Ted Lilly Looks for First Win of the Season

Dodgers @ SF
7:15pm
Game 3

Ted Lilly (0-1, 6.00 ERA) will go to the mound for the Dodgers in the rubber game at AT&T Park tonight. In his last outing he pitched decently, but was interrupted by a lengthy rain delay in Colorado. He's hungry for his first win of the season. He will be pitted against another lefty, Jonathan Sanchez (0-1, 2.53 ERA). Sanchez is also looking for his first W of the season. In his last outing against the Dodgers on April 1st he couldn't get out of the 5th inning, but did strike out 8 Dodgers.

Last night I went to bed frustrated after the Dodgers pitching fell apart. Chad Billingsley, one of my favorites, started off strong but things quickly went downhill. A rare wild pitch from him was surprising and then the second wild pitch by the shaky Hawksworth was the deciding run in the game. Maybe the cold was a factor, but it does seem like if the stars are not aligned just right and one thing goes awry, Bills gets flustered.

Also frustrating is the fact that Lincecum has hit Uribe twice so far this season on purpose in my opinion and has gotten away with it.

Also puzzling is Loney's lackluster start. I've always liked Loney, but now things are getting troublesome when we need more run production. Loney is hitting at .163 with only 7 hits (1 HR) and 5 RBIs.

Ok let's go on to some positive notes!


Matt Kemp is among league leaders in quite a few categories. He's 1st in batting average (.472), 1st in stolen bases (7), and 4th in slugging percentage (.694). We'll be seeing the opposition walking Kemp intentionally more often. Yet another reason Loney needs to wake up.

Andre Ethier, my favorite player, shouldn't be overshadowed by Kemp. He's off to a fantastic start, and he's on a 9 game hitting streak. He had a hit off of Affeldt last night so he can hit lefties. He plays remarkably well in San Francisco. He has a .359 batting average at AT&T, the second-highest and is only a few points away from the leader former player Ellis Burks who hit .362 there. Ethier's also trying to get his 100th HR of his career.


Jamey Carroll, essentially our starting shortstop last season and now quite possibly this season has been phenomenal since Furcal has been plagued with injury. He's hitting .364 with 12 hits. 

Roster moves: Ramon Troncoso has been recalled, and Jamie Hoffman sent back down to AAA. This will probably be a temporary move until Jon Garland is recalled on Friday.

Lineup:


Carroll 6
Blake 3
Ethier 9
Kemp 8
Uribe 5
Thames 7
Barajas 2
Miles 4
Lilly 1


Mattingly has put out quite the interesting lineup tonight. Casey Blake is back in the lineup, but he is at first base. We assume Loney is getting the night off to rest and regroup. Thames is in left. Miles, a.k.a. the blackhole in the lineup, is at second base. We are all wondering why not start Ivan de Jesus at second and not put Miles in again? 


Let's hope for some actual real life runs tonight. Go Blue!