Third Time's the Charm...

Series Recap—Dodgers at Milwaukee

4/2: Brewers 7, Dodgers 1

Opening Day! It wasn't even as close as the score indicates. Ben Sheets was brilliant, throwing a two-hit complete game (game score = 82), Luis Gonzalez lost a fly ball in Miller Park's Windows, and Milwaukee's rabbits ran and ran on Juan Pierre's arm. The only bright spot was Jeff
Kent's solo shot in the second.

Derek Lowe has now started three straight Opening Days for LA, and is 0-3. In 16 innings pitched over the three starts, he's given up 25 hits, 8 walks, 3 homers, and 15 earned runs.

4/3: Brewers 4, Dodgers 3

The Bums had a lead on Russell Martin's tie-breaking homer in the fifth, but Randy Wolf coughed a two run shot to Kevin Mench in the sixth, and that was that. Once again Gonzo's defense was an issue when he couldn't get to a Johnny Estrada fly ball that got past him for a double.

"I just couldn't get to it," said Gonzalez. "It's no secret, I've been playing 17 years. What you see is what you get. I'm not 21."

Matt Kemp got the start in right field over Andre Ethier. Here's hoping Gonzo gets some days off, too.

4/4: Dodgers 5, Brewers 4

It took three tries, but the Dodgers finally won a game this season. Jason Schmidt made his debut, and pitched well until he ran out of gas in the bottom of the fifth, walking the bases loaded with two outs. Fortunately there was no harm done, and he ended up with the win.

The most notable thing about the game was the Dodger fifth, when Martin, Nomar, and Kent each made out on the very first pitch thrown by Jeff Suppan. Three up, three down, three pitches. I realize they had to catch a plane for San Francisco, but jeez. Worse, it was part of a pattern. Through the first three innings, the Dodgers had made Suppan throw 63 pitches. In the next four innings, Dodger hitters viewed a grand total of 27 pitches:

	4th Inning
		Martinez	3 pitches	grounded out
		Schmidt	3 pitches	struck out
		Pierre	1 pitch	grounded out
	5th Inning
		Martin	1 pitch	grounded out
		Garciaparra	1 pitch	flied out
		Kent	1 pitch	flied out
	6th Inning
		Gonzalez	2 pitches	doubled
		Betemit	1 pitch	flied out
		Ethier	1 pitch	flied out
		Martinez	4 pitches	grounded out
	7th Inning
		Kemp (ph)	1 pitch	doubled
		Pierre	2 pitches	sacrifice bunt
		Martin	5 pitches	walked
		Garciaparra	1 pitch	lined out, DP

I mean, I don't have a problem with a guy swinging on the first pitch if he's looking for a particular pitch and gets it. It just that when you have the pitcher on the ropes and the first two guys in the inning are gone on two pitches, you might want to think about trying to work a count.