Beckett Was Done In by the Long Ball

Josh Beckett wasn't half bad.  Unfortunately, the half that was bad didn't do us any favors. 

Becket went 6 innings and gave up almost half as many hits as Ryu in his season debut.  He appeared to mix it up pretty well, but made two glaring mistakes that cost us dearly.  Both Hunter Pence and Pablo "I'm not a coach" Sandoval hit home runs. 

At the end of the day, one of the more most visible issues so for the Dodgers has been defense.  Once again, the Dodgers committed 2 errors that directly lead to runs being scored.  For this team to be successful our most able hands on the field cannot continue to make these kinds of flubs. 

Of course, the other deficiency has been at the plate.  After the first three games the Dodgers are hitting a collective .176, and has an .551 OPS.  They have left a total of 21 runners on base, 14 of whom were in scoring position.  The Dodgers have had plenty of opportunities to knock them in.  They just have not been able to execute. 

Fortunately, we couldn't possibly be this bad.  At some point, hopefully soon, the statistics will move up - closer to the mean.  In the meantime, we might be in for some hand-wringing and hair-pulling.  Or maybe, the Giants are better than we are willing to admit.

The Dodgers are off today, but will get back on the horse tomorrow with a 3 game set against the Pittsburgh Pirates.  If we continue to have problems with the bat this coming weekend, I fear Angelenos will think the sky is falling.

Photo Credit: above by Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2013:

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Blog Kiosk: 4/4/2013

Check out Matt Kemp with his Bobblehead that the Dodgers will be giving away on May 14th.  Pic via Dodgers' photographer Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2013.

• Mark Saxon at ESPN spoke with Matt Kemp, who insist he is healthy.

"It's three games," Kemp said. "It won't be the last time I have a bad series, I promise you that. It's baseball."

• Jon Weisman at Dodger Thoughts makes note of how loud it is at Dodger Stadium.
• Will Cohen at ESPN pens, "Giants quash Kemp by pitching him away."

In fact, the Giants have actually held Kemp to 0-21 at the plate in his last six games against them. After Kemp raked against the Giants in 2011, they held him in check last season and have done so through the first two games of this season. 

• Dan Loumena at the LA Times lets us know that Mike Piazza is about to make his debut in a ballet... Ballet!  I remember seeing a ballet in high school.  I was a high school band geek, and our teacher gifted some of us tickets.  Needless to say, he never did that again.  My buddies and I couldn't stop laughing (in the way high school teens laugh), and we had to leave.
• I hear that teenage Dodgers prospect and recent signee Dennis Santana has started working out in the Dominican Summer League for the Dodgers.  Below is a pic tweeted out recently.

(twitter link)

• Watch the other Dodgers' owner Peter Gruber talk with Bloomberg TV about his investment in the Los Angeles Dodgers and the future of regional sports networks.  Watch it here.
• Magic Johnson, ever the optimist.  Via twitter @MagicJohnson.

(twitter link)

• Magic was also extremely generous to the Dodgers' players and coaches, yesterday; via Ken Gurnick at MLB.com.  A photo of the gifts was put on instagram by Hanley Ramirez, here.

"I think last year he gave us two jerseys," manager Don Mattingly said. "One was for us and one was to give to charity. I think with Magic and the whole [ownership] group, part of their message was to be involved in the community and help out. I think the Dodgers have always been great in that way."

• I love this!  Sports Illustrated shares 55 photos of athletes with their dogs.

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2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Baseball - Dodgers' Base Cards

Following up on yesterday's post, this time I feature the Dodgers' base cards in the 2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Baseball card set.  As you can see above, Jackie Robinson is prominently features on the box.  There are 14 Dodgers' represented in the set, with the Andre Etheir being the only short printed version.  BTW, as always there are numerous different parallel versions of each card available.  The cards below are of the normal base card, with exception of the Chris Capuano.  See them all below. Click any pic to embiggen.

#5 Adrian Gonzalez                       #26 Clayton Kershaw

#27 Chad Billingsley                          #52 Hanley Ramirez

#104 Paco Rodriguez                          #137 Sandy Koufax

#170 Don Sutton                                #180 Duke Snider

The Andre Etheir card below has been short-printed by Topps.  I am uncertain how scarce it really is.  Also, the Chris Capuano card is a "Blue Framed" parallel card (numbered to 499 copies).

#204 Andre Ethier SP                                 #241 Chris Capuano

#260 Jackie Robinson                                #265 Josh Beckett

#311 Matt Kemp                                     #333 A.J. Ellis

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