Closing the Opening

After three innings I thought Penny was lucky to have held the Giants scoreless, but after six my opinion turned to the theory that he was doing just enough to get by against what he knew was an inferior team. The game never felt in doubt after the first inning, and Penny must have felt like he had a lot of rope to work with --- no need to try to overpower the inept Giants lineup. As Vinny noted most of the edge is gone now that Barry has left.

I take awhile to get back into mid-season form as a fan. I was surprised when Penny did not bunt in his third at-bat, when there were runners at first and third with one out. After Torre had put on the bunt the first two times Penny came up with a runner on first, I assumed it would happen again. When it didn't, I had the thought that Little surely would have bunted there, and maybe Torre was showing that he really wasn't a manager who loves the bunt. Nonsense, though. I eventually remembered that Penny is a very good hitting pitcher, and that Little occasionally had Penny swing away with a man on first and less than two outs last year. I think.

It has yet to develop how Torre will deploy the bunt in this go-round in the National League. With the lineup the Dodgers sent out Opening Day bunting should only occur when a pitcher is at the plate. It goes without saying that your corner players should be good enough hitters that they never bunt, and for the Dodgers the up-the-middle players all have enough power to make bunting inadvisable. Maybe he might have Furcal bunt sometime. DeWitt, possibly. I hope not. I really love the potential of this lineup. Loney is batting seventh! Can that be right?

So Pierre's consecutive games played streak is over. Stating the obvious and piling on are two of the great sins of blogging, but I'm going to say it anyway: it would really work out best for everyone if the Dodgers could trade Pierre away. Pierre really doesn't offer a whole lot off of the bench, other than a late game pinch runner, which is usually a wasteful use of one of the 25. Jason Repko would be far better in the fourth outfielder role.

I anticipated both Kent's homerun and Martin's double play. I am Nostradodgerama. I promise any other feelings I have that come true will be reported after the fact, and that I will conveniently forget the ones that don't come true. Here is the quatrain I wrote while in a trance that predicted the homerun:

The rainbow man will bow his head
His orb will go into the mountains
The rainbow man will meet his nemesis:
It will be the ancient noisy-bike dude