John Ely is spot-on in third start
Rookie John Ely plays baseball with the fervor of a Little League kid, seemingly always in motion, jumping across foul lines, directing infield traffic by pointing to each fly ball.
But everything about Ely’s pitching with the Dodgers, at least so far, has been strictly big league.
The Illinois native, who turns 24 on Thursday, gave himself an early birthday present Tuesday night by notching his first major league victory in only his third start as the Dodgers rolled past the Arizona Diamondbacks, 13-3, at Chase Field.
“I’m definitely pretty happy,” Ely (1-1) said. “For the most part, I think I was keeping everything down and my misses were quality misses. I was just trying to keep them off-balance and it worked out.”
Ely gave up two runs and six hits in six-plus innings, struck out six and didn’t walk anyone. Russell Martin’s three-run home run, Ronnie Belliard’s two run-scoring hits against starter Dan Haren (4-2) and James Loney’s four hits led the Dodgers offense, which included a seven-run eighth inning.
Martin, who also is Ely’s roommate, said Ely “doesn’t seem like a rookie when he’s out there. He was making them hit pitches that he wanted them to hit.”
It was Ely’s second consecutive strong outing and the Dodgers’ fifth victory in their last six games, and the team is now one game below .500 at 16-17. And the win came only two days after the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw — one year Ely’s junior — also pitched a gem.
Ely’s latest performance followed a fortuitous turn of events for the Dodgers, which arrived in Phoenix unsure of which pitcher would start Tuesday night.
After the Milwaukee Brewers game, Ely had been sent back down to triple-A Albuquerque to make room for reliever Jeff Weaver, who was coming off the disabled list.
The only way Ely could be recalled within the next 10 days was if another Dodgers pitcher was placed on the disabled list.
That happened Monday. Knuckleballer Charlie Haeger, who faced only five batters in his prior outing, developed a heel problem and was placed on the disabled list, so the Dodgers brought back Ely and named him the starter against Arizona (14-20).
Ely, one of the two pitchers the Dodgers acquired in the deal that sent Juan Pierre to the Chicago White Sox last winter, initially was called up April 28 to replace injured starter Vicente Padilla.
After six shutout innings Tuesday, Ely gave up singles to Mark Reynolds and Stephen Drew. Manager Joe Torre then lifted Ely and brought in Weaver, who gave up a single to Chris Young, scoring Reynolds.
After Weaver struck out the next two batters, Torre brought in left-hander George Sherrill to face Kelly Johnson, who promptly doubled to score Drew and Young and shave the Dodgers’ lead to 4-3.
But the Dodgers blew it open in the eighth inning, with six hits, including Martin’s home run against Juan Gutierrez, and three walks. “That was a huge three-run home run for us, especially at that point,” Torre said.
Martin has hit safely in seven consecutive games and is batting .345 over that stretch. Loney tied his career high with four hits in a game.
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