Dodgers win season-ender

The Dodgers ended their season on a good note, defeating the Giants 5 – 1. Kershaw pitched 8 strong innings, striking out 8 and lowering his ERA to a league-leading 2.53, winning that title for the second year in a row.

The Dodgers got home runs from two unlikely sources, Alex Castellanos and Juan Rivera. Castellanos was a late-inning replacement for Andre Ethier in right field and Rivera replaced Adrian Gonzalez late in the game as well. I hesitate to say Rivera was a defensive replacement, as Gonzalez has won three Gold Gloves in his career and nobody would hire Rivera for his defensive skills at first base.

I’ll have a longer post-mortem later. In the meantime, go read Jon’s thoughts on the season just gone at the City Think blog at LA Magazine.

20 thoughts on “Dodgers win season-ender

  1. Couple stories at the team site mention Ryan Dempster as possible offseason target. Why?

    He may have had a career half-year or so this season with the Cubs before the trade, but he was underwhelming in Texas. Career-wise, blah…..meh

    To me Dempster fits the assessment someone at DT made about Blanton when he was acquired…didn’t mind seeing him as the opposing pitcher because usually it was just a matter of time before the Dodgers got to him.

    His career numbers are no better than Dodger mid-rotation pitchers turned in this year.

    • They fixed the Hunter Pence boner. Dumb, dumb for it ever to make it online.

      Errors happen. But that’s the kind of thing that makes people so disdainful of media, sports or otherwise. Makes people question their competence. Most of us don’t have our mistakes so publicly and widely distributed…all the more reason to be especially careful.

      To stop this kind of stuff, a final proofreader who didn’t write a given story needs to go over it right before the point of no return. If this were the practice, there’d be a lot less of this, either online or in print…or online.

      • Proofreaders cost salary and benefits. Ask Marty L (who hasn’t shown up in these comments yet, I don’t think) how much the Tribune wants to pay for those kind of workers. I imagine MLB.com feels the same way.

        I disagree heartily with those practices, but that’s the way life is in the 21st century, drat it.

  2. Kemp supposedly is to have surgery Friday. Yet a couple days back TBS said he was joining their crew in studio for the playoffs?

    He ain’t a gonna do both.

    • It’s entirely possible to do both. I had throat surgery at 7:30AM July 11 and was home at 2:00PM that afternoon and talking without any difficulty. Pill-swallowing was another issue, but I could talk. 😉

      • Sounded to me like his shoulder surgery would be more than outpatient, maybe general anesthesia….but my medical opinion is worth less than Juan Uribe

        And if it’s in LA, he’d have logistics problems getting to Atlanta, I’d think…
        Dr. Neal ElAttrache is referred to in a way you’d think he’s doing it, and he’s in LA.

        The surgery news came after the other, and the studio item seems to be gone from dodgers.com. You’d hope for some clarity from the site, but hope on I guess…

        • It did occur to me that he might not be ready to travel for the Friday wild card games on TBS.

          Trust me, throat surgery is done under general anesthesia! When they cut your uvula out, you’d rather be completely under.

        • 1-2 days max depending on the “intrusion” factor…I had 6 shoulder surgeries and never spent over 48 hours from entering into to leaving the hospital

  3. So, is this what we have going into Spring Training (by position)?

    2. A.J. Ellis
    3. Adrian Gonzalez
    4. Mark Ellis
    5. ??? (Cruz, Ramierez, PTBNL)
    6. (See above)
    7. Carl Crawford
    8. Matt Kemp
    9. Andre Eithier

    Other than the SS/3B position, this just might be the strongest starting 9 the Dodgers have had for a long time heading into Spring Training.

    Thoughts?

    • My thoughts would be the same, but I’m not yet convinced that the Dodgers are ready to commit any more than a utility role to Cruz. If I have to guess, Ramirez moves to 3B and Gordon gets reinstalled at SS.

    • Ramirez will be the 3B as long as he doesn’t pout, and Gordon will get another chance to play SS. But he will falter and Ned will bring Omar Vizquel out of retirement rather than play Cruz. He will then sign four more utility infielders just in case.

  4. So, what’s the deal with Kid K? Wil he go under the knife now that the season is over?