Apologies all around. I'm not going to make the end of this one.
I sincerely hope this link [1] will magically become a happy recap, but what I did see would definitely count as an ughfest. An outside observer might think Victor Zambrano got jobbed by getting stuck with those runs pinned on his resume by Heilman, but it was one of those outings where the unfairness turns out to be perfectly fair. Victor started the night with his mechanics totally out of whack (I liked the shot of Pedro doing pitching coaching by semaphore), did the Bad Victor thing of pitching away from contact, thereby neutralizing Good Victor's movement on his pitches (Milton Bradley in the 5th was particularly infuriating, despite winding up OK), somehow turned in a glittering sixth, then paid the price for those extra pitches and making himself work too hard with those out-of-gas walks to start the 7th. Heilman, well, early ughs (why did the infield appear to be playing in on Robles' single?) and then some awfully good pitching a bit late. Roberto immediately finds his flesh in the way of another comebacker, then somehow gets out of it despite being so out of sync with Piazza before that pitch that he shrugged.
On the flipside, well, Bad Victor was lucky enough to draw Worse Weaver. Welcome back Victor Diaz, all hail David Wright, and curse the fact that Marlon Anderson's little liner was about an inch from being a very silly 93-foot RBI. Though we should have been docked a run for the mere appearance of Ice Williams in the starting lineup.
And were they actually playing Wagner? In L.A.? If there's a place where Wagner makes less sense than Los Angeles, I'd like to know about it. I'm surprised it even made a sound.
And now Padilla gets rescued by a great play by Jose Offerman, of all people, so we promptly celebrate by wasting a leadoff single. I give up. I can't remember the last time I woke up and had to check whether we won or lost, but tomorrow morning will be the next time.