Pirates take down the Dodgers

For the second consecutive night, we took the trip from our hotel in Pasadena, braving Los Angeles traffic to make our way to Dodger Stadium.  Tonight, however, our group saw the Dodgers face the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates.  Our seats for the night were in the left field bleachers.  Despite their 2013 wildcard win, the Pirates found themselves 7 games under .500 and struggling to remain in the race in the National League playoffs.

Pitching for the Pirates was young fireballer Gerrit Cole who was 4-3 on the year with an ERA in the high 3s.  His opponent for Los Angeles was Dan Haren.  Haren had a good start for 2014 coming into the game, with an ERA near 3.0.

The game started off quick in the bottom of the first when Yasiel Puig hit a double that drove in Andre Ethier to give the Dodgers a quick 1-0 lead.  The lead did not last long as Pedro Alvarez of the Pirates hit a towering home run down the right field line to even the score at 1-1 in the top of the 2nd inning which was quickly answered by a Dee Gordon RBI single to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.  The Pirates once again evened the score at 2 with a Josh Harrison RBI single.

Russell Martin made the game interesting for our group with a long home run to make the score 3-2 in favor of the Pirates.  The ball landed 1 row and about 6 seats to our right.  That homer was quickly equalized by a Hanley Ramirez RBI single in the bottom of the 6th inning to tie the score 3-3.

The game was lost for the Dodgers in the top of the 7th when Brandon League came in to relive Haren.  League gave up 2 runs followed by another run given up Paul Maholm to make the score 6-3.

After the 8th inning, I decided to go on a bit of an adventure.  I had found the exit of the Press Box and stood outside of it hoping to catch a glimpse of longtime legendary Dodger announcer Vin Scully.  To say the least, I did manage to do that.  He walked past and looked in my direction after I said, "Hey Vin, how ya doin?"  He responded with a quick, "Hi, how are you?" and continued on to the elevator.  It was easily one of the coolest things I have ever experienced.