Garland Returns on Jackie Robinson Night

Cardinals @ Dodgers
7:10 pm
Game 2

Last night's game was disappointing to say the least. Hiroki Kuroda, was unusually shaky throwing three wild pitches. The offense was muted. Casey Blake made back-to-back craptastic plays at third base. Then there was the giving up attitude clearly displayed once Mattingly brought in Cormier to pitch. At that point we were only down by three runs, so why in the world would he basically give up? We better not have to see Cormier pitch again. In 6 innings pitched he has a 7.50 ERA, has allowed 8 hits and 7 runs including 1 HR. I'd rather have any of the following in my bullpen: Elbert, Schlichting, Troncoso, hell why not even Ely in the pen? Vicente Padilla will be throwing a bullpen session, and hopefully we will see the return of the soap bubble soon.

Jon Garland will make his first start of the season after coming off the DL after suffering a strained left oblique. The Dodgers signed Garland to a $5 million, one year contract this offseason. Garland is 1-4 with a 5.02 ERA in 5 career starts against the Cardinals. Last season, with the Padres, Garland pitched 200 innings going 14-12 with a 3.47 ERA. Jamie Hoffman, who was unimpressive in his token start last night, was optioned back to AAA. Although it was his first start in the big leagues since May 31, 2009.

Garland will face Kyle Lohse (1-1, 3.00 ERA), a right-handed pitcher for the Red Birds.

Tonight the Dodgers and MLB will honor the great Jackie Robinson on the 64th anniversary of him breaking the color barrier in baseball. The players will wear his number 42 on their jerseys, and there will be a pregame ceremony in his honor.

Andre Ethier has a 11 game hitting streak that he looks to extend. He is hitting .360, and has hit 3 hits off of 3 different lefty pitchers in the past few games.

The Dodgers and Cardinals now have identical records of 6-7. The Dodgers are now 4.5 games out of first place. The Rockies have only lost 2 games.

Lineup:

Gwynn 7
Blake 5
Ethier 9
Kemp 8
Loney 3
Uribe 4
Barajas 2
Carroll 6
Garland 1

Thames reportedly has a sore quad, but will still be available to pinch hit. Kuo has been described as having some "location issues." From what I've seen, the walks he gave up were partly due to bad ump calls.

Go Blue:)