I have never looked forward to Larry King as much as I do right now. For some reason, King -- and not Vin Scully -- will announce "It's time for Dodger baseball" during the home opener festivities on Tuesday. Hopefully the friendly environment of Dodger Stadium will provide a better result than the Dodgers had this week, capped off with today's 6-5 loss to the Marlins.
The story today was supposed to be about Charlie Haeger, who knuckled his way to a career high 12 strikeouts in six innings. Haeger was the king of three true outcomes today, allowing a walk, home run, or strikeout to 17 of the 27 batters he faced. The one home run he did give up was a three-run shot in the fourth inning by Jorge Cantu, who drove in five of Florida's six runs. The Dodgers have given up four three-run homers this season, after allowing just 11 all of last season.
Jeff Weaver became the latest culprit in the Dodgers' early season poor reliever roulette, allowing a pair of runs in the seventh inning, turning a 5-4 lead into a 6-5 deficit. The Dodgers were 64-11 68-8 last season when leading after six innings, yet so far this season they are just 2-2 in those situations. The Dodgers held a lead in five of six games on their 2-4 trip. After going 28-22 in one-run games last year, the Dodgers are 0-3 in those games so far this season.
Matt Kemp had two hits today, but will likely take more than his fair share of the blame for today's loss, for both his error in the sixth inning which led the Marlins' fifth run, and for striking out in the ninth inning with one out and the tying run in Russell Martin at third base. After Kemp's strikeout, James Loney grounded out to end the game.
A.J. Ellis tripled his career RBI total with a pair of runs batted in, but didn't have an official at-bat. Ellis executed a perfect squeeze play, had a walk, and a sacrifice fly in his three plate appearances.
Tomorrow, thankfully, is an off day, before Tuesday's home opener. Clayton Kershaw will face off against Ian Kennedy of the Diamondbacks at 1:10pm.
WP - Clay Hensley (1-0): 2 IP, 3 hits, 2 strikeouts
LP - Jeff Weaver (0-1): 1 IP, 2 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, 1 strikeout
Sv - Leo Nunez (2): 1 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts