It's been a topsy turvy, whirlwind of an up and down, box of chocolates thrill ride for the Blue over the first 21% of the '08 season.  Lots of good, lots of bad, lots of issues still floating over the squad.  Thankfully, as we always do when 21% of the season is in the books, we can ask some questions and try to address them.  Questions of the Day, if you will. Feel free to answer along! 

Q: What to do with Blake DeWitt?

This is a toughie, one that AK and I discussed at length in yesterday's Purple, Gold, and Blue podcast.  Certainly he's been terrifyingly good over the last week or so, has shown great poise and patience, and a couple muffs notwithstanding, solid skills at third.  But if he was to Wally Pipp both Nomar Garciaparra and Andy LaRoche, I have a feeling that over the long haul, he'd cool off considerably.  I don't mean this to diminish what the future mayor of Sikeston has accomplished, but in some ways he's been the beneficiary of low expectations in the same way that Andy LaRoche was punished by high ones when he struggled last year.  Nobody expected anything from DeWitt, so that he's been legitimately good makes it seem even better.  I'm still of the mind that a) over a full season his production will taper (wait, I already said that- damn!), b) it's important to get LaRoche back and playing, and finally give him a chance to establish himself, and c) back to DeWitt, it's better to send a kid down with a fully positive experience rather than waiting for him to stall, then shipping him out. 

Though the Blue have certainly tested the theory over the last couple of weeks...

Wednesday, however, had fans been given a penny for their thoughts, they would have sounded something like, "I skipped work for this?"  Had Brad Penny been given one for his, it would have sounded something like, "I showed up to work for this?"  The Dodger righty was beaten around the Ravine like a leftover Cinco de Mayo pinata to the tune of a career high 10 earned runs in only 4.2 innings as LA dropped the finale of their three game set with the Mets, 12-1.  The damage pushed Penny's ERA from 3.19 to 4.79, and was another in a series of short outings from LA's starters, who are averaging only 5.1 innings, second worst in the Majors.  While things are going fine now, down the road, this is the sort of thing that can cook a bullpen. 

For the Mets, on a day when 11 of their 12 runs came with two down, it was one of those refreshing days of clutch hitting and outstanding work from their starter, as John Maine went 8.1, allowing only one run.  Bully for them. 

The Sesame Street mainstay would be in hog heaven right about now, assuming he doesn't bleed blue.  Dude had oodles of New York Met runs to tally (and precious few on the other side), as the Dodgers got beat up 12-1.  Mets starter John Maine looked otherworldly, pitching 8.1innings with just four hits and one run scuffing (the latter blemish not surfacing until one-third of the way into the ninth frame).  "He throws a lot of strikes, and to me, that's the key for a pitcher.  The thing they say more than anything else: The best pitch is strike one.  And he had quality stuff on top of throwing strikes."  Said "stuff" pretty much paralyzed the home team, an effect similar to Brad Penny's on his own squad and box score (more on that later). 

But keeping things optimistic (and even a little realistic), the loss doesn't change the fact that the Dodgers won two of three games during this series against the Metropolitans (their fourth straight series triumph).  If two out of three games can be won during two out of three series from this point on, chances are solid these fellas will be sitting all pretty-like come September.

The breakdown is below.

PROGRAMMING NOTE:  Join us for Purple, Gold, and Blue today at 11 am.  Lots of Dodger and Laker talk!  Click the show widget on the side of the page, or go directly to our show page by clicking here.

One thing is for sure- Blake DeWitt knows how to make up for an error.  The young Dodgers 3B, doing his best to chain himself to the hot corner gig like an environmentalist to an endangered tree, kicked a ball to start New York's half of the third, putting a runner on first that would eventually score.  He must have felt guilty.  In the bottom half of the inning, DeWitt ripped a single to right that scored Jeff Kent and James Loney.  Then in the fifth, again with outs, he ripped a shot to right over the head of Ryan Church, who slammed into the wall as the ball rolled away.  DeWitt kept running, and the result was an inside the park homer and his fourth RBI of the night.  At this pace he could keep Andy LaRoche waiting in Vegas for a while.  DeWitt's play, though, wasn't the only highlight of LA's 5-4 win over the Mets Tuesday night. 

Weird, weird Tuesday at the Ravine.  Those who walked through the turnstiles or turned on the telly saw the following unusual events:

• An inside the park homer.
• A double steal of second and home.
• A 1-2-3 double play.
• A guy record six straight outs via the K and eight overall, tying a career high in only 3.2 innings. 
• Another guy throw 71 pitches through three innings, but only give up two earned runs.
• Four+ innings without a recorded out at first base. 
• A guy steal second, then get called out when he thought the ball went into center... but it didn't.
• An Andruw Jones hit.  (Zing!)

But at the end of what was truely a Ripley's evening, the Dodgers walked away with what mattered most- the win.  5-4 over the Mets, pushing their record to 19-14, a season high five games over .500.  They've won 10 of 11, are now 11-5 at home, and will look for the sweep against New York tomorrow afternoon.  If the season ended today (which would totally screw a ton of season ticket holders), the Dodgers would be tied for the wild card! 

Click below for the breakdown. 

Okay, here goes.  It's Kuroda vs. Figueroa... and me vs. technology.  The latter is likely a far more lopsided battle.

NOTE: Remember to join the live game blog tonight... assuming I can get the software working.

Scoops o' plenty Tuesday night at the Ravine, almost all health related.  I'll present them in convenient, easily digested bullets, starting with the item most relevant to tonight's proceedings:

• Rafael Furcal was a late scratch from the lineup tonight with stiffness on the left side of his lower back.  He tightened up in over the last three innings of last night's win, figured he'd be okay for today, but after getting some treatment and partaking in his customary pregame preparation, Furcal decided he'd be better off sitting this one out.  "He's been nursing a little bit of a stiff back," Joe Torre said.  "It doesn't seem to be something that's going to be a long term thing, but right now he is scratched."  The problem seems to be muscular rather than some sort of pinched nerve type deal, which is good.  Furcal did have some back trouble last year, but trainer Stan Conte didn't seem to believe it was necessarily a recurrence of the same issue.  It hasn't been a problem at any other point this season.  Conte said Furcal couldn't point to a specific moment in the game- a big swing or tough defensive play, both of which he had a few of last night.  With a day game tomorrow and a day off Thursday, it wouldn't be shocking to see him sit for a couple games.  The goal is avoid turning a two day injury into the two week version. 

Hey guys.  I'll be trying out some new, and hopefully better, live blog software for tonight's game, so hit the blog if you're interested.  As far as I know, the software requires no special logins or anything like that.  I'll fire it up a little before the first pitch.  Fingers crossed...

Thanks.

BK

As I've mentioned before and most of you know, a subscription to Baseball Prospectus is well worth the relatively modest investment.  Today, Joe Sheehan takes a look at the Dodgers, saying that what looks like one squad is really three, put together over seven years by three different GMs.  Sheehan divides the roster into three groups, the Logan White Dodgers, the Paul DePodesta Dodgers, and the Ned Colletti Dodgers: 

In the midst of his tough early-April, it was easy to forget that over the course of his first two Major League seasons, Chad Billingsley tended to round into form rather than dominate from the get go.  That being the case, there's a strong possibility that the worm has officially turned for Bills, who put together his second consecutive excellent start, helping LA to a 5-1 series opening win over the Mets Monday night at the Ravine.  He wasn't quite as sharp as he was in last week's win over the Marlins, but while he allowed five hits and four walks in his six innings of work, Billingsley only allowed one run to cross the plate, and as he's done in the past, did a great job of pitching with men on.  Offensively, the Dodgers (who have brutalized left handed pitching) took plenty of shots at Mets starter Oliver Perez.  Some, like Blake DeWitt's first Major League homer- just what are the Dodgers going to do with that guy?- that earned him his first Major League curtain call, went over the wall.  Others, like a line drive off the bat of Jeff Kent, went into his stomach. 

The box says other big blow was a two-run shot from NL Player of the Week Matt Kemp, who credited the presence of Juan Pierre on the basepaths for seeing a good pitch to hit.  On the strength of his red-hot start to May, Pierre was in the lineup for Andre Ethier (himself putting up very solid numbers) while Joe Torre stuck with Andruw Jones (we all know how that's going).  Ironically, that Jones is struggling is one reason he's staying in the lineup.  To his credit, Ethier isn't complaining.