Miserable Performance All Around

A completely demoralizing night for the boys in blue. Simply stated, zero runs will never get it done, and that's what happened tonight. If it's any consolation understand that ten runs wouldn't have accomplished anything either. Whether Cliff Lee goes eight scoreless innings (which he did) or gets yanked early the Dodgers still would have needed to score twelve runs to pull out a victory. And they didn't.

The Dodgers were ugly on both sides of the ball, and that's putting it mildly. It's hard not feel dejected and worrisome after an 11-0 loss, especially since tonight's defeat could very well mean no more games in Los Angeles until next April. However, as Joe Torre reminds us, it's just one game.

"You never want to get your rear end kicked," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "But you don't toss and turn and wonder if you made the right move. It's still only one game and we're in position to tie the series tomorrow."

Hard to feel that way though after watching such a smackdown.

On a side note, in case anyone is wondering, Hiroki Kuroda's 2009 postseason ERA now resides at a laughable 40.50. Funny, given how awful he was tonight, I thought that number would have been higher.

Photo courtesy of David J. Phillip