DODGERS ARE LEFT STRANDED NOTHING FALLS IN L.A.'S FAVOR IN LOSS ST. LOUIS 6, DODGERS 1.Byline: TONY JACKSON
Anthony (Antonio) Jackson, best known as Tony Jackson Staff Writer ST. LOUIS -- It wound up as the defining moment in the Dodgers' latest setback, a yawner of a 6-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals For the National Football League team that played in St. Louis from 1960 to 1987, see . The St. Louis Cardinals (also referred to as "the Cards" or "the Redbirds") are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. in front of a sellout crowd of 44,260 on Saturday at Busch Stadium This article is about the current sports venue in St. Louis, Missouri that opened in 2006. For the stadium in St. Louis that operated from 1966 to 2005, see Busch Memorial Stadium. For the ballpark known as "Busch Stadium" from 1953 to 1966, see Sportsman's Park. . The Dodgers only hope it won't wind up as the defining moment of their season. Cardinals left fielder Chris Duncan Christopher Edward Duncan (born May 5, 1981 in Tucson, Arizona) is an outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals. He is the son of former Oakland Athletics catcher and current St. Louis pitching coach Dave Duncan. His older brother Shelley plays for the Yankees. needed every bit of his 6-foot-5-inch body, plus whatever extension he could get with his outstretched out·stretch tr.v. out·stretched, out·stretch·ing, out·stretch·es To stretch out; extend. outstretched Adjective left arm, to rob the Dodgers' Juan Pierre Juan D'Vaughn Pierre (born August 14, 1977 in Mobile, Alabama), is a professional baseball center fielder who plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He bats and throws left-handed. In his seven years through 2006, Pierre has batted . of a bloop bloop Baseball n. A blooper. tr.v. blooped, bloop·ing, bloops To hit (a ball) into the air just beyond the infield. adj. Hit just beyond the infield. hit in the top of the fifth inning. The diving catch, which came just inside the foul line foul line n. 1. Baseball Either of two straight lines extending from the rear of home plate to the outer edge of the playing field and indicating the area in which a fair ball can be hit. 2. about 50feet beyond third base, was sure to make the highlight reels. But for the still-sputtering Dodgers, Duncan's acrobatics acrobatics Art of jumping, tumbling, and balancing. The art is of ancient origin; acrobats performed leaps, somersaults, and vaults at Egyptian and Greek events. Acrobatic feats were featured in the commedia dell'arte theatre in Europe and in jingxi (“Peking weren't the reason the play might haunt them for a long, long time. It happened with runners on second and third, none out and the Dodgers trailing by five runs. It also happened at a time when the decidedly ordinary Braden Looper Braden LaVern Looper (born on October 28, 1974, in Weatherford, Oklahoma) is a pitcher in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals. High School Looper was a scholar/athlete while a student at Mangum High School. was doing an uncanny impersonation Impersonation Patroclus wore the armor of Achilles against the Trojans to encourage the disheartened Greeks. [Gk. Lit.: Iliad] Prisoner of Zenda, The of Cy Young -- the same impersonation done by almost every starting pitcher Noun 1. starting pitcher - (baseball) a pitcher who starts in a baseball game baseball, baseball game - a ball game played with a bat and ball between two teams of nine players; teams take turns at bat trying to score runs; "he played baseball in high school"; who has had the privilege of facing these Dodgers lately. Pierre had been dropped to seventh in the order two days earlier because of his benign on-base percentage. This time, he stepped in just after a single by Nomar Garciaparra and a double by Andre Ethier and went after Looper's first pitch. That it should have been a hit, that it should have scored at least one run, that it might have finally sparked the Dodgers' dormant offense if not for Duncan's heroics, well, all of that was beside the point. All that really mattered was that rather than work the count, Pierre got overanxious o·ver·anx·ious adj. Anxious to an excessive degree. o  ver·anx·i . As a result, he failed to advance the runners
with Ramon Martinez and Derek Lowe coming up behind him. Although
Martinez put up a spirited at-bat, he still struck out. Lowe followed by
grounding to short.
"I was just trying to get those guys in, anyway I could," Pierre said. "I was thinking hit, because we were down 5-0 at the time. I just have to put a better swing on it or get a better pitch to hit. It was a bad at-bat. When things are going bad, guys make those plays on you. You can't feel sorry for yourself. You just have to be better next time." The problem for the Dodgers is this was far from an isolated incident and Pierre is far from their only culprit. They have had a staggering number of innings this season when they have gotten a man to third with none out and failed to get him home. And while the Dodgers weren't going to win this one anyway with a 3-for-4, two-home run performance by Cardinals outfielder and Feel Good Story of the Year Rick Ankiel, the real concern is the fact that offensively, the Dodgers don't seem to be a match for much of anybody right now. "We're stuck in kind of a rut," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. In their past eight games, they have been shut out four times. In their past six games, they have scored a total of eight runs. And in the first two games of this series, they have gone hitless in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position -- including a first-pitch flyout to center by Garciaparra to end the sixth with Luis Gonzalez on second, and three consecutive outs in the seventh to waste a leadoff double by Ethier. Oh, and leadoff man Rafael Furcal went 0 for 4, hitting threeballs in the air and striking out. He also committed twoerrors that led to two unearned runs in a three-run Cardinals third. "One of the toughest things when an offense is going through this is that you think you're putting something together, and then you get some bad breaks," Ethier said. "You hit balls that are caught at the wall. You hit line drives that you think are through the infield, but they get snagged. We just need to keep rallying behind each other rather than pointing fingers of who is to blame. We need to be there for each other. "Sometimes, we lose focus of being in the moment of where we're at. Instead of looking at the standings and watching the scoreboard, we need to stay in the moment." With each day, though, the schedule gets shorter, the pressure gets heavier and staying in the moment gets harder. The Dodgers have just 46 games left, and they entered the day fivegames behind in the National League West and twoback in the wild-card standings. They also entered the day 10th in the NL in runs, 13th in doubles and 15th in homers. tony.jackson@dailynews.com (818) 713-3607 TODAY Dodgers (Hendrickson 4-6) at St.Louis (Reyes 1-11), 11:15 a.m., Busch Stadium. TV: Ch. 9. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: The Dodgers' Matt Kemp takes away a home run from St. Louis' Jim Edmonds. Tom Gannam/Associated Press |
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