Today’s sold-out Dodgers-Cubs game at Camelback Ranch was pretty darn entertaining! Chad Billingsley went four-plus innings, Manny went deep, Reed Johnson hit his own two-run blast, Rafael Furcal stole his first base of the spring and Blake DeWitt continued to hit well, going two for three. Director Rob Reiner (a noted Dodgers fan) was also on hand with his son, as was the great Peter Gammons.
I took in the game from the first base line with a bunch of Cubs fans who seemed to make up about 50 percent of the crowd on hand. Here are a few pics from yours truly. Enjoy!
Furcals steals second base.
Billingsley opens the game for the Dodgers.
Matt Kemp congratulates Manny Ramirez after his two-run home run.
Reed Johnson celebrates his two-run blast in the 7th inning.
Peter Gammons chats with Greg Maddox before the game.
Alex and I will be at the Dodgers-Padres game on enemy territory in Peoria tomorrow night, so more to come on Friday!
Post-Game Comments from Torre, Billingsley, Ellis and Blake
Here’s the feedback after tonight’s 6-0 loss to the Padres (particularly good stuff from Casey Blake). Additionally, earlier this evening, the Dodgers were officially eliminated from playoff contention.
Joe Torre
On Clayton Richard’s complete game shutout:
“It just looked so easy for him. We didn’t do a whole lot of damage. We just couldn’t get anything going. Up until that last inning, we didn’t really have a threat. You have to give him credit, he works fast, he’s very aggressive in the strike zone and he certainly pitched well tonight.”
On being eliminated from the playoffs:
“We didn’t play well enough to be in a pennant race. We thought in the first half that we would be able to contend. Unfortunately the second half started off badly and we never really recovered from it.”
On Billingsley’s performance:
“It just didn’t look like he had command. He’s been pitching so well, his stuff looked good, but he just wasn’t able to locate. It sounds simple, and that’s probably a simple explanation, but as I said, I thought his stiff was good, but he just didn’t get the ball where he wanted to. Plus we put pressure on him. We don’t score, they score a couple of runs and you try and be perfect. I think a lot of the pitchers have had to deal with a lot of that this year.”
Chad Billingsley
On his performance in tonight’s game:
“I just didn’t get the job done today. I was battling those two innings and couldn’t find a way to get out of it. I’ve just got to get ready for the next start.”
A.J. Ellis
On Chad Billingsley’s performance:
“They capitalized when we put their runners on base. The walk or a hit by pitch, they capitalized on it. When he was ahead in the count and throwing strikes, he was dominant as he normally is, putting guys away. When you put guys on base it makes it that much harder on you.”
Casey Blake
On being officially eliminated from the playoffs:
“In order to be a championship team, obviously you’ve got to be playing well, but you’ve got to have a lot of things go your way. It seems like neither of those happened for us. Injuries didn’t help anything: Losing Manny, losing [Furcal], Padilla, just go down the line. Andre for an extended period of time. I was out five games and that really killed us [laughter]. Every team goes through adversity like that. It’s disappointing. You feel like a failure. We’re not embarrassed, it’s just really disappointing for all the expectations and hope you have. You make it to the playoffs a couple of years in a row and you just expect to do it. When it doesn’t happen, it’s really, really tough to take.”