Padres 7, Dodgers 5

The Dodgers are out slugged by the Padres and fail to complete the three game sweep.

Jake Peavy got the win, he's 10-11. Eric Stults took the loss, he's 2-3. Trevor Hoffman picked up his 29th save.

The pitching was a bit shaky today. The Dodgers used five different pitchers and each gave up at least one run. Eric Stults started. He went 4.2 innings and gave up three runs. Takashi Saito and Jonathan Broxton pitched an inning each (the 8th and 9th respectively) and each gave up a run.

The Dodgers had a bit of an odd game offensively. 16 different players had at-bats. Chin-lung Hu went 2-3 with a stolen base, an RBI, and a run scored. Jason Repko went 1-1 and drew two walks. Andre Ethier went 1-2 with a walk and an RBI. Matt Kemp went 1-3 with a walk, a homerun, an RBI, and a run scored. Juan Pierre went 2-3 with an RBI. Finally, Blake DeWitt had an odd game. He went 0-1 and scored two runs without collecting a hit or walk. He came in as a pinch runner and was brought home, then later was hit by a pitch and came around to score again.

The important event today happened before the game. The Arizona Diamondbacks lost so the Dodgers clinched the NL West before today's game even started. The Dodgers will travel now to San Francisco to begin their last series of the season. The three game weekend series begins Friday at 7:35 L.A. time.

Also: With the loss, the Dodgers fall back to seven games over .500 (83-76).

Opinion: There's not much to say about this game, as will probably be the case for the next three games as well. The starting lineup was different, but it didn't really matter because the scrubs were all in by the 5th inning. We're just getting everyone out there and getting them some playing time. We are going to see a lot of playing time for Jason Repko and Chin-lung Hu this weekend, and that's fine because we have nothing to gain by winning the next three games, but the possibility of losing a starter to injury before the playoffs is horrifying. That said, it would be nice to go into the playoffs with at least 85 wins, not at the cost of losing someone, but just for some pride and a nice even number. The important thing, though, is that we are in the playoffs, and for now, I'll just celebrate that.

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...