MLB: Dodgers Beat Phillies 7-2 in a Quarreled Game
By Stephen Lars
The Dodgers came out to Game 3 against Philadelphia full of energy and positivism, willing to play a great game after having some difficult times in the past few games.
A triple of Blake DeWitt in full bases against Jamie Moyer crowned a first inning of five runs, and the Dodgers defeated Philadelphia 7-2 on Sunday night to reduce to 2-1 the advantage of the Phillies in the best of seven series.
The starter Hiroki Kuroda launched with effectiveness the seventh inning for the Dodgers. However, before that, he also started a bit of a disturbance in the third inning, when he threw a ball that passed very close over the head of Shane Victorino, while a very pissed off Manny Ramírez was shouting to the Phillies. This provoked the players that were at the bullpen and the benches to run toward the field.
Apparently, Kuroda did this thrown in order to make some kind of retaliation for something that had happened in the second game of the series, when Brett Myers threw behind Manny Ramirez passing very close to him as well. The umpire Mike Everitt immediately warned the two teams. Victorino batted an out toward the first base Nomar Garciaparra and then passed by Kuroda, exchanging a few words with him near the bag.
There was a little bit of tension since many of the players got involved in the heat of the moment. Two of the players that seemed more uncomfortable with all that were happening were Dodgers third base, Larry Bowa, and Phillies first base, Davey Lopes, whom exchanged shouts in the middle of the argument. Ramírez was also very angry since he left the garden and had to be contained by several of his teammates, the manager Joe Torre and an umpire. Catcher Russell Martin tried to clarify the entire situation later on, saying that Kuroda’s launch was not thrown toward, but over Victorino’s head and that this kind of things are all is part of the game.
Moyer struck Martin with a launch in the first inning and Clay Condrey struck the Dodgers catcher as well in the second inning. Later, Martin was struck once again by another launch in the seventh inning, by Chad Durbin. The Dodgers fans booed Durbin and wanted Ramírez to step out of the bench. However, Martin arrived at the first base without further problems.
The umpires’ leader, Mike Reilly said the warning was done to protect the players of both teams and try to avoid another confrontation. Nevertheless, later the game calmed down and there was not further disturbance.
The Dodgers played the remainder of the game very attentive to any movement of the Phillies. As the catcher Russell Martin said, they needed to recover the impulse and apparently they were achieving it.
For sure the Dodgers will continue playing with one goal in mind; try to equalize the results at the following games of the series and to conquer the National League Championship.
About the Author
Stephen Lars has been a prominent writer on daily MLB games, sports news and the sportsbook industry for many exceptional sport web sites. You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.