Show Me

The Dodgers showed me something yesterday. They showed me that they may be able to hang with the elite teams in baseball. The Cardinals, who humbled them in the playoffs last year, have the same record as the Dodgers, but going into this series, they seemed the stronger team.

Their front four of Mark Mulder, Matt Morris, Jason Marquis, and Chris Carpenter appeared superior to the Dodgers’ rotation of Penny, Lowe, Weaver, and Perez. And the middle of their lineup--Walker, Pujols, Rolen, and Edmonds—inspires much more fear than any four hitters the Dodgers can send to the plate.

What these off the cuff comparisons fail to account for is the bullpen. Even without Eric Gagne, the Dodgers’ bullpen has been practically flawless, never giving up a lead after the eighth, and picking up the slack when the starters (especially Scott Erickson, who again failed to get out of the fifth yesterday) don’t have it. The Cardinal bullpen, on the other hand, seems to be reeling from the loss of Jason Isringhausen. And luckily for the Dodgers, it was journeyman Kevin Jarvis’s turn to pitch.

I’m not sure why you’d sign a guy with a 5.97 career ERA; I’m even less sure why you’d bring him in to relieve Morris, who admittedly was struggling, but probably could have held on to a 7-4 lead for one more inning.

But Tony LaRussa loves to make pitching changes, especially those in the middle of an inning, necessitating a boring conference on the mound and a lengthy commercial break. You’d think the guy had stock in AFLAC. LaRussa used five pitchers yesterday, and has called on the bullpen 91 times in 32 games.

Hee Seop Choi also showed me something. He showed me he’s been working on his defense—he made several sparkling plays at first base yesterday to cut down big innings. He reminded me that he’s a huge physical specimen, getting the best of a collision with the equally Bunyanesque Scott Rolen. Rolen had to leave the game, while Choi hit the three-run homer that capped the Dodgers’ six-run sixth (there are those sixes again when Scott Erickson starts).

The Dodgers also showed once again why they are a fun team to root for. They are never out of it. Jim Tracy has them truly believing that no deficit is insurmountable. After blowing a three-run lead and then falling behind 7-3 in a hurry, most teams would have quit. But the Dodgers came back immediately. Jeff Kent banged a homer to lead things off, and the scoring was just getting started.

And Yhency Brazoban showed me that he is the goods. He made Jim Edmonds look silly in the ninth inning, and whiffed Reggie Sanders, who had hit two homers off Erickson. With Brazoban closing games, the Dodgers have hardly missed Gagne. It’s hard to think of this bullpen getting even better, but moving Brazoban to the eighth and Gagne to the ninth will give the Dodgers a 1-2 punch reminiscent of the 1996 Yankees (Rivera to Wetteland) or the 2002 Angels (Rodriguez to Percival).


NOTES
In talking about J.D. Drew’s fine catch in right field, Steve Lyons, commentating for Fox Sports, showed that his Psycho nickname (now there’s a nickname!) is not that literal. Lyons said something I have believed for a long time: the only time an outfielder should slide to make a catch is to avoid a collision. These days, you see centerfielders routinely make sliding catches with nobody else around.

That’s the wrong approach. Sliding slows you down. That’s why you should never slide into first base; you can run faster. Same for the outfield. If you run, you make that catch easily. But if you slide, you get on SportsCenter. . . if you make the catch. If you miss, there’s a good chance the ball bounces over your head, since you are so much lower to the ground. Sliding makes sense to slow down when you’re about to hit a wall, like Drew was yesterday. But not in center.