Grand Slams and Guitar Licks: Dodgers vs. Giants 4/16/10

Hey, did you see that guy from Colorado pitched a no-hitter last night? Exciting stuff. And Cal Ripken feels slighted by the Orioles? For no apparent reason, according to Peter Angelos? This is all great stuff for the Macro-Baseball world, but two nights ago I spent some time observing and absorbing details from the Micro-Baseball world. Here's a rundown of what happened.

The Commute on the LA freeways wasn't all that bad - it's just that I had to leave so late from work that I missed the entire first inning. I was close enough that as I walked up I could hear the stadium erupt after Matt Kemp & Andre Ethier's back-to-back home runs. The preferred parking pass helped (shout out to StubHub with their cool packages, and to my friend who put the whole thing together), because it let me off right next to our seats (Loge Level, down the left field line, just foul of the foul pole). But even so, when I got in the stadium, it was already 3-0 Dodgers.

But the excitement soon started up again as Ethier hit a grand slam in the second inning! The crowd goes wild! Everyone's on their feet cheering! High fives all around with the new friends I made in the stands! It was a slam indeed, and a grand one at that.

As the dust settles, I sit back down and take stock of the game so far: 7-0 Dodgers. The Giants have yet to record a hit. And my friends have yet to arrive. Their plan was to take the Metro from the Valley to Downtown, and then take a free Dodger Stadium shuttle from there. But a late start and unexpected gameday traffic slowed them down, and they didn't show up until the 4th.

I know public transit would be great for traffic into/out of downtown, and a light rail down Wilshire would revolutionize beach traffic. But what about the instant rise in crime, such as what the Baltimore suburbs experienced with the introduction of their rail system. Plus it takes fans over an hour to get to the game!

By the time my friends did get there, Manny had already left the game. It's as if he asked his teammates, "Are we really gonna let them score more than 7 runs? No? Okay, then, I want out." But I later learned from Inside Sources that Manny has had some quad trouble since their series in Pittsburgh. I guess it's as good a time to give him some rest as any.

Padilla's no-hitter lasted until we got up to get beers. ($12.25 for a large beer?!?!?!?!!!? It would have been cheaper at the actual counter rather than the express lane, but even $10 would have been more than extravagant.) But he got himself his "Quality Start" by getting thru 7 innings while allowing 3 runs or fewer. He looked good, hitting 93-94 on his fastball with his big slow curve working very well. He even pulled out his knuckle-esque looper, which topped out at about 59 mph. It's just that he works so insufferably slow that I was surprised that the nine-inning affair didn't last much longer than three hours.

During the 7th-inning stretch, we were graced by a virtuoso performance of "God Bless America" by none other than legendary guitarist Slash of Guns N' Roses! He had a backwards baseball cap on in place of his signature top hat, but his axe sounded just the same as ever. Jack Nicholson may go to every Lakers game, but the only place to catch rock gods in action is Chavez Ravine.

Things got a little rocky for the Dodgers' pen after Slash's performance, as starter turned failed-starter turned (soon to be failed) reliever Russ Ortiz gave up two runs and two additional baserunners before coming out of the game. Those runners scored (plus one more) when Ramon Troncoso, who came in to bail out Ortiz, gave up a homer. I don't even remember who hit it, that's how eager we all were to see this thing over with. But our boys in blue hung on to beat the hated rival Giants in the two teams' first meeting of the year.

Walking out of the ballpark, to the strains of the Dodgers' victory song - Randy Newman's "I Love LA" - I was reminded of why Tommy Lasorda refers to Dodger Stadium as "Blue Heaven on Earth."