Dodgers 6, Rockies 1: Thanks, Rain Gods

Gee, was it wet in Colorado today? I couldn’t tell.

Before the game, I looked at the lineup, and realized that thanks to injuries to Yasiel Puig, Dee Gordon, Juan Uribe, Carl Crawford, and A.J. Ellis, along with a day off for Justin Turner and the obvious need to get Andre Ethier out of the lineup against a lefty, the Dodger offensive attack seemed to be, uh, lacking. Chone Figgins, leading off! Miguel Rojas‘ first career start! Jamie Romak‘s first career start! Drew Butera! Which isn’t the worst thing on the world on his own, but in a lineup with Chone Figgins and Miguel Rojas and Jamie Romak!

So what happened? Four of the first five Dodgers reached against Jorge De La Rosa. Figgins walked, as did Hanley Ramirez, and although Adrian Gonzalez struck out, Figgins stole third in time for Matt Kemp to triple two runs in. Kemp reached base three times on the day; Figgins twice. Romak drove in two with his first big league hit in the sixth inning; Rojas drove in Romak with his first big league hit immediately afterwards.

Oh, and Ramirez did this, which, good holy lord:

The homer was estimated at 461 feet, which seems more than a little light — although if accurate, it would be the longest Dodger homer since Manny Ramirez hit one the same distance against Roy Oswalt in Houston back on April 22, 2009. The hardly-at-full-strength Dodgers got on base 10 times against De La Rosa and Matt Belisle, and they did so in only six innings, because you might have noticed that I haven’t yet pointed out that the game only went five-and-a-half innings, eventually being called due to rain after a delay of well over an hour. That meant that Clayton Kershaw needed to go only five innings, over which he struck out nine, walking none — he’s real good, you know — and allowing a mere three hits. He needed a mere 73 pitches, and the Dodger bullpen never needed to appear. (Yes, he gets a complete game out of it. Baseball is dumb sometimes.) Every game should be like this.

Maybe this was luck from the heavens, but I’d say it’s about damn time. The Giants won today. They’re 42-21, a whopping 21 games over .500. How do you compete with that?