DEFEAT DRAWS LITTLE ANGER DODGERS FAIL IN KEY SITUATIONS AND FALL TO N.Y. N.Y. METS 4, DODGERS 3.Byline: TONY JACKSON
Anthony (Antonio) Jackson, best known as Tony Jackson Staff Writer NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- Dodgers manager Grady Little William Grady Little (born March 30, 1950 in Abilene, Texas) is a manager in Major League Baseball. He guided the Boston Red Sox from 2002 to 2003, and has been manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers since 2006. spent the past two games watching well-executed, fundamentally sound baseball, played by men who routinely walk to the plate with a plan and usually know how to implement it, and that is as good a reason as any why those men are about to cruise into the playoffs for the second year in a row. The part that rankled Little was that it wasn't his team. The Dodgers received another message Saturday, falling 4-3 to the New York Mets
• • [ in a game that proved one thing: as bright as the Dodgers' future might be, this club still isn't on the same level as the opportunistic Mets. And when it was over, the Dodgers got another message, this one from Little, who clearly is tired of seeing his club fail to deliver in key offensive situations. And tired of seeing a season he once thought had the potential for unlimited glory continue to go down in flames In Flames is a melodic death metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden founded in 1990. Along with Dark Tranquillity and At the Gates, they pioneered what is now known as melodic death metal. . "I sit there and watch at-bats by our ballclub in key spots, and then I watch the other side," Little said. "I see, with a runner in scoring position In the sport of baseball, a baserunner is said to be in scoring position when he is on second or third base. The distinction between being on first base and second or third base is that a runner on first can usually only score if the batter hits an extra base hit, while a runner on , (Mets third baseman third baseman n. Baseball The infielder stationed near third base. Noun 1. third baseman - (baseball) the person who plays third base third sacker ) David Wright and how he works the middle of the field every single time and has success doing it. That's the story." In fairness, Mets right-hander Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez was so good Saturday the Dodgers had only one at-bat with a runner in scoring position all afternoon. That came after a gift triple by Shea Hillenbrand to lead off the eighth against Pedro Feliciano. Mets right-fielder Lastings Milledge, who clearly should have laid back on the ball Hillenbrand hit, instead tried to catch it. It skipped past him and rolled to the wall. Mark Sweeney then brought Hillenbrand home with a groundout, pulling the Dodgers to within a run. But that inning would end on a rare, groundball double play by Juan Pierre after Rafael Furcal beat out an infield single, and the ninth would end on a not-so-rare GIDP GIDP Grounded Into Double Play GIDP Graduate Interdisciplinary Program by Luis Gonzalez after Jeff Kent's one-out single. Little's frustration didn't end there. The sizzling siz·zle intr.v. siz·zled, siz·zling, siz·zles 1. To make the hissing sound characteristic of frying fat. 2. To seethe with anger or indignation. 3. Furcal furcal /fur·cal/ (fur´k'l) shaped like a fork; forked. fur·cal adj. Forked. furcal forked. went 2for4, extending his hitting streak to six games, and the sizzling Pierre went 1 for 4, extending his to 13. But the two never got on base consecutively in the same inning. "When they get hits and get on base, we feel like our ballclub is in better shape," Little said. "But our intention isn't for that to happen every six innings, and that is exactly what happened." Little's frustration didn't end there, either. "This happened to be a day when we scored two runs with home runs," said Little, referring to consecutive, seventh-inning solo shots by Gonzalez and Russell Martin. "But that isn't usually the case with the L.A. Dodgers. "We have to execute better than we have in situations (with runners in scoring position)." At least one player seemed to disagree with Little's assessment. "I have been playing up here for 17 years," Gonzalez said. "I have gone up there with the same mentality since day one. Every player is different. "Those guys are all different players, and we are all different players. That's basically it. We just aren't getting hits when we need them." All in all, though, the game did seem to be the culmination of a season's worth of poor execution in key situations. Pierre got a one-out single in the first, but was thrown out stealing. Gonzalez drew a one-out walk in the second, but was also thrown out stealing on what appeared to be a busted hit-and-run with Russell Martin failing to make contact. From there, Hernandez retired a dozen in a row and 15 of the next 16 until Gonzalez connected for his first home run in more than a month to finally put the Dodgers on the board. "We have struggled with (key) at-bats a lot, and we have been through some really bad spells with runners in scoring position and not had success," Little said. "I'm not singling out one player. I think the whole ballclub is guilty of it." tony.jackson@dailynews.com (818) 713-3607 DODGERS TODAY Dodgers (Wells 5-8) at N.Y. Mets (Maine 13-7), 5:05 p.m., SheaStadium. TV: ESPN ESPN Entertainment and Sports Programming Network . CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Dodgers starter Eric Stults gave up three runs and five hits in 4 2/3 innings Saturday. (2) New York shortstop Jose Reyes throws to first to complete a double play on a groundball by the Dodgers' Juan Pierre. Frank Franklin II/Associated Press |
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