Posted April 13, 200519 yr http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=250412119 LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Milton Bradley was right where he wanted to be -- at the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth inning of a close game. So was San Francisco closer Armando Benitez, signed during the offseason for just these kinds of situations. Bradley's two-run single off Benitez tied the game, left fielder Jason Ellison's error on the play allowed the winning run to score, and the Dodgers beat the Giants 9-8 Tuesday in their home opener. ``If I could go up there every time in a pressure situation, I might hit .400,'' the switch-hitting Bradley said. `I want to be in that situation.'' The Giants led 8-5 entering the ninth, and Benitez (0-1) retired leadoff batter Jason Phillips on a grounder to short to start the inning. But pinch-hitter Ricky Ledee doubled and took third on Cesar Izturis' single. After pinch-hitter Jose Valentin popped to first, J.D. Drew walked to load the bases. Jeff Kent drew another walk to force in a run, making it 8-6, and Bradley followed by lining a 2-2 pitch to left. The ball got past Ellison and rolled to the wall, allowing Kent to score from first. ``I wanted to take a strike, and I knew that Benitez wouldn't let me pull the ball,'' Bradley said. ``I was looking on the outer half of the plate.'' Ellison retrieved the ball after Kent had scored, and spiked it in anger on the warning track. The Dodgers mobbed Bradley on the infield. The error was the Giants' fourth of the game. ``What we've got here is a team that's going to play nine innings,'' Kent said. ``You don't see many balls like that go by an outfielder.'' The win was reminiscent of the Dodgers' division-clinching rally from a 3-0 deficit on the second-to-last day of the season against the Giants last year -- one of the factors that led San Francisco to pursue a proven closer like Benitez in the offseason. ``He's at his best between 93 and 95 (mph),'' Giants manager Felipe Alou said. ``I saw him at 91, 92 and one at 94. He didn't have much command and he got behind almost every hitter. He'll be back in there tomorrow.'' Benitez was disappointed in himself. ``Today was not my day,'' he said. ``This isn't the first time I've had a blown save. Nobody's perfect -- tomorrow's a new day. My location was a little bit wild.'' Benitez had 47 saves for Florida last season and saves in his first two appearances with the Giants. Ellison, who entered the game in the eighth, said he was trying to make a play at the plate on the tying run. ``The ball just took a kick on me,'' he said. ``I still have to get the glove on it. I'm going to come back and battle, do what I need to do, come back strong.'' Said Alou: ``We had him playing shallow. He missed it. Ellie is here to be a defensive guy. He's a very good defender. He'll be OK. He was trying to make a play at the plate, he was trying to do what was right. I'll take that over laying back.'' The late heroics took Jeff Weaver off the hook. Weaver, a local product in his second season with the Dodgers, had the honor of starting the home opener, but was roughed up for 11 hits and eight earned runs in three-plus innings. The Los Angeles bullpen held the Giants scoreless after Pedro Feliz's three-run homer with nobody out in the fourth make it 8-3. Giovanni Carrara (1-0) the fourth Dodgers pitcher, worked two scoreless innings to earn the victory after Buddy Carlyle and D.J. Houlton pitched two scoreless innings each. Weaver hit Ray Durham to open the game and Omar Vizquel followed with a single. After J.T. Snow flied to deep left, the Giants scored five runs on consecutive RBI singles by Feliz, Edgardo Alfonzo, Marquis Grissom, Michael Tucker and Mike Matheny before Weaver retired the side. Rookie Jason Repko hit a two-run homer off Kirk Rueter in the bottom half, and the Dodgers scored in the second on an RBI single by Phillips. But Feliz's homer gave the Giants a five-run lead. Rueter retired 11 straight batters before Repko reached on shortstop Vizquel's error to open the sixth. After Drew singled and Kent walked to load the bases, Scott Eyre relieved Rueter. Bradley hit a sacrifice fly and Olmedo Saenz followed with an RBI double to make it 8-5 before. San Francisco lost to snap a three-game winning streak despite collecting 16 hits, including four by Alfonzo. Rueter gave up five hits and five runs -- four earned -- in five-plus innings.
April 13, 200519 yr It's the left fielder's fault. If he fields it like he's supposed to, Dodgers probably dont win.
April 13, 200519 yr Karma? More like Beinfest's fault for not signing Benitez to a two-year deal as opposed to one...
April 13, 200519 yr Why is this karma? 740721[/snapback] anyone who leaves the Marlins via free agency is deemed a bad person :plain
April 13, 200519 yr Karma? More like Beinfest's fault for not signing Benitez to a two-year deal as opposed to one... 740735[/snapback] woah there.... we paid him what $6mil last year?.... a 2 year $12mil contract to a guy who hadnt exactly been lights out could be pretty dangerous
April 13, 200519 yr Karma? More like Beinfest's fault for not signing Benitez to a two-year deal as opposed to one... 740735[/snapback] woah there.... we paid him what $6mil last year?.... a 2 year $12mil contract to a guy who hadnt exactly been lights out could be pretty dangerous 740737[/snapback] we paid him 3 millions or so. Excellent signing by Beinfest. He was a risk last year and he panned out for us. We should be happy. Why the heck is this Karma? I don't think we even offered Mando another contract. Shocking coming from someone with the Haterade sig.
April 13, 200519 yr If you were looking for a job, wouldn't you take the one with higher pay and more security/stability? For someone that I assume goes to Duke, you sure are an idiot.
April 13, 200519 yr Why is this karma? 740721[/snapback] anyone who leaves the Marlins via free agency is deemed a bad person :plain 740736[/snapback] That's what I figured. *pukes*
April 13, 200519 yr Why is this karma? 740721[/snapback] anyone who leaves the Marlins via free agency is deemed a bad person :plain 740736[/snapback] In the case of Pavano, yeah, you could call it karma (in fact, I did), but Benitez is in no way shape or form a bad person. He got a team to offer him an offer so overwhelming our one year deal with an option couldn't even be considered "competitive." Also, and this is completely unrelated, Benitez at least had a track record of success, Pavano essentially gave the finger to the one ownership group who had any faith at all in him and gave him a chance to succeed.
April 13, 200519 yr Why is this karma? 740721[/snapback] anyone who leaves the Marlins via free agency is deemed a bad person :plain 740736[/snapback] In the case of Pavano, yeah, you could call it karma (in fact, I did), but Benitez is in no way shape or form a bad person. He got a team to offer him an offer so overwhelming our one year deal with an option couldn't even be considered "competitive." Also, and this is completely unrelated, Benitez at least had a track record of success, Pavano essentially gave the finger to the one ownership group who had any faith at all in him and gave him a chance to succeed. 740925[/snapback] disagree. Pavano delivered for us. He played hard here and was a good clubhouse presence. I wish him well
April 13, 200519 yr Why is this karma? 740721[/snapback] anyone who leaves the Marlins via free agency is deemed a bad person :plain 740736[/snapback] In the case of Pavano, yeah, you could call it karma (in fact, I did), but Benitez is in no way shape or form a bad person. He got a team to offer him an offer so overwhelming our one year deal with an option couldn't even be considered "competitive." Also, and this is completely unrelated, Benitez at least had a track record of success, Pavano essentially gave the finger to the one ownership group who had any faith at all in him and gave him a chance to succeed. 740925[/snapback] disagree. Pavano delivered for us. He played hard here and was a good clubhouse presence. I wish him well 740973[/snapback] So wouldn't you call it more of a situation where "your guy" left the organization who showed him love for the "greener" pasteurs of another franchise? I mean, Pavano was Loria's boy, always was, and the fact that Pavano made overtones during the season that he'd stay if we made a "fair" offer, which sort of prompted the trade of Penny over Pavano at the deadline (admittedly, Penny has/had more value than Pavano because of track record and potential), strikes me as a real sucker punch when you consider we gave him an offer that really bordered on above his real value, yet he still left. I don't fault Pavano's logic in leaving, but I don't wish him well. That's not to say I want to see him get hurt but I'd be very happy to see him revert back to his erratic self, or even better, see him fall apart because of the offense oriented style of the AL and the poor defense behind him. Benitez was a hired gun, a one year rental, there were no ties to him from anyone within the organization...his departure is on par with Urbina.
April 13, 200519 yr You have no idea how thin the top-line starting pitcher market is, do you? Three years $21 million is laughable. We should've started at three years $28 million and then worked from there. You can't blame a guy for wanting to make a lot of money and playing for the team that was his favorite when he was growing up.
April 13, 200519 yr This wins the "Hi, i'm retarted!!" thread of the week award!!! Karma?? Get over yourself....
April 13, 200519 yr You have no idea how thin the top-line starting pitcher market is, do you? Three years $21 million is laughable. We should've started at three years $28 million and then worked from there. You can't blame a guy for wanting to make a lot of money and playing for the team that was his favorite when he was growing up. 741234[/snapback] right on the money
April 13, 200519 yr You have no idea how thin the top-line starting pitcher market is, do you? Three years $21 million is laughable. We should've started at three years $28 million and then worked from there. You can't blame a guy for wanting to make a lot of money and playing for the team that was his favorite when he was growing up. 741234[/snapback] Wait a sec, taking the Russ Oritz signing out of the equation (because the D'Backs are more screwed up in the F.O. than even the Mets), and you have one amazing pitcher and a bunch of guys who have tantalizing potential, but poor track records for success, all signing within the same "range" of money: Astacio, Benson, Byrd, Clement, Leiter, Lieber, Lima, Loaiza, Lowe, Martinez, Miller, Millwood, Milton, Morris, Nomo, Ortiz, Pavano, Perez, Radke, Wells, Williams, Wilson, and Wright. That's not exactly a "thin" list. It's a bunch of guys who (if you were to do the "Pepsi Challenge" with these guys and throw out stats without a name) you'd say that they were negligibly similar with Pedro's career numbers probably separating him from the rest. So explain to me how you can say that 3/$21 is laughable when only 6 contracts surpassed that total value (with only 2 surpassing more than $35 million over four years, Pavano and Pedro, and Ortiz' deal was the only other to top $30 mil). It seemed that the market for pitchers with average to above average stuff without a stellar career record was at about $21-23 million over three years, or what the Yankees gave Jaret Wright, the Phillies gave John Lieber, the Dodgers gave Perez, the Mets gave Benson, etc. I'd say that qualifies as a "fair" offer no matter how "thin" the market was perceived to be. I'd say overwhelmingly similar is more fair than "thin."
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