The Dodgers go down in the second game of the series, and now find themselves in a six game losing streak.
Tim Redding got the win, he's 9-8. Greg Maddux took the loss, he's 6-11. Joel Hanrahan picked up his 6th save.
Greg Maddux went 5 and 1/3 innings, giving up four runs (two earned) on eight hits and a walk. Defense was more Maddux's undoing. An error Maddux committed led to two runs, and an error from Jeff Kent led to another. Chan Ho Park gave up a homerun in his one inning of work. Jonathan Broxton struck out the side (all swinging) in the 8th inning.
Offensively, Andre Ethier had a good game. He went 3-5 with two doubles and a homerun, scoring one run and driving in one. James Loney went 3-5 as well. He also had a double and a homerun, and also had one run scored and one RBI. Casey Blake went 2-3, with a walk, two RBIs, and a run scored. One of those two RBIs and the run scored came on a homerun.
The San Diego Padres completed their sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks, so the Dodgers will remain three games back in the NL West race. The Dodgers will try to avoid the sweep at the hands of the Nationals starting tomorrow at 4:10 L.A. time.
Also: With the loss, the Dodgers fall to three games under .500 (65-68)... Andre Ethier's homerun was his 17th, good for first on the team... James Loney also drove in his team leading 72nd run.
Opinion: The Dodgers left another 20 runners on base in today's game, though they did, amazingly, get a hit with runners in scoring position. The four runs they drove in today were the most amount of runs they've scored in a game in the last 10 days. Four runs are better than we've been playing, but still not enough. 
Then again, we only scored four runs today because we hit three solo homeruns, which we can't expect to do every night. I'm starting to wonder if at this point, it's gotten into the players' heads. They must know how bad they are hitting with runners in scoring position. I wouldn't be surprised if they go up to the plate with runners on, and with some added pressure to hit with runners on, they get pull-happy and end up hitting into some easy outs. I mean, really, a team can't be this bad at driving in runs. It has to be a mental thing right?... Again, the only silver lining I can find in all this is that Arizona is playing awful as well. They are now on three games over .500. The issue now, though, is that Colorado is approaching quickly. They are currently playing, but if they win today, they'll pull within two games of us for second, and within five games of first. This really shouldn't be a three team race (though it really shouldn't be a two team race)... In any case, playing this bad hurts. I'm starting to forget what winning feels like. We've only done it once in the past week and a half. If you really want a good example of how bad we are playing, here's tomorrow's preview again: "The Dodgers will try to avoid the sweep at the hands of the Nationals starting tomorrow at 4:10 L.A. time." This ain't good...
The Dodgers lose the first game in the three game series to the Nationals, and have now lost five in a row.
Collin Balester got the win, he's 3-6. Derek Lowe took the loss, he's 10-11. Joel Hanrahan picked up his 5th save.
Derek Lowe didn't deserve his loss today. He went eight innings, giving up just two runs on six hits and a walk, while striking out six and getting 13 groundball outs. He pitched the "Losing Away Pitcher's Complete Game," meaning if the away team is losing, the away team's pitchers will only pitch eight innings total. Well, Lowe pitched all eight innings, hence... I think you get it.
The hitting was again the issue, though not as bad as yesterday's game. Still, we had 13 hitters reach base today (seven hits, four walks, and two hit batsmen), and we were we only able to collect one run. That run, by the way, came on a fluke-y force play. Matt Kemp hit a grounder to 3rd with the bases loaded. The force out was recorded at 3rd, so Nomar Garciaparra, who was on 3rd and had broken for home could not be forced out at the plate. He then proceeded to sneak home behind the catcher's back and score the Dodgers' only run. 
Manny Ramírez had three hits including a double (going 3-4), James Loney had a hit and a walk (going 1-3), and Casey Blake went 1-2 with a walk and was hit by a pitch.
The Diamondbacks lost again today, so the Dodgers will remain three games back in the NL West race. The Dodgers will try to end this losing streak tomorrow at 4:10 L.A. time.
Also: With the loss, the Dodgers fall to two games under .500 (65-67).
Opinion: The thing I kept telling myself through that Phillies series was: "At least we play bad teams the rest of the year." Now, here is where my mistake was. I forgot that if we don't start hitting, there's no guarantee we will even win a series the rest of the year. Another 22 runners left on base today. That brings the three day total to 74 runners left on base the last three games (22+27+25). And we've scored a grand total of three runs over that span. How long can this continue? I can start to feel the season slipping away. This is getting to be eerily reminiscent of last year. The team just stopped playing. It just stopped winning. The Washington Nationals are the worst, I'll repeat... THE WORST TEAM IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL. They are one of the worst hitting teams in the majors, their pitching is in the bottom 10 of all of baseball, and they have record that's worse than any other team in the league. There is no way around it. They are the worst team in all of baseball! And they just beat us. They outplayed us. The Phillies you can maybe understand. They are a playoff contender in the hunt. The Nationals have nothing to play for. And quite frankly, they only scored two runs. Two runs! That's a score that's practically asking to be beat. But we couldn't do it. 
Another 22 runners left stranded. I mean, at some point, it just becomes comedic. ...although at that point, that means you've given up and there's nothing left to do but laugh...
You know who's got to be frustrated with all this? Maybe more than us? The Diamondbacks. They've now lost their second game in a row to the San Diego Padres, who are the 2nd worst team in the majors. I mean, we are slumping bad, but for them, they keep looking back at this team that has been on their tails for the whole year, and we've now lost seven of our last eight games, and they've only picked up three games on us ...and that third game was Saturday. We've been giving them quite a chance to get some daylight between us and them and they are blowing it. And I guess that's my silver lining. That's pretty much the only good thing I've taken from the last several days. I mean, not that it means much. If the season ends today, they still make the playoffs and we don't. But I guess it's good to know that at least we aren't the only ones who are sucking. Misery does love company...
Greg Maddux went 5 and 1/3 innings, giving up four runs (two earned) on eight hits and a walk. Defense was more Maddux's undoing. An error Maddux committed led to two runs, and an error from Jeff Kent led to another. Chan Ho Park gave up a homerun in his one inning of work. Jonathan Broxton struck out the side (all swinging) in the 8th inning.
Then again, we only scored four runs today because we hit three solo homeruns, which we can't expect to do every night. I'm starting to wonder if at this point, it's gotten into the players' heads. They must know how bad they are hitting with runners in scoring position. I wouldn't be surprised if they go up to the plate with runners on, and with some added pressure to hit with runners on, they get pull-happy and end up hitting into some easy outs. I mean, really, a team can't be this bad at driving in runs. It has to be a mental thing right?... Again, the only silver lining I can find in all this is that Arizona is playing awful as well. They are now on three games over .500. The issue now, though, is that Colorado is approaching quickly. They are currently playing, but if they win today, they'll pull within two games of us for second, and within five games of first. This really shouldn't be a three team race (though it really shouldn't be a two team race)... In any case, playing this bad hurts. I'm starting to forget what winning feels like. We've only done it once in the past week and a half. If you really want a good example of how bad we are playing, here's tomorrow's preview again: "The Dodgers will try to avoid the sweep at the hands of the Nationals starting tomorrow at 4:10 L.A. time." This ain't good...
