Tagged: Furcal
Wish Granted: Raffy is an All-Star!
It’s like the Baseball Gods read my blog & decided to grant me a wish. Rafael Furcal will be joining his teammates Andre Ethier and Jonathan Broxton in the 2010 MLB All-Star Game this Tuesday, July 13th. This will be his second ASG appearance since his MLB debut. I couldn’t be happier to hear that he was given the opportunity (though I do wish Jose Reyes NYM a speedy recovery). I’m glad he is being recognized in this manner. I will quote some of the fan comments from the Dodgers website about the news. They just describe him so well!
“You really deserve this after all you’ve been through…”
“Raffy has been the veteran backbone of this team…”
“I’m sure your dad will be proud and so are we.”
“A just reward for a player who has persevered over adversity…”
“When Furcal was playing for the Braves, I watched him turn a bunt into a double…”
“He is the key to the Dodgers’ lineup.”
“Seriously a well-deserved honor…”
Cubbies maul the Dodgers: Ely’s short outing earned him the L in yesterday’s game, as the Dodgers were unable to capitalize and lost 7-3 against Chicago Cubs. Dodgers send Padilla to the mound today (5pm) to close out strong before the All-Star break. He is 2-1 in his last three starts, giving up just 3 runs in 20 1/3 innings and striking out 21. I’m hoping to see another great outing! It’ll be a good game. I’m looking for tickets now, so hope to see you there!
Blogger Support: Roberto did me the great honor of shouting out my blog on his blog (love the blogger-blogger love/support) so if you don’t follow his blog already, check it out: Vin Scully Is My Homeboy
Until next time,
Lily
Arriba Los Doyers!
[Addendum: Looks like God is a Dodgers fan! Hong-Chi Kuo has been named a 2010 All-Star! Although he replaces Jason Heyward due to injury, we’re glad he was the one. He will be the first Taiwanese-born player ever to be an All-Star. Congrats Hong-Chi! You definitely deserve it :)]
Kershaw & Furcal on Fire
Kershaw delivered a magnificent performance tonight as pitched 8 innings earning 2 runs off 7 hits, walking NONE and he struck out 12 Cubbies (13 is his career high). This start around, he got the W thanks to Big John closing out the 9th and getting the save. (Let’s not recall that Broxton blew 4 of Kershaw’s W’s last season & he blew the Yankee game on 6/27 which was another Kershaw start). Regardless of that, Dodgers were able to pull out the W. Backing up Kershaw’s amazing pitching was the bat of Red-Hot Rafael “Fuego” Furcal! Raffy went 3-for-3, (Single, Double, HR) shy of hitting for the cycle, stole a base & secured Kershaw the W when he hit a 2-run BOMB. Again, tell me why this man is not in the All Star game?? When the American League is packed with power hitters, why are we not packing our team with pitching AND hitting?? I personally voted 100 times (4 different emails) and each 100 times it was for Raffy. Did he get on the team? No. Regardless, I think Furcal has given great performances day after day especially coming off from his difficult month of June. After mentioning his tough time dealing with the loss of his father, he said his father would’ve wanted him to play and play well. This man plays for the Love of the Game & he’s an All-Star in my eyes. I suggest he plays the song by Fuego called Super Estrella (Super Star) from now on, even though I love his current at-bat song “Chambonea” by Omega. =D and if you’re wondering, Raffy is my all-time favorite Dodger. He’s been with the club since I’ve been a fan. I hope he stays with them because he deserves to be playing every day like he should be.
All Star Weekend starting tomorrow. I will be going to Fan Fest in Anaheim convention center tomorrow with a fellow baseball fan (however, he is a Yankees’ fan eek!) Should be good times. My first time going. I will definitely take plenty of pictures!
Starting line up for the NL All Star team is:
1B: Albert Pujols (STL)
2B: Chase Utley (PHI)
SS: Hanley Ramirez (FLA)
3B: David Wright (NYM)
OF: Ryan Braun (MIL)
OF: Andre Ethier (LAD)
OF: Jason Heyward (ATL)
Representing the Dodgers will also be Broxton on the pitching staff. Torre will manage the NL league & he looks to battle the AL power hitters with big-time pitching with the likes of Carpenter, Halladay, Jimenez, Lincecum, and Wainwright to name a few. It should be a great game and if you’re not planning on watching it, you’d regret it!
Friday’s probables: Billingsley set to take the mound against Ted Lilly. Bills, after coming off a rough April and the injured list, has been pitching better and with more confidence. Pitch count gets high, but he has only allowed a total of 3 runs in his last two starts. A very happy birthday to my twitter friends @DodgerGirl_86 @dodgerdaisy & @AYE_DREE_AN who will be in LFP for tonight’s game to celebrate!
Until next time,
Lil
Arriba Los Doyers
Collecting Trading Pins
Have you ever seen some long-time Dodger fans at a game, you know, the ones that have pins all over their hats, or the ones that have pins on their lanyards? You might’ve seen one and thought they were a little weird, or odd. Fact is, they’re pin traders and collectors. If you sit down and ask them, they’ll tell you and probably show you their collection and probably some pretty interesting stories about their pins. It’s an old timer’s hobby, that’s for sure. I’ve always thought I had a vintage soul. I’m very traditional. Love listening to stories from the past (especially Dodger stories) and I find myself always making conversation with the older fans at the game. I decided to start my own pin collecting. I’ve had a pin since the 2007 season. It was never unwrapped until just two weeks ago. I’ve added two pins since then. One for each game I’ve been to since the Yankee series. I think it’s a great hobby. It’ll definitely help me recall stories from each time I bought one. Anyway, below are some shots of the pins on my lanyard. Here is a link to the Joys of Collecting Trading Pins. Hope you enjoy!
Furcal Shirt pin from the 6/27 Yankees @ Dodgers game
Lil
Arriba Los Doyers!
PS thanks to MLBlogs for having me as a featured blog! It’s an honor. Thank you so much 🙂
Dodgers Shut the Lights Out in Their Anaheim Farewell
Last night, Dodgers avoided the season sweep by the Halos in a 10-6 victory in what was quite an odd game, to say the least.
In fact, this series in Anaheim gave us everything from base running errors to fake throws to 3rd-2nd-1st-3rd-Cat-3rd to pick off an Angel & lights even went out toward the end of the game. I later found out that the outage was caused by Disneyland’s World of Colors show. On top of that, Martin turned in two pick-offs, Furcal turned an excellent play, Matt Kemp showed some of his gold glove off with an amazing catch in short center field & Dodgers took the last of the 3-game series before heading back home to the Ravine.
Let’s talking about Kemp. He’s struggling (well, if that isn’t the understatement of the year!). On the Dodgers website, they wrote “Every Dodger not named Matt Kemp had an RBI tonight.” That’s quite depressing. Matt Kemp needs to find his groove & just put some wood on that ball. He’s got to make contact. I’m tired of seeing him 0-for-how many ever at bats he has. K looking. K swinging. K walking away and giving up. Was it Coletti? Was it Rihanna? Honestly, at this point, I could argue about both of them. Fact is, Matt Kemp needs to move on from whatever got in his head & work on getting back to ’09 form. The Dodgers as a team are struggling, what with all the injuries (blisters!), deaths (RIP Raffy’s papa), & countless other incidents, they’re just not in the game right now. Fact of the matter is that the Dodgers need to get back on the ball because the Bronx Bombers are coming to visit LA & that will not be a walk in the park.
Yankees come in leading the AL East (probably the toughest division in the majors) riding a record of 6-4 in their last 10. Although they play slightly less than amazing on the Road, the Yankees come in with Jeter (.279), Cano (.362), Swisher (.299), Rodriguez (.280), to name a few! I won’t get into the Yankee line-up because I’ll leave that to our Yankee Expert Jessica.
Jess, tell us how this series has been over on the East. Here in LA, it has been hyped up beyond imagination (two storied franchises….rivalry renewed blah blah). I’m sure the Dodger fans will want your perspective on this =) oh & thank you for doing this! You’re pretty damn awesome!!!
Here’s a link to Yankees @ Dodger Stadium win-loss. Dodgers are 10-4 in this match-up =)
http://www.truebluela.com/2010/6/25/1536840/a-history-of-the-yankees-at-dodger
From @truebluela on Twitter
Until next time,
Lil
Arriba Los Doyers! Spank the Yanks!
DeWitt Did It!
A standing O for Monster, DeWitt & the rest of the Dodgers for an amazing game tonight! Pitching was stellar, offense was unstoppable & so you can understand why I would get so angry when my team doesn’t perform like this every night!
Monasterios pitched 6 solid innings, although he did not strike out any of the batters he faced. He gave up 4 hits, 3 runs & 2 walks. He was pulled after facing two batters in the 7th. Relief pitching of Miller, Ju & John Link closed out the game with just one more run scored, for the 12-4 victory over the Cards! It was an excellent welcome back for the Cardinals who we last faced in the NLDS when Holliday famously couldn’t make a catch in OF & blamed it on the rally towels!
DeWitt: Off to a slow start earlier this year, he has shown to us all that he deserves the starting 2B spot! With stellar defense (think: over-the-shoulder, basket catches in the 9th) & erupting offensive power (think: 3-run homerun in the 5th), DeWitt has easily become one of my favorites this year. Hoping to see more from him!
Furcal: Did I not just post that I was wanting to see more power from Furcal? He answered my prayers with a 2-RBI double! Good job, Raffie! Glad to see you’re back =) You’ve always been my favorite!
Kemp, Anderson: Each contributed a single. Let’s hear it for our outfielders!
Ellis: With a perfectly-executed squeeze bunt that Hawksworth was unable to field, scored in Belliard. Ellis! You’re on fire, baby!
Defensive plays: Ronnie B. turned an excellent 6-6-3 double play to get Winn out on 3rd and LaRue on 1st. DeWitt’s leaping grab in the top of the 9th. Ethier’s beautiful catch in RF.
Tonight’s game: Dodgers will send Kuroda (3.63, 5-4) to the mound against Chris Carpenter (2.76, 7-1 EEK) who only allowed 1 run on 4 hits in his last outing against the Brewers. Last we saw Hiroki, he gave Braves the W, giving up yet another 1st inning run & walking 4 in 6IP. He claimed he was trying to locate his pitches & missing. Let’s hope he just lets his natural flow speak for itself because I would love to see a W in person tonight when I sit in LFP! Row K 🙂 Broxton’s bobblehead is the SGA tonight. Tickets are probably found online so make sure if you don’t have tickets, you get some ASAP! See you all there!
Arriba Los Doyers!
Love @ 1st Strike!
I was first introduced to the Dodgers in 2006. Cinco de Mayo to be exact. Chris, a long-time friend, invited me out to the ballpark the month before & that was the fabled day he chose. Never having been to a baseball game before, let alone to a Dodger game, I had my typical girl moment where I had nothing to wear. Chris was nice enough to let me borrow his brother’s Dodger jacket. So we headed out to Dodger Stadium at 4:30pm from my house (Wow, super early! It wasn’t even a giveaway night lol). From the first pitch, I was sucked in & it didn’t let up. Dodgers were tied against the Brewers 3-3 in the bottom of the 9th. I know what you’re thinking, “That’s too fairytale-like for me!” I kid you not, it WAS. Furcal had just slapped a single and managed to get on first & advanced to second thanks to Cruz, Jr. Then Nomar came up to the plate, took his 10-15 seconds with his OCD-like ritual that, to this day, I am still mesmerized by! I mean, he adjusts his gloves maybe 4 times and circles the bat while tapping his feet about 3-5 times JUST to set up (I actually do the glove adjusting before batting in softball, but that’s another story for another time), but true to fairytale form, Nomar gets that hit on the perfect pitch to line it barely fair of the right field foul line & scores Furcal! Dodgers win 4-3. Dodgers celebrate & Nomar steps out in a Dodger poncho for a curtain call. This is what dreams are made of & this is where my romance with the Dodgers began, with a strong passion for baseball following quickly thereafter. Russell Martin made his MLB debut on this day. He went 2-for-4 with two RBI’s & remains with the organization at the present time 🙂
I can only describe how I felt that night by painting this picture for you:
It was firework night as were most Friday night games that year. Lights were turned off with the exception of the light blues that illuminated the stadium in a way that made it seem surreal. Maybe it was the high of the win (that I later found out ended their five-game losing streak). Fireworks started and it was something out of Sandlot where the world stopped except for you & all you heard was fireworks in the background. It told me it was the beginning of something beautiful.
Four years later, here I am, hardcore Dodger fan as I’ve ever been & loving every minute of it. Owner of a mini-plan for the 2010 season & attending every other possible game I’ve been able to. Recently introduced to the amazing fans that sit in LFP & I must say, that section is the place to be. There are some die-hard fans there. I’d heard much about LFP, but you don’t know anything until you’ve sat there yourself.
Today’s game: Godsend Ely will go up against Hudson & the Braves in the rubber match. Ely is 3-2 with a 2.54 ERA. Giving the Dodgers much-needed quality pitching, he has just given up 13 runs on 35 hits over 46 IP, none of which have been homeruns. Let’s get a W today, boys. Arriba Los Doyers!
Love for The Boys in Blue 