Diamondbacks 2, Dodgers 1

The Dodgers were shut down for the most part by Brandon Webb and fall in the first game of this four game set.

Brandon Webb got the win, he's 15-4. Derek Lowe took the loss, he's 8-9. Brandon Lyon picked up his 23rd save.

Derek Lowe pitched a good enough game. He went 6 and 1/3 innings, giving up just two runs on seven hits while striking out seven. He also collected nine groundball outs. Hong-Chih Kuo struck out two over a scoreless inning and 2/3. Cory Wade struck out one in a perfect 9th.

The Dodgers managed to collect only seven hits on the day. Juan Pierre went 2-3 with a run scored. Russell Martin went 1-4 and had the only RBI on the day. The rest of the hits were scattered about between several other players.

The Dodgers fall back to .500 while the Diamondbacks are now four games over. They've taken a two game lead on the Dodgers now in the NL West. The Dodgers will try to take a game back tomorrow at 7:40 L.A. time.

Also: Matt Kemp went 1-4 to extend his hitting streak to 18 games... Perhaps I was wrong about this one: Mark Sweeney now has two hits in his last two at-bats, raising his average to .119

Opinion: Today was the last day of the old Dodgers, Manny Ramírez should be in L.A. tomorrow in time for the game to save us all! Seriously though, this isn't a litmus test for the season: the Dodgers have never hit well against Brandon Webb (9-3 career lifetime against us with a 2.65 ERA in 15 starts). Tomorrow will be an interesting game. Will Manny adjust to the National League right away? I guess we'll find out. Meanwhile, Tony Jackson of the L.A. Daily News speculates that Delwyn Young could be Designated For Assignment to open a roster spot for Manny. God, I hope not. He also said it's a possibility Sweeney could be DFA'd. I'd like to think that would be the logical move, but then again, there haven't been too many logical moves this year to set a precedent (ie. playing certain people in center field for so long holding on to hope they'll pull our of their season long slump, starting Juan Pierre in left field constantly [which coincidentally, I wouldn't be surprised to see continue], or creating a gaping hole in our infield for next season), so why start now?