Sorry for posting this the day after the fact…it was a long night that finished the right way – with a Dodger victory!

Thanks to a guy named “Doc” at work, I was able to watch Monday night’s game from a great position – loge level, first base side, row A…fantastic seats in foul ball territory (one landed one aisle over and about 5-6 more were in our “area”)…of course, the only souvenirs I walked away with were a soda cup and a white Dodger soft serve helmet…

The game got off to a great start as Randy Wolf pitched 3 perfect innings before giving up a hit to leadoff the 4th inning…even though Wolf gave up a 2-run homer in the top of the 5th, he made up for it with a 2-run single in the bottom of the 5th!

The bullpen went to work in the 7th inning when Ronald Belisario came in and struck out the first two batters he faced…it was great to see the Rockies a bit off balance – seeing Randy Wolf and his high 60′s curveball for six innings and then facing Belisario and his mid-90′s heat in the seventh…

It was then Ramon Troncoso’s turn in the 8th, pitching a scoreless frame and then handing the ball to Jonathan Broxton who was throwing even more heat (high 90′s with a couple of pitches reaching triple digits on the Dodger Stadium radar gun)…

The only inning where we got into trouble was the 10th when Jeff Weaver gave up hits to the first two batters he faced, but proceeded to strikeout the side to get out of the jam…the fans were going crazy!!!

Brent Leach, Guillermo Mota and James McDonald each pitched a perfect inning to setup the heroics in the bottom of the 13th…

Casey Blake led off with a single to right field that Brad Hawpe trapped on a diving attempt…Andre Ethier, the Dodger’s leading “walk off man” with three game winners this season, stepped to the plate…

Strike one called…everyone in the stadium disagreed with the call…

Ball one…low and away…

Strike two called…another questionable call from the fans’ perspective, but we all have a worse view compared to the home plate umpire…

Pitch #4 was fouled away…

It was at this point that my friend put on his jacket and called it the “rally jacket”…I told him he should have put it on in the 9th inning so we could have gone home earlier…

The 5th pitch was a thing of beauty – for Dodger fans…Ethier ripped a line drive to right field that I thought was going to hit the wall…so did Brad Hawpe as he stopped and prepared to play the rebound off the wall…

…except the rebound never came…

The ball barely cleared the wall in right field…HOME RUN!

The crowd was going crazy…the Dodger bench emptied onto the field, awaiting Ethier at home plate…the helmet was off…the grin was ear-to-ear…he was pointing to someone at home plate…the final leap to touch the plate was complete…the dogpile began…what a game, what a game…

While Ethier stole the headlines in the paper this morning, the true heroes of this game were the guys coming out of the bullpen…in fact, the entire pitching staff…

17 strikeouts were recorded in the 13-inning game…the bullpen did not allow a run in the final 7 innings…the ONLY hits the Rockies got came off Jeff Weaver in the 10th…we brought the heat and the Rockies could do nothing with it…I love it!