Overview: Ransom costs Dodgers/Kershaw win. Diamondbacks 4 Dodgers 3
Pros: Clayton Kershaw's overall numbers might not look all that great, pitching 6 and 1/3 innings and surrendering four runs while walking three. This only tells half the story though. Kershaw struggled out of the gate, walking Ryan Roberts on four pitches then giving up a two run blast to Kelly Johnson on a 3-2 pitch. Kershaw would go on to walk another in the first, throwing 31 pitches in the inning. After that, though, he cruised for the next five innings, allowing only two hits. He looked virtually unbeatable until the seventh when he gave up another two run homer to Cody Ransom, of all people. Those four runs he gave up were insurmountable for the Dodgers, but Kershaw, for the most part, pitched much better than his line suggests. He did strike out 7, raising his season total to 184 in 167 and 2/3 innings, and continues to lead the league in that category.
Other positives that came from today was James Loney homering in the fifth (fun note: I was complaining during his at-bat that he never turned on balls anymore and always seems to pop the ball up to the left side, then immediately after he drove the ball over the right field fence).
Lindblom also looked good, pitching a scoreless inning and 2/3 to finish the game and lower his season ERA to 1.80.
Finally, Aaron Miles scoring from first on a double by Ethier was one of the funniest images I've seen in a long time. He is a small, hobbit-like man.
Cons: As mentioned earlier, Kershaw gave up a homerun to Cody Ransom. And it was no cheap shot either. It was gone the second it touched his bat. Ransom hadn't hit a homerun all year, and in parts of 9seasons in the majors, he has hit a total of 9. So, of course he hit a homerun against the Dodgers best pitcher. Why wouldn't he?
Meanwhile, Navarro went hitless, dropping his season average back below .200, while Eugenio Velez, who is not very good, continues to look for his first hit of the season. Look, I know Gordon is hurting, Furcal's been traded and their aren't a lot of great middle infield options for the Dodgers right now, but can't Ivan DeJesus Jr or Justin Sellers at least get a look? At least there's some upside in those two. Eugenio Velez, who is not very good, has zero upside and contributes nothing to this team now, or the future. Did I mention he's not very good? I do hear he's fast, but I have trouble verifying that because I've never seen him on the basepaths before.
It's not often that we mention negatives about Matt Kemp (much less about Kershaw and Kemp) but I'm not sure what he could've been thinking trying to bunt for a hit. A guy having an MVP caliber season like he is should pretty much under no circumstances be laying down a bunt. Even if he had beat it out, it would've been a bad idea. The Dodgers need his power more than his ability to show off his awesome bunting ability. By the way, that was sarcasm, because it was a horrible bunt. We love you, Matt. We just disagree with this particular decision of yours. (We don't want to anger him too much, because we'd really like him to sign with the Dodgers long term).
What we learned: That trotting out an infield of Aaron Miles, Jamey Carroll (nothing against him, he's been very good for this team for two years now, but he still should be a utility player on a better team), Eugenio Velez and James Loney (yes, I remember he homered today, but remember it's just his fifth of the season), with Dioner Navarro catching, is not going to win many games. I know some of us were getting excited about the Dodgers playing well of late, but a team that trots those guys out on a regular basis is not a playoff team. We here at Proven Veteran Leaders don't want to be complete downers, we're just frightened of Ned Colletti getting excited about the "playoff hunt" and trading prospects not on the 40 man roster for, well, Proven Veteran Leaders.
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