Saturday, April 2, 2011

Nerves seemingly get the best of DeJesus in debut

Ivan DeJesus made his Major League debut last night against the Giants, going 0-for-3 with a walk and three strikeouts. He was replaced by Jamey Carroll after his final at-bat.

DeJesus had a few plays in the field and turned a nice double play in the first inning to get starter Chad Billingsley out of a spot of bother.

DeJesus just looked over-matched at the plate. Giants' starter Jonathan Sanchez had some real good stuff early on, which didn't help DeJesus' chances. However, in his second at-bat, he fouled off some really tough pitches and coaxed a walk out of the southpaw.

His nerves seemed to get the best of him at the dish, as he was over-anxious for three of his four plate appearances. It's to be expected, so I'm not too worried.

We'll see what he does, as Casey Blake probably won't be activated for at least another week. With Juan Uribe having elbow soreness after being hit by a Tim Lincecum fastball on Thursday, DeJesus is going to get a few games to show what he can do.

It's still likely he ends up in Albuquerque by the end of the month, but it'd be nice to see him seize the opportunity and put up some nice offensive numbers and play solid defense at second base.

He's hitting second today against Matt Cain, as he did against Sanchez last night. The Dodgers' lineup is one of horror and goes as follows:

Miles 3B
DeJesus 2B
Ethier RF
Kemp CF
Loney 1B
Gimenez C
Paul LF
Carroll SS
Lilly P

Aside from 3-4-5, it could be a long day for the Dodgers. At least Cain has a propensity for losing games against the Dodgers. And we all know of Andre Ethier's dominance of the Giant right-hander (20-for-41 lifetime). It'd be nice to start the season on a three-game winning streak. We'll see what happens.

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