Last night, Ted Lilly made his Dodger debut with quite a flourish, retiring the final 20 Padres in order, allowing only two hits and one run in seven efficient innings to help the Dodgers snap a six-game losing streak. Lilly’s outing was rare, in that it was just the fourth start by a pitcher making his Los Angeles Dodger debut throwing seven or more innings and allowing two or fewer hits. All four came to the Dodgers via trade, with some notable talent going the other way:
↵April 14, 1965: Claude Osteen, part of a seven-player trade with the Senators involving human baseball destroyer Frank Howard, allowed one run on two hits in a complete game win over the Pirates.
↵April 7, 1973: The Dodgers traded aging Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, Bobby Valentine, and others to the Angels to get future free agent pioneer Andy Messersmith, who allowed two hits and three unearned runs in his first start as a Dodger, in San Diego. Interestingly, Ken McMullen, who was traded with Howard in the Osteen deal, came back to the Dodgers with Messersmith in this deal with the Angels.
↵August 3, 2004: Brad Penny was part of the “heart and soul” trade with the Marlins, in which Paul DePodesta traded starting catcher and crowd and media favorite Paul LoDuca, along with Juan Encarnacion and Guillermo Mota to Florida, receiving Penny, Hee Seop Choi and Billy Murphy. The trade was so unpopular that, even though Penny was magnificent in his Dodger debut, allowing two hits in his eight scoreless innings, he was roundly booed when making an out while batting.