Dodgers

To quote Charles Dickens, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Saturday night at Kyle Chapman field, the K.C. Dodgers played 4 magnificent innings of baseball, defeating the Cardinals 2-0, only to lose the two inning nightcap by a score of 9-0. In the first game of the evening, the Dodgers got the best of an exciting pitching duel between Jeremy Schaffer and Paul Knowlton. In the top of the 1st inning, Paul Knowlton set the Dodgers down 1-2-3 on three infield grounders. In the bottom of the 1st, Alex Martin opened with a weak dribbler up the middle for an infield single, but was erased when Andrew Burns deftly handled Kevin McKee's hard hit grounder to short, touched second base to get one out, and fired on to Andrew Jones at first base to complete the double play. Schaffer ended the bottom of the first inning by striking out Cardinal pitcher Paul Knowlton. The game was scoreless after one inning of play. In the top of the second, the hard firing Knowlton set down the Dodgers on a weak infield grounder and two strikeouts. In the bottom of the second, the Dodgers defense kept the game scoreless with two nice plays. After a leadoff strikeout, Charles Mann hit a hard fly ball to deep center field. Jared Rothenberg got on his horse and caught up with the drive for the second out of the inning. After Diego Lopez reached on an infield single, catcher Matt Kelly gunned down Lopez with a rifle shot to a waiting Andrew Burns at second base for the third out of the inning. Scoreless after two innings of play. The Dodgers scratched out a run in the top of the third inning by playing small ball. Miles Mendeloff led off with a groundball to short that he managed to beat out at first with some nice hustle down the line. Matt Kelly executed a perfect bunt single to first base, sending Mendeloff all the way around to third on the play. Matt Kelly stole second base on the tail end of a strikeout, and the Dodgers had runners at second and third with only one out. Andrew Burns executed a perfect sacrifice bunt, scoring Mendeloff and sending Kelly to third with two outs. Alvin Johnson lofted a tough line drive to right field that was deftly handled by Cardinal right fielder Charles Mann for the third out. Schaffer set the Cardinals down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the third inning on a strikeout, an unassisted groundout to first base, and a groundout to short that concluded with a nice stretch by first baseman Andrew Jones. The score was Dodgers 1, Cardinals 0 after 3 innings of play. Jeremy Schaffer opened the top of the 4th inning with a line drive home run to left field off of a 2-2 Knowlton fastball to widen the Dodgers' lead to 2-0. Two strikeouts and a lineout later, the Dodgers led 2-0 in the middle of the 4th. Jeremy Schaffer's continued excellent pitching ensured that the score would remain the same after four innings of play, striking out the side, including a 9 pitch strikeout of one of the Cardinals' toughest hitters. Thus, at the conclusion of the 1st game of the evening, the Dodgers led 2-0. In the top of the fifth inning, the Dodgers managed a leadoff walk, but were erased without scoring on a groundout and two strikeouts. This is where things got really interesting (weird?). Apparently, the Dodgers' defense had an 8:30p.m. curfew, because it left at the end of the 4th inning. The Cardinals parlayed a leadoff walk, SIX DODGER ERRORS, and five hits into 9 unearned runs at the end of five innings of play. The Dodgers seemed mildly interested in challenging the Cardinals in the top of the 6th. A leadoff walk to Alvin Johnson and the longest Dodgers' single of the year off the 270 sign in right field by Jeremy Schaffer gave the Dodgers runners at first and second with no outs. However, a determined Knowlton took charge and struck out the next three Dodger batters to end the inning and the nightcap. Even though the Dodgers plainly played two different games on Saturday night, winning 2-0 in 4 innings and losing 9-0 in 2 innings, league officials combined the outcomes to give the Dodgers their first loss of this young season. That's the bad news. The good news is that as bright, eager and dedicated as the Dodgers' players are, they will undoubtedly learn some valuable lessons from tonight's performance. Congratulations to Jeremy Schaffer on an excellent pitching and hitting performance. Congratulations to Paul Knowlton on a magnificient 10k pitching performance and to the Cardinals team as a whole on their dramatic and exciting come from behind victory. The Dodgers' next practice is sometime on Monday. Time and location to be announced. The Dodgers' next game is on Tuesday, March 30th, 6pm, at K.C. field against the Pirates. The Pirates will be a formidable foe since they enjoyed their first win of the season against the Marlins earlier on Saturday evening. See you at the ballpark!!!