Dodgers' Opening Day

[SackAttack]

Milton Bradley: 2 singles and a walk, and I'm thinking suddenly, "Hey, this might not be so bad after all."

Shawn Green: 1 for 4 with a homer, a strikeout, a double play, and a popup. The homer was a solo shot, the other three at-bats stranded or eliminated a combined six runners.

I'm trying so very, very hard to restrain my anger, but Green is on the verge of getting a new middle name, and it ain't printable.

[k0ruptr]

they have scored 2 runs, tell em to save some for the rest of the year

:)

[SackAttack]

The problem is they aren't capitalizing when they have men on base, and Green's been the central culprit there so far this year.

In terms of HITS, the offense is much improved. They just still seem to struggle in clutch situations.

[Vince]

Sack - what's your take on Green? Sure he hit half as many homers as expected last year, but he still had a solid year (lots of doubles). What do you expect out of him this year?

[Vince]

And you for the most part pre-empt my question. Nice :)

[k0ruptr]

the fact that nomo pitched like crap doesnt help much either.

[k0ruptr]

wow 2 runs on 13 hits. that has to hurt.

[SackAttack]

Vince, I expect him to stop pressing at the plate and just do his thing. So far, he's been very aggressive with the bat, too much so IMO. He's overswinging, and the one homer he's got today, he hit with nobody on base.

I expect a bounce-back now that he's healthy, obviously, or I wouldn't have drafted him, but...I'm getting very frustrated with him.

[Vince]

I wanted him in all my leagues this year...I managed to get him in one. Apparently I wasn't the only person who expected 30+ Homers out of him this season.

[Vince]

How do you watch that pitch on a 2-strike count? Ugh...when MLB-caliber players do stuff like that it pisses me off.

EDIT - this was in reference to Werth's at bat.

[k0ruptr]

way to go shawn green, once again stranding runners.

[SackAttack]

hey, Green strands two more runners with a nubber at the plate!

Beautiful.

[SackAttack]

Nomo pitched just fine 'til the 5th, k0rupt0r. He just ran out of gas (which worries me a little bit, that it happened that early).

He also probably hurt himself by letting Lawrence get a single and a double. Without those hits, it could well be 2-0 LA.

[k0ruptr]

true. yea i was wondering what was up with nomo.

[SackAttack]

His velocity is down a little bit. I hope he recovers quickly.

The upshot to the day, if there is one, is that Phil Nevin is on my fantasy team. If the Dodgers had to lose, at least I got some production out of him.

[Crapshoot]

Woohoo- I thought it was a great da- then again, I am a Giants fan.. :D

Watching pitches or taking pitches is part of Green's skill- you can't fault him for that.

[Buccaneer]

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Brian Lawrence (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=6700) was awful and Phil Nevin (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=5420) idle during spring training.

Both were very good on opening day.

Lawrence allowed one run in five innings and Nevin hit a grand slam Monday as the revamped San Diego Padres (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/clubhouse?team=sdg) beat the Dodgers 8-2, spoiling the start of the Frank McCourt era in Los Angeles.

McCourt, a Boston real estate developer, purchased the Dodgers from News Corp. during the offseason for $430 million.

A sellout crowd of 53,850 -- the largest opening-day attendance in Dodger Stadium history -- booed the home team on several occasions, most vocally after the Padres broke the game open against Hideo Nomo (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=5375) by scoring six runs in the fifth.

Nevin's homer highlighted the big inning.

"It was a fastball -- I missed a couple of them earlier," Nevin said. "I think this is an indication of what our lineup is capable of."

The Padres added Brian Giles (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=5543) last August and Jay Payton (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=5773) and Ramon Hernandez (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=6258) during the offseason, giving them a lot more pop than they've had in several years.

Nevin was sidelined much of the spring because of a strained left shoulder and had only 16 at-bats during the exhibition season. He also sat out the first three months last year after undergoing surgery on the same shoulder.

"It's no fun being hurt and watching your teammates play," he said. "I'm not in any pain now -- it's more timing-wise."

Teammate Mark Loretta (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=5504) said Nevin was frustrated after his first two at-bats against Nomo.

"He said, `If I get another fastball, I'm not going to miss it.' He didn't," Loretta said.

Lawrence, who had an 11.14 ERA in spring training, scattered eight hits while walking two and striking out three. The Dodgers had six hits and two walks in the first three innings but failed to score, stranding seven.

"In the back of your mind, you're wondering if it's going to continue," Lawrence said. "I feel good. I was confident I could continue to do the things I did last year. I wasn't that worried about it."

The Dodgers lost despite outhitting the Padres 15-12. But they left 15 runners on base and hit into three double plays.

"Fifteen hits is a lot of hits to get and only score two runs," manager Jim Tracy said. "We had a number of opportunities to score runs today, and that's the encouraging part. We had guys on base all day long."

Lawrence, who entered with a career batting average of .154, also had a double and a single and scored twice.

Lawrence started the fifth-inning rally with a one-out single. Sean Burroughs (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=6402) was hit by a pitch and Brian Giles drew a two-out walk before Nevin hit a 1-1 pitch into the lower left-field seats.

Ryan Klesko (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=4953) walked and Payton, playing his first game with the Padres, hit Nomo's first pitch in the same vicinity where Nevin's homer landed to make it 7-0.

The Padres took a 1-0 lead in the third when Lawrence doubled and scored on Loretta's one-out single.

"It's a fun thing to go up there and swing the bat," Lawrence said. "I snuck two in there today."

Shawn Green (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=5179), moved to first base from the outfield to make room for new acquisition Milton Bradley (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=6406), hit a 2-0 pitch into the right-center field pavilion in the fifth for the Dodgers' first run.

Bradley, acquired Sunday from Cleveland, singled in his first two at-bats and finished 2-for-3 with two walks.

Cesar Izturis (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=6638) hit a two-out RBI single off Ismael Valdez (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=5261) in the sixth and the Dodgers loaded the bases before Eddie Oropesa retired Green on a bloop to short.

Burroughs hit an RBI single off Wilson Alvarez (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=4364) in the eighth to complete the scoring.

Nomo, who had an 8.13 ERA in spring training, allowed seven hits and seven earned runs in five innings.

Game notes

[usual biased Dodgers blather........]

GO PADS!!!!!!!!!!

[kingfc22]

So nice seeing that the Dodgers offense is back for antoher year.

2 runs. Hah.

[Vince]

Yeah, but so many hits makes me think they'll be better than last year.

[SackAttack]

Yeah, I gotta say 15 hits doesn't say "very good" to me re: Lawrence.

It says "very lucky."

LA stranded fifteen men today. By my count, Green stranded something like 8 or 9 all by himself.

If they keep getting men on base with the frequency they did today, good things are going to happen.

Also, if the Dodgers pitching staff doesn't continue to make opposing pitchers look like John Olerud (circa 1993).