It's a Long Season...

Series Recap—Dodgers vs New York (NL)

6/11: Dodgers 5, Mets 3
6/12: Dodgers 4, Mets 1
6/13: Dodgers 9, Mets 1

After everything seemed to go wrong in the last two series, the Dodgers seemed to be humming along on all cylinders for this one. The pitching was terrific, the fielding crisp, and the hitting timely and powerful. It's also true that the Mets are better than demonstrated, but it's very satisfying to beat the tar out of them after all the denigration of the NL West I heard on WFAN leading up to the series.

With Abreu, Kemp, and Loney up with the team, there's a lot to get excited about. Now if the Dodgers can just avoid being swept by the Angels again, everything will be jake.

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Betemit, Kemp, and Kuo went back to back to back, hitting homers on three consecutive pitches in game 2. Kuo even flipped his bay after his shot, which was no cheapie. It was also the first time a Taiwanese player has hit a home run in the major leagues.

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Betemit finally seems to have gotten untracked, with two dingers in the series. That's good to see. Home runs are good! Loney hit his first of the season last night, as well.

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Eddie Murray was fired as hitting coach today, with Bill Mueller taking over the job for the time being. I don't know what to think about that. When Murray got fired by Cleveland prior to coming to the Dodgers, one reason put forward was that Murray isn't very proactive about helping players, preferring to let them come to him for advice. That may work with veterans, but not so much with kids, as Cleveland had and the Dodgers have now. The Dodgers approach hasn't been great this year, with too many batters not working counts. Not necessarily Murray's fault, since he was also batting coach last year when the Dodgers walked a lot, but troubling just the same, especially if Murray wasn't advising guys like Ethier to be a little more patient. (Although, I don't think Pierre or Nomar would listen even if he did.)