Per Inside the Dodgers, nearly 15 different sites were in attendance….many of which are favorites of ours, and many new ones as well.

Thanks again to the Dodgers organization for their ongoing commitment to social media and spreading the love to Dodger fans across the globe.  We know many of you can’t attend Dodger games for a variety of reasons (including not living in LA), and we’re glad we can help share the insights we pick up at events such as these.

UPDATE: Here is the official recap and pictures from the festivities.

Note: Photo of Ned Colletti from 2008 Blogger Night

Joe Torre:

On the game as a whole:

“It was a classic.  That’s post-season baseball right there.  Great pitching on both sides.  Carpenter did an amazing job at getting out of jams.  They made plays.  Kuroda, that’s as good as you want to see him right there.  It was a great game.  If they had beaten us, I’d still have to say it was a great game, just the way things played out.”

On Kuroda:

“It looks like he was very aggressive.  It looked like he was pretty much doing what he wanted to.  It looked like the ball was really alive, movement wise, and he was locating it.  I think that he had as good of command as he’s had since early in the season.”

On Ethier:

“It is just a matter of timing for me.  You saw him hit that ball the other way with two strikes from the left-hander, you know he is back and comfortable.”

On Manny:

“It looked like he tried to pull.  He was hitting the ball on the ground.  Stayed inside the ball that last time and hit the ball hard to right field.”

Hiroki Kuroda (through his interpreter):

On his pitching overall:

“Most of my key pitches were moving. The sinker, slider and also splitter…were all good today.”

On facing Chris Carpenter:

“Before the game I didn’t really have the time to think about the other pitcher.  I just was worried about how I was going to pitch today and how to get outs on other hitters.”

Russell Martin:

On Kuroda:

“His command was great today.  Good velocity on his fastball and good movement on it too.  His two-seamer was working well for him.  He really had all his pitches tonight: his two-seamer, his slider working well, his splitty as well and also using his cutter.

From the first inning, he was throwing 95 and getting that good sink.  Just with that pitch alone, he can get away with just having that pitch.  Today’s the day where he had everything. So you know when you have all those weapons that you can use, that there’s a lot of different things you can use to get the hitters off balance.

On hearing that the surgery for the little girl who fractured her skull during batting practice on Monday was going to be ok:

“Earlier today, I heard the news, and definitely felt a bit better. It definitely was on my mind yesterday, the whole day, and it was good to hear the good news.”

On playing 0-0 games:

“It means that you’re doing things well, playing good defense and pitching well.  The hitting part, you’ve got an ace on the other side.  You get a win against him, you’re happy, no matter how you get it.”

On Chris Carpenter:

“He had his good stuff today.  Good curveball, command.  Not really leaving anything over the middle of the plate.  Every time you’re up there, it’s a battle against him.”

On Manny’s big hit:

“I don’t know how he hit that ball – it seems like he got jammed a little bit.  That’s a good sign when he’s able to stay inside the ball like that and drive it the other way.  That’s when he’s at his best, so it’s good to see that.”

On Broxton’s 11 pitch battle with Pujols:

“When you get in those situations, the great hitters just get even better.  And you could tell right there, he was fighting off some really good pitches.  Good thing we had one of the best closers in the game out there.  That’s what Pujols does, he’ll just wear you out until you make a mistake and then capitalize on that, but fortunately Broxton just came through, kept making good pitches.”

Jonathan Broxton:

On the ninth inning:

“The heart of the order coming up.  I just had to go out there and make pitches…I did.”

On his battle with Pujols:

“I was just out there trying to go pitch for pitch…trying to see what he’s doing with the ball.  He kept fouling off some good pitches.  I finally just had to bury one.”

“It felt like it was a long time.  I had to keep going with good pitches and good location.  I couldn’t make a mistake.”

Photo Credit: Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2010

Following are the highlights from Joe Torre’s pre-game media session.  A casual day with lots of discussion about two-sport athletes (like Dodgers first round draft pick Zach Lee), but not too much news to report:

On George Sherrill Starting Fresh Now that He’s Back from the DL:

“You’re certainly not going to be able to change the stats.  You’re just going to have to go out there, and I’m sure he’s going to be in that mindset anyway.  He’s not much to concern himself about how pretty it is, it’s just about getting it done.”

On Carlos Monasterios:

“Last night was good for us. We’ve had all those one run games. It was a good opportunity to rest our bullpen for one. Monasterios gave us a heck of a job.  A heck of a job.  He got himself in a bit of a jam there in the fifth inning, and then got himself out of it in a hurry.”

“To me, the fact that he’s pitched this well, I think he could do the job out of the bullpen too. I think all this stuff has done nothing but increase his confidence, and increased our confidence in him.  He doesn’t seem to be bothered by who he pitches against, and that’s a big get for me, is just to watch his demeanor out there.  After the first few times, he’s been pretty good.”

On Rafael Furcal:

“There’s a lot of life in his body right now.  He was sort of fooled on that ground-rule double that he hit, but he kept his bat in the zone a long time.  He’s staying back a lot better.  I thought a few days ago he was swinging out of his shoes, but he had much more controlled at bats, I felt, last night.”

On Washington Nationals Pitcher Stephen Strasburg’s Debut Today:

I’ll tell you one thing, from what I’ve seen in the inning and two thirds I watched him pitch, the ball comes out of his hand pretty good.  He’s got that one that sinks a little bit, and with that arm speed, he’s got a great curveball…so quick.  You have to be more than perfect to live up to the expectations…he certainly appears to be pretty special.  I don’t think there’s any question.”

On Who Strasburg Reminds Him of:

“When you think of someone young, coming up and pitching, I think of Doc Gooden.  He’d cross your eyes with that breaking ball and throw that fastball.  He’d say ‘Here, I dare you.’ And that’s what you’re seeing with this kid.”

On Possibly Being Asked to Talk to Zach Lee:

“Whatever they ask me to do…I’m only here to serve.”

Photo Credit: Chris Volk/2010 dodgerfan.net

Joe Torre

On Travis Schlichting and the performance of the pitchers:

“Schlichting pitched his tail off, as everyone else did.  I have no clue where we’re going to go from here.”

“That’s the one area that’s made a big difference in our ball club.  Anyone who tells you that pitching isn’t a main part of the game should take a look at those numbers.”

On Garret Anderson:

“He’s a pro.  I’m happy for him.  He’s a guy that’s used to playing all the time.  Playing off the bench isn’t the same, but he comes in like a pro every day and it’s nice having him here.”

On Carlos Monasterios:

“I thought he was terrific.  I took him out because he had a little blister.  That’s why he came out of the game, although his pitch count was about where we wanted it.  We were going to send him out there for another inning.”

On Travis Schlichting:

“He’s gone three innings a number of times and his pitch count was pretty good.  But that was going to be his last one and we were going to come with Weaver.  That was something I certainly didn’t want to, but at this point we had no choice.”

On who would have pitched after Jeff Weaver:

“I have no clue.  A lot of it would have depended on that inning.  If [Reed} Johnson has to pitch, now I’m out of players.  Even if you go to a position player, you’re going to have to have a pitcher play someplace."

On Reed Johnson potentially pitching:

"I don’t know…I didn’t poll anybody.  Short of one of those things, I was hoping that if we weren’t going to score, that it would be Garrett making the last out so at least the next inning I’d have Johnson leading off and I’d have nine guys.  Pick one of those guys to pitch.  But if I had to use him in the 14^th inning, then I was going to have to probably use a pitcher to play a position and not pitch, which is something I’ve never had to do."

On potentially making a roster move to add a reliever:

"Kim [Ng] is out there waiting to talk to me. She’s going to come in and ask me the same question.  I haven’t really digested this yet and I don’t know where we would make room for that person, but we are going to be a bit short, so we’ll have to see.”

Travis Schlichting:

On his performance today:

“I felt great out there.  Last year I was a little nervous coming out, and this year…I just felt more relaxed and calm out there which is a good thing to feel.”

Garret Anderson:

On how big the game-winning hit was for him personally:

“I don’t really worry about myself personally too much. I just try and contributed as much as I can with what I got and fortunately I was able to do something today when it counted.”

On the fans getting restless:

“I’ve had that before and it’s well deserved.  I don’t mind hearing boos when I’m out there not doing the things I’m capable of doing.  So yeah, I’ll take those boos.”

Carlos Monasterios:

On how soon he can throw:

“I can throw.  We’ll see tomorrow.”

On how happy he was with how he pitched:

“Very happy.” (with a huge grin)

On John Ely:

“He doesn’t have an issue with taking the mound in any ballpark in any city…He’s in his own world out there.  Guys feed off the enthusiasm.”

On Ely facing the Diamondbacks for the second time:

“That’s important, because as I know as a hitter, sometimes you get familiar with a pitcher, you know what you want to hit.  When he’s able to throw as many different as pitches for strikes, it makes it a little tougher to do that.  He sort of puts you on your heels a bit as a hitter, because he works so quickly.  It’s really unlike a lot of the pitchers these days.”

On George Sherrill:

“I watched him throw the [simulated] game the other day and he threw the ball well.  He’s going to go tomorrow again with Padilla and then he’s ready to come off in probably five days or so.”

On giving so many starters the day off today:

“I think we’re better this year with the quality of the bench and A.J. [Ellis] has been remarkable because he hasn’t played for so long, and he had some good at bats this last game.  Defensively, he’s certainly not a concern at all.  I think you have to do what’s necessary, whether you have the quality on the bench or not.”

On Andre Ethier’s mechanics:

“It’s just timing right now.  I’m glad he got his base hit, but it’s still a matter of timing.  That’s the thing about hitting.  He doesn’t look inhibited in any way or trying to protect anything.  He’s pretty comfortable swinging the bat.  It’s just a matter of getting the rhythm back.”

On A.J. Ellis missing the birth of his child to stay with the club:

“It’s a throwback, that’s for sure.  Normally a player, when his wife is pregnant, will come in and say ‘My wife’s expecting in a month or five weeks.’  I always tell them, if you need to be there, take as long as you need.  Catcher’s a little different than other position players, unfortunately.  But he never came in and asked for any consideration.  He knows it’s an opportunity right now.  It’s an opportunity this kid has, and when you play this game, it’s a family commitment.  You spend so much time with your teammates than you do your family.  I’m sure it was tough.  He did say that he did watch it on the computer….but it’s not the same.”

On the team’s recent hitting struggles:

“I think our at-bats have been ok.  You go through those ups and downs.  Manny’s struggling a little bit, Ethier is just getting going and Matt [Kemp] seems to be getting comfortable again.  Those guys don’t hit, and then you’re asking the support guys to do the job.  Even Furcal is trying to find his stroke.  I think we’re just going through a little bit of a dry spell, that hopefully we can start coming out of.  Casey [Blake]’s been swinging the bat really well. James [Loney] is struggling again.  He can be as ugly as it gets, and then all of a sudden, three hits will come out of him.”

On Carlos Monasterios:

“Like Ely, he gets the ball and throws it.  It’s going to come down to throwing strikes early to keep him from trying to hard.  He falls into that too when he’s struggling a little bit.”

On Charlie Haeger:

“We can’t start him up again until the start of the week.  His foot is getting better.  The only thing he really hasn’t been tested on is touching the bag, but he’s been doing a lot of stuff.  He’s just about back to where he should be right now.”

On Russell Martin’s slide from last night:

“I thought it was hard, but I thought it was clean.”

On the benches clearing after the slide:

“I told Matt Williams: you’re mine.” (Torre was obviously joking here)

On Jason Hayward coming to town with the Atlanta Braves:

“I am curious.  He’s a pretty special young man.  Bobby [Cox] doesn’t throw compliments around as easily as you might think and when he started talking about him in the spring, that got my attention.  I hope we can deal with him.”

Dodger Stadium - A View from the Dugout

Just a quick heads up that I’m at Chavez Ravine for today’s afternoon game against the Diamondbacks.  It’s the Dodgers’ young starter (Carlos Monasterios, 2-0, 2.20) against the Dodgers’ former young starter (Edwin Jackson, 3-6, 6.03).

Here are the pre-game quotes and notes from Joe Torre.  Follow us on Twitter for in-game comments and analysis.

Post-game comments to follow after the game, as usual.

Joe Torre:

On Chad Billingsley: “He got in some bad counts and I think he started over-throwing the ball in that last inning.  It is frustrating for him because his first three innings were really good and his last start was really good and I know this is a disappointment for him.”

On keeping pressure off the relievers: “I think ability-wise they can do it.  It is a matter of going out there and not thinking they have the weight of the world on their shoulders.  We’ll get through it…we just have to make sure we don’t lose our composure.”

On the offense and closing out games: “Offensively, we’re fine.  We’re having good at bats, quality at bats, doing some good things.  Casey Blake with a big hit tonight for us, Manny is swinging the bat really well.  The thing is, you can’t run the clock out on this game.  You have to get 27 outs and we have to find a way to do that on a consistent basis.”

On who would pitch the 12^th inning (if necessary): “It would have been one of those guys on the field…we would have found a volunteer in there somewhere…we may have gone lefty righty, back and forth.”

Matt Kemp:

On the game overall: “It was a fight.  Two good hitting teams, and we battled it out.  At the end, they ended up coming out on the right side.”

On the team’s slow start: “I’m not worried about.  We still got 150 games left.  It’s not time to panic; we’ve got a lot of games left.  We still got a great team and we’re capable of doing a lot of great things.  We can’t always start out the way we did last year.  We’re not that hot right now, but we’ve got a great team and we’re going to end up on top at the end.”

On the ball that dropped for a single in the bottom of the 10^th inning (I think): “I played deep, but that’s no excuse.  I should have got to the ball.  It was high enough to get there….it should have been caught.”

On the way they played:  “We never give up…that shows the character of the team.  We’ve got great character, we never give up and we battle to the end.”

 Good night!

If anyone is interested in chatting during tonight’s Dodgers-Diamondbacks game, just post a comment below.  I’ll be responding throughout the game, and also periodically providing my own observations from my pre-game interviews and general travels through the halls of Dodger Stadium.  Go Blue!

Well, the Dodgers organization has been most hospitable again and granted the dodgerfan.net team media access to tonight’s spring training game against the San Diego Padres. We’ll be making updates to this post denoted by the time in [brackets] as well as via Twitter at http://twitter.com/dodgerfan_net. Tune in for our perspective on the evening activities and our thoughts on spring training in general.

We’ve also got a dodgerfan.net exclusive coming this weekend, so be sure to check back for what’s shaping up to be a great story on a member of the Dodgers organization celebrating a key milestone this year.

Tonight’s starting lineup:
Furcal (ss)
Johnson (RF)
Kemp (CF)
Ramirez (LF)
Blake (3B)
Carroll (2B)
Belliard (1B)
Ellis (C)
Padilla (P)

[6:36pm] – Lucas May, Jon Link, and James McDonald all optioned to minor leagues. After watching McDonald get shelled last night, the announcement seems a bit anticlimactic.

[6:44pm] – Especially interested to see how Repko performs tonight as he will be on his 3rd game in the last 24 hours. Looked very solid last night and put up his first HR of spring training today (solo shot in the 5th inning).

[7:10pm] – nice 4-5-3 double play to take us to middle of first

[7:22] – Chris (from photo well on 3rd base line) – “You see and hear WAY more from the photo wells of a Spring Training game. Just have to watch out for foul balls. ”

[7:36] – someone in the pressbox just shouted “disconcerting!” followed by the official “E-6″ over the PA up here…

[7:38] – (from chris in photo well) After Blake made that amazing play 2 end the 1st, Manny ran in smiling & yelling, “Casey Blake! Casey Blake!” Players were psyched

[7:45pm] – three bloggers in the pressbox tonight as well as a number of spanish language folks. Very diverse crowd and more chatty than I would have exepcted.

[7:51pm] – Padilla’s attempt to throw out Blanks at first would have worked if the throw (or catch) wasn’t off….Blanks slide was about two feet too short to get back to the bag.

[8:17pm] watching the Cabrera clothesline maneuver was positively priceless…and you could see it coming a mile away!

[8:23] – 6-5-3 double play to take us to middle of the 5th…can’t say the starters aren’t giving it their all right now.

[8:30] – Belliard’s HR (1st of spring) brought out the cowbells en masse.

[8:35] – Padilla’s stats just announced over PA in pressbox..5 innings, 7 hits, 4 runs (4 earned), 5 strikeouts, HR. Someone shouts “terrible!” in the box…

[8:46] – Valenzuela highlights during middle of 6th getting a lot of “woo hoo” chants to a tejano song that I don’t know…

[8:54] – Dodgers announce that 13,506 show up for tonight’s game…a new Cactus League record.

[9:00] – a while ago, when they announced that Padilla was available in the clubhouse for media, no one from the pressbox got up to go chat with him…enough said.

[9:17] – starters are beginning to get pulled and it’s middle of the 7th. Nice to see Torre stretching the crew a bit today.

[9:34] – Crowd is getting boisterous…maybe the lack of beer is fueling their comments. Van Slyke just got an earful while at the plate.

[9:41] – Lindblom looked solid tonight…more so than any other Dodger pitcher tonight. Always nice when the starters get showed up a bit in March…

Overall thoughts –

On the press box: it is incredibly tight despite being fairly wide and containing three rows of working space. You are pretty much resigned to having your knees jammed into a metal conduit that runs the power and data lines throughout the place, as there isn’t enough room for you to scoot back and still let people pass by your seat. Also, while the windows open up, they are heavily tinted and overlap one another when they slide open making it really dark for evening games (something the designer probably didn’t think about when he/she was putting it all together. One journalist sitting next to me said. “the more I spend time in here the less I like it.”

On food: the Dodger Dogs are grilled here (as they should be) but they still have to work on their supply chain management here. Thursday they ran out of polish sausages and were temp out of Dodger Dogs in the 4th inning…

On the time of the game – the evening game definitely had a different feel to it. The fans were decidedly more “adult” and it showed in all the jawing and screaming that was going on tonight. Chris actually saw Casey Blake engaging in a bit of the “jibba jabba” with Padres fans as the top of the third inning ended (from his perch in the photo well).

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.”