Too LITTLE, Too Late.

I am not going to pile on and breakdown the baserunning meltdown that essentially cost the Blue 2 runs in the 2nd inning. Rather, I am going to discuss how the on going bullpen Russian Roulette is slowly killing the Dodger's chances of winning this series. Baserunning blunders aside, it is not what lost the game last night. The thing that lost the game was the implosion of Brad Penny et al, and the bullpen's inability to hold leads or ties late in ball games.

I never thought I would say this, but Mark Hendrickson was dealing. He came up in the sixth and shut down the Mets with a couple of strike outs. For a moment, the Dodgers looked like the tide was turning and they could actually pull it out. I mean, Nomar's clutch 2 out double capped a great comeback to tie the ball game at 4, and all signs were pointing up for the bums. Then came Penny, as he swadled in from the bullpen, he apparently forgot to pack his control and issued walks to the first two batters he faced. He finally was bounced after a Carlos Delgado double that plated the winning run.

I understand Grady's thinking, he wanted to save the hammer Broxton for the 8th and bring in Saito in the 9th, I get that. I just don't get why you would go away from what got you here in that situation. Penny is a fat starter, that's his deal. He isn't a reliever, and if there is something I know, it's that you can't tell a starter who has his usual pre start rituals to get hype and come in in relief. In those extremely rare cases where you get a guy that is just a straight baller, perhaps you can call on him to come out and be effective out of the pen. Uncle Tommy had success in '88 when he brought the Bulldog Orel Hershiser out of the pen, and Randy Johnson was very successful coming out of the pen in Mariner playoff games against the Yankees. Of course, for everyone of those examples, there is always the picture of Charlie Liebrandt of the Braves in the '91 World Series when Kirby Pucket took him deep to cap a brilliant comeback in game 6 and eventually a classic 1-0 victory in 10 innings in game 7. Last night's performance was more the latter.

Had Grady gone to a guy like Brett Tomko or Giovanni Cararra, maybe the game stays tied. Of course, if my mother had balls then she would be my dad. In any case, Grady showed his usual playoff prowes by going to a guy that had no realistic business being in the game. Penny is scheduled for game 4, he shouldn't even be on the trip, not with a "bad back." He should be at the Revine getting round the clock treatment and preparing for the game 4 start. Now, not only have the Mets seen some of his stuff, but they know they can hit him and Penny knows they can hit him. It's a no win situation.

Speaking of no win situations, Grady has already come out and said that there is no way he is going to use Derek Lowe on three days rest for game 4. "If we are down in the series and need to win game 4, we still need to win game 5. I would rather save Lowe for game 5." Sounds logical enough, however I and most of the reality based community know that you can't get to game 5 if you don't win game 4. This makes absolutely no sense seeing as how the only guy you can really depend on is Lowe, and a game 4 victory means you go back to Shea and throw the kitchen sink at the Mets. It just seems that Grady's line of reasoning falls in the same catagory as the logic which led him to keep Pedro Martinez in another inning in the 2003 ALCS. Had he not, then perhaps we would be talking about that great Red Sox dynasty of the mid-2000's and not Aaron F'n Boone. As they say, a fish rots from the head down.

Looking ahead, the only guy I really am going to miss from this club is Nomar. I have to admit, I did geek that guy pretty hard this year and came to be a true fan of number 5. Despite the big hits and the decent job he did at first, Nomar was a real "g" all the way. When asked be a youth group why the music he came to bat to was "Low Rider" by War, Nomar responded that it reminded him of home, Whittier, CA. That's super gangsta' if you ask me, way to keep it real Nomar.