The Dodgers outslugged the Phillies to take the first game in this four game set and move back to .500.
Derek Lowe got the win, he's 9-10. Kyle Kendrick took the loss, he's 10-6. Jonathan Broxton picked up his 8th save.
Derek Lowe bounced back from his last start to pitch a solid game today. He went 6 and 1/3 innings giving up three runs on five hits and a walk while collecting 13 groundball outs. The bullpen struggled afterwards. Chan Ho Park came in and gave up a run (as well as a base hit that allowed an inherited runner to score that was credited to Lowe). Jonathan Broxton came in to finish the 8th, then struggled through the 9th. He gave up two runs on a walk and three hits before finally shutting the door on the Phillies and closing the game.
The Dodger offense exploded for seven runs against Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick, including six runs in the 3rd. That inning included a two run double from Manny Ramírez, a two run single from James Loney, and a two run homerun from Casey Blake, his third as a Dodger. Overall on the day, Matt Kemp went 3-4 with a walk, a stolen base, and two runs scored. Jeff Kent went 3-3 with a double, an RBI, and a run scored. Manny went 2-3 with two walks, two RBIs, and a runs scored. James Loney went 3-4 with three RBIs. In total, the Dodgers collected 16 hits and seven walks on the day.
The Diamondbacks were inactive today, so with the win the Dodgers pick up a half-game on them. They are now one game back in the NL West. They'll try to take the second game in the series tomorrow at 7:10 L.A. time.
Also: James Loney's three RBIs gave him 67 on the season, good for first place on the Dodgers... Of the seven walks the Dodgers received today, four were intentional walks... On top of the 16 hits and seven walks, Jeff Kent was also hit by a pitch.
Opinion: While the Dodgers had a good offense day, having 24 batters reach base, and scoring eight runs, there was some down side. In total, the Dodgers left 23 players on base. Nomar Garciaparra is due to come of the DL tomorrow, and just in time, as eight of those 23 left on base were from Ángel Berroa. Another issue today was the bullpen. It gave up three runs in 2 and 2/3 innings, while also allowing an inherited runner to score. This is not a good sign considering their struggles the past few days. The question is raised: has the bullpen been overworked or are they just going through a bad streak? We'll have to monitor that over the next several days.
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.
Just a quick note:
I've stated this a few times over the last week. The Manny Ramírez trade wasn't so much for winning, but for popularity (ie. ticket sales, jersey sales, etc.). Orel, over at Sons of Steve Garvey, found an interesting note in a recent L.A. Times story about Manny. Check it out here.
The Dodgers outslugged the Diamondbacks to win the 4th game and split the series.
Cory Wade got the win, he's 2-1. Doug Davis took the loss, he's 4-6.
Jason Johnson struggled in his second start for the Dodgers. He couldn't make it through the 5th inning, going only 4 and 1/3 innings giving up three runs on five hits and two walks. The bullpen relieved him, going a combined 4 and 2/3 innings, giving up no runs over that span. 
Cory Wade pitched 1 and 2/3 innings in that span, giving up just two hits, while striking out one to get the win.
The Dodgers offense, meanwhile, collected 16 hits on the day, including five extra base hits. Manny Ramírez had another good day for the Dodgers, going 4-5 including a homerun and a double. He had three RBIs and two runs scored on the day. Matt Kemp also had a good day, going 3-5 with a homerun, two RBIs, and three runs scored. James Loney and Casey Blake collected two hits and a RBI each.
So the Dodgers split the series and get back within one game of the Diamondbacks in the NL West. They also moved back up to a game over .500 with the win. Tomorrow is a day off. The next Dodger game will be in St. Louis, starting at 5:15 L.A. time on Tuesday.
Also: Manny, with two singles, a double, and a homerun today, fell a triple short of the cycle... Matt Kemp's homerun was his 13th on the season, that leads the team... James Loney collected his 61st RBI on the season, that also leads the team (though Matt Kemp's two RBIs brought him to 60). Mark Sweeney pinch hit today, and grounded out to the pitcher, his average is at .116.
Opinion: Manny is really feeling it. He's 8-13 since coming over to the Dodgers with two homeruns and five RBIs. His eight hits and five RBIs in the last three games match Mark Sweeney's total for the entire year. Wow. Imagine that. If Mark Sweeney is providing professional at-bats and getting that kind of production, Manny's at-bats must be uber-professional. Manny has also matched Andruw Jones's homerun total. He still needs eight RBIs to catch Andruw.
The Dodgers give up another two runs to the Diamondbacks, but this time, get enough runs to get a victory in the third game of the series.
Hiroki Kuroda got the win, he's 6-8. Yusmeiro Petit took the loss, he's 1-2. Chan Ho Park picked up his 2nd save.
Hiroki Kuroda, after having three bad starts since the All-Star break, settled in and had an excellent start. He went 7 and 1/3 innings, giving up just one run on four hits and no walks, while striking out six. Hong-Chih Kuo pitched an inning and 1/3 giving up a run and getting into a little trouble in the 9th before Chan Ho Park came in and got the last out to close out the game.
The Dodgers offense did well today. Manny Ramírez and Casey Blake each had their first homeruns as Dodgers. 
Manny, Blake, James Loney and Jeff Kent each went 2-4 on the day. Manny had 2 RBIs, while Blake and Kent had one each.
The Dodgers got back to .500 with the win today, and have one game tomorrow to cut the lead to one game in the NL West before the head out on the road. The game tomorrow starts at 1:10 L.A. time.
Also: Matt Kemp went 0-4, snapping his hitting streak at 19 games... Kemp was the only position player in the starting lineup to not get a basehit.
Opinion: Well, I guess one person can carry a team. Manny was involved in three of the four Dodger runs today, either scoring as the run, or knocking the run in, or both. Still though, as I said yesterday, it's just one game. So far, we are 1-1 with Manny in uniform. We'll probably need a few more games to see how good we can be. And by the way, what's up with Casey Blake? Does he not know how to groundout or flyout? As of today's game, Blake has had 29 at-bats with us. He's collected 10 hits in those at-bats. He's also struck out 12 times in those at-bats. That means only seven of Casey Blake's at-bats with us this year have not ended in a strikeout or basehit and two of those times came today. He went 2-4 today with no strikeouts. Just odd, that's all I'm saying...
By the way, Vin over at Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness posted an analysis of the Manny trade. It's a good read and has some interesting similarities to my post... I knew I liked those guys for a reason...
The Dodger offense exploded for seven runs against Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick, including six runs in the 3rd. That inning included a two run double from Manny Ramírez, a two run single from James Loney, and a two run homerun from Casey Blake, his third as a Dodger. Overall on the day, Matt Kemp went 3-4 with a walk, a stolen base, and two runs scored. Jeff Kent went 3-3 with a double, an RBI, and a run scored. Manny went 2-3 with two walks, two RBIs, and a runs scored. James Loney went 3-4 with three RBIs. In total, the Dodgers collected 16 hits and seven walks on the day.
