I'm Not Saying You Shouldn't Tune in Tonight

Back to the ol' "take it one game at a time, treat every game the same," cliché for a moment. I asked Little if he believes that with September around the corner, does that hold true?

"I don't think you want to treat every game the same, but we're still in a situation right now where we have to try and win every night we play," Little said. "If we get to a point where that's not the case, I'll be happy." Besides, it's not like significant games have just started appearing on the Dodgers' calendar. "Crunch time came for us about two weeks after that All-Star break. That two weeks there put us in to crunch time for the rest of the way," Little said.

Brett Tomko's very recent struggles from the pen were a topic of conversation as well. "He's been so good for us coming out of the bullpen since he assumed those duties, but he's certainly a human being and he's not going to be perfect out there. We understand that," Little said, "but with all the success he's had, he may not understand that totally, but he'll learn it's just like it was when he was a starting pitcher. He's not going to be perfect every time out there."

If he continues to give the Blue what he's delivered thus far, Little will be plenty happy. One adjustment? Developing the short memory of a reliever. "In the bullpen, you need to turn the page and put whatever happened behind him, whether it's good or whether it's bad." Not always an easy thing for a starter to learn, but Little is confident Tomko can hack it.

The Dodgers are in an interesting spot right now, where their rookie (Chad Billingsley) is gettin' his ace on, while the All-Star No. 1 guy (Brad Penny) is struggling. A lot. At some point, Little will have to choose between experience and performance. "We have to weigh it out and see what we feel is most important," he says. "That's one of the things we look at, and another that we look at is a young pitcher like Chad Billingsley, I think he's just topped as many innings as he's thrown in professional baseball. We've got to watch him closely."

If present performance holds, would Little be willing to shuffle his rotation accordingly? "Yes, if it means us having a better chance to win a game," he said. As for Bills, the Blue don't have him on a strict pitch count, but they're clearly keeping an eye on the kid's workload.

Ned Colletti spoke with the media as well (we'll get more up in the next day or so... hopefully). With the deadline to add players to the roster and still have them eligible for postseason play looming on Sept. 1, Colletti doesn't know if he'll be able to add more help. "I'm not sure," he said. It's a lot thinner field out there than it was on July 31." A lefty bat off the bench and another arm are, respectively, the top priorities. "In one case (the lefty bat), it's 50-50, in the other, it's a longshot."

TONIGHT'S LINEUPS
Dodgers
Furcal ss
Lugo 3b
Garciaparra 1b
Drew rf
Kent 2b
Ethier lf
Hall c
Repko cf
Hendrickson p

Reds
Freel rf
Dunn lf
Encarnacion 3b
Griffey Jr. cf
Aurilia 1b
Ross c
Phillips 2b
Clayton ss
Milton p