Recap: Dodgers Lose to End the Series

The Los Angeles Dodgers wrapped up their three-game series with the Chicago White Sox with a definitive loss earlier today. The White Sox held the Dodgers to only five hits during the entire game. However, both teams struggled offensively as the final score was only 2-0.

Clayton Kershaw was charged with the second loss of his career after surrendering two runs on six hits in four innings. Through four innings of work, the rookie tossed 69 pitches. Evidently, he needs to work on minimizing his pitch count and developing better control on his pitches.

Brian Falkborg made his 2008 debut for the Dodgers in today's game. He pitched one full inning, walking one batter. He needs to work on throwing strikes and not just waiting for batters to hit his pitches into play for an out.

The Dodgers look forward to an exciting Freeway Series with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim starting tomorrow night at 10:40 PM EST. Chan Ho Park is expected to be the starting-pitcher for the series-opener. Hopefully, the Dodgers will be more successful against the Angels than they were against the Chicago White Sox.

Recap: Stults Is the Star

Eric Stults stole the spotlight in last night's 5-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox. The 28-year-old hurler pitched his first complete game, allowing a total of only four hits. He also struck out three unlucky batters in his spectacular outing.

The youngster said, "When I was walking into the dugout after the eighth, I looked at the scoreboard and the pitch count. Joe shook my hand and said, `Good job,' and I went and sat down. And Russell was like, `You want to keep going?' I said yeah. So he went up to Joe, asked him if I could keep going. Joe looked at me and I was nodding my head yeah, so he said, `We'll take it one hitter at a time.' "Stults retired the side in order without any issues.

Blake DeWitt also had a significant impact on the outcome of the game. The rookie connected on a double in the bottom of the fourth-inning, sending James Loney and Matt Kemp home. These were his first RBI's since May 31.

Game Notes: White Sox vs. Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers' late-game with the Chicago White Sox is already underway. Thus far, Derek Lowe has struggled to contain Chicago's offense. For all of you new readers out there, the game notes which I have provided below, are basically the equivalence to a live-blog but with an emphasis on commentary. Also, my game notes attempt to exclude most of the boring and unnecessary details about the game.

Top of the First-Inning

• Orlando Cabrera, AJ Pierzynski, and Carlos Quentin opened up the game by filling up the bases on consecutive hits. Hopefully, Derek Lowe and the Los Angeles Dodgers can get out of this mess without surrendering a ton of runs. But with bases-loaded and no outs, it looks as if the White Sox will score some runs this inning.
• Derek Lowe gets Jermaine Dye to strike out swinging for the first out. Dye whiffed on Lowe's 86-MPH slider. When Lowe places his slider well in the strike-zone, it can be one of the deadliest pitches in his repertoire.
• Nick Swisher hit a deep sacrifice-fly to left-field scoring Orlando Cabrera. But, the Dodgers ended the inning on the next play when they got Pablo Ozuna to ground out. The Dodgers are lucky that only one run scored during this inning.
  

Top of the Second-Inning

• The top of the second-inning began with a single by Dewayne Wise. If Derek Lowe continues to open up innings by giving up hits, he won't be pitching deep into tonight's game. Joe Torre won't allow him to surrender endless hits on the mound.
  
• After Derek Lowe struck out Alexei Ramirez, Mark Buehrle connected on a sacrifice-flyball to move Wise to second-base. With runners in scoring-position and only one out in the inning, Dodgers fans must have a bad feeling in their stomach (and it's not from the Dodger Dogs).
  
• Orlando Cabrera scored Wise on an RBI-single. Derek Lowe has given up two runs thus far. On average, he usually surrenders about four runs every nine innings. Since he probably won't be pitching nine innings, does that mean that he will surrender those runs earlier in the game?
  
• Thankfully, the Dodgers ended the inning before it got any worse. AJ Pierzynski grounded out to James Loney who took the ball to the bag himself. On this rate of surrendering one run per inning, Derek Lowe may only last a few more innings before Joe Torre yanks him from the mound.

Bottom of the Second-Inning

• Andy LaRoche grounded into a spectacular double-play tagging James Loney out on the force at second-base. The Dodgers need to buckle down, both offensively and defensively, if they hope to win this game.

Top of the Third-Inning

• Joe Torre must have had a chat with Derek Lowe in the Dodgers' dugout. The hurler retired the side 1-2-3, striking out both Jermaine Dye and Nick Swisher. Evidently, Lowe must have Dye's number thus far in tonight's game.

Top of the Fourth-Inning

• Derek Lowe opened up the fourth-inning by walking Pablo Ozuna on four straight pitches. Then, Dewayne Wise whacked a double pushing Ozuna to third-base. But, the Dodgers got three straight outs on groundballs to end the inning.

Bottom of the Fourth-Inning

• Jeff Kent was called at safe at first-base on a throwing error by Orlando Cabrera. Russell Martin excited Dodgers fans by following up on the play with a single pushing Kent into scoring-position. But, unfortunately, the Dodgers could not capitalize on this scoring opportunity.

Bottom of the Fifth-Inning

• On a 1-1 count, Delwyn Young smashed a deep homerun to left-field. On my other blog, I wrote an article boldly naming him as the future of the Dodgers organization at second-base. He's making me look good tonight.

Top of the Seventh-Inning

• Derek Lowe whiffed both Mark Buehrle and Orlando Cabrera to end the inning. It's surprising to see him dominating this late in the game when he struggled earlier on tonight. Lowe should be able to pitch another inning or so if he doesn't get battered by the White Sox.

Top of the Eighth-Inning

• With one-out in the inning, Carlos Quentin singled to center-field. The Dodgers should be warming up a pitcher in the bullpen right about now. Lowe's time to retire for the night is in the near future.
• Jermaine Dye takes an offering to deep center-field for a two-RBI homerun. Tonight, Derek Lowe, has surrendered a total of four earned-runs (as he usually does). The Dodgers are warming up Cory Wade in the bullpen.
• Cory Wade came in to relieve Derek Lowe after he gave up a single to Nick Swisher. Lowe threw a grand total of 104 pitches tonight. He will probably end up with his seventh loss of the 2008 Regular Season.
• Nick Swisher scored on a terrific Dewayne Wise triple. The Chicago White Sox are simply brutalizing the Dodgers right now. Dodgers fans are probably turning off their television sets across the nation.
• Alexei Ramirez knocked in another run on an RBI-single. The Los Angeles are now trailing the Chicago White Sox, 6-1. It is almost impossible for the Dodgers to stage a comeback with only two more innings left to score. But, then again, anything is possible!

The Rest of the Game

• Troncoso tossed a perfect-frame, but the Dodgers could not score. This game goes down as a loss for the Dodgers. They have an opportunity to seek revenge against the White Sox tomorrow night at 7:10 PM PST (10:10 PM EST). Hopefully, the Los Angeles Dodgers will be more successful tomorrow.
  

Update: Here are highlights of the game:

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Blog Note: I wrapped up my final test in school today. In other words, as Alice Cooper put it, "School's out for summer!"