The Dodgers evened their record up with two wins against the Phillies in their weekend series. The Saturday game was rained out, and ended up being played as a double header yesterday.
The big news this past week has been the injuries. Eric Gagne, Kenny Lofton and Nomar Garciaparra are all on the shelf. Gagne’s return is uncertain, so it looks like we’re starting right where we left off last season.
On Friday, the Dodgers jumped out to an early lead over the Phillies and held off their attempt at a comeback. It was a solid team effort and all five runs were scored by five different Dodgers, and all four RBIs were also by different people. Bret Tomko looked good in the start. He went six innings and gave up three runs on eight hits with four strikeouts. Hong-Chih Kuo was great in his two innings. He was perfect and struck out four batters. Danys Baez closed the game out and earned his second save of the season.
On Sunday, the Dodgers dropped the first game of their doubleheader. Derek Lowe made up for his horrible first start and actually pitched pretty well, but Tim Hamulack gave up three unearned runs (Rafael Furcal opened the inning with a throwing error) in the ninth inning on Bobby Abreau’s three run homeruns.
The Dodgers bounced back in the second game with a nice performance by Brad Penny. He held the Phillies to a single run on four hits with six strikeouts in seven innings. James Loney scored twice in the game and Ramon Martinez drove in two runs.
The Dodgers travel to Pittsburgh today for a four game series. The Pirates dropped three of four to the Reds, so I’m expecting the Dodgers to do just as well. Odalis Perez will take the mound against Zach Duke.
