Giants complete sweep of the Dodgers in pivotal series to take over 1st place (8/12)
Why do the Dodgers always seem to do things the hard way?
In their biggest series so far this year, the Dodgers got swept after losing to the San Francisco Giants 8-4 Wednesday night at Chavez Ravine. What made things worse for Dodger fans is that since the Giants just lost one of their best hitters, Melky Cabrera as he was suspended 50 games for an illegal substance as well as missing All Star Buster Posey (one of the hottest players in baseball since the All Star Break) due to a tight hamstring while the Dodgers recently added Hanley Ramirez and Shane Victorino (both pictured below) to their lineup. The Dodger faithful had high hopes of doing some damage in the National League West race in this series. Instead, the Dodgers never even had a lead in any of the three Giants series games, dropping to second place 2 1/2 games behind.
Excellent Giant pitching in each game of the series shut down the Dodgers’ highly paid lineup. In this game, the Giants scored three runs early against pitcher Chris Capuano. It just seemed like deja vue all over again; the Dodgers lost each game of the series in virtually the same manner, Monday facing Madison Bumgarner and Tuesday against Tim Lincecum. Dodger fans sitting in the stadium for this game must have had a feeling of dread early on…could the Dodgers get behind early and lose again?
Giant All-Star pitcher Matt Cain was dominant, limiting the Dodgers to one run and seven hits over seven innings. Shortstop Joaquin Arias had 5 RBI’s including a two-run blast in the first while making a spectacular play on defense to save at least one run, and Angel Pagan and Marco Scutaro (both pictured below) added two hits each to finish off the Dodgers. Seemingly the only real hope for the Dodgers came in the 8th when Giants manager Bruce Bochy lifted Cain after allowing him to hit for himself to end the 7th, which almost backfired.
With Dodger part owner Mark Walter, part owner Magic Johnson, and his former Laker coach Pat Riley sitting beside each other in the stands looking on, the Dodgers had a nice rally going. Doubles by Mark Ellis and slumping Matt Kemp followed by run scoring singles for Andre Ethier and Luis Cruz had many in attendance wondering if the Dodgers could escape the sweep. But the rally ended shortly thereafter with the Dodgers scoring three runs in the inning and that was that.
In other news, Jerry Hairston will need season-ending hip surgery, while reliever Blake Hawksworth had his own surgery on his shoulder earlier in the day that will keep him out for the next year. Andre Ethier has been dealing with a blister that popped on his right hand Sunday. He finished 2-for-4 and with a sixth-inning double became the first Dodgers player to finish with at least 30 two-baggers in six straight years, but manager Don Mattingly expects the slugger to be forced to deal with the nagging pain on his right hand that he doesn’t think is going away anytime soon. Ethier entered the game with a remarkable 24-50 lifetime against Cain. There was also the return of Rubby De La Rosa, back from Tommy John surgery last August. The hard-throwing righty made his 2012 debut in the seventh.
In a series the Dodgers really needed, they fell very short. Do they have enough left in the 37 remaining games to win the West? We think so, but they have to win some timely games and maybe make another trade or two very soon. There is speculation the team is looking to somehow obtain Andrian Gonzalez from the Red Sox so stay tuned.
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