Games 48-49: Dodgers @ Washington Nationals 4:10, 3:1
Well, first I thought Grady Little did it on purpose to get the guys' minds of the seven games winning streak. Remember how they said that they were taking one game at a time, win or lose? Little kept Martin and Ethier out of the starting lineup, then let Tomko, Carter and Hamulack take (game) one for the team. Seemingly to get over the winning streak and not rely too much on it psychologically when they took off for the road against the NL East foes.
The strategy seemed to work when the Dodgers bounced back nicely in Game 2, regardless of the injury bug hitting again. Here's what crosses my mind as Jae Seo takes some ugly beating in Game 3:
(1) I was cautious not to get too excited before the current NL East foursome (@WSH, @ATL, vs PHI, vs NYM) and it seems for a good reason. Only the Nationals have a losing record and it seems like they might take two out of three from us this afternoon. Given that Kent now needs 2-3 games off, Drew has a sore shoulder and the first guy to come off the DL for us is Eric Gagne (mid next week in LA?), I'd say it would be huge if we went .500 against the NL East. Really.
(2) Lance Carter and Tim Hamulack basically sealed their fate with G1 outing. The first was already sent down when Kemp was called up, the other is here only until Gagne comes back. The other six relievers: Perez, Beimel, Broxton, Baez, Saito and Gagne might finally come together and become a very very dependable bullpen. About time :)
(3) I feel we really need to take the current road trip with a big grain of salt. Even if we finish at 2-4, should it come to it, we can still regroup and have a good couple of series at home once Kent, Drew and Gagne come back full spead ahead. What is more, it seems like we're facing the bottom of the Braves rotation starting Monday (only Hudson there), so we might be in with an outside shot.
The strategy seemed to work when the Dodgers bounced back nicely in Game 2, regardless of the injury bug hitting again. Here's what crosses my mind as Jae Seo takes some ugly beating in Game 3:
(1) I was cautious not to get too excited before the current NL East foursome (@WSH, @ATL, vs PHI, vs NYM) and it seems for a good reason. Only the Nationals have a losing record and it seems like they might take two out of three from us this afternoon. Given that Kent now needs 2-3 games off, Drew has a sore shoulder and the first guy to come off the DL for us is Eric Gagne (mid next week in LA?), I'd say it would be huge if we went .500 against the NL East. Really.
(2) Lance Carter and Tim Hamulack basically sealed their fate with G1 outing. The first was already sent down when Kemp was called up, the other is here only until Gagne comes back. The other six relievers: Perez, Beimel, Broxton, Baez, Saito and Gagne might finally come together and become a very very dependable bullpen. About time :)
(3) I feel we really need to take the current road trip with a big grain of salt. Even if we finish at 2-4, should it come to it, we can still regroup and have a good couple of series at home once Kent, Drew and Gagne come back full spead ahead. What is more, it seems like we're facing the bottom of the Braves rotation starting Monday (only Hudson there), so we might be in with an outside shot.
posted by Harry | 11:57 AM
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