Dodgers Face Off Against Team Australia Later Tonight

Welcome to the land down under! Good evening Lairians, welcome to some late night Dodger Baseball! Grab your coffee and pull up a chair as Vin would say. We hope you’ll join us tonight as we cover the Dodger’s tussle with the Aussies at Sydney Cricket Field. I know it’s pretty late so most of you will be asleep. Fortunately we rarely sleep over here.

This is what SCG looks like

The Dodgers have certainly been enjoying themselves in Sydney these past couple of days. Or so it seems, according to all of the interesting and hilarious tweets coming through the Dodger’s twitter timeline. The Dodgers have been busy gallivanting around Sydney, posing for pictures, catching kangaroos, and socializing with the locals.

But now it’s time to get back to business. The club will play an exhibition game this late evening against Team Australia. Well it’s late evening for us in the states, but it’s about 7 PM Thursday night in Sydney. I think. I know Sydney is like 16 hours ahead of us.

The Dodgers have always had a connection with Australia. Our site namesake Tommy Lasorda guided team USA to the Gold medal with an incredible victory over the highly touted Cuban team during the 2000 summer Olympics. The Dodgers have also had quite a few Australian born players of their own, from Luke Prokopec, to Craig Shipley, to Trent Oeltjen, and Peter Moylan.

Zach Lee will take the hill for the Dodgers tonight, and Red Patterson will pitch as a reliever. The lineup has most of the regulars in it, sans Crawford, who is home with his fiancée and the flu, and his new baby.

Lee and Patterson are not expected to make the Dodger’s opening day roster, which the club must submit by Friday. Lee pitched in two games this spring, whiffing five and walking two in 4.1 innings thrown. Lee was 1-0 in those spring games.

The Dodgers will be playing at Sydney Cricket Grounds. The 48,000 seat stadium was built in 1848. It’s even older than Tommy. The stadium’s main thing is hosting cricket matches, but the ancient park had to be transformed a bit for Baseball. Not sure what the dimensions will be, but the bullpens were built behind the outfield fences, and additional seating was put in behind home plate. Or so I read.

To be honest I don’t even know who is pitching for Team Australia. This is uncharted territory for the Dodgers and all of us. This is going to be quite interesting, now let’s get through it without anyone getting hurt. Would it matter if the Dodger’s lost this game? I wonder how the Dodgers are going to play this. This game is just for fun, and then it gets real Friday/Saturday late evening against the Snakes. The most important thing is for the Dodgers to make it through the next couple of days without injury. A couple of wins would be nice of course. Well it’s about that time for the Dodgers to put down the fosters, put some shrimps on the Barbie, and pack a kangaroo punch. let’s hear that thunder! Time to go to work boys.

Dodgers Lineup Vs. Team Australia

Zach Lee P

Zach Lee vs. TBD

Game Time- 1:00 AM PT- T.V. – MLBN (The game will only be televised on MLB.tv)

Go Blue!