8/18 POST GAME GAB: Why Would You DO Something Like That?

OPINION ALERT EARLY TODAY: WHY WOULD THEY HAVE GUERRA COME IN WHEN THEY ONLY HAD A FIVE RUN LEAD??! GAAA! I began a ritual lament that happens whenever Guerra comes in for relief. It's like asking for chili when you have heart burn. There's no relief there! {groan} And this kind of relief was to be preventative. We had the lead. After all that beautiful hard work by Ramirez, Loney and Cruz with their back-to-back-to-back home runs in the second inning. Then Ramirez' home run in later innings to score three. Then, a small miracle: Enter Trey Hillman. Normally bench coach. Acting Manager while Don Mattingly serves his two-game suspension. Trey Hillman = Hero status! I cannot recall Mattingly ever pulling Guerra on time! That was awesome! I mean, why wait till it's too late? Why wait till Guerra starts to let runs score willy-nilly (which he has been known to do)? Hillman saw his mistake of bringing Guerra in, and he fixed it. One more pitcher, just to stall I imagine, then enter Jansen. Perfect. In spite of my less than enthusiastic reception I may have towards Jansen, I still like him better than Guerra. And I do love Mattingly. It's just that sometimes he instills too much faith in Guerra.

GIRL TALK: We're all guilty of it- me, you... doing something to sabotage ourselves. JUST when we think we've got it made.... BAM! We do something so utterly stupid. Why do we do that to ourselves? Sometimes we get off lucky, despite our lack of common sense. Other times, we suffer consequences. Think about it- we're all guilty of even the littlest things: over accessorizing, telling one-too-many-people a secret, saying the dumbest thing during a job interview,....This time the Dodgers got off lucky. We still won. In spite of Guerra. Whew. Dear Diary, Note to self: Use common sense. We have tried that shade of lipstick before. It no longer compliments our skin tone. It runs. It's sloppy. The season is almost over. No harm in letting it sit there till we clean things out. For now, save your time and energy. Stop using it. We have other pitchers-er, I mean, shades. Use those. Love, Me. 

Also, a rare save situation happened. With the tying run on deck and the fact that Jansen came in with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth inning, it is a save situation. NEW GIRLS: Usually the closer comes in for the ninth only and with a lead of no more than 3 runs. There are other specifics for a "save situation," but this is most what you would see. For today's game, Jansen gets the save. 

Don't recall if I have ever seen a save like today's (with a lead of 5 runs), and been aware that it was considered a save situation. Interesting. Leave it to Jansen to surrender a home run in the ninth. I have said it before, Jansen doesn't have the right stuff to be our closer. A closer should NOT be giving up home runs. Jansen is a decent pitcher. But the Dodgers need more than decent. We need a closer. We need a closer IF we plan on being a serious contender for the pennant. Now RHETT was a closer. 

All 4 of the Dodger hits were home runs.  We win 6-2. All in all, it was a good game for Dodger fans. It was just,... nerve wracking at the end. 

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Game Time tomorrow 10:35am PDT.... GO BLUE!