Well, after 4 hours and 57 minutes, 16 pitchers and 33 hits, the Dodgers lose an exasperating 9 to 7 game to the Diamondbacks in 11 innings. Tonight’s game was the longest for the Dodgers since July 14, 2001 when they played a 4 hour, 58 minute game against the Oakland A’s (the Dodgers won that one 5-4 in 15 innings). And as it’s now 1:02 a.m. and I’m still in the Dodger Stadium press box, I’m going to get right to the post-game quotes:
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 12th 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 10th 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!
[...] that allowed the eventual winning run to score. Yet there he was, being a man and answering the difficult questions in the clubhouse after the [...]