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Monday, May 2, 2011

Ethier Half-Way to DiMaggio's Streak Record

Dodgers 5 7 0
Cubs      2 8 1
WP- Kershaw (3-3)
LP-  Russell (1-4)
S- Broxton (7)
HR- Soriano (11)

The Dodgers pick up a win in game one against the Cubs Monday night as they once again land back at .500. Clayton Kershaw also becomes even at 3-3. No surprise that they win when a)they get some runs b)they commit no errors c)the bullpen doesn't blow it.

Kershaw did start out shaky in the first inning when he allowed a 2-out single to Byrd, a single to Ramirez, and then Soto doubled Bryd in giving the Cubs a 1-0 lead.

In the 2nd inning, Kershaw allows the pitcher, James Russell, to get his first major league hit of his career. That's always a bit embarrassing. In the bottom of the 2nd, Kemp singles and steals second, and Uribe doubles him home, game tied at 1 a piece. Ivan De Jesus then hits a ground ball down the first base line, but a moronic fan interferes so he is held to a single, but he still picks up his first career RBI as Uribe scores making it 2-1 in favor of the Dodgers.

Both pitchers swap 1-2-3 innings in the 3rd.

In the bottom of the 5th, Big Rod leads off with a Big Double. Kershaw strikes out, but a wild pitch on the play allows him to reach first and Big Rod takes 3rd. Quade, the Cubs skipper, is furious and argues that Kershaw's bat hit the ball. Then in one of the most absurd plays I've ever seen, Jamey Carroll bunts in an attempt to squeeze home Big Rod. Yes, I used the term squeeze play and Big Rod in the same sentence. Predictably Big Rod is out by a mile at the plate. Kersh takes second on the shenanigans. Sands then crushes a double which scores Kersh and Carroll giving the Dodgers a 4-1 lead. Sands takes third on the play on a throwing error by Byrd. Ethier then gets an infield single to Castro extending his streak to 28 games and picks up a RBI on the play when Sands scores, 5-1 Dodgers.

Russell only goes 4.2 innings, allowing 6 hits, 5 runs, no walks, and 3 strikeouts.

Kersh has a nice 1-2-3 inning in the 6th, but allows a huge solo homerun to Soriano in the top of the 7th making it 5-2 Dodgers. 'Tis ok. Soriano has 11 homeruns already this season. Former Dodgers Reed Johnson and Blake Dewitt both single in the inning, but Kershaw gets out of the jam just as he's tiring after making 100 pitches.

Kershaw goes 7 innings, allows 6 hits, 5 runs, no walks, and only 3 strikeouts.

Samardzija comes in and pitches a 1-2-3 inning against the Dodgers in both the bottom of the 7th and 8th. Vicente Padilla pitches a wonderful 8th inning going 1-2-3 as well. He looked really good, making only 11 pitches, 10 being strikes.

Then we all held our breathe as Broxton is brought in to pitch the 9th inning. He looked much better striking out Soriano, Gwynn makes a nice catch once again to save Broxton's ass on a fly ball hit by Pena. Interestingly enough, there were no walks in this game.

Andre Ethier is now halfway to Joe DiMaggio's 56 game streak back in 1941. He's just three games from Willie Davis' Dodger franchise record of 31 games.

Tomorrow Chad Billingsley will go to the mound in game 2. Go Blue:)

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