A couple of weeks ago I posted an article entitled The Curse of James Loney which, of course, was written entirely tongue in cheek – or was it?

In the top of the 9th inning of Tuesday night’s 1-0 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly decided to pinch hit the .143 hitting Nick Punto (as opposed to say… Alex Castellanos who hit .328 at Triple-A Albuquerque). As Punto walked up to the plate, a player profile was flashed up on the monster Chase Field jumbotron with Punto’s stats and with what was supposed to be his photograph…

…but it was not.

Instead, looking down upon Punto and the entire 23,966 Chase Field crowd was… you guessed it – James Loney.

I managed to snap off this photo of the Chase Field jumbotron before they quickly realized that it was Nick Punto now wearing number 7, not James Loney. Still think that Curse of James Loney is a farce?
(Photo credit Ron Cervenka)

Punto struck out on four pitches.

By the way, Loney is hitting .250 (12 for 48) since being traded to the Red Sox. Adrian Gonzalez? He’s hitting .227 (15 for 66) since replacing Loney – I’m just sayin’.