Hiroki and Andruw: Money Well Spent?

Considering that he pitched impressively in his only loss in three outings for the Dodgers, which came against the red-hot Diamondbacks, Hiroki Kuroda (1-1, 2.89) should be having the Dodgers fans pleased with their big-cash signing last offseason. And speaking of big cash, Andruw Jones' opening-weekend cheers turned to second-homestand boos, as he took a lot of heat all this past weekend at Dodger Stadium--probably because he came in batting a paltry .129 with 1 RBI after his first 31 ABs. Kuroda didn't start Monday's contest particularly sharp, and it appeared that he was feeling a little residual pressure to prove to the Dodger Faithful that their money was well-spent in his case, which--at the present time--doesn't appear to be so in Mr. Jones' case.

Hiroki quickly overcame his jitters and settled down nicely after the Pirates put up two early runs. He shut down Nate McLouth and Jason Bay, both of whom can be quite the party poopers. The only mistake made was that someone forgot to tell Kuroda that no one should try to slip a fastball over the plate late in the game to fastball-hitting X Nady. Nonetheless, Kuroda left the low-scoring game with a one-run lead. That was his third impressive outing in as many starts--after going to San Diego and shutting down the Padres for his first win, then, going to Arizona where the only thing you can really put on him was walking pitcher Micah Owings in a big situation late in the game.

Not only is his pitching enough to get excited about, but so is his hitting. He showed a great eye in the seventh inning against the Padres, drawing a pretty crucial walk after going up to the plate fully expecting to bunt Blake DeWitt's lead-off walk over to 2nd Base in a tie ballgame. Now, rarely do you see full-time hitters able to pull the bat back successfully on a borderline pitch off the plate in a bunt attempt, but Kuroda did it 3, if not 4 times in that one AB--drawing the walk and giving up no outs to rally the Dodgers in putting up 6 runs in the inning. (May I interject that my baseball-crush is much bigger for the DH-free National League) Then in Monday night's game, Kuroda showed more plate presence with 1 out and a runner on 3rd--dribbling an RBI double down the 3rd-base line, scoring the go-ahead run.

BTW, it was Andruw that got the triple ahead of Kuroda and scored that run--add to that a couple of great swings at the plate on Tuesday and Wednesday nights for Andruw--and it's starting to look like his bat is coming around. I could foresee him getting a homerun or two by the end of this weekend...But he's too streaky, and will strike out in the pressure situation most of the time. Most of his RsBI will come when the runs aren't needed.