Astros 4, Dodgers 1

The Dodgers scored one quickly, but were shut down the rest of the way by Roy Oswalt and the Astros.

Roy Oswalt won, he's 7-8. Eric Stults lost, he's 2-1. José Valverde picked up his 22nd save.

Stults had his worst start of the year, albeit, that is only out of three starts. He went just 5 and 1/3 innings, giving up four runs on five hits and three walks. Ramon Troncoso, Joe Beimel, and Cory Wade were scoreless in relief after Stults was removed from the game.

As far as hitting for the Dodgers, they did get 11 hits on the day, but were only able to score one run, and that came on only one hit in the first inning. Andre Ethier doubled, Oswalt hit the next two batters, and James Loney hit a sac-fly to left to score the only run on the day for the Dodgers. In total, the Dodgers left 23 runners on base throughout the game.

The Dodgers didn't look too good tonight, but help might be on the way. Rafael Furcal, Nomar Garciaparra, and Andruw Jones were all on rehab assignments tonight at Las Vegas. If they can come back and play to their full abilities, things might get a little better on the Dodger front. The Dodgers will play game two of this four game series tomorrow at 5:05 L.A. time.

Angels 1, Dodgers 0

The Dodgers struggled to mount any offense throughout the game before loading the bases with two outs in the 9th, they failed to score however, and were unable to complete the sweep against the Angels.

John Lackey got the win, he's 6-1. Derek Lowe took the loss, he's 5-8. Francisco Rodríguez picked up his 32nd save.

Derek Lowe pitched a good game, going seven innings, striking out seven, giving up a run on five hits and two walks. Brian Falkenborg pitched in his third game of the year, and pitched his third scoreless inning of the year. Cory Wade added a scoreless 9th to keep the Angels to just one run through the game.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, were shut down by the Angels pitchers. John Lackey held them to just two hits and a walk through the first eight innings. He came out in the ninth, and gave up a hit and a walk before being pulled for Francisco Rodríguez. Rodríguez walked Jeff Kent to load the bases with two outs in the 9th inning before getting James Loney to groundout to end the game.

A very interesting, low scoring series. The Dodgers outscored the Angels 7-1 in the three games but were only able to take two of three. And interestingly enough, the rotating door of Dodger injuries seems to still be in effect. As several Dodgers on the DL appear to be on their way back, Juan Pierre left the game in the 6th inning after stealing a base and having Erick Aybar land awkwardly on his left leg. He'll have an MRI tomorrow, but he looked pretty bad coming out of the game, limping heavily on the left leg. The Dodgers will travel to Houston to take on the Astros starting tomorrow at 5:05 L.A. time.

Dodgers 1, Angels 0

Did that really just happen? The Dodgers get 1-0 win while being no-hit by the Angels.

Chad Billingsley got the win, he's 7-7. Jered Weaver took the loss, he's 7-8. Takashi Saito picked up his 12th save.

Lost in the historic night was the Dodgers got a well pitched game by Billingsley as the Dodgers shut down the Angels for the second night in a row. Billingsley pitched seven strong innings, striking out seven, giving up just three hits and three walks. Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito also pitched a scoreless inning each to shut down the Angels.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers offense was completely shut down. They managed just three walks and a hit-by-pitch between the combination of Angels pitchers Jered Weaver and Jose Arredondo. And yet, they won. In the 5th inning, Matt Kemp reached first on a Weaver error, he then stole second and advanced to third on an error by Angels catcher Jeff Mathis. Blake DeWitt then hit a sac-fly to right field to cash in Kemp. And that was it. One run on no hits for the Dodgers but it would stand throughout the game.

This was just the 5th time since 1900 that a team was no-hit and went on to win the game, and the first time since 1992. Also, lost in this win will be the fact that Andre Ethier turned in two excellent plays in the outfield to help keep the Angels scoreless and Luis Maza made a great diving stop in the 9th to take away a hit...

But who cares, the Dodgers make history tonight. It was an exciting game to watch, I hope you got to catch a piece of it. The Dodgers will go for the sweep tomorrow against the Angels at 1:10 L.A. time.

Dodgers 6, Angels 0

Chan Ho Park made an excellent start for the Dodgers and the offense had some good hitting to get the win, tying the season series with the Angels at 2-2.

Chan Ho Park got the win, he's 3-2. Joe Saunders took the loss, he's 11-4.

Park went six strong innings, giving up just four hits while striking out seven. He also did not walk anyone. In fact, the Dodgers had good command throughout the game: they issued no walks over the whole nine innings. The bullpen shut down the Angels the rest of the way. Brian Falkenborg pitched a perfect 7th, Jonathan Broxton struck out all three batters he faced in the 8th, and Takashi Saito did the same in the 9th.

The Dodgers were able to score in more than one way in the game. Russell Martin destroyed a Joe Saunders pitch in the first inning to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. The Dodgers strung together a few hits to add two more runs in the 5th inning to make the lead 3-0. Then, Andre Ethier hit a big three-run homerun halfway up the right field bleachers in the 7th to give the Dodgers their 6-0 lead.

With the win yesterday against lefty Joe Saunders, the Dodgers get their first win in a game started by a left handed pitcher since May 14th when the Dodgers won 6-4 over the Brewers in a game started by Manny Parra, although the win came against the Brewer bullpen in the 9th. The last time the Dodgers actually gave the left handed starter the loss was May 3rd when beat Jorge De La Rosa and the Colorado Rockies 12-7.

Overall, this was a good win for the Dodgers. They'll try to keep some momentum as they take on Jered Weaver in game two of the series at 7:10 L.A. time. Weaver, in three career starts against us is 3-0 with a 2.08 ERA.

White Sox 2, Dodgers 0

Clayton Kershaw's first win continued to elude him as the Dodgers were not able to get any offense against another left handed pitcher.

John Danks got the win, he's 5-4. Clayton Kershaw took the loss, he's 0-2. Bobby Jenks pitched a perfect 9th inning to pick up his 17th save.

Clayton Kershaw pitched a shaky four innings giving up six hits and four walks but only two runs before being pulled in the fifth. Brian Falkenborg got out of trouble without giving up a run in the fifth, and Cory Wade and Ramon Troncoso pitched two scoreless innings each to hold the White Sox to two runs.

The offense, meanwhile, were only able to get five hits and four walks for the entire game. They threatened to score a few times but were never able to cash in on their chances. Matt Kemp showed most of the offense today, walking twice and collecting a base hit but the Dodgers as a whole were shut down by lefty John Danks.

The Dodgers, throughout the month of June have not been able to win against left handed pitchers. Here are the left handed starters we've faced this month:

June 1 - Johan Santana - Mets 6, Dodgers 1
June 3 - Jeff Francis - Rockies 3, Dodgers 0
June 11 - Randy Wolf - Padres 4, Dodgers 1
June 15 - Nate Robertson - Tigers 5, Dodgers 4 (0 off Robertson)
June 20 - Cliff Lee - Indians 6, Dodgers 4 (1 off Lee)
June 21 - C.C. Sabathia - Indians 7, Dodgers 2 (1 off Sabathia)
June 24 - Mark Buehrle - White Sox 6, Dodgers 1
June 26 - John Danks - White Sox 2, Dodgers 0

The Dodgers need to figure out a way to beat left handed pitchers, they've been thoroughly shut down by them in the month of June. They'd better hurry and find out how to do it, too, because they face Joe Saunders of the Angels tomorrow at 7:40 L.A. time.

Dodgers 5, White Sox 0

Eric Stults makes his second straight excellent start to propel the Dodgers to a 5-0 win over Chicago.

Eric Stults got the win, he's 2-0. Gavin Floyd takes the loss, he's 8-4.

Stults made his second start of the year and pitched very well, shutting down the White Sox for the full nine innings picking up the second complete game shutout on the year for the Dodgers. Stults gave up just four hits and a walk over the nine innings, while striking out three. Most importantly, he threw strikes, getting 81 out of 116 pitches over the plate (69.8%).

Offensively the Dodgers were able to get across a few runs. They scored two in the 1st inning and three in the 4th inning to amount to the five total runs in the game. They collected six hits, each by different Dodgers including a single from James Loney, who extended his hitting streak to 12 games.

The Dodgers will try tomorrow to win the series against the White Sox in the rubber match of the series. Clayton Kershaw will take on John Danks. Interesting that Eric Stults since coming up from Las Vegas has made two starts and won both while Kershaw in his six starts since his call-up has yet to get his first. He'll try again tomorrow.

White Sox 6, Dodgers 1

The Dodgers struggles against the American League continued as the Dodgers were not able to muster much offense against Mark Buehrle.

Mark Buehrle got the win, he's 5-6. Derek Lowe took the loss, he's 5-7.

Derek Lowe got in trouble quickly, giving up a run in each of the first two innings before settling down and shutting down the White Sox until the 8th inning. He then gave up a two-run homerun to Jermaine Dye, followed by a single to Nick Swisher before being pulled. Cory Wade was unable to offer much relief, however, and allowed another two more runs to score before ending the inning.

The Dodgers offense did not fair much better. Mark Buehrle effectively shut down the Dodgers throughout the game giving up just six hits and one earned run over eight innings. He struck out two while collecting 15 groundball outs. The one run came from Delwyn Young, who hit his first homerun of the season in the bottom of the 5th inning. The Dodgers five other hits were all singles. James Loney collected one of those singles and brought his hitting streak up to 11 games.

A few other notes. Russell Martin made a pretty good defensive play in the 4th innings. Derek Lowe got in trouble, and with runners on second and third, he induced a groundball to Andy LaRoche at third. LaRoche fired home to Martin who used his left leg to expertly block out Pablo Ozuna coming home and apply the tag for the out. It was a good defensive play on a bad offensive night. Mark Buehrle, by the way, collected the 1,000th strikeout of his career with his two strikeouts today. His 1,000th came against Mark Sweeney.

Dodgers 4, Indians 3

The Dodgers get an offensive outburst in the first inning, scoring four runs of Paul Byrd and are able to hold up the lead for the win, avoiding the sweep.

Chad Billingsley got the win, he's 6-7. Paul Byrd was hit with the loss, he's 3-8. Takashi Saito picked up his 11th save.

Billingsley struggled to get through five innings, but he made it through, giving up only three runs while striking out four. The bullpen combined to pitch four scoreless innings to shut down the Indians the rest of the way.

The Dodgers scored all four of their runs in the first inning. Juan Pierre led off with a single. Matt Kemp followed with a ground-rule double. James Loney doubled after that to bring in Pierre and Kemp. Russell Martin followed with a homerun halfway up the bleachers in left to make the score 4-0. The Dodgers were shut down for much of the rest of the game, collected a few assorted base hits, but the four runs were enough to hold up for the win.

There was also an important defensive play. In the top of the 5th inning, with the Dodgers leading 4-3 and Jhonny Peralta on first base, David Dellucci hit a double down the right field line. Andre Ethier cut off the ball and fired it in, the relay came home to Martin and he tagged out Peralta coming to the plate, keeping the lead for the Dodgers. Overall, it was a tough win for the Dodgers, but a win nonetheless. They'll face the Chicago White Sox for a three game series starting Tuesday.

Indians 7, Dodgers 2 (11 innings)

A game that started as a pitching duel ending with an offensive explosion from the Indians in the 11th inning as they deal the Dodgers their second loss in the series in extra innings.

Masa Kobayashi got the win, he's 4-3. Cory Wade took the loss, he's 0-1.

Chan Ho Park, in somewhat of a spot start, pitched excellent. He went five innings, striking out nine and giving up one run. The one run, however, came on a solo homerun given up to C.C. Sabathia in his first at bat of the year. He demolished a fastball in the 3rd inning that went sailing into the Indians bullpen to make the score 1-0. The Indians would not score again until they plated six runs in 11th inning of Cory Wade, Scott Proctor, and Ramon Troncoso.

The Dodgers offense was held in check again by a strong left handed pitcher. C.C. Sabathia struck out 10 over seven innings giving up only one run as well. His only mistake came in the 6th inning when he gave up a solo homerun to Matt Kemp to tie the score at 1-1. The Dodgers would not score again until the bottom of the 11th inning when the score was already 7-1. Russell Martin collected three hits and scored a run. James Loney had two hits, including the RBI double in the 11th inning.

The last two games were oddly similar. Both games had the Dodgers shut down by a good left handed pitcher. Both games had the Dodgers fall behind early only to tie it up and lose the game in extra innings. And both games were very winable. It was very interesting to me that had Chan Ho Park not left a hanging pitch to the pitcher Sabathia in the third inning, the Dodgers could have very well shutout the Indians and won the game 1-0. That's an unfortunate loss. The Dodgers will try to get one win out of this series when they take on Paul Byrd at 1:10 L.A. time on Sunday.

Indians 6, Dodgers 4 (10 innings)

The Indians scored two runs off Takashi Saito in the 10th inning to take the lead after the Dodgers plated two runs in the 8th and 9th inning each to tie the game.

Joe Borowski got the win, he's 1-2. Takashi Saito took the loss, he's 3-3. Masa Kobayashi collected the save, his 4th.

Clayton Kershaw pitched a sub-par game, and while he struck out five, he walked three and gave up four hits, including a two run homerun to Kelly Shoppach, and gave up four runs overall. The bullpen pitched four shutout innings after that, before Saito gave up two runs on an RBI double to Jhonny Peralta.

The Dodgers on offense meanwhile, were suffciently shut down by Cliff Lee until the 8th inning. They were then able to string together some hits to score two runs. They followed that up by scoring two more runs in the 9th inning of Indian closer Joe Borowski. Offensively, Jeff Kent had the best game for the Dodgers. He collected three hits in five at-bats and knocked in two of the four Dodger runs.

It doesn't get any easier for the Dodgers. They'll face another tough lefty, C.C. Sabathia, in Saturday's game.

Dodgers 7, Reds 4

Behind a strong pitching performance from Eric Stults and offense from James Loney and Matt Kemp, the Dodgers get the win and complete the three game sweep of the Reds.

Eric Stults gets the win in his first start of the year after being called up, he's 1-0. Aaron Harang takes the loss, he's 3-10. Takashi Saito picks up his 10th save.

Eric Stults, just up from Las Vegas went six innings, striking out five, and giving up just three runs, only one of which was an earned run. The Dodgers got in some trouble in the seventh inning, but got out of it giving up only four runs. Jonathan Broxton pitched a scoreless eighth, and Saito pitched a scoreless ninth for his tenth save.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers were able to mount some good offense. Matt Kemp went 2-5 with a double and a homerun, knocking in three runs. James Loney continued his hot hitting, going 3-4, with a walk and a double. Everyone in the starting lineup had a hit today, including the pitcher Stults. Andre Ethier and Ángel Berroa each had two hits. Altogether, the Dodgers collected six extra-base hits on the day.

The Dodgers outscored the Reds 16-6 in the three game sweep, and won a series for the first time since the last time they played the Reds (May 19-21). They'll try to take some momentum with them into the weekend when they take on the Cleveland Indians. The first game is tomorrow, starting at 7:40 L.A. time.

Dodgers 6, Reds 1

The Dodgers get some more good pitching, as well as some hitting and pick up their second win in a row, the first time they've won two in a row since May 6-7.

Derek Lowe got the win, he's 5-6. Bronson Arroyo takes the loss, he's 4-6.

Derek Lowe, moving up a day to start in place of Hiroki Kuroda, was on his game tonight. Lowe went 5 and 1/3 innings giving up just one run in the form of a solo homerun for Edwin Encarnación. Meanwhile, he collected eight ground ball outs and six strikeouts. Hong-Chih Kuo followed that up with 2 and 2/3 scoreless innings and Cory Wade pitched a scoreless ninth to shut down the Reds.

The Dodger offense also showed up. Juan Pierre had two hits, including his first triple of the year that scored two. He was, however, frustratingly picked off of third base following the triple. James Loney also collected a walk and two hits, a double and a long distance homerun, and knocked in two. Andre Ethier also collected three hits, including a double, and drove in one to add to the Dodger offense.

It was a good thing the Dodgers were able to gain some momentum going into these next three games. The Dodgers will face Aaron Harang tomorrow, Cliff Lee on Friday, and C.C. Sabathia on Saturday. This is going to be a tough three days...

Dodgers 3, Reds 1

The Dodgers get some hitting, but more important, excellent pitching, and they get their first win in a week, snapping a five game skid.

Chad Billingsley got the win, his record is 5-7. Johnny Cueto lost, he's also 5-7. Takashi Saito picked up the save, his 9th, and his first since May 21th, also against the Reds.

Billingsley went 6 and 1/3 innings, give up one run, and struck out nine including striking out five in a row at one point. Jonathan Broxton pitched a scoreless eighth innings and Saito followed with a scoreless ninth to close out the game.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers were able to scratch across three runs, all on RBI doubles. Juan Pierre had one in the top of the 3rd inning, Russell Martin had one in the 4th inning, and Jeff Kent had his in the 8th inning, his third hit of the day.

A pretty solid game for the Dodgers. The question, however, is if the Dodgers can keep it up. The Dodgers won the first game in the Colorado series two weeks ago, only to be shut down and lose the next two games. A similar thing happen last week in San Diego. They'll try for their second win in the series tomorrow at 4:10 L.A. time. Derek Lowe takes on Bronson Arroyo.

P.S. So that's it for the basketball season and what a bad way to go out: 39 points, yeesh... It was a good season, just a horrible way to end it. I guess there's always next year...

Tigers 5, Dodgers 4

The Dodgers showed some offense, but too little, too late to avoid the sweep at the hands of the Tigers. They've now not a series in seven straight attempts.

Nate Robertson got the win, he's 5-6. Chan Ho Park took the loss, he's 2-2. Todd Jones collected his 12th save.

The Dodgers were done in by the rain. A 48-minute rain delay between the 4th and 5th innings might have inadvertently cost the Dodgers the game by getting the Dodgers to remove Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw had pitched four strong innings, giving up just two hits and two walks, while striking out two on 65 pitches. Joe Torre, however, elected to remove Kershaw after the rains stopped in favor of Chan Ho Park. Chan Ho, who had been solid out of the bullpen this year, proceeded to give up five runs over the next 1 and 1/3 innings, including giving up a homerun to Marcus Thames, his third in the last three games.

Meanwhile, on the offensive end, for the first eight innings of today's game, the Dodgers went back to their old selves after a good offensive showing yesterday. The Dodgers then collected four runs on five hits in the ninth inning, a sample of what they can do when they collectively begin to hit. The rally ended, however, one run short. Jeff Kent, the tying run, was left stranded at second when Juan Pierre flew out to Curtis Granderson to end the game. Russell Martin hit his sixth homerun. Maybe the Dodgers should have kept their socks the way they had them yesterday... couldn't of hurt...

The Dodgers will now head to Cincinnati for a three game series starting Tuesday. Tomorrow is an off day. Coincidentally, Cincinnati was the last team the Dodgers won a series against: they swept them at Dodger Stadium on May 19-21. Since then, the Dodgers have lost six series and split one with the Cubs.

Tigers 12, Dodgers 7

Good news and bad news. Good news: The Dodgers finally break out of their offensive slump. Bad news: Their pitching falls apart. They've now lost four straight.

Brad Penny is handed the loss, he's 5-9. Eddie Bonine gets the win, he's 1-0.

On the day the Dodgers finally score some runs, Brad Penny is not able to keep them in the game. Penny was given a 1-0 lead before he gave up a run. He was then given a 4-1 lead before he gave up six more runs to let the Dodgers fall behind 7-4. Penny walked two, gave up seven hits (including two two-run homeruns) and struck out nobody before being pulled in the fourth inning. Scott Proctor followed it up by pitching a shaky two innings, in which he gave up four runs (albeit only one earned). Takashi Saito pitched the 8th inning giving up a run as well.

And all this on a day when the Dodgers pulled together seven runs on 13 hits. In fact, the only two Dodgers today to not get a hit: Juan Pierre and Mark Sweeney *cough* see previous post *cough* Ok, ok, Sweeney drew a walk... but still. James Loney continued his streak of getting an extra base hits. He went 3-5 today with two doubles. He's collected an extra base hit in his last three games. Andre Ethier flashed a little power: he went 2-4 with a homerun, ground-rule double, and four RBIs. The homerun was Ethier's sixth, putting him in second place on the team. Delwyn Young collected three hits, as well, and raised his average to a solid .300.

On an interesting side note, some of the younger Dodgers chose to wear their socks old-school style, up over the shins. James Loney, Russell Martin, Blake DeWitt, Delwyn Young, and Andre Ethier all joined in on the fashion statement. I don't know if it was a sign of solidarity or just a way to try and bust out of an offensive slump but if it'll help them score seven runs a game, I say keep it up. Whatever works... In any case, a showing of Dodger offense was squandered by poor pitching. What remains to be seen is if this offense can carry over into tomorrow. The Dodgers haven't been able to find that consistent hitting. Since the beginning of June, here's the amount of runs they've scored per game: 1, 8, 0, 1, 4, 3, 7, 1, 7, 1, 0, 0, 7. They move up and down like a roller coaster. We'll have to see how they come out tomorrow.

Clayton Kershaw will take on Nate Robertson at 10:05 L.A. time.

The Three Things Hurting Our Offense

I believe there are three things that are hurting out offense.

1. Obviously, number one would be the struggling bats of the kids. They are inconsistent. Matt Kemp heats up one day, cools down the next few. Loney goes on streaks where he's racking up hits left and right before he begins to fade. Blake DeWitt, since having an amazing May, has fallen back to Earth and is now batting .281. Andre Ethier, who has been hovering around or above .300 the whole year has fallen into a bad slump, seeing his average drop 20 points since the beginning of June. Andy LaRoche, having just come up, will need a little time to adjust to playing in the majors again before he can start hitting consistently. Russell Martin has probably be the only consistent young player since his slow start in April. Since Martin raised his average about .300 on May 13th, it has stayed above .300 and for the most part fluctuated between .314 and .326. If the Dodgers want to start winning (and this is really the most important of the three things hurting our offense) they are going to need to get that consistency out of their young players. (On a side note, our veterans aren't doing much better. Jeff Kent, after having a pretty good week recently, has gone back to struggling. However, I feel if our young guns turn it around, Kent will be an afterthought. Martin, Kemp, and Loney playing on all cylinders could probably carry the team.)

2. The second thing hurting our offense is Juan Pierre. Well, really, what it is is lack of a good leadoff hitter. There are two parts to this point. People will argue Juan Pierre is a good leadoff hitter because of his speed. Well, unfortunately, speed will only do so much for you. You still need to be a good hitter. You also need to be able to hit the ball or draw some walks as a leadoff hitter, and preferably, more than once a game. When Rafael Furcal went down with his injury, he had a .448 On-base percentage. Juan Pierre currently has a .343 OBP. When we were winning with Furcal, he was got on base in every game he played in except one, and got on base two or more times, through walk or base hit, in 21 of his 32 games, including getting on base three or more times in nine of those games (three games, he reached base five times). Juan Pierre has failed to get on base in 14 of the 59 games he's player. He's reached base two or more times in 22 of the 59 games he's played, just one more than Furcal. Juan Pierre has gotten on base three or more times in eight of those games. For the most part, Pierre is giving the Dodgers one shot per game to drive him in, and for an offense that is struggling as it is, that is not going to help anything. So, obviously, Juan Pierre doesn't get on base as often as Rafael Furcal, that's part one. Part two of this point, is that Pierre doesn't get nearly as many extra base hits as Furcal did. Sure, Pierre will get a base hit, he wait a few pitches, then steal second, wait a few more, maybe steal third, or possibly be pushed over by the batter. The problem with this is you are forcing the number two batter to take a lot of pitches and you are now impacting his ability to get a hit. They are supposed to sit there and take pitches while Pierre works on figuring out the pitcher's move to first, then picks his time to run. Meanwhile, Andre Ethier or whoever is in the 2nd spot is now down 0-2 in the count. Pierre has just eight extra base hits on the season, all of them doubles. Rafael Furcal had 19 extra base hits before he was hurt (12 doubles, two triples, and five home runs). The value of extra base hits is such because it allows the next batter to wait on a pitch they want to hit, not be forced to take pitches so the runner can get into scoring position. And while you don't expect a lead-off hitter to be a big time homerun hitter, sometimes, it's nice to just get an easy run. Juan Pierre hasn't hit a homerun since September 18th, 2006. Finally, Juan Pierre has been caught stealing (or picked off) six times in 32 stolen base attempts. For a guy who deals mainly in speed, getting caught that many times is pretty bad. Juan Pierre isn't nearly the leadoff hitter that Furcal is and until Furcal gets back, or Pierre plays to Furcal's level, we are going to have some issues.

3. The third thing hurting our offense is simple: Mark Sweeney. Yes, I know he's not really in the everyday line-up and has had only 51 at-bats all year, but he's only got six hits in those at-bats. He can't run, he can't really play defense, so why is he around? Some have said it's because he provides a veteran presence in the clubhouse. That's interesting, I've heard about older players who are veteran presences in the clubhouse... I believe their called "coaches." If I was in management, I would politely ask Mark Sweeney if he would like to retire and join the coaching staff, that way, he can still be a veteran presence. If he still wants to play, release him and let him try and find a job elsewhere, but just not here. He's taking up a roster spot from someone like Terry Tiffee or John Lindsey who deserve to be here by now. He's also taking at-bats. I would have taken almost anyone in the DH role yesterday but him.

The worst part about all this is that aside from the third point, the other two aren't fixable yet. Furcal looks like he might be out longer than originally thought (possibly to July now) and Pierre shows no signs of getting miraculously better. The kids will probably continue to remain inconsistent until they mature to be the hitters a lot of us feel they can be. Until then, we can just grin and bear it and keep the small hope that Arizona is only 5.5 games ahead and we've got about another 100 to go.

Tigers 5, Dodgers 0

The Dodger's offense was shut down again, this time by the Tigers, who before last night, had not had a shutout on the season.

Armando Galarraga got the win, he's 6-2. Derek Lowe gets the loss, he's 4-6. Freddy Dolsi went two innings to get his 2nd save on the season.

Derek Lowe's pitching performance was not bad. He went seven innnings, giving up three runs, only two of which were earned and struck out five. Unfortunately for Lowe though, Armando Galarraga pitched better. He also struck out five over seven innings, but he gave up no runs over those seven innings.

The big story in the game, however, would have to be the offense, or lack thereof. The Dodgers were shut out for the second straight game and have now not scored a run since Andy LaRoche's solo shot against Randy Wolf in the fourth inning of Wednesday's game. Of course, that was the only run scored in that game, so for the better part of the Dodger's last 27 innings, they've been outscored 18-1. Yesterday was very similar in that the Dodger's didn't just not get timely hitting, they hardly even threatened to score a run. There were only two scoring opportunities in yesterday's game, and both came with two outs. In the second inning, James Loney tripled and Andy LaRoche walked with two outs before Mark Sweeney, starting at DH, struck out swinging. Juan Pierre got to third base in the sixth inning with two outs before Jeff Kent grounded out to end the inning. There are three things that are hurting out offense right now. I'm make a post about them later. For now, the Dodger take another loss.

Brad Penny takes on Eddie Bonine tomorrow at 12:55 L.A. time.

Padres 9, Dodgers 0

Well, that happened.

Jake Peavy got the win, he's 5-3. Hiroki Kuroda gets the loss, he's 3-6.

As per usual, Jake Peavy dominated the Dodgers. He went six innings, gave up only 3 hits, and struck out four on 72 pitches (He's now 12-1 against us in his career). And when you can't score runs, you need to rely on pitching... which the Dodgers didn't get today. Hiroki Kuroda, coming off his best start of the season, has one of his worst starts. He went only 2 and 1/3 innings, gave up two homeruns, and six runs overall (including five in the first inning).

Offensively there wasn't much to speak of. James Loney got two of the Dodgers' five hits, and the only extra base hit, a double of Peavy to start the fifth. Three outs later, however, he was left stranded on second. There were a few other scattered hits here and there. I do wonder though, why Joe Torre chose to play Luis Maza at 2nd Base instead of Andy LaRoche, who's been playing there for the last few weeks in AAA. Not to say LaRoche would have saved the Dodgers in today's game, but he might have done better than Maza. He did pinch hit in the game and gave a Jake Peavy pitch a pretty good ride to the center field warning track.

Not much to write home about. The Dodgers will now pack their bags and head to Detroit for a weekend series. The Tigers have won five of their last ten games.

The Lakers try to tie their series at 2 tonight at the Staples Center. Let's try to go 1-1 today L.A. teams...

EDIT: L.A. Teams: 0-2 on the day. The second loss was a lot harder to take...

Padres 4, Dodgers 1

The Dodgers after showing some offense last night, take the loss tonight after failing to put more than one run on the board.

Randy Wolf pitching against his old team picked up the win bringing his record to 5-4. Chad Billingsley loses, his record is now 4-7. Trevor Hoffman gets the save, it is his 15th on the season.

Billingsley had a below average start today. He gave up four runs over seven innings and only struck out three batters, which is the lowest amount of strike outs in any of his starts this year. He struggled in the first three innings, giving up a run in each of them, including solo homers from Edgar Gonzalez and Khalil Greene. He settled down after the third before giving up another somewhat flukey run in the 7th. Chad will have to bounce in his next start in Cincinnati after giving up four runs in his last two starts.

The offense, meanwhile, offered not much run support for Billingsley. Matt Kemp after knocking in three runs yesterday went 0-4 today with three strikeouts. Russell Martin, after going 3-5 with 3 RBIs yesterday, went 1-4 today. Save for a one-out double off Trevor Hoffman in the 9th inning from Russell Martin, the Dodgers 3-4-5 hitters went a combined 1-12 today with four strikeouts. The one bright spot in the Dodger line-up today came from Andy LaRoche. In his first game back in the majors, LaRoche went 1-2, with a walk and a homerun. He hit the first pitch he saw in the fourth inning from Randy Wolf over the left field bleachers for his first hit of the season. Welcome back to the majors, Andy.

Tomorrow, the Dodgers get to take on old foe Jake Peavy in the rubber match of this three game series. Hiroki Kuroda will make his first start since pitching a complete game shutout against the hard hitting Chicago Cubs. Tomorrow might be something of a pitching duel...

Pre-game Dodger Notes

Couple of notes before the Dodger game today.

Congratulations to Blake DeWitt for winning the National League Rookie of the Month Award for May. He hit .322 with five homeruns and 18 RBIs in May. Congratulations Blake, keep making Sikeston proud.

Andy LaRoche didn't play yesterday after getting his call-up but he will be in the line-up tonight in place of James Loney against lefty Randy Wolf.

Finally, lucky us, the Padres will activate Jake Peavy off the DL just in time for tomorrow's game against us. Peavy is 11-1 in his career against us with a 2.31 ERA and 127 Strikeouts over 132.1 innings in 20 starts. This bodes well for us tomorrow. We'd probably better cash in with a win tonight against Wolf.

Dodgers 7, Padres 2

So the Dodgers pull out a win in the first game of a three game series in San Diego.

Scott Proctor picked up the win, his record goes to 1-0. Justin Hampson takes the loss, he's now 0-1.

Clayton Kershaw had another good start but his first major league win continues to allude him. He went 5 and 1/3 innings and struck out five, but walked four batters. Kershaw seems to have the same issue that Chad Billingsley had when he first came up: getting his pitch counts too high and too quickly and sketchy control issues. Billingsley however, has worked on these issues. He's getting deeper into games and serving up less walks. If Kershaw can make similar adjustments, he and Billingsley will be a powerful 1-2 punch at the top of the pitching rotation for years to come.

The offense, meanwhile, struggled against Greg Maddux before busting out against the Padre bullpen. They were able to cash in on a few situations with runners on and in scoring position which is a positive sign considering their failure to do so in recent games over the last few weeks. This team is not going to be a home-run team, they will need to play small ball efficiently and cash in with a big inning to get the win (ie. the four run 7th inning that gave the Dodgers the lead).

In some bad news, Rafael Furcal's back doesn't look like it's going to heal as soon as originally thought.

From Dodgers.com:

A disappointed Rafael Furcal had his return date pushed back again by doctors and is expected to be out another three weeks with lingering lower back pain.

That's bad news for an offense that's been having its struggles. Meanwhile, Nomar Garciaparra's calf is healing, and it looks at though he's going to begin a minor league assignment soon playing at shortstop. Does he still have the range and speed to play at that position? I guess we'll find out soon enough. If he can though (and can stay healthy), he can be an excellent utility infielder.

Chad Billingsley takes on former Dodger Randy Wolf tomorrow at 7:05 L.A. time.

Oh, and the Lakers won tonight against the Boston Celtics making the series 2-1 in the Celtics favor. They gotta take the next to at home to any chance at the series.

Pickups? and Other Notes

This is something I like to do, it's meaningless, but I check the transactions daily to see who's been released or designated for assignment to see if there's anyone worth picking up for the Dodgers.

Let's take a look.

I missed this yesterday but the Yankees released Morgan Ensberg. He was hitting .203 with one homer and four rbis this year in 74 at-bats. He's the guy, if you don't remember, who used to be on the Astros and hit homeruns, but forgot how to hit somewhere between 2005 and 2007. He'll find a job, but it shouldn't be with us, we've got enough 3rd basemen.

As for today:

The Padres designated Wilfredo Ledezma for assignment. He's had an ERA under four once in his career, in 2006. I'll pass, especially cause our pitching is not the problem right now.

The Mets designated Raul Casanova for assignment. He's a 35 year old back-up catcher who's played in the majors in just three of the last six seasons. We have enough of those *cough* Gary Bennett *cough*.

Finally, the Orioles designated Steve Trachsel for assignment. The 37 year old has an 8.39 ERA this season in ten games. Ummm... did anyone else not know he was still playing?

Slim pickins today. I'd pass on all of the above.


Couple of other notes:

The Rockies activated Matt Holliday from the DL, which is bad news for us cause he kills us (.327, 14 HRS, 50 RBIs in his career against us). At least they don't play us until July 21st.

The Tigers sent Dontrelle Willis down to Single A... glad we didn't trade the farm to get him...

And the Cincinnati Reds purchase the contract of Jolbert Cabrera from AAA, that's a blast from the past (the past being a few years ago). I always said he was the best baseball player who ever had a name that looked like it should rhyme with Soul-Shirt.


The Dodgers take on the Padres in a few hours. Let's see if 20 year old Clayton Kershaw can get a win versus 22-year veteran Greg Maddux.

Other Assorted Sports Thoughts

Congratulations are in order. Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 600th home run today against none other than former Dodger great Mark Hendrickson. There's no doubt in my mind that had Griffey not spent good portions of several seasons stuck on the DL, he'd be approaching the all-time home run record, if he hadn't already taken it.

He probably would have preferred to do it at home in front of a packed house of screaming fans, but unfortunately, he did it in Florida to what I believe was a crowd of 37 people. He's only the sixth person in history to accomplish the achievement, so packed house or not, I'm sure it still feels good.

In other news, happy trails to some non-baseball greats:

Michael Strahan of the New York Giants football team officially retired today after 15 years in the NFL.

...And Dominik Hasek of the Detroit Red Wings hockey team announced his retirement today after 16 seasons in the NHL.

Enjoy Florida guys...

Hu Down; LaRoche Up?

So the Dodgers finally made a move today that was a long time coming...

From Dodgers.com:

"...the club [has] optioned rookie shortstop Chin-lung Hu to Triple-A Las Vegas."

I like Chin-lung Hu. He plays good defense and he might very well have some future with the Dodgers, but I think everyone, including Chin-lung himself could see he was just playing way over his head. He had collected just two hits in his last 34 at-bats and looked completely lost against any form of adequate big league pitching.

At the same time, however, Hu does deserve some applause. He was forced into starting for the Dodgers at shortstop due to injuries and he gave it his all every day. He never complained or whined, he just went out and played. Unfortunately, for all of us, it wasn't good enough. Hopefully, he'll get consistent playing time in AAA and fix his stroke. He can hit, he just hasn't been showing it.

Good luck, Chin-lung... Godspeed...

Anyway, on to other things.

Though it wasn't officially announced yet, all indications seem to say Andy LaRoche will be getting the call to replace Hu on the 25-man roster.

This simple roster move has accomplished two good things. We've got Hu back in the minors where he can work his issues out, and we're bringing LaRoche out of the minors, where he has nothing left to prove, so much so that LaRoche took to playing other positions while at Las Vegas to make himself more versatile for the big league team. He already can play 3rd, but in the last few weeks has played several games at both 1st and 2nd, and his hard work should pay off with more playing time.

LaRoche should be able to platoon with DeWitt at third for a couple games a week (though possibly not just against lefties, as DeWitt is hitting surprisingly worse against right handed pitchers than against southpaws: .274 vs. .348) and can also play 2nd on Jeff Kent's weekly day off. He can take over for Loney on his occasional day off, and can also be a good right-handed bat of the bench. Plus, the Dodgers will be in Detroit this Friday where they'll be able to use his bat with the DH rule in effect for three games.

The only thing left now to wonder is if LaRoche can prove he can hit big league pitching. He struggled in his 93 at-bats last year and turned some people off the from the idea that he is our long term solution at third base (though 93 at-bats isn't nearly enough to prove or disprove anything). If he can come up this time and not overly try to impress (like I get the feeling he did last year) he should be able to settle down and show everyone why he's likely to be a Dodger fixture for years to come.

Then again, even if he doesn't impress immediately, he still probably won't be any worse than Chin-lung Hu (parting shot)...

Welcome to J's Dodger Blog

I've always wanted to be a writer that covers the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team...

That doesn't look like it's going to happen with a legitimate newspaper, so I made my own.