First off, here’s Casey “The Beard” Blake describing the unusual play on the Dodgers’ post-game television show:

I was trying to make something happen.  That’s the first time it’s ever worked for me.  Usually guys don’t pay attention to me…I’m not really going anywhere right there.  But I said, hey, we got two outs and I might as well try something, and took a couple hard steps and sometimes it works.  The ninth inning, two outs, I’m sure there were some nerves on the mound, or some emotion, and so I just thought I’d try it and it worked one time.”

The balk-off win also inspired some great stories from across the web.  Here are a couple of my favorites from last night and this morning:

- Tony Jackson at ESPN Los Angeles looks at the umpiring coincidence between last night’s balk-off win for the Dodgers and their last one in 1989

- As usual, Eric at True Blue LA offers up the stats behind the balk-off

Photo Credit: Jon SooHoo / LA Dodgers 2010

Sounds like a sitcom, doesn’t it?  Today’s game played like a television show, with a consistent story line (the Dodgers winning 12 of their last 13 games), a little drama (a rocky 1st inning by John Ely) and one of the team’s heroes giving the fans a happy ending (Jonathan Broxton delivering his third consecutive save).

And today, we also learned that John Ely is, indeed, human.  After pitching to 89 consecutive batters without giving up a walk, the 24 year-old starter finally succumbed, walking one batter in a rough first inning before rebounding and putting together another quality start against the Detroit Tigers.  In the end, the kid pitched through just over six innings, giving up eight hits, to go along with the one walk and three strikeouts.  His ERA for the season stands at 3.41.  Not bad for a kid who never pitched above Double A in his career.

Casey Blake continued his torrid hitting as of late, going 3 for 4, including a solo bomb.  Matt Kemp also went deep, DeWitt trippled (he leads the club with three) driving in two, with Loney and Manny contributing RBI to the cause.

Things started to get a little dicey after Torre gave Ely a quick hook in the 6th inning.  Kuo was in a bit of a jam with the bases loaded in the 6th, but rebounded with a fantastic throw to end the inning.  In the 8th, Troncoso simply looked worn out and needed Weaver to help keep the damage to a minimum.  Broxton also went threw a few struggles in the 9th, but closed the door with two strikeouts (swinging and looking, respectively) to record what was his third consecutive save – not bad when you consider how slow the season started for Brox.

In my opinion, one of the plays of the game was a diving stop made by Casey Blake to save a sure single.  Throwing from his knees, The Beard had a fantastic throw to second to record a critical out and give Broxton some much needed breathing room.

All in all, a solid win by the Dodgers.  For the majority of the game, the Dodgers looked very, very solid, combining great offense, solid defense and quality starting pitching.  The club goes for the sweep against the Tigers on Sunday at 1:10 p.m. PT with the Dodgers’ most consistent starter, Hiroki Kuroda (5-1, 2.87 ERA), taking on Rick Porcello (3-4, 5.93 ERA).

First up, it was Andre Ethier Bobblehead Night last night!  The first 50,000 fans picked up one of the little guys, and Andre was even cool enough to sign a few autographs for the fans.  Roberto over at Vin Scully Is My Homeboy says that scalpers were outside the stadium asking fans if they wanted to sell their Ethier figurines.  Apparently the going rate was $40.  Crazy!  Here’s the schedule for the remainder of the Dodger Bobblehead Nights…and judging from the traffic numbers, this is a huge deal for many of you!

Next up for Ethier was filming an ESPN Sportscenter commercial this morning.  Josh Rawitch tweeted out this photo of ‘Dre in action, and notes in his blog that the Dodgers Media Network is going to have some behind-the-scenes footage from the shoot up sometime soon, which is cool.  Here a few other notes for the Ethierholics out there:

Well, he’s got an upcoming action figure night (July 8), a poster (Aug. 20) and a few other big time media requests we’ve gotten for him. We’re going to try to bang out most of these while he’s hurt because unfortunately, he can’t play at the moment. But, hopefully he’ll be back soon and by then, who knows, maybe the Dodgers will be on a 23-game winning streak…

Also, on an unrelated note, how great was it to see a newly scruffy Casey Blake come up huge last night, going 3 for 4 with 2 RBI and a homer?  As Steve Dilbeck notes, Blake broke a 2 for22 skid with last night’s effort.  THE BEARD IS BACK!  Looking for my “In Beard We Trust” shirt as we speak so I can wear it to the game tonight.

Finally, I can’t recommend the blog Dodger Divorce enough for all things depressing when it comes to the McCourt v. McCourt legal action.  Josh has a great post up about the latest shady legal maneuverings and breaks it down for the common fan.  A must read every time something happens in the courtroom involving the team.

Looking forward to my first game of the season at Chavez Ravine as a regular fan tonight.  Hope to post a few updates and pics throughout the game.

Photo Credit: Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2010 (Ethier Bobblehead); LA Dodgers 2010 (Ethier Sportscenter)

Casey Blake did his part as well, delivering two home runs during the course of the game (the 9th time he’s accomplished this in his career) and throwing out what would have been the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the 13th.

The Dodgers road record improved to a lowly 4-7 with the win and continued their streak of not losing three games in a row yet this season. Unfortunately, they have managed to lose two games in a row on three separate occasions (and only squeaked out a win today by the thinnest of margins).

Photo credit: Jon SooHoo, Los Angeles Dodgers, 2010.

…it was a great position to watch another great celebration by the “walk off wonders” aka the 2009 Dodgers…

For most of the game, my attention was directed toward to specific players – Hiroki Kuroda who is on my fantasy baseball team and Manny Ramirez (who isn’t?)…Kuroda turned in a great game for me with 9 strikeouts and only 2 earned runs in 6 innings…not bad considering his recent “not-so-great” outings…Manny did me some good with a single in 5 trips to the plate.

The greatest part of the game, of course, was the bottom of the 9th…Juan Pierre led off the inning, pinch hitting for Broxton who pitched a scoreless 9th to get is 7th victory against zero defeats!…anyway, I told my friend that all I wanted was for someone to get on base so Manny had a chance to win it for us…

Pierre lined out to center…Furcal had a perfect bunt up the first base line that went for a single…Hudson then followed with a sharp line drive single to left field which setup possible hero #1 – Manny Ramirez…

At this point, the fans were on their feet for the rest of the game…Manny struck out much to the chagrin of the crowd, but it setup the situation for possible hero #2 – Andre Ethier…

Ethier, our walk off hero so far this season, drew a walk…this setup the situation for possible hero #3 – Casey Blake…

…bases loaded…2 out…bottom of the 9th…possible game winning situation…this is what you dream about as a kid, right?

Of course, that dream ends with a home run, but as I told my friend, all we need is a lousy single (to take the words out of Rex Hudler’s mouth)…

0-2 count…not looking good…

…2 balls later, things were looking a little better…Marlins pitcher Luis Ayala paced around the mound…2 more balls and he loses the game…he had to throw a strike…

On the 2-2 pitch, Casey made contact and from where I was sitting, I had a great view of something great – the ball coming down and landing on the GRASS between 3 Marlins fielders…

As I like to tell my water polo players, sometimes it’s better to have placement than power on shots and Casey’s certainly was placed perfectly…

DODGERS WIN!

The dog pile on Casey Blake after his walk off single against the Marlins on July 25th.