100 Things Dodgers Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die (11 page)

24. 4+1

The idea that the 2006 Dodgers could come back from a four-run deficit against San Diego Padres ace Jake Peavy—even with nine innings to go and even with Peavy having what was for him an off year—tested all credibility.

The idea that the 2006 Dodgers, 15
th
in a 16-team NL in home runs, could hit four home runs in a week, let alone a game, let alone an inning, let alone a ninth inning with career saves leader Trevor Hoffman in the opposing bullpen, was utterly implausible.

The idea that both events could happen in the same night? We can only answer that question by asking another: How many people sold their souls to swing this one?

Monday, September 18, 2006. The Dodgers had just dropped two games in a row at home to San Diego to fall a half-game behind the Padres in the NL West with two weeks of regular-season play remaining. They had scored three runs in those previous two contests, which made their task all the more daunting once they found themselves down 4–0 in the first inning to Peavy, who in 10 previous starts against the Dodgers had a 1.66 ERA with 65 strikeouts in 65 innings.

But the Dodgers managed to make Peavy look human for once; perhaps he was rattled by an on-field shouting match with Dodger first-base coach Mariano Duncan in the bottom of the first. By the bottom of the third, they had tied the game, thanks to Jeff Kent (who drove in one run and scored another with a pair of doubles) and a small-print August 31 acquisition, Marlon Anderson, who homered in the second inning.

If this all seemed too good to be true to Dodgers fans, it was. Even after getting Peavy out of the game and loading the bases with one out in the sixth inning, the Dodgers couldn't take the lead. Then, the whole idea of completing the comeback became a farce, an apparition. Against the Dodgers' top two relievers, Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito, San Diego scored a total of five runs in the eighth and ninth innings. Anderson tripled (his fourth hit) and scored in the bottom of the eighth, but still the Dodgers trailed 9–5 heading into the bottom of the ninth.

 

 

On September 18, 2006, the Dodgers hit home runs back to back (to back to back) against Trevor Hoffman and the San Diego Padres to tie a game 9–9 in the bottom of the ninth. Another homer in the 10th by Nomar Garciaparra pushed the Dodgers to an 11–10 victory.

 

And then,
magic
. On the second pitch from Padres reliever Jon Adkins, Kent homers over the center-field wall. A strike and two balls later, J.D. Drew crushes one deep into the right-field bleachers. Hoffman enters. Rookie Russell Martin homers on his first offering. And on the very next pitch, unbelievably, Anderson does the same. A 9–9 tie. A 5-for-5 night for Anderson. Back-to-back-to-back-to-back back back back back backs. Four straight home runs—the first time that had happened in the majors in 42 years, and the only time it ever happened in the bottom of the ninth.

And still it wasn't over. Padres catcher Josh Bard singled in Brian Giles in the top of the 10
th
inning, threatening to make this comeback of all comebacks go for naught. But as easy as it was to give up on the Dodgers in the first and in the ninth, it was impossible for fans to surrender now.

In the bottom of the 10
th
, Dodger center fielder Kenny Lofton worked out a leadoff walk from Rudy Seanez. Nomar Garciaparra, who had struck out in the bottom of the eighth with two runners on, worked the count to 3–1.

One swing. Nirvana. “A high fly ball to left field,” calls Vin Scully, “It is a-way out and…gone! The Dodgers win it 11–10! Ha ha ha—unbelievable!” And later: “I forgot to tell you—the Dodgers are in first place.”

It became, from start to finish, the most incredible game in Los Angeles history.

 

Hitless Wonders

The ball cued off Matt Kemp's bat like a trick shot from a pool shark, rolling about 50 feet up the first base line before suddenly darting under the glove of Angels pitcher Jered Weaver. Weaver still had the time and opportunity to make the play but was unable to before Kemp reached first base on what was ruled an error.

With the game scoreless in the fifth inning, Kemp took off for second base. The throw from catcher Jeff Mathis sailed into center field for another Angel error, allowing Kemp to head over to third. Blake DeWitt hit a fly ball to fairly deep right field, but even an on-the-money one-hopper from Vladimir Guerrero couldn't keep Kemp from scoring on the sacrifice fly.

And with that, the Dodgers had all of the runs (one) and all of the hits (zero!) they would need on June 28, 2008, becoming the fifth team since 1900 to win while being no-hit. It was a quintessential game to add to Dodgers lore—and as if to further magnify the accomplishment, on August 25 of the same year, the Dodgers got 13 hits but were shut out by Philadelphia.

 

25. The SQUEEZE

In a darkening Southern California afternoon, Pedro Guerrero breaks down the third-base line. A rookie pinch-hitter, R.J. Reynolds, making his 27
th
career plate appearance, watches Atlanta pitcher Gene Garber begin his follow-through, and drops the bat from his shoulder into bunting position like water flowing downstream.

It's the final play of a game that stood for more than 20 years as the greatest in Dodger Stadium history. The play comes during the softening glow of a heated September pennant race, the Dodgers clinging to a two-game lead in the NL West after losing in extra innings to the Braves the previous night.

It comes hours after Jack Fimple, one of those temporary heroes the Dodgers find from time to time, adds to his fleeting legend by doubling in two second-inning runs. It comes hours after Atlanta center fielder Dale Murphy almost single-handedly throttles the Dodgers, hitting a three-run homer in the top of the third and then going above and nearly through the outfield fence in the bottom of the inning to steal Guerrero's two-run bid. It comes hours after the Dodgers use four pitchers in the fourth inning to try to keep the game from becoming a complete runaway; the home team is fortunate to escape the inning with only a 6–2 deficit.

The play comes through a small opening in the fabric of baseball reality, a pathway carved by the truly bizarre. Future Dodgers manager Joe Torre, then helming the Braves, signals for relief pitcher Tony Brizzolara to come into a bases-loaded sixth without having him warm up that inning. Four balls to Steve Sax later, Brizzolara leaves the game with the Dodgers one run closer.

In a game that could be subtitled
A Series of Improbable Events
, the play comes after a ninth inning full of them.

Leading off, 38-year-old pinch-hitter Jose Morales offers a textbook-rejected swing, a Leaning Tower of Pisa flick of the wrists sending Donnie Moore's pitch into left field, far enough from Atlanta outfielder Brett Butler that Morales can come in standing with a double.

After Moore walks Sax, Garber enters the game and strikes out Bill Russell, and for a penetrating moment, there's a sense that the surreal has finally expired.

But then Dusty Baker hits a seeing-eye blooper to right field for a single to load the bases. And to a Dodgers fan base watching from home, Vin Scully rises:

This crowd is on its feet and pleading. They're all getting up. It is that time of day. Never mind the seventh-inning stretch. This is the wire.

And then Pedro Guerrero, in a nine-pitch at-bat that lasts a full six minutes, ekes out a walk to cut the deficit to 6–4.

It is almost too much to take. You'd have to be a block of wood not to feel it.

And then Mike Marshall hits a fly to right field that dovetails into one of the sun's gallant rays, stymieing Claudell Washington, who spins around but can't find the ball before it lands at the base of the outfield fence and allowing the tying runs to score.

The play comes with the infield in, with the outfield in. The play comes with Dodgers fans begging, imploring Reynolds to find a hole within or beyond that shortened field.

Guerrero breaks down the third-base line.

The SQUEEZE! And here comes the run!!

Dodgers 7, Braves 6. Bedlam.

 

26. And a Manny Shall Lead Them

As their 2008 season wound down to its final innings, the Dodgers' hopes appeared to rest on Manny Ramirez's ability to hit a five-run homer.

Based on what he had done to that point, you half-believed he could.

The Dodgers were not a one-man band in 2008, their 20
th
season since the heroics of Kirk Gibson. But they did need something of a hero: someone who could push them past the two decades of postseason struggles that had limited them to a single victory. Someone who could provide the power for a team that hadn't seen anyone hit more than 20 homers in a season since 2005. Joe Torre, the celebrated Yankee manager who had come out to helm the Dodgers following the 2007 season, couldn't exactly be expected to drive in the runs.

It was for that reason that the Dodgers went out in December 2007 and got a big-name, slugging outfielder. The team signed free agent Andruw Jones, who had averaged 31 home runs per season with the Atlanta Braves and was still only 30, to a two-year, $36.1 million contract—the highest average annual salary ever for a Dodger. Jones was coming off the poorest season of his career to that point, but most people found easy enough to explain away to injury.

Instead, Jones faltered to an almost unprecedented extent. Arriving at spring training overweight, Jones never, at any point, found his swing. He had a .275 on-base percentage and .273 slugging percentage through May 18, when he was sidelined by torn cartilage in his right knee. Unable to salvage his season, Jones finished with three home runs and a 32 OPS+, the lowest by a Dodger with at least 200 plate appearances in 97 years. Instead of being carried by Jones, the Dodgers had to carry his dead weight.

For a while, Rafael Furcal helped them do exactly that. The shortstop—a former teammate of Jones in Atlanta—was his solar opposite, a ball of flame in contrast to Jones' ice-cold bat. In his first 32 games, Furcal on-based .448 and slugged .597, positioning himself arguably as the NL's most valuable player to that point. But the injury bug didn't play favorites, striking Furcal in his back and taking him out of the Dodger lineup from May 5 to the final week of September. Within a week, the Dodgers had lost their projected and actual best hitters.

Add to this the struggles of 2007 staff ace Brad Penny, whose ERA more than doubled (3.03 in 2007, 6.27 in 2008) as he foolishly tried to pitch in pain before going on the disabled list for half the season, and the two-in-one-day spring training injuries to third basemen Andy LaRoche and Nomar Garciaparra, and you could get the sense that the 2008 Dodgers were a star-crossed team. Even though the division-leading Arizona Diamondbacks faded from their hot start, the Dodgers found themselves in the confounding position of being one game out of first place yet two under .500 (49-51) on July 22, when Colorado slaughtered them 10–1.

Four days later, the Dodgers acquired third baseman Casey Blake from Cleveland (at the cost of minor league pitcher Jonathan Meloan and catcher Carlos Santana, the 2008 California League MVP) to supplant Blake DeWitt and LaRoche. As the morning of the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline came, it seemed Blake would be the team's big move for success.

Then came Manny.

 

 

In 2008, the Dodgers needed someone who could push them past the two decades of postseason struggles and bring in the runs. Manny Ramirez was nothing less than a dream hitter, hitting 17 home runs and slugging .743, and was one hit shy of batting .400.

 

Despite leading the Boston Red Sox to its first two World Series titles in nearly a century, hammering 274 homers in 7
1/2
seasons and posting a .430 on-base percentage and .601 slugging percentage for them in 2008, Ramirez had earned the enmity of much of Boston through some malcontent behavior—an incident of pushing a front-office employee here, allegations of dogging it there. His actions seemed a transparent ploy—in theory with the encouragement of his new agent, Scott Boras—to force his employer to void the two remaining option years on his contract and render him a free agent, although the Red Sox never chose to suspend him. They did, however, decide they had had enough of him. So, in a three-way deal completed minutes before the deadline, the Dodgers sent LaRoche and minor league pitcher Bryan Morris to Pittsburgh, which sent All-Star outfielder Jason Bay to Boston, which sent two minor leaguers to the Pirates and one Manny Ramirez to Los Angeles.

That's when things really got crazy. Ramirez was every bit as fantastic as Jones was not. In 53 regular-season games, Ramirez hit 17 home runs and slugged .743. He reached base in nearly half his at-bats. He was one hit shy of batting .400. He whipped Dodger Stadium crowds and cash registers into delirium. He was nothing less than a dream hitter, providing, by all indications, the single greatest hitting performance by a trade-deadline acquisition ever.

Even so, three weeks after he arrived, the Dodgers went on an eight-game losing streak. Everything else had stopped working. This was worse than meandering—this was a death spiral. The team dropped 4
1/2
games behind the Diamondbacks, and faced two weekend games in Arizona against two of the best pitchers in the league: Dan Haren and Brandon Webb.

Improbably, in their darkest hour, the Dodgers responded. They won both games, kicking off a stretch in which the team went 18-5. Both young and old contributed, with Andre Ethier and starting pitcher Derek Lowe particularly catching fire. The Diamondbacks, who hadn't been able to bury the Dodgers when they had the chance, paid for it dearly. When they lost an afternoon game in St. Louis on September 25, they officially handed the NL West to the Dodgers.

That was all well and good, but there was still that matter of a postseason drought to contend with. The 84-78 Dodgers had to face the NL's top team, the 97–64 Chicago Cubs, in the best-of-five NL Division Series. Los Angeles was a decided underdog, a fate the team seemed destined to fulfill after Lowe, who had an ERA of 0.94 in his final nine regular-season starts, gave up a two-run second-inning home run to Mark DeRosa in the NLDS opener.

But James Loney, facing Cubs starter Ryan Dempster (who was left in the game with two out in the fifth inning even though he had just walked his seventh batter), blasted a grand slam to center field to give the Dodgers a lead they wouldn't relinquish for the rest of the series. They won 7–2 in Game 1, 10–3 in Game 2, and thanks to a taut performance by 33-year-old Japanese rookie Hiroki Kuroda, 3–1 in Game 3, sending the Dodgers into the best-of-seven NLCS for the first time since '88.

The Dodgers had been so dominant that they suddenly went from underdogs to favorites in their next matchup, even though they faced a team with a better record, the 92–70 NL East champion Philadelphia Phillies. Vexingly for Los Angeles, the Dodgers led in each of the first four games, but squandered the lead in three of them. Furcal, who had just come back from his long injury absence to excel against the Cubs, threw away a ball in the fifth inning of Game 1, setting the stage for Lowe to give up a two-run home run in what became a 3–2 loss at Philadelphia. Chad Billingsley, so exquisite during the regular season, quickly surrendered a 1-0 lead in Game 2 by allowing eight runs in 2
2/3
innings. The Dodgers tried to rally, but Blake's bid for a three-run game-tying home run was caught at the deepest part of the ballpark, and the Phillies held on 8–5.

Returning to Los Angeles, the Dodgers chased Phillies starter Jamie Moyer with six early runs in a 7–2 win behind Kuroda. And leading 5–3 with five outs to go in Game 4, the Dodgers were on the verge of tying the series. But there, the good times ended. Cory Wade and Jonathan Broxton, who between them had allowed three home runs at Dodger Stadium all year, each gave up two-run shots in the top of the eighth, and Philadelphia rallied for a 7–5 victory. Game 5 presented chances for the Dodgers to start one more back-to-the-wall comeback, but they couldn't take advantage, losing the final game of the series and the season 5–1.

The only Dodgers run of that game came on a home run by Ramirez, who was 13-for-25 with four homers and 11 walks in the playoffs.

As the Dodgers and their fans watched the Phillies defeat a young, spunky Tampa Bay Rays team in the World Series, they could comfort themselves with this. No longer were wins in the postseason an albatross. The Dodgers had made it back to baseball's Final Four. How soon before they would go farther?

After bringing Ramirez back, it began to seem that the wait would soon be over. The Dodgers raced out to a 21–8 start in 2009, with Ramirez delivering a monster .492 on-base percentage and .641 slugging. But proving that nothing for the Dodgers is ever simple, Ramirez was suspended on May 7 for 50 games for a violation of MLB's drug policy.

The Dodgers stayed afloat, once again reaching the NLCS for a rematch with the Phillies. And once again, the bullpen failed them. An out away from evening the series at 2–2, Broxton gave up a game-winning double to Philadelphia shortstop Jimmy Rollins, and another Dodger dream died. In the summer of the following year, no longer a fit with the squad, Ramirez was sent away.