August 8th, 2014 at 6:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka During his pre-game media briefing before Monday’s Freeway Series opener against the Angels, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly had a very simple yet very direct message:
“If you don’t come ready to play with Mike [Scioscia’s] club, you really end up getting embarrassed by the way they play.”
On Monday the Dodgers did not come ready to play and ended up getting embarrassed by the Angels… badly. Not only did Angels left-hander Garrett Richard throw a complete game 5-0 shut out, the Angels played flawless defense and collected seven hits, four of which came in the top of the first inning. The Dodgers, on the other hand, did not score a run, managed only five hits all night, left seven runners on base, were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and committed two errors, both by Hanley Ramirez. It was as if Mattingly were a prophet.
But sometimes a bad thing can lead to good things and this is exactly what happened for the Dodgers. Over the next three games the Dodgers came ready to play and won all three games to take the series form the extremely talented Angels by scores of 5-4, 2-1 and 7-0 respectively.
Although the Dodgers didn’t exactly tear it up offensively (although the did manage 13 hits on Thursday night), their defense was outstanding – especially that of Yasiel Puig, Miguel Rojas, Juan Uribe and Adrian Gonzalez. It was the type of defense that wins championships.
Puig’s leaping catch of Josh Hamilton’s deep fly ball to center field in the bottom of the sixth inning on Thursday night prevented at least two runs from scoring. (Video capture courtesy of SportsNetLA)
And then there was the Dodgers pitching.
In the final two games of the series at Angels Stadium, starters Dan Haren and Hyun-jin Ryu allowed only one total run (off of Haren) and only five total hits (three off of Haren and two off of Ryu). In those two games the Dodgers bullpen pitched a combined 3.2 scoreless innings. In the final three games of the series Dodgers pitching held Mike Trout to 2 for 11 (.182) with three strikeouts, Albert Pujols to 3 for 11 (.272) with one RBI and two strikeouts and Josh Hamilton to 0 for 12 (.000) with six strikeouts. In the four games the Angels were 22 for 126 (.174) with seven doubles and two home runs and the Dodgers were 34 for 136 (.250) with five doubles and two home runs.
Dan Haren took a perfect game into the sixth inning on Wednesday night. And though he ended up allowing one run on three hits, he collected his ninth win of the season against the powerful Angels.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)
Sometimes it’s not good to embarrass your opponent… because it might just come back to bite you.
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That’s why you can never foretell the outcome of these games. In the first game the Dodgers were outpitched and outclassed, they looked like they were in the wrong league. After that they made the Angels look like a subdivision team. Being 3.5 games ahead in the NL West makes it more relaxing preparing to face a first place team tonight.
I tend to think that a team embarrasses itself by not being ready or taking a team lightly, like the Cubs. That embarrassment comes not from what the opponents do but by what the team itself does or doesn’t do. The team embarrasses itself by making better or ideal conditions for its opponents.
On Monday I felt the embarrassment was when Yasiel got some schooling by Pujols after Yasiel has done the finger wagging thing. That perhaps was a sign that the team wasn’t pumped up to play the Angels. Good for Pujols but he and others overplayed their hand. He would have been better off taking the base and letting it go at that. Everyone got that message without the laughing and gestures. I would say it all did come back to bite the Angels as they just got outplayed after the first game in the series.
The Dodgers did indeed embarrass themselves – I was simply using Mattingly’s quote in context.