Sword of Damocles hangs over Dodger Stadium

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Reds – Cardinals Gameday

It’s Chris Carpenter for the Redbirds and Mat Latos for the Redlegs. Game time 5:15PM PDT.

If the Cards win the Dodgers are done. If the Cards lose and the Dodgers win, the Cards’ magic number remains at one. If both the Cards and the Dodgers lose, the Dodgers are done. Not that there’s any pressure on the Dodgers or anything.

The home team sends Chris Capuano (12-11, 3.69 ERA) out to face Barry Zito (14-8, 4.19 ERA). Capuano has been pretty steady all season long for the Dodgers, while Zito has mounted somewhat of a comeback from the disappointment he’s been since coming over to the Giants. In fact, this is year 6 of a 7- year, $126M deal he signed in 2007, and it’s the first year he’s had more wins than losses in any season.

Lineup:

Ellis, M, 2B
Victorino, S, LF
Kemp, M, CF
Gonzalez, A, 1B
Ramirez, H, SS
Cruz, L, 3B
Ethier, A, RF
Ellis, A, C
Capuano, C, P

Giants – Dodgers Gameday

Annoyingly, the game is only being televised by KCAL and not on Prime Ticket, so I’m out of luck. If I were the MLB.TV people I’d have made this game the free one today, since it’s the only one with any playoff implications, but no. The free one is the Mets – Marlins game for unfathomable reasons.

66 thoughts on “Sword of Damocles hangs over Dodger Stadium”

  2. Oh well dear friends. It was quite an exhaustive ride. No matter how hard we knew it was going to be these final games, its still painful when the end comes. But as Vinny said that’s the nature of this game. Good night everyone wherever you may be.

    • And thanks to you, Jon, for all you did at Dodgerthoughts.com year after year after year. The site was much cheaper than therapy would have been.

    • Thanks to you too Jon! Tonight is a night to wish things could have turned out differently. However, there is always next year…

    • It’s been great to be with you all, thanks Jon for all you have done, thanks Link for keeping it going

  4. Ah man – nobody want’s a “loser’s dividend” for the 162nd and last game of the season. It’s too painfully close to achieving something far greater.

  5. Twenty-four years without winning or even reaching the World Series. I hope to be back in six months. To all of you, thanks for sharing all your thoughts. Be well. And to Link, thanks for picking up the banner and creating the Elysian Fields blog. Really appreciate it.

  10. Next year we have to do better than having Rivera and Abreu as our first options as pinch-hitters.

  12. No tension this ex-Dodger shack.. Never thought this was a playoff team.
    Did think it MIGHT BE the kind of team that would blow any chance,
    then make a dramatic “cover run” in the last games to make it look
    closer than it ever was.
    Donnie Disappointing continues to…..no speeches ’til way too
    late, and game management is head-shaking.
    One of my reasons mid-season was that it was very unlikely
    Chris C. would come anywhere close to replicating his amazing
    first half in the second, and couldn’t see where the staff would make
    up those wins (Bills was the usual roller-coaster Bills at the time, may
    even have been on the DL).
    When they made the lineup “star” acquisitions, I cautioned against any
    optimism. There wasn’t a lot of solid historical play from these guys in
    crunch time to justify it (with possible exception of Shane, and he’s been
    lost all year, East and West). The pitchers were gonna be decent competitive
    depth, but probably not more.
    They were playing at and around .500 when they did the deals; they
    still are. And absent changes at the heart of the org, and more than bankroll
    arrogance, they will essentially be at that level next year, three out of five
    chances.
    Having said that, there’s a bunch of lunch-pailers on this squad who deserve
    serious bows. Special thanks to all of them. You know who they are:-).

    • Thru the last decade and more, thru different owners, GMs, scouts, managers, coaches
      (both third-base and instructors) and rafts of players, the base-running would give
      the Daffy Dodgers of the thirties and forties, a run for their Keystione Kop money.

      Ultimately, it’s a black mark against the organization and the way it recruits and teaches,
      and then, day by major-league day, against the man in charge of the games.

    • What an incredible baserunning blunder by M. Ellis in the bottom of the 7th! I hope it doesn’t end up costing us the game.

      • Reminded me of Bill Buckner unsuccessfully trying to stretch a double into a triple leading off the top of the 9th inning in the fifth game of the 1974 World Series with the Dodgers trailing by a run in Oakland and down in games 3-1. We lost the game, and the Series. I was there.

  30. Good inning — answered the run and hitting Zito fairly well — could’ve been more if not for that catch.

  35. LAT’d — I’ve always had a good feeling about Xavier Nady. He grew up in Monterey County, where I live, and I saw him play when he was a kid. He went to high school locally and then to Cal, where I went to school. Nady was a heckuva player. His dad is an old friend of mine. Having said all that, I hope Nady goes hitless tonight.