There was just a bad feeling in the air when Broxton took the mound in the 9^th.

Nailed Holliday with the second pitch. Holliday steals second, Ardoin (who’s catching by the way) sails the ball into Center field, Holliday takes third, Atkins lines it over the drawn in infield. Ballgame.

This was all after they scored their second run on a Casey Blake bobble (who’s playing first) and their third run reached on a Russell Martin throwing error (who’s playing third).

I like mixing up the lineup a little and having an extra righty in there I guess, but are we really doing all of this for Danny Ardoin? Danny Ardoin?

It’s pretty clear now that this Ardoin behind the dish, Russ at third, and Casey at first thing just doesn’t work, and again for what? Those are the three guys that made, or didn’t make the three most pivotal plays of the game. And what were you expecting? Except for Ardoin, they’re all playing out of position.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for giving Russ some breaks, but maybe when we give him a night off we should just give him a night off. Let Casey Blake play his normal position, if we want to sit Loney let’s let Sweeney get a start, maybe that’s what he needs is a chance to see the ball four times in one night instead of one. Maybe that’ll help set him straight.

Ardoin did hit the ball hard tonight and made a nice play at the plate, but he just struck out for the second out in the ninth Inning, and can someone please tell me why they aren’t going to hit Ethier for him in that spot…

Why? Because Ethier’s left handed and Fuentes is too? So what? In case we haven’t picked up on it yet that whole righty-lefty lefty-righty match up didn’t do so well for us tonight.

This whole thing is getting ridiculous. Andre Ethier won two games for us with one swing of the bat in just the last week, why doesn’t he have a chance to swing it in the 9^th.

In typical Dodger creative losing fashion we found yet another ridiculous way to lose a game that you honestly couldn’t have come up with if you tried.

The Rockies. The freaking Rockies. It’s going to be the Rockies again that end up keeping us out of the playoffs, I can’t even stomach that.

Quick article, I can’t take this anymore.

Manny’s 2 for his last 8 with no RBIs, and I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I’m starting to lose all confidence in Jon Broxton. It’s been about one year since the decline began, but ever since he was named closer it’s been very difficult. Even if he did get his first seven straight, he’s now 9 for 15.

The DBacks won, obviously, we’re now 2 games back. We love creeping up to first and getting close, we just can’t seem to get over that hump can we?

And in extremely exciting news, it looks like Jason Schmidt is going to get a AAA start in a week or so. He threw with no pain!!! Maybe JSchmidt will be that key that pushes us to greatness…

What a wild weekend in Dodger baseball huh? And now Greg Maddux is a Dodger again.

The trade is not yet official and what we’re giving up has not yet been announced, but aside from being loyal to Maddux and giving him a chance, you have to wonder what the Padres get out of this deal.

Maddux was only 6-9 this year for the Pads with a run of the mill 3.99 ERA, but similar to the Manny Ramirez deal, I can’t wait to see what having him on the bench is going to do for our team.

Sure, Manny has led the NL in Home Runs and RBIs since he was acquired, but the most impressive part to most is the way that he has come in and changed the attitude of the entire ball club as a whole. He has special-super-secret high fives, he’s been hustling and working hard, he’s been in the middle of all the post game celebration the past few days, and he’s showing guys like Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier how to succeed and have a blast at the same time. He’s been amazing; in way more than just what he does with the bat.

I’ll never forget the first time we got Maddux two years ago how quickly he became the most popular guy in the dugout. Derek Lowe was absolutely glued to Maddux’s side, I remember so vividly, and any time Brad Penny had questions he went straight to Mr. Maddux. Vin Scully was reading poems on air, and the stadium would sell out and freak out every time Maddux took the hill.

The scene wasn’t very far off from what’s going on with Manny right now minus the T-Shirts and dreadlock beanie hats.

Maddux will be cheered and applauded during the course of the next six or seven games that he’ll pitch for us, but the impact that he can have on young Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw will forever be appreciated by Dodger faithful everywhere.

Maddux is a genius, he’s a surgeon on the mound. His rhythm and timing and precision go nearly unmatched by any pitcher in the history of baseball. He is the history of baseball.

When we have kids and they start to get older and start to get into baseball, they’re going to come to us one day and ask if we ever got to see the great Greg Maddux throw a baseball. He’s a legend and a superstar, one of the greatest there ever was and ever will be, and he probably never once threw the ball over 92 miles per hour. It’s an honor to have him back in blue.

Listen to Russell Martin, “ He’s the type of guy that just makes everybody better around him…He has so much knowledge, and besides the fact that he’s still a great pitcher, just everything that he knows can help our young team. He’s a great guy to have on the team, no doubt.”

He’s not gonna come in and throw a complete game, you can guarantee that. He’s not gonna come in and completely overpower people on his way to 8 Strikeouts and 1-0 Dodger victory. But what he will do is bring us a bit of consistency (as our fifth best starter by the way), and keep us in games for as long as he can keep himself in the game. You can count on Greg Maddux…he’s Greg Maddux.

Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley shouldn’t leave his side for the next two months, I swear they better not. I pray to whoever’s watching that Maddux gets a few wins over this period of time and helps us get to the World Series, but even if he doesn’t, his vast wealth of knowledge should really help Bills and Kershaw blossom into the unbelievable 1-2 punch that they are capable of becoming. I love this trade.

Every great player in history needed a strong mentor when they first entered the league. For the pitchers, who better than a guy they watched dominate the league on TBS when they came home from school as kids? For the outfielders, guys that actually, seriously need mentors in Andre and Matt Kemp, who better than arguably the most consistent hitter of the past decade with not one but two World Series rings in the past four years? For the infielders, who better than the most prolific power hitting second baseman of all time and a former AL Batting Champ in Jeff Kent and Nomar? Juan Pierre, Brad Penny and DLowe are all World Series champions; Mark Sweeney has the second most pinch hits in the history of the game; the great Joe Torre is managing this team. If these young guys can’t learn from this group of vets, then give up, because they ain’t learning from anyone.

This is the most unbelievable combination of young guys and vets that I can ever remember being thrown together on one team; the chemistry is so interesting. The future, the present, and the past are all playing together wearing the same uniform, and it’s Dodger blue. Sweet mercy.

Kuroda on the mound tomorrow, the trade should probably (and hopefully) be announced, I want to sincerely thank the San Diego Padres as an organization. No joke. Not just for giving us Maddux and his brain, but for being fair to one of the greatest pitchers of all time, and letting him have a shot at what is probably his last playoff race ever. Rivalries are rivalries, but what an unbelievably classy move by the Pads to let Maddux go to the only team he would and could leave his home for…even though the last thing the Padres want is for the Dodgers to succeed. Great move, great example of sportsmanship and respect for the game at its best. Padre fans be with us, join us, at least you’ll have something to root for. 

I mean seriously, it’s like we went on Extreme Makeover and came back with a new offense instead of a new face. The good news is that it’s an offense I barely recognize.

I don’t think I’m the first person to say this but Manny Ramirez has changed this team. No doubt about it. And the Manny trade made the Casey Blake trade that occurred just days before look even better. Top to bottom this is a good lineup. Just imagine how scary it would be if Rafael Furcal came back healthy.

Sunday was another great day to wear blue. Dodger Blue, not Brewer Blue. After that disappointing loss in the tenth on Saturday night it looked like the momentum was once again swinging in Milwaukee’s direction after Ryan Braun’s ninth-inning two-run homer.

But then Andre Ethier followed Matt Kemp’s single with his second homerun of the day to end the game and give him his second walk-off hit of the week. His teammates then lifted him up in the air for a couple seconds in what has apparently become a Dodgers tradition after a walk-off hit.

No doubt Ethier was the hero, but once again we continue to see good things from the entire offense. Aside from Casey Blake, every starting position player had at least one hit. Manny hit his sixth homerun as a Dodger and, along with Ethier, had three RBI on the day. Russell Martin continues to get back on track as he went 2-for-2, now with at least one hit in the last five games.

But the guy who has really been standing out is Matt Kemp. He led off the game with his 15th long ball of the year and then led off the ninth with a single. His numbers on the year (.300, 15, and 63) are good, but more than that you can just see that he has a much better idea of how to play this game. Yes, he made a big baserunning mistake on Saturday night, but those kinds of negatives are happening less and less while we see the positives more and more.

Speaking of positives, Clayton Kershaw pitched another very good game in his six innings, allowing just one run, fanning six, and walking one. He did allow eight hits and seemed to get into more trouble than John Edwards, but at least Kershaw got out of it. Of course, you never want to see a pitcher getting into trouble all the time but he showed a lot of poise and toughness to get out of some tight jams.

While Sunday was an altogether good day there was one part of the game that I really had a problem with. James Loney booted the Craig Counsell grounder in the ninth and then threw the ball away, which put runners on second and third with one out instead of a runner on second with two outs. Then Ray Durham singled and Braun hit his game-tying homerun.

But that’s not the part that bothers me. What really grinds my gears is what happened after that.

Torre pulled Park and the fans booed. C’mon, that’s not right. Booing Andruw Jones is one thing. I wouldn’t do it myself, but I at least understand it.

But not Chan Ho. Not a guy who has helped solidify our bullpen this season, throwing 80 innings with a 4-3 record and a 2.58 ERA. Dodger fans, we are better than that and after what he’s done so far this season, Park certainly deserves better.

Apparently Jeff Kent has taken issue with the fact that everyone says he is hitting better now that he is batting ahead of Manny Ramirez. According to T.J. Simers’ LA Times article he blames Vin Scully for making everyone think that Manny has improved his hitting. Kent even said “Vin Scully talks too much.”

Plain and simple, Manny has made Kent’s numbers better. It’s Baseball 101: with a good hitter protecting you in the lineup, you’ll see more fastballs. Still, it takes a good hitter to take advantage of those fastballs, especially with the regularity that Kent has since being moved to third in the batting order.

But whatever happens, whatever a reporter says, Jeff Kent or any other Dodger must understand that nobody is bigger than Vin. Nobody except Vin Scully himself decides when he will stop talking. Hopefully for all of us Dodger fans that won’t be anytime soon.

The Dodgers and Diamondbacks both have the day off tomorrow. On Tuesday we host the Rockies and give the ball to Hiroki Kuroda (7-8, 3.88), who has been excellent in his last three starts. He’ll face right-hander Ubaldo Jiminez (8-11, 3.94).

Hopefully Tuesday will finally be the day we take sole possession of first. Glad to be back.

Well, we did it.

We actually closed a game, our first in the last three. It wasn’t pretty, but Jon Broxton got his seventh save in eight chances. That’s a stat that sounds pretty good to the average baseball fan, but to Dodger fans every single save situation in the post-Takashi era has been an adventure.

At least we came away with this one though; the two games before this were absolutely pathetic.

We’re one game behind the DBacks for the lead in the division, but anyone who tuned in on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon knows we should be one game ahead.

Both games blown in the ninth.

Both games lost on crapola Little League knubbers that have no business winning games at the Major League level.

Both games lost on questionable decisions made by Joe Torre that nobody is even questioning for some reason.

Game One, Broxton tosses the ball around a little in a one run game. They get some hits, they get some walks, Brox hits a batter on a 1-2 count, and all of a sudden it’s tied with the bases loaded and one out. Mind you, the game is still tied. Torre leaves his entire infield in on the grass.

I understand it’s a risk to leave your middle infield back to turn the double play, but it’s also a risk to leave them up on the grass for the exact reason of what transpired.

Rowand hits a Taylor-made double play ball at where the second baseman should be, but Kent is playing in on the grass and it scoots by his outstretched arm to win the game for San Francisco. If he’s playing back in double play depth it’s a 4-6-3 and we go to extras.

Game Two. Dylan Hernandez called it, “Dodgers let another one get away,” Buster Olney described it as, “ The Dodgers got their guts ripped out again.” I just thought it sucked. If we lose the division by one or two games and miss the playoffs, I will never forget the weekend of August 9^th and 10^th in San Francisco.

Sunday afternoon after Broxton is apparently overworked from the past three days. Torre has Kuo pitching the eighth in a one run game, and allows him to hit for himself in the top of the 9^th. Kuo promptly beats out a groundball for an infield single and then ends up advancing a base and finishes the Inning stranded on second.

I don’t know where they talk about this in the Managers Manual, but there has to be some sort of serious rule against having a relief pitcher who’s had two Tommy John surgeries pitch an inning, get an AB, run the bases, and then come out and try to get his third career save against the heart of a fierce division rivals lineup…You follow??

Anyway, it wasn’t entirely Kuo’s fault because Casey Blake made the worst play of his Dodger career, but still, there was definitely something extremely unnerving about the entire situation. I just knew it was gonna crashing down

Tonight we did it. Tonight we finally did it. After three of the longest days in Dodger history we got ourselves a save; we closed the gap to one, and the DBacks got themselves Adam Dunn (That totally rhymed and I hadn’t even planned it out intentionally).

What is it going to mean to have Adam Dunn as a part of the NL West playoff race? Tough question. He’s leading the NL in Home Runs with 32, but he’s also fifth in the league in Strikeouts with 120. This now means that with the addition of Dunn, the DBacks now have three of the NL’s top five Strikeout Kings. Dunn joins #2 Mark Reynolds, and #3 Chris Young.

Ryan Howard leads the pack with 149; Matt Kemp is 6^th with 117.

Only time will tell if Dunn makes a huge impact, but it’s clear the DBacks felt that they needed a rebuttal to the Dodgers acquisitions of Casey Blake and Pablo Ozuna.

O…And Manny Ramirez.

Tomorrow’s match up is an interesting one between Cole Hamels and Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw you know all about by now, but remember when he made his debut and all of ESPN and the baseball world was freaking out and writing articles and doing interviews with Orel Hersheiser and stuff?

At the time I remember thinking, “wow, I can’t believe all the publicity Kershaw and the Dodgers are getting,” it was great. Anyways, the last pitcher who had as much drama surrounding his debut had to have been Cole Hamels.

This kid was a God when he broke into the scene two years ago.

A lot of position players get tons of attention for their debuts: Justin Upton, Josh Hamilton, Evan Longoria, Jay Bruce, Alex Gordon, Delmon Young, whoever it is. There just aren’t too many pitchers that arrive in the Big Leagues to a heroes welcome; mostly these guys have to prove themselves for a while. Kershaw and Hamels are among the select few that have their first starts replayed and analyzed on Sportscenter. It’s gonna be exciting for real baseball fans everywhere to see the two of them do battle tomorrow.

Hamels is 9-8, but his ERA is a solid 3.35, somehow he hasn’t gotten a win in his last six starts though, a streak that saw his ERA go up from 3.18. Not much for not having anything to show for it.

Kershaw the 20 year old, has both of his only career wins in his last three starts. He’s pitched 19 Innings in those three allowing only 11 hits and only ONE EARNED RUN!!!

It’s tough to get too excited or too down on a 20 year old, but he’s shown flashes of brilliance over that last three starts that has all of us beginning to see why people are calling him the best Dodger leftie since Koufax.

So, tomorrow it is, 7 o’clock PST…Joe Beimel Bobblehead Day…I’ll be there. The DBacks have the Rockies on the road, and there’s 42 games left in the season.

I don’t care the slightest about Manny’s possible haircut, let’s put San Francisco behind and try and take over the division. Good night… 

Who’s on first? What’s in Left? Angel Berroa is at Short????

Wow. Welcome back…

I was out of the country for 47 days, what a journey. It was 38 games I missed, a 21-17 record, and the last Dodger game I saw before tonight’s was a 4-3 Dodger victory against Cleveland on June 22^nd when Casey Blake went 0-4 with 3 LOBs…for the Indians.

With one simple no-brainer trade on the day of the deadline, the Dodgers gave themselves new life acquiring the most prolific Home Run hitter to ever put on a Dodger uniform. And Manny’s already got more Dodger Home Runs than Andruw Jones. What a way to come back…

Under-the-radar-yet-not-so-under-the-radar-Casey-Blake is hitting .341 in his 44 At Bats in Blue, and he hit his second Home Run tonight.

Danny Ardoin started his second straight game behind the dish and hit his first Home Run in three years, and with what seems like is going to be a normal occurrence, the Dodgers finished the game with AL Central vets Angel Berroa and Pablo Ozuna going up the middle.

Nomar returned and played some Shortstop, then returned to his normal position on the DL. Brad Penny returned tonight to get his first win after seven weeks on the shelf, and Clay Kershaw got the win yesterday, moving to 2-0 in his last three starts with an ERA under one.

These days everyone in the clubhouse is wearing nametags, but whatever is going on is working, the DBacks lost again tonight, and we’re only ½ a game out. Wow.

I don’t need to sit and explain my emotions about having the privilege of watching Manny Ramirez swing a bat for the Dodgers, because I know we’re all feeling it. After watching the Dodgers lose out on ARod, Vlad, Carlos Lee, Soriano, CC, Johan, or whoever else has crossed through the pages of the LA Times over the years, I honestly never thought the day would come that a player like Manny Ramirez would be swinging a bat for us.

Can somebody please tell me why him potentially cutting his hair is getting this much attention right now? Who cares, he’s hitting bombs, and we’re having fun.

I watched this whole “Manny being Manny” circus from afar over the last few years. I scoffed at the fact that he was actually really that crazy, and I still don’t understand how a player that did so much for one beleaguered franchise could end up being shipped out without any fanfare as his old team struggles to catch the Tampa Bay Rays.

I don’t understand the negativity, but I’m certainly starting to get why they called him crazy. He’s fun though, a good crazy that a stuck-up team like the Dodgers really needed. Jeff Kent’s the team leader, Nomar’s the other one on the DL, and veterans Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones are stuck in the most miserable seasons of their lives. Jones can’t hit, and I’m actually starting to question whether Juan Pierre wants to win another title or rot away in some place like Kansas City. At this point, he probably chooses the latter.

Russ takes the game way too seriously, although we love him for it, I’m still yet to see Loney smile, and Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier have been told from day one that enjoyment is not a part of this game. Manny is starting to remind them that it is.

We’re loosening up, enjoying ourselves, and we now have a legitimate bat in the middle of our lineup that we’ve been searching for since the Beltre season.

I’ve never seen one player do more for a team in one week than Manny has. No matter what, I will forever be grateful to him for that.

That being said, I wanna win a title, and I don’t think that’s too fanatical anymore. Sure, our record isn’t the best in the Bigs, but if Raffy comes back our lineup actually might be. Our bullpen is formidable, and you don’t need five starters to be a scary playoff team. We’ve had the staff for the past five years, we just never had the offense. We never had a bat in the middle of the lineup that made other teams scared. We never forced them to throw to our other guys, and we never ever, ever, ever cashed in with RISP. We can do all that now.

And Casey Blake can swing a bat from the hot corner too. When was the last time we got any serious production from there?

Sweeney’s back for some clutch ABs off the bench, and another thing Manny does is send some combination of Ethier/Pierre/Jones to the bench and leave us with a few pretty good options for late in the game.

Ozuna can fill in at any position (and also help keep Kent fresh), and even without Takashi, the no-name bullpen has been pretty close to fantastic…and Proctor’s coming back.

I’ve been gone for quite some time so you’ll have to excuse my energy, but the National League is wide open, and after Albert Pujols, Manny might be the best hitter in the league, and he’s on our side.

It feels good to be back, and it feels really good to be able to sit down and watch this team play instead of some of the other garbage combinations we’ve thrown on the field this year.

Good luck Andy LaRoche.

Tomorrow we take over first place. Go Team USA. Sorry for the absence

Man, that one was really disappointing.

We absolutely played like crap, got some breaks, got some drops, scored four runs and tied it in the ninth.

And then we went ahead and blew it…And Takashi blew it too.

Oh goodness, that was frustrating.

I yelled. I wasn’t happy.

Maybe we shouldn’t have put Takashi in for the 9^th, or maybe we should have never come back against a Cleveland bullpen after getting completely dominated by Cliff Lee all game. Man, is he good…he smoked us.

That dude threw his first pitch for a strike to pretty much everyone, and we knew it. We knew he was going to throw the first pitch for a strike every time, dead red fastball, and we still couldn’t hit it.

And that’s why he kept his pitch count down the entire game, because we fell behind in the count right after the first pitch. Every time, couldn’t hit it. He was good.

He threw 76 of his 104 pitches for a strike. But there was a point that he had thrown 49 of 71 for a strike, that’s unbelievable.

In contrast, rookie phenom, Clayton Kershaw, threw 85 total pitches, and threw 47 for a strike.

That’s 28 balls in total for Lee, and 38 balls in total for Kershaw. Cliff Lee threw 10 fewer balls while throwing 19 more pitches. That’s why Cliff Lee is 10-1 (should be 11-1 with a 0.00 added to his ERA), and Clayton Kershaw is a Dodger.

Just another example of something this team does that is unbelievably inexplicable. I have never seen a more misbehaved group of Major Leaguers in my life. They’re like seven year olds.

Matt Kemp is leading the team in RBIs with 42, and Loney is the closest after with 35. Matt Kemp is leading the team in Strikeouts with 69. The player with the closest to that has 45. It’s Andruw Jones still…

It’s the inconsistent play of this team that is ultimately going to be its demise. We don’t play smart, and that’s just not going to win base ball games. We can’t find ways to put the ball into play in important circumstances (Except for that one ball Pierre hit off the pitcher in the 9^th). Juan Pierre is playing decent baseball by the way, he’s doing a good job, but we need Raffy back.

One thing that’s really been missing in our lineup is a two-hole hitter. It’s been missing all year. It would be Pierre if Furcal were playing, but he’s not. We’ve tried Russell, Kemp, Ethier and Blakie-D, nobody has any idea how to hit in the two-hole, it’s the weirdest thing.

I used to love hitting in the two-hole. The two-hole is gritty. The two-hole says I’ll do whatever it takes to help this team win. I’ll take pitches and make a pitcher work; I’ll take more pitches so my runner can move. I’ll Sac Bunt, Hit and Run, hit the ball to the right side, do whatever you need coach. The two-hole is important, it sets the tone. 

I say we either let somebody else lead off and hit Pierre second, or send LaRoche back down and bring up Jason Repko.

We could possibly play Repko in Center if we wanted, and take some of the burden off Kemp and hide him in Right for a while. We could move Andre back to his normal position in Left, but sometimes he would have to sit as well, and so would Kemp, sometimes we’d be way better off without Kemp.

I know that Repko’s not even on the 40-man roster right now, but screw it, he should be, especially with Andruw Jones playing nonexistent.

Delwyn Young can swing it every once in a while, but he might be burning a hole in the bench when we could really be using that roster spot for a very reliable, sure handed, gutsy outfielder who can run the bases and has decent power.

He’s only hitting .263 in AAA, but truthfully, that’s not that bad for a player that fits into his category. He’s got 6 Home Runs on the year, which would be killin’ it on the Dodgers, and his OBP is a solid .359. He’s had 259 ABs already, which would be second on the Dodgers, so he’s proved that he can be relied upon to not run straight through a wall again.

More importantly, he’s got heart, and that’s what’s really missing in the middle of this lineup. Sometimes Kemp and Dre are too cool to show raw emotion, and Loney just doesn’t have the intensity built into him just yet I guess.

Russ had it for a second tonight, and then we all got it ripped out of our chest in the 10th.

Repko could provide that spunk at the top of the lineup. He’s got 12 Stolen Bases too. Repko would play, we could really use him.

On a side note, Jeff Kent is sixth on the team in At Bats, and his .419 SLG is on-pace to be the worst in his career since his rookie season in ’92 with the New York Mets.

Good luck in hell Willie Randolph, it’s been real. 

I just don’t really know how to explain my frustrations with this baseball team right now.

I’ve given everything to the Dodgers, and I love them to death, but right now, this is one of the worst baseball teams I have ever seen in my entire life.

That’s not to say that they can’t turn it around. When I say that they’re one of the worst teams I’ve ever seen, it’s not because they lacking in talent at every position, it’s because there is talent on the roster, and there is actually room for this team to make a run for the World Series. Who’s to say we can’t?

I’m frustrated by them because it honestly seems like they don’t care. Hold on a second. It’s not like they’re taking the field with no intensity, don’t run out ground balls, or don’t throw as hard as they can.

They have the talent. For some reason though, they refuse to throw strikes, they refuse to get clutch hits in key situations. They refuse to close down games, and they refuse to have positive first innings.  Takashi hasn’t had a Save in six outings!

Our bullpen is awesome in 7-2 games, but where the hell are they when it’s 3-2?

Our guys are knocking ‘em out of the park when there’s nobody on, but can somebody please tell me when was the last time we hit a ball out of the park with a runner on?

We certainly are capable of doing certain things, but for some reason we can’t do it when the pressure is on or when it really matters.

We scored one run AGAIN tonight, I’m so sick of it.

We got a win last night. Sure, a big one I guess, we won 7-2, but we scored the go-ahead runs on a seeing-eye single that Russell hit through the right side of the infield with his eyes closed…and the next run we scored on a infield single. We won, but it was lucky, not pretty.

Jake Peavy pitches tomorrow, and we’re going to lose.

I’ve googled it, I can’t find a stat, but I don’t think we’ve ever beat Jake Peavy. If I only watched Dodger games, I would honestly tell you that Jake Peavy is the greatest pitcher of all-time, because we’ve never done a thing against him.

Here’s to hoping I’m wrong.

I haven’t completely lost faith in them yet. You know, I still watch every single game, and every loss still hurts me just as much.

Furcal’s been out for 32 games now, and that’s what the real problem is.

It’s not scary to face our lineup when Angel Berroa is hitting eighth (or Chin-Lung Hu, or Luis Maza). It’s scary to face our lineup when Furcal is at the top and Pierre is after him, with DeWitt, or Ethier, or even Delwyn Young hitting eighth.

I can’t even believe how frustrating it’s been to watch Dodger baseball without our best player, and that leads us to a serious dilemma…

Rafael Furcal is our best player, and this is his contract year. I want nothing more than for him to be a loyal Dodger until he retires, but at $13 Million a year, is it worth bringing him back when he’s just going to be injured every single season? He’s three-for-three so far; he’s never really been healthy.

I love Raffy forever and ever, but it hurts us to invest our franchise in him, and just have him come up with another BS injury every year. Serious problem, but not as serious as our absent offense.

A few things, including Furcal…

At least three more weeks before Raffy comes back, I’m sick of it, let me know when he’s in the starting lineup.

By now you’ve seen Angel Berroa occupying Furcal’s former spot on the diamond. It’s always a funny thing when guys you used to watch on another squad just show up in a Dodger uniform and take the field. Berroa will be fine for a little, at least he’s a bit of a step up offensively from Chin-Lung Hu, who by-the-way got sent down to AAA for… 

ANDY LAROCHE!!!!

After all that Nomar-Andy-Andy-Nomar talk in Spring Training, LaRoche finally makes his 2008 debut 64 games into the season at First Base believe it or not.

And…he hit a Home Run in only his second At Bat of the year. A solo. Obviously…

Also, on a side note, I think Andy needs to keep his hair long; it looks better that way.

Nomar is headed towards a rehab assignment, and word is Torre wants him working out back at Shortstop. Andruw Jones took some BP and shagged some Fly Balls in the outfield; he may be only weeks away, and who would have thought that we’d need him this much. I’ll welcome his bat back into the lineup as soon as he’s ready.

I also want to congratulate everyone’s favorite Dodger, Blake DeWitt, on receiving May’s NL Rookie of Month honors. What a cool thing for a dude that wasn’t even on the map in Spring Training. He hit .322 in May with 5 Home Runs and 18 RBIs. I love him, and I love Russell, everybody else better figure it out. Especially Matt Kemp, he’s 6^th in the NL in Strikeouts, he had three tonight, I’m sick of it…

No, the season’s not over, but watching your squad continue to score zero runs in a baseball game can really start to wear on you.

There have been 17 different games this season when the Dodgers have scored 1 or 0 runs in an entire ballgame. We’re 28-30, so that’s 58 games. In 17 of our 58 games we’ve scored one run or less. I wish I could find a stat for this somewhere, but aside from the Padres, there’s no way that there’s another team in baseball that has played that many games scoring that little runs.

In our last 12 games we’ve scored 32 runs. Take away Game One with the Rockies when we scored 8, and Game Two with the Mets when we scored 9, and that’s 15 runs in the other 10 games. I don’t have to tell you that 15 Runs in 10 games is 1.5 Runs per game, and that’s not very good at the Major League level.

It’s never been so apparent how much we miss Rafael Furcal, and Jones is out (who cares?), but now Kemp’s going to get suspended too.

That was crazy last night though huh?

I was watching the game in Colorado, and by the way that the Colorado-homer-announcers were talking, you’d have thought Torrealba was a peace-loving nun, or an innocent and wide-eyed infant who’d never seen the world. Then they make Matt Kemp out to be some villain looking for nothing but blood and trouble.

I know Kemp shoved him first. When the tape gets back to league offices, they’re going to see that Kemp shoved Torrealba first, and that’s what’s going to get him suspended.

That being said, take a look back and check out how it went down.

Kemp was furious he had struck out, as he should be; he was 0-for-4, and started to jog towards first because the ball had hit the dirt.

As he began to run, the bat he was still carrying in his hand nudged the ball out of the way, and the home plate umpire called him out, so he stopped running, probably happy not to have to exert the effort running to first after a horrible looking strike out.

Torrealba went up to tag him, which is fine, but Kemp just got a little upset over the unnecessary contact, and gave Yorvit a little shove. That’s when things got a little sloppy.

In retaliation, Yorvit took a pretty solid two-handed swing at Kemp, and landed one of his hands on Kemp’s neck, and the other one nailed Matt in the chin. It was a hard shove.

I’m not really sure anybody wanted to fight that bad in a 2-0 game in the bottom of the ninth, but these are two very frustrated teams, and the second there was contact with his face, Kemp went after Torrealba.

What ensued was a whole lot of nothing. Kemp and Torrealba got separated, and nobody else really seemed to care about the fight. Delwyn Young had to get held back, but it didn’t seem like he wanted to punch anyone, he just wanted to be a part of all in his first-ever big league scuffle.

Long story short, we need Matt Kemp right now. If he’s suspended for something like a week, and we have to start either Delwyn Young or Terry Tiffee in the outfield, and move Juan Pierre back to Center, we’re in even more trouble.

Good news is I’m leaving for the weekend. I’m going to my second music festival in the past three weeks, and this seems like a pretty good time to just get Dodger updates on my phone rather than absorbing the stinky Television rays of our sputtering offense.

Nate also packed it in for a little backpack trip around Europe, so that’s where he is.

I’ll be gone all weekend, so it’d be pretty cool if you were messing around on MVN and decided to leave a comment or two underneath the article and talk about what’s about to go down this weekend.

I’m not gonna be here, so you should do some writing; let me know what I missed.

Peace, love and music. Let’s score some runs please. 

I can’t even begin to explain how upset and disappointed I am in Jonathan Broxton and the way the game ended this afternoon.

After an unbelievable come back game to snap our four game losing streak last night, we had the Mets up against the ropes again this afternoon. Bills threw an absolute gem, seven scoreless innings, and all we had to do was get the ball to Broxton and Saito, and the game was ours.

Billingsley does way more than what is asked of him, enter Broxton to shut it down in the eighth, and the whole damn thing unravels at the seam. Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting to be forced to watch a game like that on National TV.

Billingsley’s last four starts: 27 IP, 15 Hits, and 3 Earned Runs. This is the type of stuff I’m talking about when I boast that Bills is probably the most talented pitcher to wear a Dodger uniform in at least the last 10 years.

Obviously, if anybody could do anything consistently, then anyone would be capable of becoming an All Star, but Chad Billingsley really is gifted enough to have outings like this every time he steps on the mound.

He’s been my favorite pitcher since his big league career started. I have his Jersey-Shirt.

As for Broxton, he had a streak of seven straight outings without an Earned Run, but thinking about today still makes me nauseous.

They tied the game after Broxton’s first two batters, and it’s so ridiculous that we couldn’t shut this one down for Bills.

These are the type of games that we really need to get us going. I know the Mets aren’t that first place powerhouse that we’re used to right now, but they’re still the Mets.

They have all the big names, they get all the media headlines, and if we have them hanging by a thread in Shea Stadium, we need to be able to lock down that victory.

Winning on the road against premier teams is what champions are made of. The Dodgers don’t have anything close to a championship look or swagger right now.

If we don’t make the playoffs this year, I’m gonna freak, and not having the heart to shut down these type of games is what’s going to prevent us from getting there.

I love Russell Martin, but these last few weeks have definitely proved that Rafael Furcal is our leader. We’re lost without him, we need him back.

I threw something when the game ended today; haven’t done that in a while.