Greinke Returns To The Scene Of The Crime To Battle Edinson Volquez In Game 3

Dodgers Lineup vs. San Diego

Zack Greinke-3-2 vs. Edinson Volquez-5-5

The Dodgers keep losing and losing. The depth of this team’s failures know no boundaries. Could this be the worst Dodger team we have ever seen? After last night’s pathetic uninspired loss, the Dodgers have sunk to a season low 12 games under .500 and nine and a half games back in last place. The Dodgers are now 9-23 against the NL West, and 11-22 on the road.

Greinke returns to the scene of the crime today-Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

How long will Dodger brass allow this to continue? As usual, manager Don Mattingly is clueless on how to turn the team around. He once again shrugged his shoulders and said “I don’t know” when asked why the team can’t score runs and can’t win ball games. Again, Mattingly a born loser, provides no answers or solutions to the problems. Why is this man employed as manager? Please somebody tell me what his qualifications are, other than “studied under Joe Torre”. As I have said before, the Dodgers will never win under Mattingly, and will never stop sucking until a real major league manager is brought in to manage the team. Anyways, Moving on…..

In the third game of this four game series against the Padres in San Diego, will feature Dodger right hander Zack Greinke returning to the scene of the crime. This will be Greinke’s first start in San Diego since the cowardly and unprovoked attack by thug Carlos Quentin back on April 11. The attack left Greinke with a broken collar bone, and he really hasn’t been the same since. Greinke is 1-0 with a 3.27 ERA in two games against San Diego. Greinke Has held the Padres to a .263 (15 for 57) batting average against with three home runs. Carlos Quentin has actually hit three home runs off of Greinke, and has a .231 (6 for 26) average against. Fortunately, Quentin is battling a sore shoulder, and has been out of the San Diego lineup for the last six games. He probably won’t be in the lineup again tonight, which is a good thing. We don’t need anymore brawls, or incidents. (Quentin is in the lineup tonight, of course he is. Uh-oh) The constant losing is enough. Birdman is 3-2 with a 4.22 ERA in his nine starts in 2013.

Will Volquez ever turn his hat straight?-Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

San Diego will counter with right hander Edinson Volquez. The Dominican right hander has had a history of control problems throughout his career, and has struggled with that again this year. Volquez is 5-5 with a 5.84 ERA and a 4.1 walk per nine rate. This season he has 37 walks in 81.2 innings pitched. Last season he led the league with 105 walks in 182 innings. He does have 64 whiffs and has only allowed seven home runs. He has yet to face the Dodgers this season. He is 2-2 with a 3.97 ERA against the Dodgers in six starts. The Dodgers are batting .286 (28 for 98) with two home runs against him. Andre Ethier is 6 for 15 with three doubles. That’s a .400 batting average. Mark Ellis is hitting .316 (6 for 19) with a double and a home run, and Adrian Gonzalez is 3 for 9 with a home run. Volquez is 10-9 with a 3.27 ERA at Petco Park. Even more important is Volquez’s style of wearing his hat sideways ala Fernando Rodney. Will Volquez’s hat ever be worn in the corrent fashion?

After the Padre’s bullpen had to record 27 outs last night in the wake of Clayton Richard’s shoulder injury, the Padres have called up two additional bullpen arms for today’s affair, which appear to be Anthony Bass, and Brian Boxberger. Or so I heard.

The game will be nationally televised on Fox this afternoon at 4:15 PM. You can also check out our recap after the game, and find out what our thoughts are on the recently completed Dodger game.