dodgers countdown thread

wow - A Cubs and Giants win and a Dodgers loss tomorrow night and the Dodgers are behind in the wild card run too.

 

Penny left in the 4th, so he's still hurt. We just dont have pitching. Mine as well lose the lead, so we can go home this fall and rest our injuries. Even IF we do make the playoffs, we dont have a pitching staff healthy enough to pitch a rotation in the playoffs to be effective. Gagne has had like a week off, which is a positive side note.

 

penny left early because he was on a pitch count. with his control being rusty, he had thrown 46 or 47 pitches thru the first 2 innings. i think he'll be fine. he was touching 95 and 96 with no problem. only allowed 4 hits i think. it was mostly his control that gave him problems. of course, he didn't get the chance for any minor league rehab starts, so that was sort of expected. i think he'll be fine.

 

.5

 

wrong, you didn't see him reagrivate that nerve in his bicep? he threw a pitch, winced in pain, and pointed at Tracy and told him to pull him out.

 

http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/N...040923&content_id=867773&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp

Penny exits early in loss at PETCO
Starter experiences nerve irritation in right arm
By Ken Gurnick / MLB.com



Brad Penny waits as Phil Nevin rounds the bases with a home run Wednesday. (Lenny Ignelzi/AP)



• MLB.com Game Wrap
• Dodgers Video Central


SAN DIEGO -- It was a lot to ask of Brad Penny. Too much, it turned out.
Penny's first start in more than six weeks figures to be his last of the season. He walked off the mound injured again in the fourth inning of a 4-0 Wednesday night loss to San Diego that cut the Dodgers' lead to one-half game for the first time since July 15.

Penny's injury was a blow physically and emotionally. Manager Jim Tracy met with the club briefly after the game.

"I told them it's an 11-game season and we're still in first place," said Tracy. "We've played 151 games and the opportunity to participate in the postseason is right in front of us."

Either way, Penny will have to watch. Last seen leaving the mound in pain Aug. 8 with a bicep and nerve problem, Penny took himself out Wednesday night after throwing a high 2-2 pitch to Jay Payton. Penny quickly grabbed near his armpit in similar fashion to the way he did against Philadelphia six weeks earlier and immediately motioned to the Dodgers dugout.

When manager Jim Tracy arrived, Penny said he felt it tighten again and left with assistant trainer Matt Wilson.

The initial report was irritation of the nerve in the upper arm. He returned to Los Angeles after the game and Thursday will have an MRI and electro myography (which measures muscle response to nerve stimulation).

Trainer Stan Johnston said Penny felt increasing stiffness on his last three pitches, but "he stopped before a big bite like the last time."

Nonetheless, the irritation was felt throughout the organization. The Dodgers have dropped seven of their last 10, during which they've lost 5 1/2 games of their lead. They led by as much as 7 1/2 games as recently as Aug. 11 and six games on Sept. 11. The biggest lead a Los Angeles Dodgers team had without finishing first was 8 1/2 games in 1973.

"We've put ourselves in a situation where we can't look back," said closer Eric Gagne, "because they're right there."

Instead of being the savior, Penny compounds the Dodgers starting pitching crisis. Wilson Alvarez was scratched from Thursday's start with a hip and hamstring problem, Jose Lima will try to pitch Saturday with a broken thumb and Hideo Nomo has been exiled because of ineffectiveness.

Struggling rookie Edwin Jackson will probably get the ball when Penny's spot comes around again Monday. He pitched 4 2/3 innings in a start Sunday.

"There isn't a team in the race that hasn't had a tough break," said general manager Paul DePodesta, who traded for Penny July 30. "We've got to suck it up. We have to play with the mindset of going with what we have right now. We're still 9-11 in September. It's not as though it's a disaster. We're in first place. It's not a bad spot to be in."

Before the game, Tracy was repeating his plea for a stepup performance from a starting pitcher. Instead, for the seventh time in the last 12 starts a Dodgers pitcher went less than five innings, meaning the club usually must play catchup and the bullpen is regularly in action. The starting ERA over the last 29 games is 6.80. It's one heck of a way to win a division.

Brad Penny / P
Born: 05/24/78
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 250 lbs
Bats: R / Throws: R

More info:
Player page
Stats | Splits
Team Site



Of course, Penny could have thrown a nine-inning shutout and it wouldn't have helped the offense, which was overmatched by Jake Peavy. The Dodgers got only three hits and in eight innings Peavy struck out 11, Jayson Werth four times.

Until Penny was hurt, his outing was about what would be expected from a six-week layoff without a minor league rehabilitation assignment.

He started out throwing hard, hovering around 95 mph and touching 97. But his command was off and he had no apparent feel for the breaking ball. His velocity dipped to 93 mph in the third inning when he missed badly to Phil Nevin for a two-run homer in a three-run rally that ended with Ramon Hernandez being thrown out trying to stretch his RBI double into a triple.

Penny came out for the fourth inning and walked Rich Aurilia, the fifth consecutive batter to reach base, with no fastball better than 92 mph. His last pitch to Payton, his 75th of the night, was only 91 mph. He finished with three-plus innings, three earned runs, five walks, three hits and two strikeouts.

The Dodgers traded Paul Lo Duca, Guillermo Mota and Juan Encarnacion to get Penny, Hee-Seop Choi and minor leaguer Bill Murphy, who was then traded to Arizona in the Steve Finley deal. Penny was the key to the deal because the club felt a pitching upgrade was needed for the postseason and he pitched eight scoreless innings in his first Dodgers start. Choi, though, has been a disappointment.

 

It's amazing to me that the Giants are this close. I am a fan, but they are not a good team.

But I really just wanted to say that Edwin Jackson does NOT suck. he's just young and inexperienced. He'll be a mainstay in that rotation for years, asumming they dont get stupid and trade him.

Also, Jake Peavy has got to be one of my favorite young pitchers simply for how unheralded he is. He consistently has great stuff and good command, so he rarely has a bad outing. If he were to end up on a better team, and could stay off the injury list, he could challenge for a Cy Young.

 

Edwin Jackson, 2 wins 1 loss this year, but hes primarly came out of the pen this year...but more importantly, hes gave up a few leads for us, and his ERA=5.12

 

BYE Dodgers