The Give Up Game

The Dodgers are comfortably in first place, playing Colorado.  They have a day off before a big series in Cincinnati.  You would think, thankfully, that most of the regulars would play since we have a day off, particularly against Colorado's best pitcher.

But then you remember our manager is woefully confused.  Endorsing Ned's bizarro pick-up, Edinson Volquez (who maybe shouldn't be playing anymore) gets the start instead of Fife...and with Puig still day to day with injury, Donny also rests TWO starting outfielders, along with the 1st AND 2nd baseman.  After Volquez gets shelled (of course he does), he sends in Brandon League.  OK, this is just a give-up game.  Brandon (naturally) throws two wild pitches but somehow doesn't give up a run.  Donny continues the give-up with Marmol.  Why even try, right?

But then the top of the 8th, the Dodgers get hot and cut the Rockies lead to 2.  Now what does Donny do?  Start sending in the guys he benched AND then follow that up with the guys from the bullpen who were to get rest as well.

The managing in this game simply baffled me.  Was it a give-up?  If so, why decide to try just because it's close?  I wanted to call Dodger Talk and ask Kevin Kennedy, someone who's managed big-league ball, if he's ever seen anything like this.  I understand guys needing rest due to the riggers of a 162-game schedule, but this is re-dic.  Another caller beat me to asking the question.  His response was that he "understood" benching all these guys because they'd all play in Cincy.  OK, we disagree...whatever.  Then, he states he was "confused" by sending Rodriguez in the 8th.  So we DO agree...you just want to tote the company line, I guess.

Donny's press conference seemed unusually upbeat, stating that Volquez "showed him a lot" and that he and Rick Honeycutt know how to "fix" his problems.  Don't worry, Donny assured everyone, the usual folks will return in Cincinnati, he's just playing the strangest shell game with the starting rotation.  Why not have 7 guys?!  There's no rule about that, and Joe Torre never said he couldn't do that.  And here we are.

Let there be no question: it is the ability of the Dodgers individual players that lead to this success.  And, I'm willing to wager large amounts of any sort of valuable item that some mouth-breating writer somewhere else (not LA) thinks Donny is doing great things.  He really "turned them around" after he "drove them into the fucking ground" - wait...the start wasn't his fault at all...

Shit, we're in first, I need to cheer up.  Ah, here's a picture of Tommy and Ice Cube.