So some stuff happened while I was gone. Here's a quick breakdown.
On Thursday, 20-year-old rookie Clayton Kershaw did what 35-year-old veteran Derek Lowe couldn't, shut down the St. Louis Cardinals.
Brad Penny made a good return Friday and the Dodgers showed some power to win the first game in the series against the San Francisco Giants.
Then we lost the next two games when our bullpen blew the lead late in the game, and while we should have swept the Giants, we ended up losing two out of three. And while we should have been in first place in the NL West by 1/2 a game, we now sit 1.5 games behind the Diamondbacks.
While in Arizona, I did manage to put some bad voodoo on the Diamondbacks. Orlando Hudson is going to be out for the rest of the year with a wrist injury. I was even watching that on Arizona's Fox Sports channel when it happened. Apparently, however, I wasn't in Phoenix long enough, as they picked up Adam Dunn today for stretch run. This is getting interesting.
The Dodgers will start a four game series with the Philadelphia Phillies at 7:10 L.A. time.
Quick recap here because I'm leaving town, which might not be a bad thing, because last time I did, the Dodgers went on a four game win streak.
Anyway, here's the recap:
Derek Lowe pitched an awful game, giving up eight runs on 13 hits in 3 and 1/3 innings. The Dodger bullpen did considerably better.
The Dodgers offense tried to bail out Lowe but couldn't. Manny Ramírez hit another homerun and got two hits but it didn't matter much as the game was out of reach by the 4th inning.
The Dodgers fall under .500 again, but the Diamondbacks also lost, so they will still remain only 2.5 games in front in the NL West.
I'll be heading to Phoenix, and hopefully put some bad voodoo on the Diamondbacks. I'll be coming back Sunday and probably won't blog again until Monday.
See you then... hopefully we'll be playing better...
The Dodgers rallied late to tie the game in the 9th, but lost it in extras, and fall back to .500.
Jaime García got the win, he's 1-1. Jason Johnson took the loss, he's 1-1.
Chad Billingsley started the game, but with two rain delays, he was taken out after the 5th inning. He gave up just one run on six hits, while striking out six. 
The Dodger bullpen, however, struggled. They gave up a run in the 6th inning, and two in the 7th. After that, Ramon Troncoso and Cory Wade provided a combined three scoreless innings, before Jason Johnson surrendered a two-run walk-off homerun in the bottom of the 11th.
The Dodgers failed to mount any offense through the first eight innings. They collected only four hits scattered over those eight innings, three of which were erased on double plays by the very next batter up following the hit. The Dodgers then proceeded to get a lead-off homerun in the 9th inning from Andruw Jones. They followed with another four hits, a walk, and a sac-fly in the inning to tie the game 4-4. Manny Ramírez went 2-3 with two walks and a run scored, Andre Ethier went 2-5 with a run scored, and Jeff Kent went 2-5 with an RBI in what were probably the Dodgers top three individual hitting performances of the game.
With the loss today, the Dodgers move back to .500, now at 56-56. The Arizona Diamondbacks won yesterday to move 1.5 games up on the Dodgers. They won again today, and with the Dodger loss, they'll push their lead to 2.5 games in the NL West. The Dodgers will take another shot at cutting into the lead tomorrow at 5:15 L.A. time.
Also: James Loney grounded into two of the three Dodger double plays today. That puts him at 20 this year, third place in the Major Leagues (the league leaders are tied at 22)... Mark Sweeney lined out to end the 9th, his average is now down to .114.
Opinion: The Dodgers showed almost no signs of life until the Andruw Jones homerun in the 9th. By the way, I hope this doesn't mean he's going to get a lot more starts. The pitch he hit (and not to take anything away from Jones) was an 89 MPH fastball, with pretty much no movement, belt high, and almost exactly over the center of the plate. So... make your own deductions... Here's mine: I'm pretty sure any one on the Dodgers could have put it in the bleachers. 
Well... let me reword that... any self respecting major leaguer could have put it in the bleachers... Mark Sweeney would have grounded out. Speaking of my favorite punching bag, for real, how many more at-bats does he get? Today was his 70th. I saw another thing today that I was worried about after the Manny trade. What incentive to teams have to pitch to him. He walked in his last two at-bats in the game, when it was on the line. Teams are not going to pitch to him. The issue is not if Manny will help us, but more, can we help ourselves? If James Loney and/or Jeff Kent don't start putting a little more fear into pitchers with some consistent hitting, then Manny isn't going to see a whole lot of pitches to hit the rest of the year.
Then we lost the next two games when our bullpen blew the lead late in the game, and while we should have swept the Giants, we ended up losing two out of three. And while we should have been in first place in the NL West by 1/2 a game, we now sit 1.5 games behind the Diamondbacks.
