Dodgers Limp Into All-Star Break Barely in First Place

The Dodgers limped into the all-star break with a 47-40 record, and in first place by a half game over the Giants. The only reason the slumping Dodgers are in first place at the moment is because the Giants were spanked by the Pirates 13-2, and have lost 5 of their last 6. Today the Dodgers were routed 7-1 by the Snakes in what was otherwise an utterly forgettable game.  I’m sure you have heard me say this before, but it doesn’t take a person with the investigative capabilities of Sherlock Holmes to see why the Dodgers lost three out of four in this series to the Arizona Dbacks. After all, they got three straight mediocre pitching performances from Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, and now Chris Capauno. Kersh, and Bills each allowed five runs, and so did Cappy. Don’t get me wrong, Cappy was awful today, allowing five runs on nine hits through five, and one walk, with five whiffs. Of course the offense couldn’t be bothered to make any kind of appearance whatsoever until the ninth inning in this game.

The pop gun offense could only muster up two hits through the first eight innings. They only had a lead-off double from Juan Rivera in the top of the fourth, and a double from Cappy himself in the second inning, and of course both runners were stranded. Until a meaningless rally in the top of the ninth saw their lone run score on a Juan Uribe sac fly. Much media attention was made to Arizona rookie phenom Trevor Bauer, and his unusual pre-game rituals. The cameras showed Bauer twisting, and gyrating like a backup dancer for R.Kelly before playing with some weird looking staff, or bow, and then he plays long toss from one side of the outfield to the other. Oooooh look long toss! Like I care. Honestly, though the Valencia native,first round draft pick, and hart high graduate was very good, although remember the Dodger’s lineup without Matt Kemp, and Andre Ethier is comprised mostly of minor leaguers, and bench guys. So the Dodgers always make any rookie pitcher look like a Cy Young award winner. The local boy has a nice fluid delivery, went six shutout frames, allowing just the two hits, one walk, and whiffed six, to get his first MLB win. Capuano took the loss to drop to 9-4 on the year.

The Dbacks scored two runs in the top of the first inning on a two-run opposite field triple from Justin Upton, and a run scoring ground-rule double from Paul Goldschmidt. The Dbacks added three more runs in the bottom of the fifth, off of Cappy, when Goldschmidt hit a three run home run, number 12 for him, to put the snakes up 5-0 at that point. They would score two more runs on some dinky bloop hits in the seventh inning off of Belisario. The Dodgers used Javy Guerra, Ronald Belisario, and Kenley Jansen to finish the game, while Arizona had Patrick Corbin pitch three innings in relief for a rare three inning save to close out the game for the Dbacks. The win moves the Dbacks to only four games back of the struggling Dodgers.

Of course again, I bring up the old formula, Auto outs, +mediocre pitching =losses! Shocking I know! Thank god Matt Kemp, and Andre Ethier are returning July 13. The Dodgers still had a successful first half regardless of the last month of ohfers. This is only the fourth season in the last ten years where the Dodgers are in first place at the all-star break (2002, 2004, 2009), although this is a lousy way to finish the first half of the season. The Dodgers can start off the second half fresh with their two best hitters back in the lineup. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to realize that James Loney is cooked, and that punch and Judy type hitters like Loney, Adam Kennedy, Scott Van Slyke, and others aren’t capable most games to score more than two or three runs per game. The Dodgers will continue to look for ways to improve the lineup, and acquire a real actual third baseman, since Juan Uribe is completely worthless and hopefully will be released sometime very soon. The Dodgers have also already announced their rotation for the second half, and it’s gong to be Kershaw, Harang, Billingsley, Capuano, Eovaldi. I think they should have moved Bills all the way down to the number five spot. What do you think? Discuss. Anyways, we’ll keep you informed of any transactions, and or roster moves that occur during the all-star break.

Well, that’s it Dodger fans. Thank you for reading, and following along with us during what has been a crazy exciting first half of Dodger Baseball. Join us next Friday night for the start of the second half, and the Dodgers run to the postseason. Check back in with us during the break for more Dodger articles, and non-stop total Dodger coverage. We’ll see you in the second half guys. Go Blue!