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LAst Night's Action: Tale of Two 1-0 Games
While there isn’t that much disparity between two 1-0 games, the ramifications were night and day to the two Los Angeles-area teams. First to the bankrupt team.
Minnesota Twins defeat LA Dodgers 1-0. Dodgers’ starter Rubby De La Rosa gave up a leadoff triple to Ben Revere in the first inning. That was his only mistake which ended up scoring on Tsuyoshi Nishioka’s groundout. De La Rosa, who couldn’t locate the strike zone in recent starts, went seven innings making only 99 pitches. Even that slider or change up or whatever you call that pitch that wasn’t scorching its way to the plate at 97 mph was working fooling Jim Thome twice.
But it was that offense that let the team down again. The offense that scored 15 runs on Monday was rendered impotent in the Minneapolis sun. The 1-2-3 hitters Tony Gwynn, Jr. Casey Blake and Andre Ethier combined to go 0-for-10 with a walk. It is kind of hard for Matt Kemp to drive runs home when there are no runners on base for him to drive home.
So what does this loss mean to the Dodgers? Last place in the NL West. They have finally surpassed the San Diego Padres in futility. Frank McBankrupt, you can take that to court next month.
LA Angels defeat Washington Nationals 1-0. It was a great pitching duel between Dan Haren and Jordan Zimmermann. If not for a fielding error by Ryan Zimmerman in the fourth inning, Bobby Abreu wouldn’t have scored on a double play by Howie Kendrick. Haren pitched a strong 7 1/3 innings giving up only two hits, a walk and hit batter.
But what this means for the Angels who seemed dead in the water after their awful 2-7 homestand at the beginning of the month is a revival of sorts. Sure scoring is like dental surgery sans anesthesia for them, but they’re getting the wins. They went 8-4 in their cross-country four-corners roadtrip and have now swept the Nats at home. Moreover they are only 1 ½ games out of first place behind the Texas Rangers in the AL West.
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