Here come the Dodgers!
LA trails Padres by 2 going into big NL West series
Sept. 10, 2000
Despite last night’s loss at Philadelphia, a red-hot Dodgers team will roll into San Diego for a key NL West series today. Los Angeles has won five of its last eight games, while the Padres have lost five in a row.
Ismael Valdes will get the start tonight for LA, facing Tyler Green for San Diego.
Fans surely will be eager to see tomorrow night’s pitching duel between Andrew Zarzour (2-1, 3-45 ERA) and San Diego’s ace David Weathers (13-7, 2.23 ERA).
Though LA lost the first time Zarzour took the hill, the Dodgers are 3-0 in his past three starts. Big Z got his first win in a 10-5 decision against Colorado. In that game, Zarzour surrendered two home runs, the second being a three-run shot by Jeremy Burnitz that tied the game 5-5.
But Zarzour earned redemption, taking advantage of a communication error between himself and bench coaches. With the score still 5-5 in the bottom of the sixth, Zarzour was supposed to be called back from the on-deck circle with one out and Todd Zeile on second base. But Z thought his coaches were just giving him hitting instructions and stepped to the plate. He got a hit, moving Zeile to third, where he later come home on an RBI single by Raul Mondesi. (Note: I hit the "Hit Away" button by accident rather than the button that would have brought the substitution page up. I gasped at first but then cheered in delight when he got a hit).
That put LA ahead to stay. Zarzour now has two hits in six season at-bats.
Big Z got another win five days later when the Dodgers beat the Florida Marlins in Miami 5-2. Zarzour went 8.1 innings, struck out five and gave up just five hits. The one worry, he gave up yet another home run (his fifth in four starts).
Hey, we’ve got a pennant race in the NL West! Dodgers are creeping closer to Cincy in the wildcard chase as well (three back).
September call-ups included Hideo Nomo (3-0, 1.40 ERA in Albuquerque), MR Ryan Franklin (4-1, 1.47 ERA), RF Thomas Howard (35-year-old gets what could be his last shot in the Bigs!), C Ben Molina (obtained in a trade earlier in the season) and MR Antonio Osuna …
Nomo has pitched once since getting called back up, and the Dodgers lost 7-0 to Philly. In 5 IP, Nomo gave up six hits, four walks and four earned runs. Arrgg.