Extra Innings

Well I guess it isn’t over in the NL West. The Blue managed to do the unthinkable and beat both of the D’back aces to bring them within 2.5 games of first place. I guess the only way to win the NL West is to be 2 games above .500. The main culprit in this amazing turn of events. Man-ram. He was just plain awesome against them this week. They couldn’t get him out for his first 9 at bats during the series and today he just scared the bejesus out of Brandon Webb, the frontrunner for the NL Cy Young. Of course we have to mention the other heros of the Dodgers this week and it starts with the starting pitching. Billingsley was excellent in stopping the horrendous losing streak yesterday. He was shaky but pitched like a strong ace. And today, Lowe was remarkable also. Finally, where would we be without Andre Ethier for these past few weeks. He’s been the only one that has been consistent day in and day out.

The good: Wins.

The bad: Nomar didn’t play. But is that really a bad thing?

The ugly: Kent is done for the season and as a Dodger. But is that really an ugly thing?

The streak is now 8 games long. It takes amazing skill to throw away eight games in a row. Today’s tricks were from the old Dodger infield, one of the worst in the majors. That botched play by Nomar to Kent really did the Dodgers in today. How could you miss that throw Nomar? It was just a flip to second. It was just pitiful defense by Nomar, who didn’t really do anything with the bat also.  Its hard to imagine that a team with two future hall of famers can lose this many games in a row. I guess Manny isn’t really a leader and Torre isn’t really that great of a manager.

The good:  The Dodgers got a chance to make up a game against the D’backs.

The bad: The Dodgers lost.

The ugly: The D’backs won.

Another day and another loss by the bumbling Dodgers. There is really nothing left for the Dodgers this season. If you get swept 2 series in a row with one of the teams being the Nationals, the Dodgers should just concede the division. I guess it’s to be expected for the Dodger offense to hit the tank. The lineup has been pitifully poor all season long. The Blue just have too many of the same type of hitters. They are decent players that are mostly line drive hitters that try to hit the ball in the gaps. I pointed out at the beginning of the season that their mix of players is a recipe for failure. They are putting young unproven players with old broken down veterans. There is no way these two types can sustain success all the way through to the end of the season. Bringing in Manny and Blake were nice fix its, and I still don’t know why Torre doesn’t bat them back to back in the order. They are the only two players that are in the prime of their careers on this team.

The good:  The D’ backs didn’t play today?

The bad:  Manny only drove in 2 runs. We need him to drive in at least 11 runs.

The ugly: Sometimes I just have to question Torre, especially when your team is losing in bunches. Kershaw as struggling, but after he walked a guy with one out, you pull him? You bring in Johnson, who has shown to be solid in middle relief, to pitch to 2 guys? Then you decide to pull him and pinch hit with Sweeney, who hasn’t done anything all season? Of course this could just be a case of having poor players.

So what has changed since last week when the Dodgers were riding high with a record 3 games above .500 and only 1 game behind the D’backs. Well, first off the Dodger offense has gone into the tank. Second, the Dodgers obtained Greg Maddux. Third, the Padres are now offensively awesome and swept the D’backs this week. Coincidence, I think not. Madd-Dog has been cursing the Padres all season long. The Pads have not been able to hit a lick when he has been on the mound and has spread to the rest of their games. Once Maddux has been pitching for the Blue, the Dodgers have become offensively challenged. So I guess Coletti was bound to screw it up for the Dodgers.

The good: The Dodgers hit 3 homers.

The bad:  The 3 homers accounted for just 3 runs.

The ugly: A Madd-Dogg is an Ugly Dogg.

This is just getting sad. Another game, and another 10 men left on base. However, they did it in high fashion today, grounding into 2 double plays with the bases loaded and nobody out. In fact they grounded into a total of 4 double plays, all of which were sent toward Zimmerman. The players are obviously feeling the pressure as all of them pulled the ball to Zim. The pressure is definitely mounting as the losing streak has reached 5 games now and the only hope now for the Blue is to break even in this 10 game road trip. The next 2 games are almost do or die games, especially since they are up against the Nats. If the Dodgers don’t win them, they don’t deserve to be in the playoffs.

The good: Lowe looked very good today. He definitely tossed a solid complete game but that doesn’t mean a thing when you play on this dodger team.

The bad: nothing

The ugly: everything.

Billingsley struggled today but he managed to turn in a quality start. Of course quality starts are meaningless, especially when your offense can’t hit with men on base. Man that Dodger offense has reverted back to the pre-Manny days. Of course, Manny wasn’t much of a help today either as he left 7 men on base. I guess he was bound to cool down eventually. And without a hot hitting Manny, there seems to be no way to jumpstart this Dodger offense. I mean how can you not score when you get 13 hits. That is just plain sickening. And this is on top of yesterday’s 13 hit affair where they only scored 2 runs. If you take a look at this whole series against the Phils, the Dodgers only scored 5 runs out of 36 hits. It takes massive amounts of suckage to do something like that.

The good:If its any consolation, the Pads did beat the D’backs to keep the Blue 3 back.

The bad: Nothing is bad anymore, its all ugly.

The ugly: Everything.

So far 3 games in the road trip and guess what? We have 3 losses. This was a incredibly ugly loss today. Kuroda pitched 6 solid innings, yielding only 1 run. Park and Kuo then turned in 2 solid holds giving way for Broxton to close. And he ends up blowing the game. Of course the troubles don’t just end there. The Blue end up loading the bases in the top of the tenth and got zippo out of it. Sick. In all, the Dodgers left 13 men on base today and squandered multiple opportunities. They are now 65-65 and still 3 games behind the D’backs as the only consolation for today comes from their loss to the Marlins. Big game tomorrow as the Blue are in desparate need to not get swept by the Phils. It comes down to Chad, and it will be a huge test to determine if he truly is our ace stopper.

The good: At least Kuroda was solid away from home.

The bad: Bases loaded no outs and we can’t get anything?

The ugly: The bullpen issues are now officially turned ugly.

The Dodgers are looking worse and worse each day. Today’s culprit was the young Matt Kemp. His misplay on the flyball hit by Pat Burrell was pitiful. He simply lost the ball in the high sky of Philadelphia, but that is something that should not happen in the middle of a chase for the pennant chase. But today’s game was going to be difficult to win besides Kemp’s huge miscue. Kershaw seemed to be playing with fire in many of his innings. And even so, Hammels was cruising along. But it hurts when one of your players screw and u and not give your team any chance at all. The D’backs end up beating the woeful Marlins, and now the Blue are 3 games back of 1st place. That D’back pitching staff is just disgusting and if they continue to perform this way, all these late season moves will return nothing.

The good: Martin needs to get going. At least he got a hold of one today.

The bad: everything else.

So we brought Maddux in to pitch 6 efficient innings with a low pitch count. He definitely did so today as he logged 5 and a third innings and tossed 76 pitches. The problem was that he also served up 2 bombs and 7 runs to the muscular Phils. Man does homeruns hurt horribly, as they accounted for 5 runs. It is so uncharacteristic of Maddux to serve up homers with men on base, but at 42 maybe it isn’t so. Maddux has about 8 or 9 more starts to get it right, or those will be his final starts for the season, if not career. In other news, we were lucky today as D’backs somehow managed to lose with a superior outing from another old geezer in Randy Johnson. But this old guy can still strike out guys, 13 of them to be exact. I guess the Dodgers better thank Cody Ross and the D’back bullpen, because falling behind 3 games would have been devasting to their chances at winning the NL West.

The good: Mark Sweeney finally got a hit as a pitch hitter? He’s now 10 for 76 for the season. Why do we keep sending him out there?

The bad: Kyle Kendrick sucks and we couldn’t muster more than 3 hits off of him. He was going to be traded for Kobayashi the hotdog dude.

The ugly: If the Blue don’t turn it around soon this roadtrip is going to turn ugly.

Lowe pitched like an ace today stopping the Blue’s losing streak. Of course, it still came down to the Dodger bullpen and Kuo and Broxton came through today. And Torre apparently learned from yesterday’s defensive debacle, putting everyone in their rightful place and shoring up the middle infield with Berroa. Loney did make an error, but at least most of the team looked defensively competent. But Loney came through offensively, hitting a home run and driving in a couple runs. It was a critical win as the Blue avoided a sweep at the hands of the Rox and maintained 2 games behind the red hot D’backs. It was also able to lift the Dodger’s spirit before a huge 10 game roadtrip. Of course, they get to send out the veteran Madd-Dogg and he should be solid.

The good:  The pitching looked good for a day.

The bad: Manny stole a base today. With no throw.