|
|
Dodgers win game 1, Angels not so lucky
|
CHICAGO (AP) ― Manny Ramirez and Joe Torre brought their winning postseason ways to the Los Angeles Dodgers -- and Wrigley Field.
James Loney hit a go-ahead grand slam off a wild Ryan Dempster, Ramirez and Russell Martin homered and the new-look Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs 7-2 in their NL playoff opener Wednesday night.
The Cubs entered the postseason with the best record in league, hoping for a fast start 100 years after their last World Series championship.
But Ramirez and Torre, winners of six World Series crowns in the AL, wound up on top in their first playoff game together. Ramirez's homer was his 25th in the postseason, extending his own record.
"We get a sense of what he's been doing all these years," Loney said.
It was a good omen for the Dodgers. The last time they started a postseason series with a victory was 1988 -- the Kirk Gibson game in the World Series.
The Cubs will try to get even in Game 2 on Thursday night when they send mercurial right-hander Carlos Zambrano against Chad Billingsley.
"Let's hope we get better," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "Let's put this one behind us and go get them tomorrow."
Torre made his 13th straight postseason managerial appearance -- the previous 12 were with the Yankees -- and extended his record for postseason wins to 77 in a matchup with another veteran skipper, Lou Piniella.
The Cubs took a 2-0 lead on Mark DeRosa's homer in the second inning off Derek Lowe, but the Dodgers rebounded against Dempster, who had trouble finding the strike zone all night.
Dempster walked the bases loaded in the fifth, and Loney delivered for the Dodgers.
After swinging and missing the first two pitches, he sent a 1-2 pitch over the wall in center for the grand slam that gave the Dodgers a 4-2 lead and silenced a Wrigley Field crowd that was cheering loudly for Dempster to get out of the jam he created.
When Matt Kemp followed with a double, Piniella had seen enough and brought in Sean Marshall from the bullpen. Marshall gave up Ramirez's solo shot in the seventh that made it 5-2.
The Dodgers padded the lead in the eighth when Blake DeWitt doubled and reached third on an error by Cubs' center fielder Jim Edmonds, scoring on Casey Blake's single off Jeff Samardzija.
Martin homered off Jason Marquis in the top of the ninth.
On the first day of spring training, Dempster said he thought the Cubs would win the World Series this year. Now, they're in a hole already.
Dempster (0-1), 14-3 at Wrigley during the regular season, threw 109 pitches in just 4 2-3 innings, giving up four hits and four runs while walking seven to tie a career high.
Lowe went 6-1 in his final 10 starts of the regular season as the Dodgers got past Arizona to win the AL West, with a huge boost from Ramirez's 17 homers and 53 RBIs in 53 games after he was acquired from the Red Sox.
Lowe (1-0) worked six innings, allowing two runs and seven hits.
DeRosa, who played six positions this season while setting a career high with 21 homers, missed the final four games of the regular season with strained calf muscle.
After a single by Edmonds, DeRosa lifted a high fly down the right-field line, and the ball kept carrying, landing just over the fence and to the left of the pole to give the Cubs a 2-0 lead. It was his first postseason homer.
The wind at Wrigley Field, often a factor, was blowing from left to right across the field and announced at 6 mph to start the game.
Los Angeles also loaded the bases in the third on two walks and an infield single by Ramirez before Dempster struck out Andre Ethier to end it.
Dempster was helped in the inning by two nice defensive plays. Kosuke Fukudome, who got the start in right because of his defense not his slumping bat, snagged Blake's foul fly as he tripped over the bullpen mound. And Alfonso Soriano raced to the warning track in deep left to flag down Russell Martin's long drive.
Torre and Piniella met for the third time in the playoffs. Torre's Yankees beat Piniella's Seattle Mariners in the 2000 and 2001 AL championship series. The veteran managers came across each other at dinner Tuesday night.
"I felt pretty good about it. I said, `If you're here, it must be a pretty good restaurant,"' Torre recalled telling Piniella.
The Cubs are out to end their 100-year championship drought and the Dodgers have been struggling in the postseason for the last two decades. Before winning Wednesday night, Los Angeles had been 1-12 in the playoffs since beating Oakland in the 1988 Series.
After all his successful years with the Yankees and the many eventful games, Torre was still well aware of his surroundings Wednesday night.
"I've been in the American League for 12 years, to come into Wrigley Field for a playoff game, this is pretty cool," said Torre, who also has managed the Mets, Cardinals and Braves.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) ― No matter how much the Los Angeles Angels dominate Boston in the regular season, the Red Sox roll in October.
Jason Bay hit a go-ahead, two-run homer off John Lackey in the sixth inning, and the World Series champions beat the Angels 4-1 Wednesday night in the opener of their AL playoff series.
Acquired in the three-team trade that sent Manny Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Bay brought Boston back from a 1-0 deficit in the first postseason game of his career, and the Red Sox got a big start from John Lester (1-0), who allowed only an unearned run in seven innings.
"It's big. Any time you can come into another team's ballpark and win is huge," Lester said.
Los Angeles won eight of nine regular-season games between the teams this year, outscoring the Red Sox 42-17 in the final six. But the Red Sox have won 10 straight postseason games against the Angels dating to 1986, including first-round sweeps in 2004 and 2007 en route to World Series titles.
Boston tied a major league record for consecutive postseason wins over the same opponent, a mark Oakland set against the Red Sox from 1988-03.
The Angels will try to draw even Friday night in Game 2 of the best-of-five series, with Ervin Santana pitching against Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka.
While just four of 28 teams to lose NL division series openers have come back to win series, it's been an even 14-14 split in the AL, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
"We had some chances early, and couldn't get some hits to fall in," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "Lester was on his game. He's having a terrific year. He's got a great arm and his velocity was up a bit from earlier in the year and he was able to get the fastball on both sides of the plate."
With Boston clinging to a 2-1 lead and rookie Justin Masterson on the mound, Jacoby Ellsbury made a great diving catch on Mark Teixeira's sinking fly to center starting the eighth.
"I thought he had no chance. It just looked like it was in no-man's land," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.
Vladimir Guerrero followed with a single before Torii Hunter blooped a hit over first baseman Kevin Youkilis, who quickly recovered and easily threw out Guerrero at third.
"Vlad is aggressive, and it was a tough read, and it was behind him, and I thought he thought the ball was a little further out there than it was," Scioscia said. "And give Youkilis credit. He maintained his composure, got the hop and made a good throw to third base."
Ellsbury and David Ortiz added RBI singles in the ninth off Scot Shields, and Jonathan Papelbon finished for his fifth postseason save, extending his postseason scoreless streak to 15 2-3 innings.
The Angels broke on top with an unearned run in the third on Hunter's two-out, RBI single. Garret Anderson hit a one-out single and, after Teixeira struck out, rookie shortstop Jed Lowrie muffed Guerrero's grounder before Hunter lined a 1-2 pitch to left that dropped in front of Bay.
Lowrie, making his postseason debut, set a major league record for rookie shortstops by handling 155 chances without an error in 49 games at that position during the regular season.
Bay hit an 0-1 pitch far over the left-field fence with Youkilis aboard. He flipped his bat as he began his home run trot upon leaving the batter's box, long before the ball landed in the seats beyond the double-decker bullpen.
"He tried to get a fastball by Jason. Fortunately for us, he didn't," Francona said. "He was really holding us down."
Bay, who hadn't faced Lackey previously, looked bad in striking out in his first two at-bats in. He also doubled in the eighth.
"I was trying to get used to the game," Bay said. "I had never seen him before. He left a fastball up and I hit it."
Lester got the Game 1 assignment after Josh Beckett was pushed back to Game 3 because of an oblique problem. He retired his final seven batters, striking out four, and only one outfielder had a putout during his stint. Lester struck out seven and walked one.
"We took the lead, he came back with a vengeance," Francona said.
The Angels, who wrapped up the AL West title with 2 1/2 weeks left in the regular season, finished with a franchise-best 100-62 record that was tops in the majors. But they lost for the eighth time in 10 postseason home games since winning the 2002 World Series.
Lackey, who won Game 7 of that World Series, allowed two runs and four hits in 6 2-3 innings with three walks and five strikeouts.
"John pitched a terrific ballgame and certainly gave us a chance to win," Scioscia said. "He didn't make many bad pitches tonight."
Notes:@ Ortiz extended his hitting streak in AL division series games to 12 with his ninth-inning single. ... Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who celebrated his 63rd birthday Wednesday, threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
E-Mail Story
Print Story
