NEVER, EVER Ask The Mighty Casey To Bunt!

Once again the Dodgers win in spite of Damn Mattingly's complete misunderstanding of when and how to use bunts.

In the 8th inning tonight, down 2-1, rookie sensation Yasiel Puig bashed a lead off double and stood triumphant on second base with both arms raised high, energizing his teammates in the Dodgers dugout and the entire Dodger Nation.

Mattingly tried to take all of the air out of the Dodgers rally by asking one of the Dodgers' hungriest and clutch home run batters to....bunt.

Juan Uribe is not a bunter, and he never will be.  He fouled off his first two bunt attempts and quickly found himself in an 0 and 2 count.  Third base coach Tim Wallach called Uribe over and whispered something in his ear.  I like to think Wallach said, "Later for that bunt crap.  Slam the shite out of it."

And that's exactly what Uribe did!  BLAMMO!!!!    A massive shot into the Dodgers bullpen and the Boys went up 4-2.  Dodger Stadium (and my living room) went absolutely bonkers!!!!

Kenley Jasnsen came in to strike out the side in the 9th, and the Dodgers will now move on to the next round of the playoffs.

What a game, what a series, WHAT A TEAM!!!!

See you all in the next round! 

"How To Lose In The Playoffs" By Damn Mattingly

If I only had a sawbuck for every time Damn Mattingly made a dopey baseball decision.

Today was a gritty game for the Dodgers. The teams and the game were evenly matched, and that's the circumstance where a manager can make a difference and steal or lose a game.  The guy managing the Braves isn't exactly the second coming of Connie Mack, but today he was smarter than Mattingly. 

Dodger Ace Number 2, Zack Greinke pitched well enough.  He left after six, losing, but only behind 2-1.  This was still anyone's ballgame.  Enter the Decisions of Don.

The game was close and tense for both sides, but Mattingly suddenly made himself a huge factor in the game.  He brought in Chris Withrow to replace Zack Greinke.  Withrow, in his first postseason appearance, withered, immediately giving up a single and a walk.  Not on Don.  The kid just didn't get the job done.

In comes Paco Rodriguez and the madness that is Mattingly baseball took full effect.  He had Paco intentionally walk Reed Johnson.  Yup, Don took out one pitcher, and brought in another pitcher and asked him to throw four wide ones to his first batter.  In order to load the bases for Jason Heyward.  

It's one thing to ask a pitcher midgame to walk a guy, but it's absolutely ridiculous to bring in a pitcher, straight from warm ups, and head psyching himself into game mode, to immediately chill out and toss an easy four balls.  And then, to immediately return to game face for the next guy.  

After Reed was walked, Jason Heyward stepped in.  Paco did his best, but of course his first two pitches to Heyward missed the strike zone. (High and wide. Hmmm...)   Paco, in his first-ever playoff appearance, must have felt compelled to force a pitch into the strike zone.  He sure didn't want to go 3-0 to the batter, with two Braves standing on bases behind him.   Heyward was sitting on that hitter's count and nailed a two-run single right up the middle.

A 2-1 score was now 4-1 and the game shifted permanently in Atlanta's favor. The Dodgers didn't go quietly, however.  Hanley Ramirez was money all day, and he hit a 2-run home run in the 8th to get us to within one.  The Dodgers even got a couple of runners on in the ninth - albeit, not both at the same time - but all of that wasn't enough to overcome Mattingly baseball.  Not tonight. 

One Down, Two To Go!

RIIIIIIIP goes the little foam tomahawk.

Game One was great.  Simply fantastic. I loved it.

For a minute there, I was a bit worried, as many Dodger fans were, about how the Dodgers were going to perform in this first round of the playoffs.

Although they played like gangbusters in the second half of the season and crushed all opponents like a steamroller running over play-doh animals, they finished September looking very much like that non-hitting, injury-prone team from the first half .

And darn it if they didn't start out like the latter, with the first Dodger batters opening the game with three quick and sickly looking strike outs.  I'm sure the Atlanta fans were going crazy with their annoying tomahawk chop chant, but I had the TV sound turned down so I could listen to Vin Scully on the radio.  Maybe the chant was audible on the radio, but who can hear that static when Vinny's voice is up front?

Things didn't start out too well for the Boys in Blue (and visiting greys).  But then came the one.  Our ace.  Kid K. Clayton Kershaw was having none of that and he proceeded to stop the chop with two strike outs of his own, and it was on!  Actually, I should say, it was OVER!

Daniel Shirey - USA Today Sports

  
KUDOS:

Yasiel Puig.  Congratulations to Puig for knocking out the first Dodger hit of the 2013 postseason.
Double kudos for scoring the first Dodger run as well.

El Jaguar. Congratulations to Adrian Gonzalez for blasting the first Dodger home run of the playoffs!

A.J. Ellis. Two doubles.  Ellis found his batting groove right as the season was ending and it's carrying forward.  Sweet!

Of course, Kershaw.  He once again entered the Koufax zone by gritting out 12 strike outs - the most in a Dodger postseason since Koufax struck out 15 in 1963.  At one point Kersh struck out six in a row!  Awesomeness personified.

I can't really wrap my head around the fact Kershaw pitched 7 innings, struck out 12, allowed only one run, and yet we're viewing it as an outing where he "struggled" at times.  As one of the talking heads on one of the highlight shows I later watched said, those are the kind of struggles and troubles he would take any day back when he was pitching.

Vin Scully.  As Dodger fans know, Vinny doesn't travel west of the Rockies, so we never get to hear him call games from faraway stadiums any more.  Furthermore, as Dodger fans know, one of the best things about the Dodgers playing in October is having our beloved broadcaster in the room with us, calling the game.  This time Vinny went to Atlanta and I got to enjoy that golden voice just as Dodger baseball in October should be.  Now that's home cookin'. 

HONORABLE MENTION KUDOS:

Andre Ethier.  He pinch hit tonight and grounded out, but the positive note is, (apparently) nothing happened to cause him to re-aggravate his ankle injury.  WHEW!


BAH!: 

Those silly Atlanta fans.  Two reasons.  The first is that inane "chop chant".  The marketing folks at Turner Field gave everyone foam tomahawks so the fans can use them with their chanting.  It was wonderful to see the Dodgers make them all sit down and put away their tomahawks for another day.

Those tomahawks bring me to my second reason.  Marketing must be stuck with thousands of leftover foam toys because Atlanta fans don't even support their team enough to sell out their stadium for a playoff game.  I guess they figured Kershaw was pitching, so why waste money on a ticket for a losing game?  I wonder if they know who's pitching for the Dodgers in Game Two?

The people who can't (or won't?) synch up the radio broadcast with TV.  I love listening to Vinny, but it was slightly annoying that for innings 1-3 the radio was 5 seconds ahead of the TV.  Hence, I knew balls, strikes and outs before the pitcher on TV even began his wind up.  However, it was kind of sweet to know A-Gon's home run was a home run ahead of time.  Just for laughs, innings 7-9 switched it up and had the radio lag behind TV for five seconds.  That was slightly less annoying.

Damn Mattingly.  Speaking of inane. The Dodgers were up 4-0 in the 5th inning and had Atlanta reeling.  We had two men on, and Juan Uribe at the plate.  Uribe could have broken that game wide open if allowed to swing, but Mattingly had him bunt!!!  Stop already with these ridiculous bunts in ridiculous situations.  Sheesh!  Other than that, Mattingly was a genius.


I can't wait for Game Two.