A Win Tastier Than Chilean Haas Avocado Topping For Your Dodgerdog

Another ice water guy- at least for tonight- was J.D. Drew, whose eighth inning dinger off Arizona starter Claudio Vargas gave the Blue a 1-0 lead.  "That was a good sight there.  We were looking for any kind of score, and to see J.D. do that, it was exciting," Little said.  The next bit of offense came courtesy of Marlon Anderson.  After a Russell Martin double, the former Nat, who has been playing Superman in the starting lineup for the last few days, got a chance to fill the role L.A. envisioned when they brought him over.  Left handed bat off the bench.  His double scored Martin, and gave the Blue all they needed to nail down the win.  By my calculations, he's now hitting about nine billion as a Dodger, with six hundred RBI.  That's good. 

Joe Beimel worked his way into and then (slightly) out of trouble in the eighth.  "He's turned it up lately," said Martin of Beimel.  "His command is really good, and his slider is better than it was at the beginning of the year."  The effort looked even better once Takashi Saito came on with two outs and men on second and third and struck out Eric Byrnes looking.  Of course, Byrnes didn't swing because the pitch was a ball, but let's not get bogged down in details.  The Dodgers could use a break, given some close and critical umpire calls that have gone the other way in the last week or so.  Saito cruised through the ninth for his 21st save, tying Yhency Brazoban for the Dodger rookie record.  Not that I support the idea of 36 year old veterans of the Japanese league winning Rookie of the Year honors (I felt the same way about Ichiro, minus the 36 part), but the guy's making a case.

Little didn't hesitate to use him in the eighth.  "We're pushing everybody right now a little bit.  He got four outs instead of three, and was outstanding."  Speaking of being pushed, Lowe says he's ready to go if he's needed on short rest, but right now, nobody's told him anything.  "Time will tell.  I believe I'm pitching next Wednesday, which is still the fifth day.  Then you never know what's going to happen from there.  Probably depends on where we are in the standings.  After Wednesday, it's kind of anyone's guess to when you can pitch, out of the bullpen or start," Lowe said.  Martin says he feels fine...  or at least he thinks he does.  "I won't really know until the season's over.  I did the same thing last year.  I felt great, or I thought I felt great, and then when the season was over my body just shut down.  So I guess you just train yourself to do what you have to do, and when it's all said and done, that's when you get your rest." 

And rest he will.  Asked if he'd be playing winter ball this year, Martin had an emphatic, "No!" out before the question was even fully out of my mouth. 

More on the game tomorrow.

BK