LITTLE HOPES REST TAKES CARE OF ITSELF DODGERS MANAGER GIVES DREW DAY OFF VS. CUBS CHICAGO 5, DODGERS 4.Byline: VINCENT VINCENT Vital Information Necessary Centralized (movie, The Black Hole) BONSIGNORE Staff Writer Two things are becoming apparent about new 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. : First, when he's speaking and spinning a yarn, you almost get the feeling you're in Mayberry, sitting at the knee of retired sheriff Andy Taylor For other persons named Andrew Taylor, see Andrew Taylor (disambiguation). Sheriff Andy Taylor is the main character on CBS's The Andy Griffith Show, an American sitcom of the 1960s. - the character Andy Griffith Not to be confused with Andy Griffiths. Andy Samuel Griffith (born June 1, 1926) is an American actor, producer, writer, director and southern gospel singer.[1] He gained prominence in the starring role of A Face in the Crowd made famous. Little's smooth Southern drawl drawl v. drawled, drawl·ing, drawls v.intr. To speak with lengthened or drawn-out vowels. v.tr. is that soothing. Second, when Little makes his mind up about something, he usually doesn't budge. That was obvious again Wednesday when Little wrote out his lineup card for the Dodgers - who trailed the Chicago Cubs 5-4 entering the bottom of the eighth inning - and didn't pencil in J.D. Drew's name. Little is adamant about getting Drew adequate rest this year, at least 30 or so games worth. The plan is to coax an entire season out of the Dodgers' oft-injured right fielder right fielder n. Baseball The player who defends right field. Noun 1. right fielder - the person who plays right field outfielder - (baseball) a person who plays in the outfield , and that means being liberal with Drew's rest time so that he's not subjected to the type of bumps and bruises that seem to sabotage him year after year. So what might seem like a curious day to sit Drew - after a night when he had two hits and the winning 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 to beat the Cubs and a day before a Dodgers day off - made perfect sense to Little. Granted, the Dodgers were facing left-handed Cubs starter Sean Marshall Sean Christopher Records Marshall (b. August 30 1982 in Richmond, Virginia) is a Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. After three minor league seasons, Marshall was added to the Cubs 40-man roster in November, 2005. , but with the way the offense has struggled over the past five days, one would think Little wants as many productive bats as possible in his lineup right now. Little takes more of a long-term approach on these decisions, especially with a player whose shown brittle tendencies over the years. Drew played in just 72 games last year with a knee injury and a fractured wrist and has reached 145 games in a season just once in his nine-year career. In that span, he's been sidelined by an assortment of aches and pains ranging from a broken wrist to a sprained lower back. He's also faced questions about his durability, pain threshold Noun 1. pain threshold - the lowest intensity of stimulation at which pain is experienced; "some people have much higher pain thresholds than do other people" absolute threshold - the lowest level of stimulation that a person can detect and ability to play at less than 100 percent health. Little wants to make sure Drew withstands the course of the season, even if it means weakening the lineup more times than he cares. ``You want to bunch one day with an off day coming up,'' Little reasoned. ``That way you get two days and when he comes back, he'll feel like a million dollars.'' Even with the Dodgers' offense struggling the way it has recently - they scored just seven runs in the first five games of the current homestand - Little didn't hesitate sitting one of his top hitters. ``These are questions that a person might be faced with all year long,'' Little said. ``But that's what we're looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. - to get this guy in the lineup for 130 to 135 games instead of 72.'' Even that number seems a bit conservative for a player who makes $11 million per year, but in Little's mind 135 is a bargain for a guy whose reached 110 or more games played in a season just twice in his career. Without Drew, the Dodgers took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth when Sandy Alomar Jr. singled home Jose Cruz Jr., then added another run on an RBI single by Ricky Ledee to make it 4-2. Jason Repko had given the Dodgers a 2-1 lead in the second when he his a two-run home run off Cubs' starter Sean Marshall. The Cubs had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the first off Dodger starter Brad Penny on back-to-back doubles by Juan Pierre and Todd Walker to open the game. They added another run in the fourth to tie it 2-2 when John Mabry singled home Derrek Lee. The Cubs then scored three runs in the top of the eighth. Penny wasn't as sharp as he'd been in his first three starts, giving up nine hits and two runs while striking out seven in six innings. CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- color) A tag by Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal is too late to stop Chicago's Juan Pierre from stealing second base. (2) Jason Repko blasts a two-run homer in the second inning off Chicago starter Sean Marshall. (3) Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal collides with Chicago first baseman Derrek Lee as Furcal furcal /fur·cal/ (fur´k'l) shaped like a fork; forked. fur·cal adj. Forked. furcal forked. makes it safely to first base on a bunt. Evan Yee/Staff Photographer |
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