15 posts tagged “dodger stadium”

2 violent episodes raise questions about safety at Angel Stadium

After two violent incidents at Angel Stadium this season, one in which a man died while in a fight, and now an off-duty cop shot two people who were allegedly attacking him with bottles, there is a growing perception that the slimebag criminal and thug element that infests Dodger Stadium like a cancer is spreading to games in Anaheim.

Is this true?

Too soon to tell, and probably not. The fight that occurred earlier this season where a man died, was not between fans of different teams. It was, "Angel on Angel" violence so to speak, and the death was a freak accident that was not intended. The man hit his head on the concrete and died as a result. He was not stabbed nor shot, and while being punched in the face doesn't make things better, it's not quite the same thing.

The incident that occurred on Wednesday night is tragic, but still unclear as to what was going on. It is not believed to be a matter of Rockies fans attacking an Angels fan or vice versa. But what exactly happened, we only have the cop's version of. His story is that he was being attacked by two men with bottles, and he shot them to protect himself and his family. Both men are in the hospital, so it should be interesting to see what their side of the story is.

But these are extremely isolated incidents.

Violent events are not isolated at Dodger Stadium, and it is well-known that if you go to Dodger games rooting for the opposition, you are taking your safety into your own hands. Especially if you're a Giants fan.

America saw what kind of fans the Lakers had the night the team won the NBA Championship as they rioted and destroyed downtown Los Angeles. If you saw footage from the victory parade at the Los Angeles Coliseum 3 days later, you could see a lot of those same "people," just better-behaved due to the overwhelming police presence and "zero tolerance" criminal behavior policy they had in effect for the parade.

The Dodgers share that same element of fans and if they ever won the World Series, Los Angeles would be decimated.

The Angels do not typically attract the same type of fan because most Angel fans have class. There will always be people who are the exception to that, but the organization has a well-deserved reputation for being family-friendly and having a fanbase that is primarily well-behaved. The same cannot be said for Dodger fans.

Longtime Angel fans quoted in the L.A. Times article above may fear that things are getting worse at the Stadium, but that doesn't seem to be a valid fear at this stage. Hopefully it never will become legitimate.

The summary for this New York Mets loss to the L.A. Dodgers is a LOT simpler than the debacle on Monday night in the 11th inning.

Chad Billingsley was shaky early on, throwing a plethora of pitches through 4 innings but was able to right himself after giving up 3 earned runs to the Mets. Billingsley also helped his cause with a walk and two base hits off John Maine, one of which was a double that scored Casey Blake.

John Maine was a little iffy at start, although he wasn't helped out by another Daniel Murphy error in leftfield. Juan Pierre hit a sinking line drive to the opposite field, and while Murphy tracked it down, it went off his glove and Juan Pierre made it to second base with ease. He eventually scored to give the Dodgers the early 1-0 lead.

In the top of the 1st inning, Daniel Murphy got picked off of 1st base in one of those baserunning mistakes that shouldn't happen, as he broke for 2nd far too soon.

The Mets got the lead back in the 2nd inning thanks to a surprising bases loaded hit up the middle from John Maine that scored David Wright and Jeremy Reed.

The Mets tacked on another run in the 3rd when David Wright singled in Carlos Beltran, although Wright got caught trying to take 2nd base on the throw into the infield from CF Matt Kemp.

That's all the Met offense was able to muster as far as runs in this game. The Dodgers got back a run in the 4th when Billingsley hit the aforementioned double.

But the big blow came on Pitch #101. With two men (Loney and Kemp) on base and one man out in the bottom of the 6th, Casey Blake blasted a home run into the leftfield bleachers to give the Dodgers a 5-3 lead which they held onto for the W.

The Mets' best chance to fight back came in the top of the 8th against reliever Cory Wade. Beltran led off the inning with a single, and David Wright then walked. Ryan Church flied out to leftfield. At this point, 2B Ramon Martinez was up at the plate. While it was only his 2nd game, Martinez had already struck out three times (all against Billingsley) and was probably not the best guy to be hitting in this position. So of course, I wondered why Jerry Manuel wasn't using Luis Castillo in this spot as a pinch-hitter. It's possible Castillo was unavailable, but I don't know. There's of course, no guarantee that Castillo is able to do the job in this spot, but he does have very good RISP numbers this season, and he's certainly a better hitter than Ramon Martinez.

Martinez ended up grounding into a 4-3 double play.

Big John Broxton pitched an easy 9th inning against the bottom of the order for the Mets (Reed, Santos, Pagan) and that was the ballgame.

Any bright spots for the Mets? Sure. The bullpen didn't let the game get out of hand once Maine left. Ken Takahashi gave up a Juan Pierre single before getting Furcal to ground into a 5-4-3 double play to get the Mets out of the 6th inning. Sean Green pitched a perfect 7th, and Frankie Rodriguez pitched a perfect 8th.

At the plate, David Wright and Carlos Beltran continue to hit extremely well. The problem is, they're currently the only ones doing so, but neither are doing it with the longball.

While the New York Mets curently lead the majors in hitting with a .291 BA, they also have the 4th fewest home runs as a team, with 26 total. While you can definitely win games without the longball, the lack of Delgado's power bat in the lineup is going to start becoming more and more noticeable if no one else (Tatis, Sheffield) is able to step up in the SLG department.

Man stabbed after Dodger Stadium home opener

7:38 PM | April 13, 2009

The Dodgers home opener against the San Francisco Giants was marred by violence Monday afternoon when a man was stabbed multiple times after getting into an argument with several men in a pickup truck, Los Angeles police said.

The stabbing was reported at 5:43 p.m. in parking lot 6 at Dodger Stadium, said Officer Karen Rayner. The victim, who was not immediately identified, was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in serious condition.

Police are searching for the assailant, who fled with two others in a black pickup truck, Rayner said.

"Officers have a good description of the vehicle and the suspects, and we expect to make arrests," she said.

About the same time,  police received a report of a man with a gun in parking lot 4. Rayner said police later determined that the man had been vandalizing cars and was unarmed. He fled before officers arrived.

Despite scattered incidents of violence at the stadium, there have been no cases of significant  violence in recent years.

Complaints about unruly fans at the ballpark continue, and the stadium has a history of problems that critics have blamed on lax security.

In 2003, Marc Antenorcruz of West Covina was walking out of the stadium after a game when he got into an argument with a group of men that included Pete Marron. Marron was later convicted of shooting Antenorcruz to death.

Fan misbehavior stemming from a club promotion early in the 2005 season led the Dodgers to hire uniformed Los Angeles Police Department officers to patrol the stands. 

Later that year, a clash between private security guards and unlicensed vendors working near the stadium turned into a violent brawl after a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, leaving several men hospitalized with stab wounds.

-- Andrew Blankstein

There was a man behind home plate in Game 5 of the NLCS between the Dodgers and Phillies wearing a "Beat L.A." t-shirt. It was not me.

That is a brave man, although granted, at the very high prices he paid for those seats, he's not exactly going to encounter the same kind of Dodger scum that sits in the 5-peso bleacher seats.

If it had been me in those seats, I would've went a step further, with a "Dodgers SUCK" t-shirt.

In any case, I predicted the Dodgers to win this series in 6 games, and I was wrong. So happy to be wrong. The Phillies couldn't stop Manny Ramirez, but they didn't have to. Chad Billingsley pitched terribly in the playoffs, allowing the Phillies offense to tee off on him.

The Dodgers bullpen, notably Jonathan Broxton, but he was hardly the only one, failed big-time in game 4 when both he and Cory Wade failed to hold a 2-run lead over Philadelphia of 5-3. Shane Victorino and Matt Stairs both hit 2-run homers in the Phillies 8th inning and went on to win the game 7-5.

Rafael Furcal was the goat of Game 5, committing 3 errors in one inning! But while Dodger scumbag fans will likely try to put all the blame on him, the reality is that the Phillies were the better team and that once J-Roll hit the lead-off solo blast to start the game, that gave Cole Hamels the momentum and confidence he needed to shut down the Dodgers offense.

While this was the first time in 20 years that the Dodgers managed to win a playoff series and went onto the NLCS, they still got eliminated at Dodger Stadium. Boo fucking hoo, Dodger bitches. Your scumbags fans will have to save their World Series riots and looting for another season. Hopefully in 2161 when I am long dead.

So my predictions for this this postseason weren't 100% right, but I was at 50%, which is more than I can say for last year's abominable picks.

A quick recap...

ALDS:
Boston Red Sox vs. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
My prediction: Angels in 5
Reality: Red Sox in 4

This postseason loss to the Red Sox was far more annoying than the sweeps of 2004 and 2007, because the 2008 Angels were a much better team than the 2008 Red Sox. And the dumbest decision ever by Mike Scioscia was what ultimately got the team eliminated from the postseason.

Tampa Bay Rays vs. Chicago White Sox
My prediction: Rays in 4
Reality: Rays in 4

Tampa is for real and they do not lose at home. Keep that in mind.

NLDS:
Chicago Cubs vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
My prediction: Cubs in 3
Reality: Dodgers in 3

Right number of games, TOTALLY wrong team. Not a single sports writer I've ever seen, read, or heard, predicted this result. Even those who picked L.A. to win, didn't pick them in a 3-game sweep. It's not even necessarily that the Dodgers are a better team. I think that was only clearly established in game 3 at Chavez Ravine. But the games at Wrigley when the Cubs fumbled balls all over the place, had their pitchers melt down, etc. It was like they were cursed or something.

Philadelphia Phillies vs. Milwaukee Brewers
My prediction: Phillies in 4
Reality: Phillies in 4

The Brewers aren't much of a playoff team without Sabathia, and ironically Sabathia didn't help them out. You can only pitch on short rest consecutively so many times before you wear out.

So now it's down to 4 teams and here are my picks:

ALCS:
Boston Red Sox vs. Tampa Bay Rays

This is a tough pick. The Rays won the regular season matchup for the second time in franchise history, 10-8. Tampa also beat Boston in the regular season series in 1999, 9 games to 4.

One of the keys to this stat is that of the 18 games played between these two teams, only 2 of them were won by the visiting team. Each team won a total of one game at the opposition's home park.

Because the Rays are for real, and Boston is very tough in the postseason lately, as well as defending World Champions, I expect this series to be completely based on home-field advantage. Tampa is not only a very good team, but they are a team that knows how to play on the artificial turf at the Tropicana Dome. They don't lose there, and that's going to be important in beating Boston since as the AL East winners, they possess home-field advantage over Boston.

My prediction: Tampa Bay in 7 games.

NLCS:
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

Here's the bottom line...
Manny Ramirez.

Manny Ramirez is a proven postseason performer and winner. His impact on the team has not only been noted in the regular season with both stats and clubhouse chemistry, but clearly it's carried over into the postseason. Manny had 2 HRs in the Chicago series, and he's going to be just as dangerous in the NLCS, although I did hear that the Phillies' pitching staff has been the most successful against Manny this season in shutting him down.

In 10 games this season, Manny Ramirez was held to a .212 BA (7 for 33) with 1 HR by Philadelphia.
At Citizen's Bank Park, the numbers get worse. In 6 of those 10 games, Manny hit .136 (3 for 22).

So if any team is able to shut down Manny Ramirez, it's the Phillies.

Of course, there are a lot of other players who play for the Dodgers, and they've all been playing a lot better ever since Manny joined the team.

Looking at the regular season matchups, each team swept the opposition on their own home field in 4 games. All 8 of those games were played in August, when Manny Ramirez was already on the team. The Phillies won 4 at home, the Dodgers won 4 at home. There's certainly a strong home-field advantage implication based on the how the two teams played each other during the regular season.

Breaking this down even further... the Phillies have the better bullpen, the Dodgers have the better starters. The power advantage goes to the Phillies, but the overall hitting goes to the Dodgers.

The Dodgers have Joe Torre as their manager, who definitely has a LOT more postseason managerial experience than Phillies manager Charlie Manuel. Joe Torre is my pick for NL Manager of the Year, having kept a very mediocre team afloat and relatively competitive during the first half of the 2008 regular season, improved clubhouse relations between the young players (Ethier, Martin, Loney, DeWitt, Kemp) and the veterans (Kent, Garciaparra, Furcal, Lowe) and then successfully managed a controversial Manny Ramirez, who from most accounts, improved clubhouse relations across the board to the point that his newly-found position as a clubhouse leader has carried the team to new heights.

There's also the momentum factor that favors the Dodgers. Not so much because they won in 3 and Phillies won in 4, but because the Cubs weren't supposed to lose that series, nevermind getting swept.

I really really really hope I am wrong about my prediction, because I loathe the Dodgers and their know-nothing no-class scumbag fans with every last breath. But...

My prediction: Dodgers in 6 games.

God I fucking hope not.

In what has to be the most shocking upset in the postseason over the last... 20 years, the Dodgers were the ones doing the sweeping of the Cubs, instead of vice versa.

The team that won the least regular season games of all playoff teams, beat the NL-best Chicago Cubs in 3 straight games.

While everyone and their mother has been predicting "this is the year" for the Chicago Cubs to win the World Series, I was not going that far, as I believe Lou Piniella is not the manager the Cubs need to get there no matter how well they perform in the regular season. But all that aside, the Cubs should not have been swept by the Dodgers of all teams.

The first two games at Wrigley, which were thought to be games that the Cubs had locked up with ease, were laughers (or in the case of Cub fans, criers) considering the whupping that the Dodgers put on the Cubs.

In Game 1, Derek Lowe managed to outpitch Ryan Dempster, and the rest of the Cubs bullpen didn't help matters. And the inability to score more than 2 runs in that game (thanks to a Mark DeRosa HR) was all their offense could muster.

The Cubs defense let them down bigtime in Game 2, leading to numerous errors that gave the Dodgers game 2. While Manny Ramirez hit solo HRs in each of the games at Wrigley, the Dodger offense consisted of 17 runs scored over those two games. Even Manny can't do all that by himself.

Game 3 was the most competitive in the series, with the Dodgers winning by a final score of 3-1. Hiroki Kuroda shut down the Cub bats through 6.1 IP, and their bullpen of Cory Wade and Jonathan Broxton held the lead (Wade gave up 1 ER) leading the Dodgers to their first postseason series win in 20 years.

Remember, this is a team that made a habit out of losing in the 1st round. That habit is unfortunately, no more.

With this momentum, the Dodgers have to be taken a lot more seriously in an NLCS matchup against the Phillies, and heavily favored against the Brewers if Milwaukee can rebound.

On Sunday, I will ATTEMPT to do some liveblogging of the playoff games, but we'll see how many I can do.

Fucking Dodgers. Why won't you die?

Well, the Mets once again miss the postseason, but there's still plenty of great baseball to be played in October.
Last year my predictions for the 1st round were pretty much wrong across the board, so maybe this year I'll get some right?

ALDS:
Los Angeles Angels vs Boston Red Sox.

These two teams have met in the playoffs twice before. 2004 in the ALDS, and 2007 in the ALDS.
Both times, Boston swept the Angels 3-0.

However, in 2004 and 2007, Boston had the advantage over the Angels in regular season play. In 2004, Boston won the season series 5-4. In 2007, Boston won the season series 6-4.

In 2008, the Angels won the season series 8-1. That's not even close. The Angels were able to go into Fenway and win. The Angels had identical records at home and away in 2008, 50-31. They are also the ONLY AL team in the postseason with a winning record on the road.

The Red Sox may not have Josh Beckett available to go, they don't have Manny or Schilling anymore, and they are not as good of a team as they have been in the past. J.D. Drew may not be available either with a bad back. Mike Lowell is hurt, etc.

With Mark Teixiera, the Angels are a deeper team with power, something they've lacked in postseasons of the past.

Also, this time the Angels possess home-field advantage, which they did not have in 2004 or 2007 against Boston.

All of the tangibles heavily favor the Angels, but Boston is still gonna be tough.

My prediction: Angels in 5 games.

ALDS:
Chicago White Sox vs Tampa Bay Rays

Regular season, Tampa won the season series 6-4.

Tampa has a slight advantage in that they are a little more well-rested than the White Sox, having finished up play on Sunday. Chicago will get a break on Wednesday before beginning the series in Tampa at the Trop, where Tampa is practically unbeatable with the best home record in the majors at 57-24.

The White Sox also posted a terrible 4-16 record in games on artificial turf this season. Which means they did very poorly when playing in Toronto, Minnesota, and Tampa Bay.

Too many ignorant fans still think Tampa Bay lucked their way into the postseason, as opposed to recognizing that they're a very very good team. Tampa's only real question mark is their bullpen right now.

My prediction: Tampa in 4 games.

NLDS:
Philadelphia Phillies vs Milwaukee Brewers

Milwaukee nearly missed the postseason with a terrible September. Only a winning series against the Chicago Cubs, coupled with the Mets losing series against the Florida Marlins, allowed them to win the wild card.

The Brewers have a very tough offense, but they're also very weak on pitching once CC Sabathia is no longer on the mound. And now #2 starter Ben Sheets is out of the postseason with a torn muscle near his pitching elbow.

The Brewers bullpen is frankly, dogshit compared to the Phillies' pen. Brad Lidge may have had playoff chokes in the past, but Albert Pujols is nowhere to be found in the playoffs this year.

The Phillies also will have home-field advantage. I give the Brewers one win in the series, figuring it's the one Sabathia pitches.

My prediction: Philadelphia in 4 games.

NLDS:
Chicago Cubs vs Los Angeles Dodgers

The L.A. Dodgers have won a total of 1 playoff game in 20 years since their 1988 World Championship. That 1 game was in the 2004 NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals, when Jose Lima pitched a CG SHO 4-0 win over the Cards.

In 1995, 1996, 2004, and 2006, the Dodgers made the playoffs. And they were swept 3 of those 4 times (Cubs, Braves, Mets) in first-round 3-0 laughers.

The 2008 Dodgers have the worst regular season record of all the playoff teams at 84-78, fattened up in September on the very weak NL West (and Pirates) by going 17-8 when it counted. A lot of that success was due to the Manny Ramirez effect. Manny batted just under .400 since joining the Dodgers on August 1, and he (as well as Casey Blake) have been huge contributors to the success of the Blue Crew.

But so has facing teams like the Giants, Padres and Rockies so often in the 2nd half.

The Cubs on the other hand, are the best team in the NL, beat the Dodgers 5 out of 7 times in the regular season, (the Wrigley series was in May without Manny or Blake on the team, and as such, the Dodgers scored 1 run in each game of that Cubs sweep) and are a superior team in every imaginable way.

Then there's the Wrigley advantage. Cubs will have home field advantage, and them losing at Wrigley isn't happening. The only real question mark is Carlos Zambrano's health. Zambrano probably will only need one start in this series, and he won't be pitching the opener.

Dodgers starter Derek Lowe has gone 5-1 with a 0.94 ERA in his last nine starts, which is the best run of any pitcher in the majors over that time period. He even outpitched Zambrano at Wrigley in May, only to have closer Takashi Saito blow the game for him.

With Lowe on the mound, it's probably the Dodgers' best chance to win a game. Except I don't see it happening since he'll be facing Ryan Dempster.

My prediction:
The Dodgers will continue their record of being 1st-round losers, being swept by the Chicago Cubs in 3 games.

After losing Thursday and Friday's games by a score of 2-1 to the Padres, the Mets offense desperately needed to come through.

Saturday night pitted erratic Mets lefty Oliver Perez against 5th starter Cha Seung Baek. Oliver Perez rebounded very well from his implosion against San Francisco on June 2, going 5.1 IP, giving up 4 H, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 ER which was a solo HR from Padre catcher Michael Barrett in the 5th inning.

The Mets were able to score their lone run in the 2nd after Endy Chavez hit a sac fly to leftfield with bases loaded. Beltran scored on the play, and the runners advanced on the throwing error courtesy of Padres leftfielder Justin Huber which was wayyyyyy up the 1st base line.

And the problem is, that's the only run the Mets scored. Three nights in a row, they scored 1 run. Is it any surprise they don't win these games?

The Mets had many other chances to take advantage of Padres pitching, but failed to deliver.

2nd inning: After Chavez's sac fly, catcher Brian Schneider was intentionally walked since 1st base was empty in order to get to pitcher Oliver Perez. He fouled out to 3B Kevin Kooooooozmanoff, and Jose Reyes grounded out. Only 1 run scored in the inning.

The team also had runners in scoring position during the 3rd and 5th innings, though both times with 2 out. They could not convert the runs.

On the pitching side of things, the Mets bullpen kept them in the ballgame, as did San Diego's. Manager Willie Randolph used his bullpen as effectively as possible, making the right decisions every time. He removed Perez in the 6th inning after Perez had put two runners by hitting them with a pitch. With 1 out in the inning, Joe Smith came in to undo the damage, but even he ended up hitting SS Khalil Greene with a pitch to load the bases.

Smith got pinch-hitter Tony Clark to ground to Carlos Delgado, who threw home to Brian Schneider for the forceout. Smith then got Michael Barrett to strike out swinging to end the inning.

Met relievers Scott Schoeneweis and Duaner Sanchez combined to pitch 3 scoreless innings before Pedro Feliciano threw 1 pitch to Scott Hairston in the 10th inning which ended up landing in the left-centerfield bleachers to win the game.

The part of the game where the Mets COMPLETELY blew it, was in the 10th inning.

With Padres reliever Mike Adams on the mound, Luis Castillo took a leadoff walk. Those usually come back to get a lot of pitchers.

David Wright had the chance to move Castillo over, or even in. But David struck out.

Castillo got himself to 2nd base by stealing it himself.

Carlos Beltran struck out.

Carlos Delgado was given an intentional pass, and pinch-hitting was the "threat to no one with a bat," Raul Casanova. It was at this stage that lefty Ryan Church would've been a perfect pinch-hitter, but the fact that he wasn't, spoke volumes about his current medical condition.

Casanova of course, grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.

What Pedro Feliciano did afterwards, was practically inconsequential. When you're the home team in extra innings, you have the advantage. And at least in this game, unlike Thursday night when Scott Schoeneweis gave the ballgame away by hitting a batter, Feliciano got beat by a Hairston HR swing. And in that situation, you tip your cap to Hairston.

But the Mets should have scored more than once.

Even more frustrating, was that not only did I get to "witness history" in that the Padres became the first team in MLB history to win 4 consecutive games by a 2-1 score (one against the Cubs, 3 against the Mets), but they got solid starting pitching performances from Mike Pelfrey, Johan Santana, and Oliver Perez.

Jose Reyes was 0-for-5. Carlos Beltran and David Wright each had a single, but both struck out once, in the aforementioned 10th inning with go-ahead runner Luis Castillo on base.

The only bright spot in the game? Carlos Delgado continues to hit, as he went 3-for-4 with 2 singles, a double, a K and an IBB. If only he can find that power swing that made him a force to be reckoned with.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday's game had to be better. After all, Pedro Martinez would be pitching! It was funny how a few people at the hotel kept saying, "Well we'll win tomorrow cause Pedro will save us." And I responded, "Have you seen the games lately? Starting pitching isn't exactly the issue right now."

As long as the team didn't lose another 2-1 game, things had to look up. They just had to.

And for a while, they did.

Pedro Martinez was staked to a 3-0 lead in the 1st. While Jose Reyes couldn't get on base, Padres starter Wil Ledezma walked Luis Castillo and David Wright. What did Carlos Beltran do in this situation? Oh he flied out for the second out.

Damion Easley singled to centerfield to score Luis Castillo. And then Carlos Delgado roped a TRIPLE to rightfield which scored Wright and Easley. Yes, Carlos Delgado, triple. You read that right.

But then the Padres struck back with 3 of their own. One of those runs came off a bases loaded BALK from Pedro, which I think all the umpires simultaneously called. A nearby fan told us they saw Pedro's hands go together and then come apart without him stepping off. Why Pedro flinched in this situation, who knows.

I should mention that Endy Chavez nailed Edgar Gonzalez with a perfect throw to David Wright, as Gonzalez tried to take third base after Brian Giles' single. The damage could've been even worse for Pedro if not for that play.

In the 2nd inning, the Mets showed some aggressiveness on the basepaths when Endy Chavez and Jose Reyes did the double steal of destiny, taking 3rd and 2nd respectively with 1 out. Luis Castillo's sac fly scored Chavez. David Wright failed in the clutch again as he flied to centerfield for the 3rd out.

Pedro didn't pitch too well today, going 5 IP, giving up 10 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 4 K. Not a Pedro-like outing. But despite his pitching, the offense was doing something they hadn't been doing the last 3 games. They were scoring runs.

Claudio Vargas and Scott Schoeneweis each pitched an inning of scoreless relief.

The Mets scored their 6th run when Carlos Delgado scored from 3rd base on an Endy Chavez bunt single with 2 out. The Mets were doing everything right. Bullpen? Check. Aggressive on the basepaths? Check. Delgado a homerun short of the cycle? Check!

But then the 8th inning came... and everything changed for the worse. A lot worse.

Met Reliever Duaner Sanchez gave up a leadoff double to rookie callup Craig Stansberry. He then struck out righty Khalil Greene, walked switch-hitting backup backup catcher Luke Carlin (who was hitting lefty in the AB), and struck out righty Scott Hairston, denying Hairston the opportunity to be a hero two games in a row.

Willie Randolph went to the bullpen to closer Billy Wagner, to face lefty Jody Gerut. Wagner has been great this season, only giving up 1 ER so far. Surely with 2 out, and Wagner on the hill, this 6-4 lead was safe.

Except Jody Gerut singled to right-center to score Craig Stansberry. The score was now 6-5.

Padre manager then went to his bench, using switch-hitter Tony Clark. Over the past 3 seasons, Clark has been absolutely terrible when hitting from the right side. His power comes from his left side, so Wagner was clearly going to dominate this matchup and hold onto the 1-run lead.

Ex-Met, Ex-Yankee, Ex-Diamondback, Ex-Tiger, Ex-Red Sox... Tony Clark. Even Padre fans around us didn't care for him, as he's been pretty bad for them all season so far.

Except on Sunday, Tony Clark was the hero. He took Wagner's 96 MPH fastball and belted a 414-ft blast to straight-away centerfield, putting the Padres ahead 8-6.

And what can you do but shake your head and scream in anger? The normally dominant-closer lost a battle to someone he shouldn't have. Tony Clark is not Albert Pujols. He's not even Adrian Gonzalez.

But on Sunday, Tony Clark was the man. Billy Wagner was not.

I'm sure as angry as I was, Willie Randolph was probably even more pissed off. The team was finally hitting, the bullpen was doing a decent job, and the Mets looked like they were going to at least leave San Diego with one win before the trip home.

It didn't happen. "Hells Bells" closer Trevor Hoffman came in for the 1-2-3 9th and recorded his 14th save of the year.

The Mets got swept. They lost 2-1, 2-1, 2-1, and 8-6. And strangely, the 8-6 loss hurt the most, because it occurred in the most improbable fashion to a team that had no business winning the series, nevermind sweeping it.

This team clearly has problems:

• Ryan Church is a complete unknown at this point.
  
• Endy Chavez is great on defense, not so great on offense, although he did hit well in the San Diego series, going 5-for-14 with 2 RBIs.
  
• Fernando Tatis had a couple of clutch hits during the Marlins series weeks back. But he's been terrible since.
• David Wright and Carlos Beltran are supposed to be the power of the team, and they're not providing it. Especially Beltran, who struck out three fucking times on Sunday. Both went hitless, but at least Wright drew two walks.
• On a more macro scale, when they pitch well, they don't hit. When they hit, they don't pitch well. And that was the exact story of the Padres series. Now spread that over the season, and you have a team that is now two games under .500.
  

This was my third trip in 5 seasons to see the Mets play the Padres at PETCO Park. Though this is the first time we stayed overnight. For most people in Los Angeles, it's about a 2.5-hour trip down when you factor in traffic.

Unlike other places (ahem, Dodger Stadium), the fans are by and large very friendly. Lots of families, lots of older people, and even some younger ones too. It's a good crowd, perhaps in some ways uninterested and apathetic, but I've never had a bad experience there as a fan of the opposition.

And what's more, there were plenty of Met fans around to support their team. A lot of people we spoke with over the weekend said that PETCO and AT&T Park (San Francisco) are the nicest ballparks in the bigs. While I have yet to go to places like Camden Yards, Nationals Park, Turner Field, (it's a long list now that so many older parks I've been to are gone), the Padres organization and the city of San Diego really put together an excellent stadium. The prices are right, the atmosphere is good, and they've even put a competitive team on the field the last couple of seasons.

Although I did have a pretzel there with the most awful mustard ever known to mankind.

I'll always hold a fondness for Wrigley Field, but PETCO and AT&T Parks are excellent places to catch a baseball game, no matter who is playing.

After winning the opener Friday night of the freeway series by a score of 4-2, the Angels continued their insane dominance of the Dodgers in Anaheim. The Angels have won eight of the last nine, gone 15-3 in the last 18 meetings played in Anaheim, and lead the all-time series 36-27.

By the end of the weekend, that would change to 16-4 over the last 20 meetings between the two, and the Angels would lead the all-time series 37-28.

Saturday's game pitted the Angels' undefeated Ervin Santana against the Dodger's Chan Ho Park.

Of course, you're wondering, is this 1998? Nope, it's the final chapter in the career of the former Dodger, Ranger, Padre,  Met for .5 seconds (1 start, 4 IP, 7 ER), and Dodger again.

That last Met start that Park made was on 4/30/07, and was the last start he had made at the MLB level. He's mostly been used by the Dodgers in long-relief out of the bullpen, and has done pretty well in that role.

On Saturday, he made a spot start for L.A., and matched up against Ervin Santana, you would think for sure that this one was going to the Angels before the first pitch was ever thrown. But, as is the unpredictability of baseball, that wasn't the case.

The Dodgers struck first on Santana in the 2nd inning when 3B Blake DeWitt hit a 2-run HR into the chest of a Dodger fan sitting in the front row of the RF bleachers. The fan dropped the ball, and Angel manager Mike Scioscia argued briefly for fan interference, but the umpires ruled it would've cleared the wall regardless. After seeing it on replay at home, I'd agree with the ump's call. Still, plays like that are the primary reason why baseball MUST have instant replay.

The Dodgers scored two more in the 3rd by after a leadoff walk to Rafael Furcal's replacement at shortstop Chin-Lung Hu, then Juan Pierre got HBP. Andre Ethier and Russell Martin each singled in a run, and the Dodgers went up 4-0.

The Angels fought back in the 4th with their only 2 runs of the game, one of them on 1B James Loney's throwing error to 2nd. It could've been worse for Chan Ho Park, who had gotten his pitch count up to 82 in just 4 innings. Did I mention that gametime temperature was 100 degrees?

So after 4 innings, that was it for Chan Ho Park, and also it for the chances of the Angels scoring again. Because now it was time for Hong-Chih Kuo, and I'm really tired of seeing this guy.

Kuo is an otherwise bad pitcher (1-4, 7.42 ERA in 2007, struggled to stay with the Dodgers) who owned the New York Mets last season in 2 starts. He then relieved a struggling Hiroki Kuroda on May 6 against the Mets at Dodger Stadium, and shut down the Mets offense for the rest of the game before Broxton and Saito finished things up for a 5-4 Dodger victory.

Sure enough, Kuo shut down the Angels for 4 IP scattering 3 hits, striking out 4, walking none.

The Dodgers tacked on 2 more runs in late innings to go up 6-2. Takashi Saito pitched the 9th for Los Angeles, gave up an inconsequential run, got the save, and the Dodgers won in Angel Stadium for only the 4th time in the last 7 years by a final of 6-3.

I believe this was the first time in MLB history that pitchers from South Korea (Park), Taiwan (Kuo) and Japan (Saito) combined for a victory. You'll have to check with Elias on that.

Ervin Santana didn't pitch that poorly, but he got no run support from his team, and he has looked better in most of his other starts this season. He suffered his first loss this year, going to a 6-1 record.

Random thoughts from tonight's game.

- As often as it is noted that Oliver Perez can be erratic, the same goes for Chad Billingsley. Unfortunately for the Mets, the good Chad Billingsley showed up, so did the crappy Oliver Perez.

- What's the story of the game? Furcal HR, Dewitt's first MLB HR, Kemp's HR. Perez sucked, Billingsley was great. I suppose the silver lining was that Perez didn't leave in the 2nd inning like last time?

- How great was Billingsley? He threw 1 ball in the first inning, and was hammering the 1-2-3 batters with fastballs. I THINK he threw 12 total pitches that inning, 11 strikes. He only got in one real jam the whole game, and got out of it easily. He also K'd Wright twice.

- The Mets biggest threat was in the 2nd when they had Delgado on 2nd and Beltran on 3rd with 1 out. Billingsley got Schneider to K, and Castillo to ground out weakly to 3rd. This was also probably the early turning point in the game for the Dodgers as the Mets never had any runners reach 3rd again until Beltran's triple in the 6th.

- From my view, Brian Schneider was having a lot of trouble throwing guys out at 2B. 2 balls went into CF, one of them charged as an Error since Russell Martin was able to take 3rd as well.

- Andruw Jones is beyond awful, but this is known even to scumbag Dodger fans, who (deservingly) boo him at every AB. This team is lucky to have 4 out of 5 OFs who can hit.

- Conversely, all this talk about the best SS in the NL. Whether it's Hanley Ramirez, Jimmy Rollins, Jose Reyes, OH NO. Wrong Wrong Wrong!
The correct answer right now is Rafael Furcal, who is hitting up a crazy storm, and his arm for a SS is second-to-none.

- Beltran probably would have scored safely on his triple, had he went for the inside-the-park HR. But when you're down 5-0 in the 6th inning with 0 out, why risk it? It wasn't a sure thing that he'd be safe, and holding him up at 3rd was the right call. If it had been 2 out instead, you send him and hope for the best. Good thing Alou got his first RBI this season and broke the shutout. You think I wanted to leave that dump being shutout?

- Speaking of Alou, is it me or is he not hitting the way we had hoped? I know it's VERY early to judge him, but he's 2-for-11 so far, and those 2 hits were singles up the middle. He hasn't hit the ball HARD yet. Maybe he'll bang Kuroda around tomorrow.

- Dodgers bullpen was lights out. Beimel the 7th, Big John Broxton the 8th, Takashi Saito the 9th. Their pen has been very impressive over the last two seasons. It's their starting pitching past Penny, and I guess Billingsley on occasion, and lack of power bats (though you wouldn't know it tonight) which are their weaknesses.

- I thought it was... odd that Sosa pitched an inning tonight instead of Aaron Heilman. Sosa pitched Sunday against Arizona and got the club-leading 4th win. Heilman did not pitch. Either way, Sosa was fine, so I can only guess that Willie is hoping to use Aaron in Tuesday's game in the 7th or 8th, which I do believe is a game the Mets will win.

- Tuesday night's game pits Nelson Figueroa vs Hiroki Kuroda.
Kuroda has been mediocre for L.A. so far, Figueroa has been good enough for the Mets this season, although I am still of the opinion that once teams develop a book on him, he's going to fall off sharply come June if not sooner.

Won't be seeing this one in person, but I'll record it on the DVR and maybe end up watching it at some point riding the FF button. Although if they lose, will I really want to?