It wasn’t perfect, but we did get two wins. And while the Padres have now won five straight and they’ve pushed themselves out to a two game lead in the NL West, the Dodgers are now on top of the consolation prize. They lead three teams in the Wild Card race, and in my opinion, a playoff spot is a playoff spot.
On Thursday, the Dodgers went down 5-0 early. They then clawed their way back into the game with some solid pen work but came up a run short. Mark Hendrickson took the loss and he’s now 0-2. Kenny Lofton had two hits and he scored two runs in the 5-4 loss. Nomar Garciapara extended his hitting streak to 18 games with a single in the third inning.
Neither team’s start got the job done in Friday’s game. In fact either the Giants or the Dodgers scored in every inning except for the fourth inning. By the end of seven, the game was tied 6-6 when Nomar came up huge. In the eighth inning, Nomar hit a two run shot to give the Dodgers the lead. Nomar finished the game with three RBIs and two runs and J.D. Drew doubled twice and scored two runs. Danys Baez got the win and Takashi Saito picked up his seventh save.
Yesterday started out as a Giants blowout and the only thing that stopped it from being so was a late inning flurry by the Dodgers bats. Derek Lowe didn’t even last five innings and he gave up seven runs. Toby Hall drove in three runs and Ramon Martinez had three hits and two runs.
Today, Aaron Sele continued to amaze. He pitched six solid innings and he improved to 6-2 and he outdueled Jason Schmidt. The final was 3-1 and Nomar singled in the sixth to extend his hitting streak to 21 games.
Next up will be a four game series in St. Louis after the break. The Cards were having a rough time but they’re turning things around. Hopefully we can knock them back down a peg.
