March 20th saw another day/night doubleheader with four out of five of us going to see the first Dodger Cactus League game ever, against the White Sox, while one of us, DonS, ventured back to Tempe Diablo to watch the Angels.
Erick Aybar homered for LA, Guerrero only doubled, and DonS was rolling out the barrels (as a text message would indicate). Three wins in three days by the Halos, would mean a happy Jack in the Box eating man from Davenport, IA.
I was in my same best spot to watch a game from in the entire world as the day before, but there was a different feel as Dodger Blue replaced Oakland Green. My team with Mark Buehrle toeing the rubber was matched up versus Dodger Ace Brad Penny. Rafael Furcal launched a long homer over the leftfield fence off Mark, always thought Furcal buffed up in the Marcus Giles sort o way, not bitter, just saying what I’m seeing.
The Sox revamped bullpen was pounded into submission for seven runs to blow the game wide open, Octavio Dotel surrendered five runs in 1/3 of an inning, wonder if Kenny saw him pitch before signing him? Matt Kemp caught one off the end of the bat, with his weight on the wrong foot, and still knocked it over the centerfield wall, looks like a young Jermaine Dye or Ellis Burks for the Dodgers. And Jerry Owens made a great running catch at the wall to show why he needs to be in centerfield for the Southsiders.
Chase Headley came off the SD bench with a two run shot off Mariner reliever Eric O’Flaherty to add one inning of free baseball to the day. Mike Morse showed why he might not make the M’s depite batting .525 on the spring, he badly misplayed two balls in right, before being mercifully shifted to firstbase. Ichiro might have locked up a roster spot, with three hits, raising his average to .174. Seattle lefty Jake Woods looked sharp in two innings of work.