Suddenly Hot Dodgers Add Depth With Belliard
Los Angeles is winning again, the division lead is back up to six games and they have traded for another hitter.
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Your newest Dodger, Ronnie Belliard.
What a difference a week makes. Last Monday the Dodgers division lead was down to three, about to slip a little more, the closer was struggling, nobody could hit with runners on base and the ship seemed to be full of holes.
Today, the Dodgers division lead is six, they are 7-3 in their last 10, Manny Ramirez is hitting again plus he scored the winning run Sunday in the 12th inning against Cincinnati. The ship is suddenly sailing along just fine.
Then the Dodgers went out and plugged another hole, getting Ronnie Belliard to be a pinch hitting specialist for the stretch and the playoffs (he can play some backup infield spots, too). All it cost them was low class A prospect Luis Garcia.
Belliard has not had much of a bat this year, hitting .247, but over the course of his career he has destroyed left-handed pitching. He also was a starter for the 2006 St. Louis team that won the World Series. That’s a good thing to have on the bench in the playoffs.
And the Dodgers again appear comfortably headed to the playoffs, thanks in large part to the pitching staff that has carried them the last month. Sunday was a good example — the Dodgers struck out 20 Reds batters (starter Clayton Kershaw had 11 of those, closer Jonathon Broxton added three more). The Dodger bullpen in the last two weeks has given up just four earned runs in 45.2 innings (that is a 0.79 ERA) and is getting people out like it was May again.
They are even starting to get a little help. Matt Kemp had three home runs last week, and Manny Ramirez is hitting the ball hard again the last couple of games (after striking out with the bases loaded and the game on the line Friday night).
Still, hitting with men on base continues to be an issue for the Dodgers most days. In the 12-inning win over Cincinnati Sunday, the Dodgers had at least one base runner in every inning (including several leadoff batters) but failed to push a run across until the fifth chance. Double play balls and Joe Torre not wanting to use his leadoff hitter to sacrifice a man to second base were part of the problems.
But in the end, they did get the win. And suddenly that seems to be happening a lot more lately.
