Well if you haven't noticed, the two teams I follow are the Dodgers and the Red Sox. If you paid attention to either of their games on Tuesday night, you can understand the title of this post. The Sox got absolutely obliterated by the Rangers at home by a score of 18-3, and the Dodgers lost their 2nd game of the season on a walk-off double.
I don't have much to say about the Red Sox game that you can't tell by the score. It was utterly embarrassing. There were only two teeny tiny bright spots in the game. The bottom of the first inning saw the Sox take a 2-0 lead on Dustin Pedroia's home run, and David Ortiz hustled down the line in late in the game on a play he knew he had zero chance of beating out. I love seeing Pedroia swing the bat well. As he goes, the rest of the team seems to go usually. It looked like the Sox were going to make quick work of Rangers starter Colby Lewis, but obviously things didn't work out that way. I always like to see guys hustle. I know Pete Rose isn't a popular guy in baseball circles, but he ran as hard as he could on every single play. For that, I will always respect him. So it was great to see Ortiz run like the game was tied or close, or not a football score. It showed he hasn't given up, which during a game like today, no one could have really blamed him if he did. The worst part of the game was Kevin Youkilis, he went 0-4 with 4 strikeouts. I don't know what's going on with Youk, but he needs to figure it out. I'll never boo a guy for trying, but something is obviously wrong. Hopefully he rights the ship soon.
The Dodgers on the other hand were in it until the very end. They were down early, battled back to tie it up, finally took the lead, and lost it in the bottom of the 9th. You have to respect Ron Roenicke's decisions to play for the win. One of the baseball mantras I absolutely love goes, "on the road, you play for the tie, at home, you play for the win." He did just that and his gamble paid off. All in all, it was a really good game, spoiled for Dodgers fans by one half inning. Should the Dodgers have won Tuesday's game? Probably, but that's baseball. There will be games where they come back in the 9th inning to win. What concerns me is still James Loney. He went 2-4 today with an RBI which was great. But when he looks bad, he looks awful. He doesn't make productive outs, and, the two times he got on base today, he got thrown out. Once trying to steal, which he had no business doing, and once while trying to go from 2nd to 3rd on an infield ground ball. Again, something he had no business doing. I like the idea of being aggressive on the basepath, but there is a time and place. The time is not when James Loney is doing the running.
Tomorrow the Sox send Josh Beckett to the hill to face Derek Holland and that hideous lip lettuce he calls a mustache. I hope Boston is able to rebound, but I'll be surprised if they do. They haven't shaken the stink of last September off yet, and until they do, they're going to continue to disappoint. The Dodgers will have Chris Capuano on the mound opposite Zack Greinke. Unlike the Sox, I think the boys in blue will rebound. Greinke hasn't been sharp this year, and the Dodgers will be looking to take advantage of that.
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