James Loney delivers final blow for Dodgers
Perception-wise, first baseman James Loney was snubbed when he, Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp and Russell Martin joined the Dodgers in 2006.
They had flash. He didn’t. He was just steady, productive, dependable. And even as he has stacked impressive statistical seasons on top of each other, perceptions haven’t changed much. Flash is still flash.
But Saturday at Dodger Stadium, in the 13th inning with the Dodgers’ bullpen on empty, it was Loney who flashed, hitting a walk-off home run to give the Dodgers a 3-2 win over the New York Mets.
“It doesn’t matter how you do it,” Loney said. “Nobody cares. Just get the job done. It’s the same result. We’ve got all different types of personalities on this team.”
It was the first walk-off home run of Loney’s career, the type of hit people say he can’t hit, and he hit it in Dodger Stadium, a place where he has shown he can’t hit them (he hit only one here last year). Did the homer mean anything?
“Nah, it means that we won,” he said.
It came after the Dodgers tied a franchise record by using nine pitchers in a game, and they were down to their last one. Did that concern him?
“Nah, can’t do that,” he said. “Got to go up there and treat it all the same all the time. Just relax, enjoy it, have fun, trust yourself.”
Indeed, Loney is a cool customer, the description used by Manager Joe Torre.
“The one thing I can tell you about Loney, don’t take your eyes off him,” Torre said. “He’s pretty much the unconventional. He’s pretty cool under pressure.”
Not that pressure didn’t loom when Loney walked into the batter’s box.
The inning before, the Dodgers wasted a two-runners-on, nobody-out situation, and before it was Loney’s turn, Matt Kemp flied out against Oliver Perez after swinging on a 3-and-0 count.
Mets Manager Jerry Manuel liked his odds. Perez did too. Like most Dodgers fans, they probably didn’t expect Loney to win it.
Loney took the first pitch from Perez, a ball.
“And then I made a mistake,” Perez said. “I threw a slider. It was supposed to be away, but I got it over the middle.”
Loney drove it to the right-field seats, his second career walk-off hit.
“And all of the sudden, the game’s over,” Manuel said.
It ended a bullpen tussle with the Dodgers down to their last option. Their first was Carlos Monasterios, who started, threw five scoreless innings and left with a 2-0 lead, half of which was built by catcher Brad Ausmus, who played his first game since April 8 after recovering from back surgery.
James McDonald, Jack Taschner and Travis Schlichting threw the sixth inning. In the seventh, Kenley Jansen, a strong-armed 22-year-old former catcher, shined, throwing a perfect inning, striking out two with high-90s fastballs.
Hong-Chih Kuo, Jonathan Broxton and Jeff Weaver came next, and George Sherrill, whose struggles have been documented well, came last.
“He was it,” Torre said.
“I’m sick of talking to you guys when I give up runs,” Sherrill said, after picking up the win. “It’s good to get this one out of the way.”
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