After last night’s game, I realize my Dodgers to-do list needs some amending, viz.,
- Avoid spotting the other team any runs in the 1st inning, particularly when playing against their ace, but really any time would be bad. (Giving up five runs in the 7th and 8th is bad too, but first things first.)
- Figure out what the hitting part of the lineup is doing right and make the other half do it too. If that means sitting the slumping Andruw Jones for three games so he goes 3-5 with a triple like Matt Kemp did last night, so be it.
Doing our thought experiment, here’s the line as played:
LAD 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 1 5 11 1 AZ 3 0 2 0 0 0 4 1 X 10 12 0
And if the first inning hadn’t happened:
LAD 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 1 AZ 0 0 2 0 0 0 4 1 X LAD 5 AZ 7