After a successful week in the scenic Sydney, Australia, the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks should be landing in the states very soon. Obviously, the trip was a bit more of a success for those pesky Dodgers, who ended up winning both games. While I greatly enjoyed watching the second game, which was on a much more reasonable time of day, I was able to learn quite a few things about the teams and the series:
1) Australia is awesome. I mean seriously! They really pulled out all the stops for these teams and that was really cool to see. People don’t realize what a great market this country is for baseball, but they more than proved their case in these last few days. The way they transformed the hallowed Sydney Cricket Grounds (think Old Yankee Stadium in terms of hallowed-ness) into a baseball diamond was incredible. Not only that, but each game had over 38,000 fans in attendance! How cool is that?
2) Don Mattingly is super pissed at Yasiel Puig. Listening to Mattingly’s comments post-game about Puig make me chuckle. Even the skipper is none too pleased with the kid. Making some serious base running errors that cost the Dodgers some outs is not a good way to go. Add some kind of injury to that and you have a grumpy Donnie Baseball. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Puig is just as likely to help the Dodgers lose games and he is to help them win. My sympathies go out to you, Mr. Mattingly…
3) Kershaw and Ryu are dynamos. For much of the spring, the D-Backs have had Kershaw’s number, but alas, when they needed to dial it, they couldn’t even find the phone. Kershaw dominated in the first game and looked like the Cy Young winning he is. And Ryu? He looked just a good.
4) Wade Miley looked great. Sure, the team didn’t win, but it was not because of Wade Miley. He had eight strike outs and looked really solid. On day two, however, Trevor Cahill did not look so good. With Patrick Corbin probably gone for the year, Cahill really needs to step it up, but if this game is any indication, it isn’t looking so good…
5) Goldy/Prado/Trumbo sandwich combo will be fabulous. Goldschmidt kept up a hitting streak that has carried over from last season and the D-Back fans got to see a real live Trumbomb. As long as Martin Prado’s bat stays hot, we will have three very dangerous hitters on our hands. Prado may not have had the offensive start that he wanted, but let’s remember that he was hitting about .500 during spring training.
6) The Dodgers will still be really good this year. So, congrats Dodger fans. You will have a fun season to watch, but don’t be dicks about it, and I mean that. You all were super annoying last year, especially consider the suck-fest that was your team for the first few months of the season.
7) The Diamondbacks will be sorta good this year. Frankly, I think anything above a .500 finish will be considered a success.
8) Baseball is back and it is GLORIOUS. ‘Nuff said.
She Steals Second 