The starting rotation for the Dodgers against the St. Louis Cardinals in the first round of the playoffs will be Randy Wolf, Clayton Kershaw and Vicente Padilla. Hiroki Kuroda is unavailable. I'm watching game one right now and Randy Wolf was pulled after 3 1/3 innings and the Dodgers are up 3-1... already I like how Joe Torre is using his pitching staff.
This is exactly what the Dodgers are going to have to do to get past the Cardinals in the playoffs. The Los Angeles Dodgers don't have any one great pitcher in their starting rotation or bullpen but what they do have are a bunch of quality pitchers that can shut you down for 3-4 innings and they're particularly deep with their starting pitchers who are good at least one time through the lineup. Frankly I'm particularly interested to see how Joe Torre uses Chad Billingsley because Billingsley could be unhittable for a span of 2-3 innnings.
Clayton Kershaw could be that young guy that shines in the playoffs this year or at least that's what we Dodger fans are hoping right? I wouldn't look for him to do too much in the playoffs. He has had dominating stuff at times but he's still learning how to pitch deep into games and I'm hoping for 4-5 solid innings out of him and with a deep bullpen you can expect a deep hook. You can't take chances against the best hitter in the league who now resides in St. Louis and goes by the name of Albert Pujols.
I think people are going to be surprised at how Vicente Padilla pitches in the playoffs. Padilla is going to be this years Jose Lima. This guy has a chip on his shoulder, he throws a mid 90's fastball, a hard sinker and he's pitched very well in the National League since coming over. And oh yea he's playing for a contract. Not sure if the Cardinals have seen him but if they haven't look out! Padilla was 4-0 with a 3.20 ERA with the Doyers.
Offensively Andre Ethier hasn't done jack in the playoffs the past two seasons and he needs to change that now that Manny is a fraction of himself without roids. I expect James Loney to continue hitting in the clutch, ditto for Casey Blake but the wild card is going to be Rafael Furcal. Raffy gets it all going offensively for the Dodgers and they need him to get it going early and if the end of the season was any indication he'll do just that.
Matt Kemp already has a two run home run in game one and he's the kind of guy that's coookie enough upstairs to not feel the pressure of the national stage or of the MLB playoffs and just get in the zone and hit the sh%t out of the ball...
Russell Martin... if he does anything clutch offensively in the post-season it might make up for a horrible regular season. Might...
Ronnie Belliard came over from the Washington whatevers and tore it up to the tune of .351 and 5 homers earning him the name of mini-Manny and what looks like the starting job at second base.
The Dodgers are absolutely sick on the bench with guys like Jim Thome, Orlando Hudson, Mark Loretta and of course Juan Pierre. I fully expect Joe Torre to go with the hot hand at all times to maximize offensive output.
The Dodgers have a much better chance then most are giving them. Like I said their starting pitchers are not great but there are a lot of them on this roster. 6 who started at some time this year and a seventh who's started for them in the past and they can all do a pretty damn good job for 4-5 innings. If Torre has a quick hook which I expect he will the Dodgers will surprise a lot of folks.
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