STARTING TO BE A PROBLEM L.A.'S ALVAREZ HAS 2ND POOR OUTING CHICAGO 5, DODGERS 3.Byline: Rich Hammond Rich Hammond Los Angeles Daily News sports writer. Instrumental in bringing the Los Angeles Kings hockey organization closer to the fans. He is the atypical "what a guy" to Kings fans everywhere. Rich Hammond on himself. Staff Writer It seems that the proverbial Wilson Alvarez v. parched, parch·ing, parch·es v.tr. 1. To make extremely dry, especially by exposure to heat: The midsummer sun parched the earth. . Over the past three seasons, Alvarez has had more roles than the average small-town theater actor, as the Dodgers have turned to him in every possible pitching scenario. Manager Jim Tracy
After Monday's outing, it seems unlikely that Alvarez will be part of the starting rotation much longer. Tracy didn't want to be so bold, but Alvarez said it for him after another rough outing. ``With the way I'm pitching right now, I don't think I deserve to start,'' Alvarez said after he allowed five runs in five innings as the Dodgers lost to the Chicago Cubs 5-3 in front of 44,255 at Dodger Stadium • • [ . ``If they give me the ball again, I'll try. ... I'm here to do whatever they want, just give me the ball, but right now my location is not good, and if I'm not making my pitches, I'm hurting the team.'' Odalis Perez is injured, and the team is without a regular fifth starter, so Alvarez's inclusion in the rotation has been more by necessity than choice. Tracy often speaks about his reluctance to make Alvarez a regular starter because of injury concerns, but Alvarez also has turned in two consecutive poor outings. Alvarez's second pitch of the game landed in the left-field seats, courtesy of Jerry Hairston Jerry Wayne Hairston, (born February 16, 1952 in Birmingham, Alabama), is a former Major League Baseball player, and is the father of current major leaguers Jerry Hairston, Jr. and Scott Hairston. He is currently the hitting coach for the Bristol White Sox. , and the Cubs never trailed. Michael Barrett Michael Barrett may refer to:
``They're a pretty good fastball-hitting team,'' catcher Jason Phillips Jason Phillips can refer to:
After Hairston's leadoff home run, the Cubs scored again in the first when Jason Dubois' groundout scored Neifi Perez from third base, and Barrett's homer put the Cubs ahead 4-0 in the fourth. The Dodgers scored twice in a wacky fourth inning to cut their deficit to two, but Ramirez's home run, deep into the left-field bullpen on a 2-0 fastball, put the Cubs up 5-2. ``When you get behind in the count and have to throw fastballs, that's what is going to happen sometimes,'' said Tracy, who declined to speculate on Alvarez's future as a starter. Not that Alvarez deserved all the blame. Four innings of scoreless relief kept the Dodgers in the game, but the lineup had only sporadic success against starter Greg Maddux Gregory Alan Maddux (born April 14, 1966) is a pitcher for the San Diego Padres. He was the first pitcher in Major League history to win the Cy Young Award for four consecutive years (1992-1995), during which he had a 75-29 record with a 1. and the Cubs' bullpen. Maddux (3-3) allowed five hits and zero walks in six innings, and the only marks against him came in the fourth. With one out, Maddux fielded a chopper by J.D. Drew but made a poor throw to first. Jeff Kent Jeffrey Franklin Kent (born March 7, 1968 in Bellflower, California) is a Major League Baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers and a former MVP winner. Early career then singled, off the glove of diving center fielder Corey Patterson, and Olmedo Saenz blasted a ball to the wall that Patterson jumped for and got a glove on. But the ball bounced off Patterson's glove and got trapped beneath him, and Drew and Kent scored after some initial confusion. There wasn't much else positive to say about the Dodgers' offense. Kent singled with one out in the sixth, but Saenz grounded into a double play, and the ultimate deflator Deflator A statistical factor used to convert current dollar purchasing power into inflation-adjusted purchasing power. Enables the comparison of prices while accounting for inflation in two different time periods. came in the eighth. The Cubs' Todd Wellemeyer, in his second inning of relief, threw nine consecutive balls to start the inning. That put two runners on base and brought the tying run, Jayson Werth, to the plate, but Werth grounded into a double play. Then, with Oscar Robles on third, Drew meekly grounded out to first. ``We had a stage set there, with the people we had coming up, but the double-play ball did us in,'' Tracy said. Saenz hit a solo home run in the ninth, but Ryan Dempster still managed to record his fifth save. Rich Hammond, (818) 713-3611 rich.hammond(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos, 4 boxes Photo: (1 -- color) Wilson Alvarez looks down as Chicago's Jerry Hairston rounds the bases after hitting a home run. Jeff Gross/Getty Images (2) Cubs center fielder Corey Patterson can't come up with the catch on a ball hit by Olmedo Saenz to score two runs in the fifth inning. John McCoy/Staff Photographer Box: (1) DODGERS vs. CHICAGO CUBS - Rich Hammond (2) GAME RECAP (3) HOW THE RUNS SCORED (4) ALMANAC almanac, originally, a calendar with notations of astronomical and other data. Almanacs have been known in simple form almost since the invention of writing, for they served to record religious feasts, seasonal changes, and the like. |
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