Los Angeles Dodgers Western Division Champions
by Phil Gurnee on Oct 4, 2009 12:08 AM PDT
in Dodgers Game Recaps
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PrintThe Dodgers ended their five game slide in style Saturday Night with a 5 - 0 victory over the Rockies giving them their 2nd straight Western Division Champion plus home field advantage throughout the National League playoffs.
Clayton Kershaw needed to give the Dodgers a shot in the arm and he provided that shot by striking out the first five Rockies and eight of the first 10. Clayton did his job but the offense was still stymied with zero runs by the time Clayton was lifted after hurling six special shutout innings.
Finally in the 7th inning the worm turned just like we have been saying it would. A rusty Casey Blake finally made contact and drove a Franklin Morales pitch into left center and hustled into 2nd for a double. James Loney then laid down an excellent bunt to move Blake to 3rd and just missed beating it out for a hit. So with one out and Blake on 3rd, Joe Torre used his Joker on the bench and brought up Belliard. For those of you who forgot the last time we saw Belliard we were one inning away from clinching the Division. Belliard had singled in the top of that infamous ninth inning and proceeded to pull a groin. From the time Belliard was replaced by Castro the Dodgers have lost every game that Belliard has not been able to play.
So in a shocking move for many starting second baseman Orlando Hudson was pinch hit for by the Rolly Polly man who right on cue delivered a wicked shot to the right side that scored Casey Blake with the only run the Dodgers would need. It would be the first of five runs to cross the plate in the 7th inning ending the incredible run of the Rockies.
From that point on it was just a matter of the best one two bullpen punch to close out the game and close it out they did in front of 55,000 fans. So after all the hand wringing this week the Dodgers finally did what they needed to do and won the one game their fans had been waiting for and the celebration was on.
Western Division Champions and home field advantage means the Dodgers will be playing the Cardinals on Wednesday with Wolf matching up against Chris Carpenter. Much of the talk will be about the great right handed one two punch of Carpenter/Wainwright but we can counter punch with our left handed duo of Wolf/Kershaw. The Dodgers will not be going into the playoffs unarmed even if some pundits think that is the case.
When Russell Martin stole his 60th career base tonight he broke the franchise record of 59 for a catcher set by the immortal Johhny Roseboro.
BEST OF THE WEST: Los Angeles clinched its second consecutive and 11th overall division title since the advent of divisional play in 1969…The Dodgers won back-to-back NL West titles for the first time since 1977-78.
KKKKKKKKKK-ERSHAW: Clayton Kershaw fanned 10 batters to take over the team lead with 185 strikeouts, six ahead of Chad Billingsley’s 179…It marked fourth time this season and fourth time in Kershaw’s career that he has struck out 10 or more batters in a game.
K/9 UNIT - Kershaw completed the 2009 season with 9.73 strikeouts per 9.0 innings (185 K/171.0 IP) the highest total for a Dodger qualifying pitcher since Hideo Nomo’s 10.11 mark in 1997.
THIS IS MY TOWN: Clayton Kershaw finished with a 1.83 ERA (18 ER/88.1 IP) at home, the lowest home ERA for a qualifying Dodger pitcher since Kevin Brown’s 1.79 ERA (23 ER/115.2 IP) in 2000…Despite his low ERA, Kershaw finished just 3-4 at Dodger Stadium.
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Mark Loretta says
fuck you TBLA in the clubhouse celebration.
Patience is for those who die waiting for something to happen
OK, got it.
Yeah, I was serious yesterday when I asked here if maybe Loretta, not Thome, should have pinch hit against Street. I noticed nobody agreed. They’re sort of running out of pitchers, with Kuroda down, so maybe this is moot anyway, but if they’re short of bench spots, they’ve still got to have Loretta. I wonder if they have room for Thome and his designated runner. We’ll worry about the WS and DH if/when we get there (i.e. even there, if Thome gets a hit and it’s not a HR, someone else has to run for him and then hit for him: he’s out.). A case can be made for Thome over Mientkiewicz, sure, but you’ve got to have Loretta there. Then there’s Castro for SS insurance. Spaces filling up.
Got a Question
Hi everybody. I’m in town visiting family. Tomorrow, my dad and I will be driving to Dodger Stadium from the Farmer’s Market area where I’ll be meeting up with an old friend. My question is: what time should we head out to the stadium? a commentator on DT said the traffic jams were so bad that people were still coming thru the turnstiles in the third inning. Is this true? I mean, should we leave the Farmers Market at 11:30? Or when?
Connector
Coool, its a party, show up whenever, but this being LA, everyone LA, 1/2 hour b4 game time willl be fine. Full on recommend NO style stand at the West end of the Farmers market, but really many good choices. The route you take is up to you but there will be traffic everywhere. Get ready to see the housieest of house money line ups, but still should be fun. ENJOY!
FUCKING LOVING IT
I noticed TRUE BLUE LA got a scoreboard callout right next to CUB Scout Troop 93! NIce!
Way to go guys!!
DIVISION CHAMPS! Champagne aflowing! God I LOVE IT!
Loretta, Pierre POWER! Rocknrolla BEAST MODE TO DA MAX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am falling in love with bellie fat man! Manny beating the crap out of the ball.
Where the hell is the excitement y’all. We just clinched the NL CROWN!
COMON, ITS APARRYTY Y"ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations
from a Rockies fan. Your team took advantage and won decisively. Both games so far have been very intense and should serve as a good playoff tuneup.
Good luck against the Cards. Hopefully we’ll meet up in the NLCS.
Recipocated 100%
You’re team went on one of the biggest runs in baseball EVER. I hope we meet again really soon.
Enjoy as well!
That game made the entire last week well worth it
Sometimes, you have to be broken down before you get built up again. This was sooo much better, in every way imaginable, than it would have been had the Dodgers clinched in Pittsburgh as we all expected.
A few thoughts:
—It was nice to see many of the players who have been bagged on, to varying degrees at varying times with varying levels of justification throughout the season, coming through today. That would include Loretta, Pierre, and Manny (Manny!), among others.
—That Rocky centerfielder infuriated me even more than the umpires. Seriously. It’s one thing to get a blown call in your favor, it’s another thing to put on an acting job to help induce it (not a difficult task with THIS umpiring crew). I’m not just saying that because it was against the Dodgers. Had Kemp or Pierre tried something like that, I would have been embarrassed. In my mind, it was very similar to the A-Rod play in the ‘04 ALCS, when he tried to knock the ball out of the glove of Arroyo’s hand. There are certain things that you just don’t do, and this is one of them. And speaking of umpires.
—We need instant replay. I’m not going to do that whole, “Oh the Umps were against us” thing, because we’ve seen many insane calls for and against the Dodgers this year. We’ve seen a lot more throughout the league. It doesn’t have to be overdone. It’d just be for blatant plays, like the previously mentioned one, and Loney being “out” on that bunt. It would probably take about 2 minutes, which would be offset by all the arguing that wouldn’t be done. (By the way, have you ever seen Loney so angry before? I have to admit, that was kind of entertaining.)
—The Rockies and Jim Tracy deserve all the credit in the world for turning it around. No matter how the playoffs go this year, the Dodgers and Rockies both have outstanding young players, and I hope the ownership of both teams are willing to center their franchises around them for years to come, so we can have a real rivalry based on more than just uniforms and where we all live. I’m tired of this excessive free agency nonsense, and having to root for new players every few years as if this was a college team. As an example, take a look at the Dodgers 2004 roster, and compare it with the Dodgers’ 2006 roster. I never would have though so in ‘04, and ESPECIALLY in ’05, but I am so glad that it worked out the way. But don’t expect to get lightning in a bottle twice, McCourt. These ARE our guys, and it should stay that way for a long, long time!
This umpireing crew sucked
but hopefully they are banished from the playoffs.
But for the playoffs, I was wondering the same thing myself, because there is no umpire out in right and left field and the entire right field bleachers went APESHIT onthat play and the rest of us in the stadium COULD Not See and obviously the umps too, so it wasn’t there fault, but an interesting question as to whether cameas should aid the umps especially in the playoffs.
I agree I would rather severe my left ball than give up Kemp, Ethier, Kersh,. Billls, Brox, and Martin to free agency (granted I’ve already fathered three children), but you get the point.
BUT ANYWAYS FUCK THAT FOR TONIGHT !’
WE WINN WE WINNN! Shout out to TBLA, who are obviously too drounk to keep this site going. RESPECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Camera system
Maybe something like tennis where the results can be determined almost instantly. Umps would never go for it though, and would likely strike before allowing to do so . I don’t see anything wrong with a replay official in the booth looking at plays, as long as teams are limited to the number of challenges. But like I said, it will never happen.
vr, Xei
I like Ron Gardenhire's idea
of managers being able to challange calls like in football
"Who would win: Coach Ditka versus a hurricane? The name of the hurricane is Hurricane Ditka"
by Mr. LA Sports Fan on Oct 4, 2009 9:57 AM PDT up reply actions
On Loney
I went to a game where he got angry. It was the same type of play, where he thought he was safe at first, but called out. Instead letting him argue the call, Mariano Duncan argued and got thrown out of the game.
Where would the Clippers be without Sean Rooks?
didnt catch the ball
but acted like he did…
Did you know that the Rockies have a humidor?
The dodgers have so much history.
EXECUTE: It's the Clutch thing to do
by Andrew Martin on Oct 4, 2009 1:38 PM PDT up reply actions
Dodgers win! I love LA!
You wanna know how great baseball is? The greatest basketball player ever left his sport to play baseball.
Sigh
Congrats.
"Don't tell me about the world. Not today. It's springtime and they're knocking baseballs around fields where the grass is damp and green in the morning and the kids are trying to hit the curve ball." -Pete Hamill
aweeeesome...job well done
Because when I think of Boris Diaw, I think of Beethoven and the age of Romanticism....
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