That, I think, has to be my nominee for the most frustrating loss of the year--the offense finally, finally wakes up enough to put up seven freaking runs, and it just happens to be the night where the wagonmaker decides to have one of the meltdown innings that he's been seeming to have, off and on, all season. If this keeps up, I'm wondering if he's the one that gets moved to the bullpen when Mulder and Carpenter return--it would make sense on a lot of levels:
- He had success in the bullpen that he isn'thaving right now in the rotation
- It would free up Mr. Isringhausen to be traded away for some help at the trade deadline
- It perhaps gives the team a chance to assess what is wrong with him--to contrast his approach in the two different roles, see where games are getting away from him
There is another thing about the offensive explosions of last night, and the previous night that kind of confuse me--they both were done without any one player having a particularly massive day--Ryan Ludwick went 2 for 5 with 3 RBI last night, and Duncan, I guess, went 2 for 4 with the home run the previous night, but neither of those aren't the type of offensive explosions that one normally associates with 8 run games. Both of those games seem to be the result of the whole team sort of waking up and starting to perform. One one level, that's probably a good sign--give everyone a taste of success, and let them build on that. On another level, I find it a bit worrying... if you gave Albert or Rolen a chance to have a moment where they realized that they were actually themselves, then perhaps it would be a 'turnaround moment' for them.
Anyway, it's a degree of offensive success, and I'll take it right now. Hopefully it'll continue outside of the confines of Dodger Stadium. For now, I'll enjoy my final game that's called by Vin Scully this season.