all is forgiven.

And man it feels good to get the first win off our backs. I thought the world was coming to an end after we dropped two in a row to open the season to the Pirates. Kind of like last year when they dropped three-of-four to the Buccos in the last week of the season. Is it just me, or do we have a really difficult time beating teams from Pennsylvania?

The Dodgers hadn’t been swept in a three-game series by Pittsburgh since Sept. 4-6, 2000, in Los Angeles. The last time it happened in Pittsburgh was May 31-June 2, 1999, when the Pirates still played in Three Rivers Stadium.

Game Over: Dodgers cut Eric Gagne

Everyone’s favorite French-Canadian closer has been cut by the Dodgers…again.

Dodgers spokesperson Joe Jareck said Eric Gagne, who signed a one-year contract with L.A. this off-season, asked for his release last Sunday six days after being reassigned to the Dodgers minor league camp.

The Dodgers initially signed the once-untouchable closer to a $500,000 contract with performance incentives up to $1 million in hopes that he’d return to the form that converted 55 of 55 save opportunities just seven years ago.

Instead, the Dodgers struck out swinging.

I can’t blame the Dodgers, though, or Gagne for that matter. At first it sounded incredible–too good to be true. Dodger fans who remember the days of a healthy Gagne got an old-fashioned shot of nostalgia. For awhile the word ‘save’ was synonymous with Gagne.

Clad in goggled specs, the curly-haired closer was known for two things: spectacles and testicles. Coming in the most volatile situations, he hurled his way into our hearts with a mind-blowing Major League Baseball record of 84 consecutive saves earning the 2003 Cy Young Award (only the ninth relief pitcher ever to do it). We yearned for the moments when  “Welcome to the Jungle” roared down the corridors of Chavez Ravine and #38 worked himself into a frenzy. Then we’d all watch in amazement as opposing batters went down One, Two, Three.

Lights out. Game over.

Since then it’s been a tough journey for the French Canadian. After multiple elbow surgeries and allegations of performance-enhancing drugs,  Gagne has trekked through baseball in nomad-like fashion blowing more save opportunities than a last-second Christmas shopper at Sears. Here’s what it’s looked like:

Suffice it to say that life for Eric Gagne in the post-steroid era hasn’t been so kind. After spending a year as pitcher/coach for the Quebec Capitals of the Can-Am League, all he wanted for Christmas was a one-year contract.

But just weeks after taking a gamble on the 34-year-old relief pitcher, the Dodgers decided to let him go, and now Dodger faithful has to let go of the idea that the Gagne of old could ever be resurrected. It WAS too good to be true.

During his less-than-impressive encore with the Blue Crew, Gagne allowed six runs and eight hits in just 2 and 2/3 innings of spring training (that’s an ERA of 20.25). Apparently that was enough for Gagne and the Dodgers. The relief pitcher chose to initiate the out-clause in his contract which allows him to become a free agent and effectively puts an end to the comeback story we’ve all been anticipating.

But it’s time to move on…again. Gagne would have added some extra depth to an already-stellar bullpen, although it’s doubtful that he would have landed a spot on the Opening Day roster, but Dodgers fans still have lots to look forward to sans Gagne.

Coming off their second-consecutive NL West Championship,  the Dodgers have one of the strongest bullpens in MLB led by flame-thrower and anchor Jonathon Broxton, set-up man George Sherill who was acquired last season by the Orioles, lefty Hong Chih-Kuo, young-hurler James McDonald, Ramon Troncoso,  and (pending a visa) Venezuelan pitcher Ronald Belisario.

If the Dodgers bullpen remains strong like they were last season, the Blue Crew should be poised for another World Series run (as long as they don’t have to play the Phillies).

As for Gagne, who knows what’s in store for him. Maybe he’ll get picked up by another Can-Am team. I heard the New Jersey Jackals are looking to upgrade their bullpen. Personally, I think Gagne could make a decent living as stunt-double for Canadian-born Seth Rogen. Picture this: a sequel called Mango Express, an action film about two druggies who get caught up in a scheme to manufacture steroids. The roids are untraceable by tests, but they have one adverse affect: people who use them grow large, immaculate breasts. Talk about Blockbuster potential.

Note: According to Yahoo! Sports, RHP Cory Wade will miss three months after having surgery on a frayed tendon in his throwing shoulder last week. Wade showed great poise as a rookie in 2008, but struggled last year after being hampered with shoulder problems. If Belisario continues to have problems Coming to America, expect a healthy Wade to make a statement for that middle relief position later this season.

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