So it's been a week.... 5 - 3

Since I went to my last Dodger game. And I know ... I usually post as soon as I get home from a game my recap. Sorry. It's a week late! I didn't get a chance to post that night because I didn't get home till after 12:30 AM ... and I had to be at work at 9 the next morning. There was no way I was going to get on the computer and try to blog about the game. And here I am now ... almost midnight and finally going over the game. Let's see what I can remember.

The day before the game, the weather was cloudy and it rained in some areas, hail in others ... I forget which day ... but even a tornado or two touched down here in Southern California. Where I live (which is VERY close to Dodger Stadium) ... it sprinkled here and there ... but not much. According to Google maps ... I am 2.9 miles from Dodger Stadium, which they say is about eight minutes. That's going down Riverside Drive, up Stadium Way. Now if I hop on the 110 and get off on the Dodger Stadium exit, that cuts .4 miles off my distance. So ... basically I live less then 3 miles from Dodger Stadium, somewhere between 2 and 2.5 miles.

Because of the rain, I knew my friend who was supposed to go to the game with me might change her mind. And, yes, she said she didn't want to go to the game because of the chance of rain and she thought it was ridiculous that I would go. She didn't want to risk getting sick, for a game. I made some calls and tried to find someone else to go with me. Nina usually goes with me, but she had plans for that night and was going to have guests over at her house. So, she couldn't come. Kevin was my second choice, but I couldn't reach him. And he was at a birthday part. I ended up taking my wonderful cousin Jenny! This is the first time we've gone to a game together. Before I left the Galleria, I stopped at Target to pick up a poncho so I could be prepared for the rain. I also wanted to look for gloves, but alas ... they're out of season. And when I got in line to pay for my stuff, there was a family of four or five in front of me ... all decked out in Dodger gear. They were buying just two or three things, one of which was a baseball inside a case. They were going to the game as well.

Jenny and I got there early and we stopped to see who was in Autograph Alley. I think it was Tim Leary. We got in for batting practice. I think I've just about given up going to batting practice. There's no way I'm ever going to get another batting practice ball or anyone to sign my scrapbook. Why? I'm not some cute kid, so why would anyone pay attention to me? And I get it. If one player signs one thing for a fan, they get swamped by a dozen other people who also want autographs. Now why would he want to put himself through that? Anyway, I had given up and thought I should head towards the dug out and maybe catch Steve again. Well, I saw him and he was busy talking to some family. My cousin Jenny asked me why don't I approach him? I said because he was talking to the family in the boxed baseline seats and the security people weren't going to let me go into that area. There was a security guy standing there and he confirmed what I said.

But while I was in that area, guess who I ran into? JoAnna! She was there was Kirsten, JoAnna's daughter Avery, and Avery's friend Madyson. Avery and Madyson were in line with the other kids waiting to get an autograph from a Dodger player. They waited. And waited. And then because some of the kids were fooling around, the kids were told to leave the line. They left ... and then the security told them they could come back. And then they were told to leave again ... and then told to come back. They waited. And waited. Then batting practice was over and told to leave again.

Jenny wanted to know where we were sitting. So I looked up and pointed out our section. And noticed that some of the guys were already there. And yes, I still don't know everyone's names. Guy 3 (he sits in seat 3 usually) was there, but I couldn't see who he was with. Turns out, this time he brought his father. Last time and the first time, he brought his cousin. And someone else in between. Yes, I know. I probably should learn their names. Anyway, before we went up, we got our food. I got Jenny a Dodger dog, and since she wanted fries, I got Garlic Fries. We waited for the elevator. Got on. Some guy got on and I thought to myself ... this guy looks a lot like Penny ... without the facial hair.

We went to our seats and said hi to Guy 3. I teased him about being early. After we sat down, the family behind us arrived. They also joked about getting there in time for the first pitch. Jenny got up to use the restroom and I asked her to get me a ice cream cookie sandwich, as cold as it was. But after the garlic fries ... I needed something else to eat. And it was SOOOO good. And then before the game started ... some guy was shouting out "cacahuetes" or however you pronounce peanuts in Spanish. But he would draw out the words and say them like in two words, like "caca" "huetes". And then there were these two guys sitting behind us ... who were in the wrong section. Their seats were in 3 TD, but they were sitting in 1 TD. They could've stayed. There's usually plenty of empty seats. But they moved over anyway.

Early in the game, Lowe already had a ball bounce off him. When my friends and I play "three flies up" at the park, we nicknamed one of the trees "DLowe" ... because we always hit the tree with the ball. Just like DLowe seems to get drilled by comebackers. Molina lost his bat, and Lowe retrieved it for him.

Let's see ... how many times did a Dodger get left in scoring position?
Bottom of second - Kemp reached third on wild pitch by Wainwright, after he singled, then reached second on DeWitt's groundout.
Bottom of fifth - Hu singled and reached second on Lowe's groundout
Bottom of sixth - Martin singled, safe at second on error by Molina, and third on Loney's groundout.
Bottom of ninth - Kemp walked, stole second, and moved to third on a wild pitch.

The only Dodger to score was Hu, who tripled and then scored on Sweeney's sac fly.
I'll probably add more things later one when I go through my pictures. Those will jarr some memories. It sprinkled twice during the game. But it wasn't hard enough for the game to stop. As soon as it started to sprinkle, I pulled out a giant Hefty ziplock bag and stuffed my purse in it. The guys around me joked that it was big enough to stuff myself in it. It was pretty big. We also pulled out my poncho. We didn't have to use it till the ninth. It was also bubbles night at Dodger Stadium. Some bored person was blowing bubbles during the game.

At one point in the game, Kent came up in a big spot. I don't remember what spot, what inning, or anything. However, I remember Nicole cheering for Kent. Guy 3 said something, I don't remember what. Well, Kent flied out (I think it was the eighth inning) and Guy 3 was like, "I told you so." Nicole told him (she was kidding of course) that she wanted the other guy back, the Kent guy. Guy 3 takes off his sweater and he's wearing a Kent jersey. It was pretty hilarious. He told her he wasn't talking to her anymore, and someone responded "at least not during this game." Nicole leaned over and asked me what was his name. He sits two seats away from me, and I don't know his name. I told her that I didn't know. She asked me what she should do. The only thing I could think of was apologize. So, she goes "I sorry." He didn't respond. We told her that he was still ignoring her.

Then came the bottom of the ninth inning ... Matt Kemp was up to bat, with one out. He worked a full count before they called a rain delay. It just started to pour! Jenny and I already pulled the poncho over our heads so I could keep taking pictures in the rain. As soon as they called the rain delay, everyone in our section just split. Well, except for like these two guys in the front row. I would've stayed ... but we went to take cover on the top deck. I took a lot of pictures during the rain delay. Looking back, I should've moved over to the right side of the top deck to get pictures of the players in the dug out. I didn't know they were still in there. They pulled the tarp out, took it off, spread dry sand/dirt/whatever around, and then covered it up again. The rain eventually stopped and the game continued. Kemp got a walk. Then he stole second as DeWitt struck out. Then with Andruw Jones on the on-deck spot ... pinch hitter Delwyn Young got walked. You gotta wonder ... did they intentionally unintentionally walk Young (who's a pretty decent pinch hitter these days) to get to the Whiff King? Well, for the first time since my first game this year ... the crowd was actually cheering Jones more than they were booing him. It was like we were trying to "will" him to succeed. We wanted this moment to be his moment to shine, to redeem himself. Well ... what can I say? He let us down. Again. By striking out. Of course. So this is what we waited over an hour for. That and the awesome fireworks show. Which, by the way, I have posted up on my flickr.

So ... I bought the Sunday game where Clayton Kershaw made his major league debut. Wow. Amazing. Six ining,s five hits, two earned runs, and SEVEN strike outs. Three of those strike outs were in the FIRST inning. His pitch total? 102 pitches. James Loney got hit in the head with a pop fly that he missed. Then in the bottom of the sixth inning, Loney had a 1 - 2 count, with two outs, and Martin on first. He swung and you can hear his bat hit the catcher's helmet! It reminded me of when Matt Holliday did the same thing during the Home Run Derby last year.

That's all for now. I'll add more later if I remember anything else.