Chapter 10: 2008, Enter Manny and Clayton
The Dodgers reinvent themselves on the fly and give one promising prospect a chance
The 2008 Dodgers were a team constantly in flux. The Dodgers had a new manager in Joe Torre. They signed a new center fielder in free agency in Andruw Jones. They expected big things from second year first baseman James Loney. Chad Billingsley was supposed to be the next Dodgers ace and would slot in nicely behind the dependablbe Derek Lowe.
Very few of these ideas worked out as planned. Jones was out of shape and was terrible. Loney was a pretty solid performer. Billingsley won 16 games with a 3.14 ERA, but the fans wanted Orel Hershiser like production, which no pitcher was giving anywhere anymore.
The Dodgers lost players to injuries. Nomar Garciaparra and Rafael Furcal were both injured most of the year, forcing the Dodgers to improvise with rookie Blake DeWitt at third and numerous people at shortstop and second base.
General manager Ned Colletti kept making deals in an attempt to keep the team afloat and he was fairly successful. Colletti took a chance in trading top prospect Carlos Santana to Cleveland for third baseman Casey Blake.
The Dodgers had a good third base prospect in Andy LaRoche, but he was dealt away in the deal that changed the trajectory of the season for the Dodgers. LaRoche was sent to the Pirates along with another minor leaguer. The Pirates in turn traded outfielder Jason Bay to … Boston. Boston traded outfielder Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers.
Ramirez came to L.A. and took over left field for affable popgun hitter Juan Pierre. Ramirez played just 53 regular season games for the Dodgers, but he homered 17 times and batted .396 in his new jersey sporting 99 on the back.
Another new face in L.A. showed up in late May, when 20-year old lefthander Clayton Kershaw made his big league debut. The youngster showed promise, but was a little wild and still looked like he needed another pitch. But he had a curve ball that hitters coud not touch.
The NL West was a mess this season and the Dodgers were able to win it with with just 84 victories, their lowest winning total in a full season. Arizona led for much of the year, but was mostly living off a big lead it got from a hot April. The rest of the season was less than exciting.
The Dodgers faced the best team in the NL in the Division Series in Chicago. The Cubs were favored, but the Dodgers swept them. Loney hit a grand slam in Game 1 to spark a victory. In Game 2, Billingsley kept the Cubs in check as the Dodgers took advantage of four Cubs errors for a 10-3 win. Hiroki Kuroda needed less help as the Dodgers finished off the sweep 3-1.
The NLCS was a familiar pairing between the Dodgers and the Phillies (1977, 1978, and 1983). The Phillies took the first game 3-2 thanks to homers from Chase Utley and Pat Burrell.
Game 2 would be contentious as Phillies starter Brett Myers (who likely would have been suspended for domestic violence in 2006 under current MLB policies) sent Dodger hitters ducking from high pitches, most notably Ramirez. The Dodgers starter, Billingsley, chose not to retaliate (because it was both a playoff game and generally not in his nature), and the Phillies hit him hard anyway. The Phillies won 8-5.
Back in Los Angeles, Kuroda tried to show the Phillies that Myers’ actions weren’t welcome as he fired a pitch near the head of Phillies outfielder Shane Victorino1 in the third inning. Benches emptied, but no one was ejected. The Dodgers scored five times in the first and won 7-1.
Dodgers fans were optimistic about evening the series the next night. The lead changed hands three times, but the Dodgers were ahead 5-3 after seven innings.
Lefty Hung-Chih Kuo gave up a leadoff single to Ryan Howard in the eighth. Torre brought in righty Cory Wade, who got Burrell to pop out, but then Victorino followed with a 2-run homer to tie the game. One out later, Carlos Ruiz singled. Torre then turned to his closer, Jonathan Broxton.
Broxton was a very large, very hard throwing 24-year old. He was generally a very effective reliever. But, against pinch hitter Matt Stairs, Broxton fell behind 3-1 in the count and then threw a pitch that Stairs drilled deep into the right field pavilion. The Phillies won the game 7-5.
And then after a weirdly timed scheduled day off, the Phillies finished the job with a 5-1 win in Game 5.
2008 was just a relatively drama-free prelude to 2009, when the Dodgers fan would have a season where to put it mildly, they would go through some stuff. This season also marked, in my opinion, the beginning of “The Narrative” around the Dodgers and the playoffs. That is, the Dodgers could not win playoff series because they did not have some indefinable characteristic that other teams had. The Narrative was born in legacy media and nurtured in social media. The Narrative will prove hard to change.
If you remember 2008, you would have no difficulty figuring out why Kuroda picked on Victorino in particular in this game.
Is Manny the most famous #99 in LA sports history?