Baseball is a funny game.
The Reds bullpen, a mishmash of cast offs from other teams, held the Dodgers to two hits from the seventh inning until the 15th. David Weathers, of all people, didn't allow a hit in two and two thirds innings of relief work.
Edwin Encarnacion entered the series with a .930 OPS. If he gets one hit last night, instead of going 0 for 7, the Reds probably win. If the Reds hit the ball just a little bit harder on the sprawling plays made by Furcal and Lugo, they walk away with the win. If our nemesis Ryan Freel doesn't go one for eight, the Reds win.
Ramon Martinez, a man that should have been DFAed the minute Wilson Betemit and Julio Lugo arrived on the team, a man who had one hit in 10 at bats in the last month, a man with 29 career home runs, drove Ryan Franklin's first pitch into the left field pavilion to end the game in the 16th inning. If I had to put money on who would be the hero of the game, I'd probably be more likely to put it on Matt Kemp getting called up in the middle of the game and swatting a homer.
The last time the Dodgers played a marathon game, Jae Seo walked three guys in the 17th inning to give Oakland the win. This ending was quite a bit more satisfying. In fact, I'm so filled with confidence that it's time to start the magic number watch. Right now, the number is 28 over the Phillies, the second place team in the wild card. All the Dodgers have to do is avoid one of those massive losing streaks that have plagued them all season. That seems like a perfectly reasonable request, right?
From the newspapers making stuff up department:
The Boston Herald is reporting that the Red Sox want to trade David Wells for Matt Kemp. Even if you give Ned Colletti zero credit and think he would make this deal, it still couldn't happen since there is no chance that Kemp wouldn't get picked up off waivers. I wish I could be an anonymous source; people will print anything you say without checking to see if it makes any sense.