Alex Guerrero Leaves The Yard, Yay

Dodgers 10 10 1

Reds 3 7 2

WP- Ryu 1-0

LP- Francis 0-1

S- Magill (2)

HR- Guerrero (1), Gonzalez (1), Soto (1)

Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Alex Guerrero hit a grand slam, it was a blast. Which is pretty great and shows the improvement he’s going through. Hyun-Jin Ryu vs the new 100 million dollar man, Homer Bailey, that’s a really nice matchup even for a spring training game.

So lets get to the action. In the top of the 1st, the first 3 Dodgers went quietly, and then the game started off rocky for Ryu, with Billy Hamilton laying down a bunt on Adrian Gonzalez. Billy Hamilton laying down a bunt to Adrian Gonzalez is just funny. Hamilton wins that battle 9/10 times i’ll bet. Brandon Phillips then came up and hit a solid single to Yasiel Puig. Joey Votto with men on 1st and second isn’t a real good place to be in, he forced out to Adrian Gonzalez, who threw to Miguel Rojas who threw it away. And that couldn’t have helped his already non-existent chances of making the big league club.

In the 2nd inning, the Dodgers were put down in order again and Billy Hamilton driving in Todd Frazier. Pretty standard game, and the lack of offense continued for awhile. Yep, Yasiel Puig hurt his back swinging the bat. It’s nothing serious, he  said he expects to be in the game tomorrow. So very standard, mixing in an Alex Guerrero walk, everythinng was pretty subdued until the 5th inning.

Adrian Gonzalez led off the inning doing Adrian Gonzalez things, singling on a sharp ground ball to right field, Juan Uribe then singled to a Billy Hamilton and then the Dodgers were in business. Everybody’s pick to make the team out of camp, Joc Pederson then walked which loaded the bases. This of course, was all leading up to the large boom that Alexander Guerrero delivered:

Sweet. Besides being Cuban, that bat throw/flip thing he did at the very end was great. Needs to work on his form, but promising.

Oh but the fun didn’t stop there, after some strong pitching in the bottom of the 5th inning, Adrian Gonzalez launched a bomb to right center field for the 6th run of the game. Keeping with the theme of scoring, Tim Federowicz hit a high fly ball to left field. Left field in this game just so happens to be where Skip Schumaker played this game. And if you want good things to happen, you hit the ball his way. Yeah, you sometimes feel bad for Skippy, he’s a pretty bad defender. Miguel Rojas (hah) would then single FedEx in for the 4th run of the inning and 8th of the game.

And if you like scoring, you’d like this game in the top of the 7th Aaron Bates doubled in J.C. Boscan for the 9th run. The most significant thing about this is J.C. Boscan pinch ran for Carl Crawford. Spring Training or not, that’s just hilarious. Juan Uribe would then sac-fly in Mike Baxter, who is hoping to be 6th on the OF depth chart before Spring is over with.

Matt Magill came in and allowed a home run to Neftali Solo putting his Spring Training ERA at 2.25, but then lowered it to 1.80, finishing off the game. Maybe he gets the first  call to LA when injuries arise, he definitely looks promising thus far.

So it was a blowout of a game, and it was nice. Seeing Guerrero hit that grand slam was great, and I hope he keeps maturing and saves us from a “reformed” Dee Gordon. In all seriousness, a 28 million dollar investment should be paid off in the majors, and I hope he gets as much time there as possible.