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Good Night Dodgers
Dodger reliver Kenley Jansen's 94 mph fastball low and outside to the Giants Xavier Nady got him swinging and missing for strike three. That's how the Dodgers season ended, a 5-1 victory over the Giants.
"It's a tough day to play, honestly," Dodger manager Don Mattingly said. "You're not really playing for anything. You play the whole season, and you've got to come out here one more time and lace them up."
As tough as it might have been, at least the Dodgers made a good show of it for the 34,014 who showed up to the ballpark. Even though the game did not affect the fortunes of the Dodgers or the Giants, it would be a great oversight to dismiss this as meaningless game.
Ask Clayton Kershaw who came into the game trailing R.A. Dickey by nine strikeouts for the National League lead. Manager Don Mattingly told reporters before the game that Kershaw was on a strict 150 pitch limit.
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Kershaw not only fell short of that 150 pitch count by 39 pitches but came one strikeout behind Dickey, however Kershaw led the Major Leagues with a 2.53 ERA. But that wasn't the point for Kershaw.
"It doesn't matter," Kershaw said about the statistics. "I just wanted to pitch. It was fun today to get a win."
Kershaw had even more fun batting in the bottom of the fifth inning trailing 1-0. With Luis Cruz on third base and Tim Federowicz on first base after breaking up Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong's no-hitter, Kershaw lined a single up the middle to tie the game and put him over the Mendoza line with a .207 batting average.
"I needed it," Kershaw said. "It kept me over .200 for the year, so it was good. I was close. It was a big hit."
Unfortunately Federowicz, the third catcher playing in the place of backup Matt Treanor who strained his left oblique during batting practice on Tuesday, was caught trying to make it to third base by about the same margin as Mark Ellis was caught the night before.
The Dodgers took the lead for good in the sixth inning when Adrian Gonzalez singled Andre Ethier home from second base with a single.
Just to drive home the point about the subject of the meaning of this game, Alex Castellanos picked a perfect moment to belt his first big league home run in the eighth inning off of Giants reliever Jean Machi giving the Dodgers a 3-1 lead.
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"I just went into that at-bat telling myself to have a good at-bat since it's probably the only at-bat I'll have the rest of the season," Castellanos said. "It just so happened I got to a 3-2 count and he threw me a ball middle in. I turned on it and hit it out."
Ask Juan Rivera who laced a two-run homer 428 feet to straightaway center field to give the Dodgers the 5-1 lead. The Dodgers hold a club option on Rivera for 2013 — the Dodger can buy out the remaining $4 million on the contract for $500,000.
And that's it for the Dodgers. Matt Kemp will go on to have shoulder surgery on Friday. Clayton Kershaw will not have hip surgery and will respond to nothing stupid regarding his hip. Other players will go off into obscurity (or Kansas City which is about the same.) Guggenheim might end up buying AEG.
No matter, we will all be waiting for the first pitch against the Giants on April 1 next year. That is if the Mayan armageddon doesn't occur in the meantime.
As a first-time voting member of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, here are my votes for the season awards in baseball.
NL MVP: Buster Posey, SF Giants
NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw, LA Dodgers
NL Rookie of the Year: Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals
NL Manager of the Year: Dusty Baker, Cincinnati Reds
AL MVP: Mike Trout, LA Angels
AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers
AL Rookie of the Year: Mike Trout, LA Angels
AL Manager of the Year: Bob Melvin, Oakland Athletics
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