GOOD TIME TO LOOK AWAY.Byline: STEVE DILBECK ANAHEIM - This is hard to watch anymore. Hard to fathom ertainly, but much more difficult to watch. It makes you want to avert your eyes, look away and hope it's no longer there when you look back. Only it will be, too often anyway. The Dodgers wasting another brilliant pitching performance. The Dodgers getting the absolute best pitching in baseball ... and supporting it with a feeble attack. Maybe first we should try to underscore the positive for the Dodgers.If the season were to end today, they'd actually be in the playoffs. They would be your National League wild-card team. Of course, if they had so much as a pedestrian offense they would be running away with the National League West. They'd be looking down on the Giants, acting unconcerned about the charging Diamondbacks. Yet despite their current position, the Dodgers have to be very concerned. This nightly struggle at the plate grows weary on the pitchers, coaches, manager Jim Tracy
``It's unfortunate for this team and this pitching staff,'' outfielder Dave Roberts For other uses, see Dave Roberts (disambiguation). David Ray Roberts (born May 31, 1972 in Okinawa, Japan), is a Major League Baseball center fielder for the San Francisco Giants. said. ``The innings that are going by, the games that aregoing by. ``We're getting quality starts and we just can't capitalize on Cap´i`tal`ize on` v. t. 1. To turn (an opportunity) to one's advantage; to take advantage of (a situation); to profit from; as, to capitalize on an opponent's mistakes s>. it. I'm just as guilty as everybody else.'' Tracy, one of the most affable men in sports, actually was abrupt andquickly dismissed reporters after Friday's 3-0 loss to the Angels, a game that saw the Dodgers unable to score with a runner on third and no outs. Shrinking Shawn Green Shawn David Green (born November 10, 1972, in Des Plaines, Illinois) is a 6' 4" left-handed Major League Baseball player. Green is the starting right fielder for the New York Mets.[1] Green was a 1st round draft pick, and has been a two-time major league All-Star. unable to drive in the run with the infield in and no outs. Right-hander John Lackey John Derran Lackey (born October 23, 1978, in Abilene, Texas) is a major league baseball starting pitcher from Abilene, Texas. He has played for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim his entire career. intentionally walking right-handed Paul Lo Duca Paul Anthony Lo Duca (born April 12, 1972 in Brooklyn, New York) is a catcher in Major League Baseball who plays for the New York Mets. Previously, Lo Duca played for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1998-2004) and Florida Marlins (2004-2005). to get to left-handed hitting Daryle Ward Daryle Ward (born June 27, 1975 in Lynwood, California) is a Major League Baseball outfielder and first baseman for the Chicago Cubs. He bats and throws left-handed. The 6-foot-2, 240 pound (109 kg) Ward was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 1994 amateur draft. , who instead ofgetting ticked oFf and crushing a pitch over the plate, swings at the first pitch, down and away, and bounces into a double play. All while Kevin Brown The name Kevin Brown can refer to several different people, including the following:
``I'm over yesterday,'' Tracy said before Saturday's game. ``We all have to get one of those. Today's a new day.'' Another day like too many the Dodgers have endured before. This time Kaz Ishii is pitching well, locked in a 1-1 game after five innings. The Dodgers load the bases with one out against soft-throwing Kevin Appier The Dodgers lose 3-1 when Ishii gives up a pair of solo home runs in the bottom of the inning Noun 1. bottom of the inning - the second half of an inning; while the home team is at bat bottom inning, frame - (baseball) one of nine divisions of play during which each team has a turn at bat . The Angels' rotation opened the three-game series against the Dodgerswith an ERA over 5.00, but the Dodgers have made them look as if they're anchored by Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. The Dodgers have a 2.82 ERA. They haven't had a team that finished with an ERA less than 3.00 in 14 years. Yet they're supported by such an anemic offense - the Dodgers are currently last in the NL in nine offensive categories, including every significant one - that every game is a struggle, and too many a waste of wonderful pitching. It's a sporting crime, the Dodgers unexpectedly in the waste management business. Green remains the most visible target of this diminished output. Though hardly alone in his struggles, he is their one superstar, a player who hit 91 home runs the past two seasons, who now looks confused and lost. Friday he was jammed on a change-up. We are now two games from the halfway point of the season. At the break last year, Green had 26 home runs and 68 RBI RBI abbr. Baseball runs batted in Noun 1. rbi - a run that is the result of the batter's performance; "he had more than 100 rbi last season" run batted in . Right now, he has eight home runs and 39 RBI. Brian Jordan, currently injured, had 13 homers and 44 RBI at the break, is now at six home runs and 28 RBI. Beltre hit .257 with 21 homers and 75 RBI last season, and is now at .214 with six homers and 28 RBI. Alex Cora, who hit .291 last year, is at .234. Ward, who hit 12 home runs for the Astros last year, has yet to hit one as a Dodger and is batting .191. ``To have any kind of anxiety level from day to day, whatever it might be, that's useless on my part because I don't get any at-bats,'' Tracysaid. No, he just has to watch them. And they're not pretty. There is no presence to the Dodgers' offense. Not even during batting practice. Just a bunch of guys A Bunch of Guys (BOGs), or Group of Guys (GOGs) are terms used by counter-terrorism officials to refer to small, self-organizing terrorist cells.[1] BOGs typically have little to no contact with global terrorist groups like al Qaeda, so they independently plan and almost going through the motions, stuck in a place they cannot escape from. They've become the Oakland of baseball. There is no there there. ``It's not a panic mode,'' Roberts said. ``We're still in a great situation. But everybody knows we should be in a better position.'' It's a shame, really, when you think of all that brilliant pitching. The Dodgers have defense and the pitching. And bats without life. They've lost five of their last six games, and you wonder whether it's not all going to catch up to them, to finally beat them down. It's hard to watch. |
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