Joe Torre, Andre Ethier and Clayton Kershaw Post-Game Comments

What a game!  Ethier’s three home-runs are the most since Hee-Seop Choi on June 12, 2005 and his six RBI are a career high.  Looks like the Dodgers got a little extra motivation from having Pau Gasol in the stands!  Mota’s also been “rebounding” (pun intended) pitching two scoreless innings.  That means shutout baseball in 13 of his last 14 games for a 0.52 ERA.  Since May 17, he’s lowered his ERA from 9.00 to 4.50.

Great post-game comments from Torre, Kershaw and Ethier.  Definitely don’t miss Kershaw’s take on his developing pitching style.

First up is Joe Torre:

On Ethier: “That’s the guy we all know is in there.”

On Kershaw:  “As far as Kershaw, he grew a little bit at his last outing on Sunday and tonight was just an add-on.  Any time you can put two or three back to back like that, that means you’re making some progress.”

More on Kershaw: “Early in the game he’s not trying to overthrow the ball.  He’s so agressive, and sometimes it works against him because he goes out there and just tries to throw the ball by people and you can’t do it at this level…not on a consistent basis.  I saw him using his pitches the last time out and he used all his pitches tonight.  I thought his curveball was better and we told him he was done after six and he had these big wide eyes and said, ‘Really? Is that it?’  We’re gonna try and get as much good out of this thing as we can.”

On Never Having a Three-Game Losing Streak This Season: “People told me that, and it’s great.  Streaks are great, but you certainly want the good ones to outnumber the bad ones.  I remember ‘96 when I had the Yankees, we never lost more than five in a row and we never won more than five in a row.  There’s no question that if you keep going the rest of the year without losing more than two in a row, we’re in pretty good shape.”

Clayton Kershaw’s Post-Game Comments:

On Andre Ethier: “He’s so tough when he’s hot.  There’s really no right way to pitch him; maybe walk him is the best idea.  He’s just got so much power and he;s got power to all fields.  When he’s seeing the ball well like he was tonight, you saw what happened – there’s no one way to get him out.”

On His Developing Pitching Style: “I think that’s the key for me – trying to incorporate all my pitches.  Sometimes when I get into trouble I just want to go hard, hard, hard and get people out.  Sometimes the best way to do that is just by backing off.  When you’re in certain situations, like whether it was the Angels and the bases loaded or tonight with the bases loaded in the fourth inning, you’re really just trying to make quality pitches.  Sometimes soft is the way to go.  Brad and Russell have both been great.  They’ve both started calling the pitches that I need to throw.  Instead of shaking off like I have done in the past, I trust them and trust myself a little bit more.”

Andre Ethier speaks:

On Having ‘Quick Hands’ Tonight: “I just went in there and worked with Donnie and worked on some stuff and got back to where I need to be. So I guess not to expect that that’s what happen after you work with Donnie, but I’m relaxed, more comfortable up there and ready to go.”

On Hitting Seventh in the Lineup: “We have a good lineup.  You should be honored just to be in the lineup.  We’re now in a situation coming in a couple weeks where we’ve got a guy that will definitely be in the lineup and everyone’s got to fit in where they can and have their opportunities.  It just shows you that you should be happy to be in this lineup because it;s so good and deep from our bench to our starting eight.”

On Attending Wakamatsu’s Baseball Camp as a Youth: “I remember going to Don’s hitting and fielding camps in the winter there in Phoenix.  I’m surprised he remembers me.  I was probably 11…12 years old at that time.  I don’t know if he knew at that time that I’d be his opponent on the major league level.”

On His Home Run Power: “I was never a home run hitter.  I didn’t hit my first home run until I was 13 years old.  Not even Little League.  I didn’t hit one until I was a seventh grader in junior high. So I can say, never three in a game.”

Dodgers-Mariners Pre-Game Notes

Following are a few pre-game quotes from Joe Torre:

On Manny Ramirez in Albuquerque: “He got through it and he didn’t get hurt…he’ll play the next five days, four days and be ready for us next week.  I’m not concerned about statistics.  I’m more interested in having him compete in some games.”

On Juan Pierre’s Upcoming Return to the Bench: “Juan certainly seized the opportunity and made the most out of it.  We’ll just go back and, our original plan coming out of Spring Training was to give Juan a day or two a week in center field and rest Ethier or rest Kemp.  We did it, I think three times, before Manny was suspended, so we’ll continue to do that.  It’s just one of those things.  When you have Kemp in center field, obviously getting better.  Ethier’s been such a big part of our offense. with this National league baseball, there’s not much we can do about it.

On the Dodgers Not Losing Three Games in a Row All Season: “We’ve been lucky a lot.  Our record in close games has been very good.  It just so happens, a lot of those close games were played at home…our bullpen has been doing an amazing job.  And that’s something that when we left Spring Training, we weren’t sure what it was all about.  So I’ve got to credit the bullpen and just the resiliency of this team.  They’ve been fighting and biting and going after things on an everyday basis and we’ve got to keep doing it.”

On Jason Schmidt: “Schmidt’s pitching tonight with no pitch count so we’ll see what that’s like.”

On Jeff Weaver: “Weaver gave us a courageous outing yesterday.  He pitched his tail off, especially that last inning.”

On His First Impressions of Ichiro Suzuki: “Usually people don’t live up to the expectations but he certainly, when we saw him after what we were told about him, he was scary (for the opposition).  He looked like he had a great deal of control over what he was doing.  Defensively, it looked so easy for him.  He’d be under every ball and make a throw right on the money, running fast after two steps, steal a base when he wanted to, and then when you watched him in batting practice you knew he could hit home runs when he wanted to…he’s about as complete a player as you want to find.”

Joe Torre Headed Back to St. Louis!

According to Bill Shaikin, Joe Torre has been named to the National League’s All-Star coaching staff.  While this seemed like a no-brainer, it’s good to see.  It’s also a homecoming of sorts for Joe.  From Shaikin:

Torre played for the St. Louis Cardinals for six years and managed them for an additional five. He won the NL Most Valuable Player award as a Cardinal in 1971, when he hit .363 with 24 home runs and 137 runs batted in.

Hopefully Joe will be able to use his influence to get some of those well-deserving Dodgers players on the team!

Post-Game Thoughts From Torre, Kershaw and Martin

Tough loss for the Dodgers.  Here are the post-game comments.  Needless to say, it was a pretty short session.  Plus, it was Fireworks Night, so the guys either wanted to catch the show or beat the crowds out, depending on who you were listening to.

On the Game as a Whole (Joe Torre): “It was a good baseball game, but a very frustrating baseball game.”

On Missed Opportunities (Joe Torre): “That’s frustrating, but you have to give their pitching a little credit for that.  They missed opportunities too.  They had a man at 3rd base, nobody out.  We were able to get them on a good play.  There were missed opportunities on both sides.  Unfortunately they broke through and we didn’t.”

On Clayton Kershaw (Joe Torre): “You know what, he bends, but he doesn’t break.  He still was able to right the ship.  He’s paying a heavy price here, running that pitch count early.  But this kid doesn’t melt away and that’s certainly a step in the right direction.”

On the Offense (Joe Torre): “Yeah, we’ve been scuffling.  The longer it goes, the worse it gets because everyone puts pressure on themselves, saying, ‘I have to do it here.  I have to do it here.’  I don’t think the pressure of the game is getting to anybody.  I think it’s just the pressure that we’ve been scuffling and each guy is probably trying to do a little bit more than they’re capable of doing.”

On the Offense (Russell Martin): ”You get guys on third base, less than two outs, you’re supposed to put the ball in play and get the run in.  Some days it works, some days it doesn’t.  Today is obviously a day when it didn’t work, especially for me.  Maybe tomorrow.”

On Clayton Kershaw (Russel Martin): “He was kind of inconsistent with his location, his command, today, but he battled through it.  Kept them to one run.  You’re going to have days where you don’t have your best stuff and you just gotta compete and that’s what he did today.”

On His Pitching (Clayton Kershaw): “I just didn’t find a rhythm in the first inning.  Really in the second inning I just got fortunate and went deep in the counts.  Just one of those things that you have, probably over 30 pitches…it’s going to be tough to stay in a game past five innings when you do something like that.  So, just gotta figure out a way to minimize my pitches early in the game.”

On Throwing 97 Pitches Today After 112 His Previous Start (Clayton Kershaw): “I don’t think it has any affect at all.  I had four days to recover from it.  I don’t think it matters to be honest with you.  Pitch count is pitch count, but as a starter you get four days off so you can recover.”

Pre-Game Thoughts with Joe Torre, Stan Conte and Mike Scioscia

All comments from Joe Torre unless otherwise noted:

On the Angels: “They are a good ball club, no question about it.  They know how to play, they’ve had success, they’re very aggressive.  And obviously you want to keep the speed guys off the base which isn’t easy ’cause they’re a lot of them in the lineup.”

On the Freeway Series: “There’s always a certain amount of energy that’s brought to the ballpark…from both cities.  I always find that the players, whatever the rivalry is….they they feed off the energy in the ballpark.  I expect it to be that way tonight.”

On Xavier Paul’s Staph Infection on his Left Leg : “He’s in the hospital, but he’s going to be fine.  Everything points to starting the recovery, but obviously it’s going to be a while before he plays baseball.”

On Xavier Paul’s Staph Infection on his Left Leg (from Director of Medical Services Stan Conte): “Xavier had a previous infection that was classified as MRSA which is a type of staph infection that is resistant to a lot of the antibiotics, so it’s difficult to treat.  It was treated successfully, he was fine for a period of time.  In Florida, he slid for that catch that he made.  He had a little, small scrape on his knee, which is not uncommon with any baseball player.  On Tuesday morning, he called us and said it was a little red.  We looked at it Tuesday morning, sent him to the doctor who cultured it, put him on an antibiotic that works effectively with MRSA.  By Wednesday after the game he had a full-blown infection – it happened that fast.  We sent him to USC Hospital, Infectious Disease.  After the game…I took him over there, put him on IV antibiotics, which is the course, and drained the skin, cleared it up of a lot of the infection.  He’s at USC and doing well.  His swelling and infection is resolving, but he’ll probably be in there a couple more days.”

On When Xavier Paul May Play Again (Stan Conte): “We won’t let him play or sweat until that skin is completely closed. I won’t really know until we see how that is and how that resolves, but it definitely could be weeks.”

On Corey Wade:“As far as roles on this club, Corey Wade, we know he’s an eighth inning guy and when Corey’s not available, we pretty much let the situation dictate who is pitching the eighth.”

On Will Ohman and Brent Leach:“Ohman’s been like a one hitter guy, and I think that’s the role we’re going to use him in for now…where we’re sitting now, the way Leach is pitching, it’s nice to have two of them where you can use one early and one late.”

On Juan Pierre: “I’ve never been around anybody who works as hard as he does, as far as the time he puts in doing what he does.”

On the Freeway Series (from Mike Scioscia):  “As far as Southern California fans, yeah, you definitely sense it walking around town.  I was walking around my house today, people were saying ‘Go get ‘em…good luck.’ They know we’re playing the Dodgers.”

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