Page 4 September 14, 2017
More Highlights From Cougars Win at South High
Here are a few more photo highlights from last weekend’s game between Hawthorne High and South High. The Cougars triumphed 33-14. Photos by Dirk Dewachter
Dodgers Look Horrible, But That Really Doesn’t Matter
By Adam Serrao
It has become a year of records and streaks
for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have
simultaneously looked like the utter and complete
best team and now the absolute worst team in
Major League Baseball this season. The Boys
in Blue, who at one time not long ago looked
destined for greatness, began looking black and
blue. As of last Sunday, they were still stuck
in a losing streak that they simply couldn’t
seem to halt. Every great baseball team hits
a skid. It’s simply a matter of how long that
skid lasts. For the Dodgers, while it seems as
if their current slide was lasting forever, it’s
better for the team to figure it out now during
the stretch run of the regular season than once
the playoffs roll around in early October.
It wasn’t long ago that everyone around
baseball was talking about how the Dodgers
hadn’t lost a series to an opposing team since
the beginning of the month of June. Since
that time, someone obviously took it upon
themselves to create a voodoo doll with a
big Los Angeles logo on the front of it in an
effort to bring a team that looked like one of
the best ever back down to the mean. Now as
of last weekend, the Dodgers hadn’t won a
series since late August, finding ways to lose
games in every way imaginable. They could
lose close, like they did last Friday night in a
5-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies. They could
and clicking on all cylinders in October rather
than in August and September. Missing key
players and offensive pieces of the roster
like the ones listed above can certainly do its
part to throw a wrench into the concept of
outscoring an opponent. What it also does,
however, is gives other, lesser involved players,
the opportunity to get at-bats in competitive
situations in order to gear up and get them
ready for a World Series run.
If the Dodgers know one thing about playoff
competition, it’s how easy it is to get beaten
when you’re off of your game. Los Angeles
has won four consecutive NL West titles, yet
has come up short every single year when
the games tend to matter the most. Whether
you’re the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals, the 2000
New York Yankees, or a handful of other great
teams from the past, a slump is a necessary
part of a great season. Like winning, losing
becomes contagious. Once the games begin
to matter again for a team that is still miles
ahead in its own division, winning will do
its part to reappear, turning any memory of
a so-called losing streak into nothing but a
distant memory. Some might say that winning
is always important on a night-in and nightout
basis, but most Dodger fans would much
rather have the “Ws” pile up once the new and
more important season begins in October. –
Aserrao6@yahoo.com •
get demolished, like they did in a 13-0 loss
to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Or, they could
lose two games in one day like they did two
weeks ago when they dropped a doubleheader
to the San Diego Padres over the Labor Day
weekend.
Labor seems to be the key word here, as
the Dodgers are struggling on the mound
and most notably, at the plate. “It’s bad right
now,” Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw began to
explain. “There’s no getting around that. When
you compare it to the first half, however many
games we played it’s pretty stark opposite. If
anything, it doesn’t make this easier.” Nothing
is ever easy about losing. Especially when
you’re Clayton Kershaw and your team had
won the previous 16 consecutive games that
you had started. Even the great one had been
made victim of the slide, however, as the
three-time Cy Young Award-winner pitched
arguably his worst outing of the year by giving
up four earned runs through just 3.2 innings in
a 9-1 loss to the Rockies last Thursday night.
From going 53-10 and on pace to capture
the most wins in MLB history to losing eight
of the team’s first nine games in September
(and the five games in a row preceding that) is
demoralizing, to say the least. Even still, there
is no reason to worry just yet. Rival manager
of the Rockies, Bud Black, perhaps summed
it up the best when speaking of the Dodgers
slide after his team’s 5-4 win in Los Angeles
last Friday night. “If you look at the landscape
of our game and you look at every team – all
30 of them – you see segments of the season
like this. It’s what happens over the length
of six months. It’s very difficult to sustain a
great deal of success because there’s always
someone on the other side coming for you.”
The majority of the Dodger losses during
their skid have not only come at the hands of
their rivals from the NL West, but the rivals
like the Rockies and the Diamondbacks who
are fighting for their playoff lives. To say that
those teams simply want it more right now,
especially when up against the best team in
all of baseball and the one that is in first place
in their division, would be an understatement.
While that doesn’t sound good to say of a
Dodgers team that should want every game
just as badly as their opponent does, winning
90 games and basically clinching your division
before the last week of August goes a long
way to afford you some time of relief in a
long 162-game season.
What we’ve seen of the Dodgers lately
is manager Dave Roberts being very liberal
with his disabled list. Kershaw, Yu Darvish,
Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger and more have
all been thrown on the DL lately, not because
most have serious injuries, but because Roberts
would rather have them around, fully healthy
Quarterback Joshua Robledo (Hawthorne #4) tries to outpace South’s DJ Palma (South #36) from the backfield in the second
Joseph Taylor III (Hawthorne #15) looks for room with South Torrance defenders in tow.
Ryan Daywalt (South #15) gets tackled by a Hawthorne defender following a short run.
Devante Wartell (Hawthorne #2) fields a kickoff return.