There are all sorts of different ways to lose a baseball game.  The Dodgers seem particularly adept at the
yank your still beating heart from your chest variety, providing a particularly good example in Saturday afternoon's 3-2 loss to the Mets at Shea. Chad Billingsley continued to throw well, building on a string of solid performances- he surrendered a grand total of eight earned runs in May- with seven very impressive shutout innings.  He left the game with a 2-0 lead, but Jonathan Broxton (whose recent struggles are detailed by Ken Gurnick of MLB.com) gave up three runs in the eighth.  Billy Wagner came on for the Mets in the ninth, struck out the side, and with that the Dodgers once again found themselves on the wrong side of the .500 mark.  (Mercifully, since the D-Backs have hit the skids as well, the Blue remain within spittin' distance of the division lead.)

On the bright side of things, over the last couple weeks, the Dodgers have managed to shore up the issues with their starting pitching.  Billingsley has been great, Hiroki Kuroda has given the Dodgers a chance to win more nights than not (though you wouldn't know it from his record), and Derek Lowe seems to have turned the corner, or at the very least approached it. With Clayton Kershaw in the bigs, and perhaps soon tagteaming with Jason Schmidt?, there's the potential for stability in the fifth spot.  Really, the Blue have been one Brad Penny away from the rotation we all thought they'd have at the start of the year.

Russell Martin, en fuego with the wood of late, has been the Dodgers' best position player since his 2006 call up, the kind of player a team will occasionally look towards to help end a downward spiral.  During last night's 9-5 win over the Mets, the Canadian not only lived up to that billing, but he helped bail out a fellow youngster/future Blue cornerstone in the process.  Martin's 4-4 night at the dish, complete with a long ball and three ribbies, helped provide enough bullets to offset his outgunned pitcher. 

Clayton Kershaw was hoping to follow up his thrilling Ravine debut with some equally thrilling pitches.  Unfortunately, the excited parties in audience were all Mets fans, as NY batsmen feasted on his offerings for 3.2 frames.  Even spotted a rare opening trio of runs by his teammates, Kershaw found himself unable to keep his team ahead, relying too often on a fastball reigned in by the Mets. But when uber-hyped youth couldn't prevail, the elderly (relatively speaking) found a way.  Chan Ho Park took the rookie's place on the hill and continued his season's resurgence, limiting the Mets to just one score over 3.1 innings.  With a Dodger victory still feasible, Martin (along with Matt Kemp, Jeff Kent, Blake DeWitt and James Loney) took turns beating up the Mets pen.   In particular, Aaron Heilman is unlikely to email all his buddies a copy of this  here box score. 

I believe the name at the bottom is the intriguing one...

Pierre, LF
Kemp, CF
Kent, 2B
Loney, 1B
Martin, C
Ethier, RF
DeWitt, 3B
Maza, SS
Kershaw, P

BK

4:10 pm PST offers not just a chance for the Dodgers to even out a lackluster 26-27 clip.  It offers Dodger fans a chance to see if Clayton Kershaw can follow up last Sunday's often brilliant, absolutely promising debut.  Six innings, two runs, seven K's and absolutely no visible signs of being intimidated.  But tonight offers not just a new day, but an even bigger challenge.  For starters, the pitcher he's squaring off against, John Maine, may be coming off back to back losses but also isn't too far removed from a May 7th shutdown of the Blue in their house.  Kershaw's squad is riding a four game skid and struggling to put runs on the board, which could subsequently put some additional pressure on the kid to deliver.  But beyond that, this would be his first outing on someone else's turf, and few venues come much bigger, splashier or more daunting than Shea Stadium.  Lot of history.  Lot of eyeballs.  And it's one of sports' better kept secrets, but fans in the Apple often make a habit of giving a visiting athlete the business.  No, you get out of town, because it's true.  They really do heckle mercilessly in New York.

So with that in mind, what are you expecting from Kershaw?  A repeat of that superior stuff from Dodger Stadium.  A sophomore jinx of sorts? Somewhere in between?  And along these lines, what would you be happy with, even if he falls somewhat short of a no no, a shutout, or simply gives up 4-6 runs?  What would be enough to keep alive the momentum from his debut, in your opinion?

AK

Such was the night endured by Brad Penny at Shea Stadium against the Mets, a locale and foe that remain a thorn in his side.  Last night's 8-4 loss will go down as yet another night where the Big Righty was slapped first and asked questions later.  Just 2.2 frames deep, the bleeding began with a two-run jack served up to David Wright, an act the New York third baseman aped one inning later to the same "pair of RBI's" tune.  By this point, however, Penny may have been numb to the ball leaving the park, his luck having already turned so inexplicably rotten.  After all, how often does one inherit an unearned run via catcher's interference?  But such as the case that inning, when Claudio Vargas' bat connected with Russell Martin's glove.  The two out oddity was the kick off for an inning that spiraled out of control and pushed the game out of the Blue's reach.  On a positive note, Jeff Kent was able to get himself... wait for it.. back in the lineup and his presence added a jack to the Dodger side of the box score. 

The "Wright" stuff, however, would be another story, at least if you're viewing tonight's 8-4 loss to the Mets with a New York state of mind.  The Mets hot corner cornerstone did his damage and then some, going long twice and tallying ribbies equal to the Blue's entire kit and caboodle.  Those homers, both against Dodger starter Brad Penny, helped extend the big righty's rotten luck inside the confines of Shea Stadium, a 1-10 clip that doesn't appear like it'll trend upward anytime soon.  Heck, dude's fortunes are so bad, he even got tagged with an unearned run via catcher's interference, an occurrence that happens just slightly less often than a Jeff Kent smile or two Dodger homers in the same frame (which actually did take place, albeit in wasted fashion from Kent and Blake DeWitt).  With two outs and nobody one (a scenario that hasn't been kind to Penny of late), Claudio Vargas connected on what he thought was a weak ground out to end the inning.  Turns out, his bat got a piece of Russell Martin's mitt, which put Vargas on first and opened the floodgates for a quartet of Metropolitan runs.  Throw in the pair New York scored in the third and seventh innings and your Blue box score is pretty much toast.

Welcome back, Joe!

AK 

There have been 43 Presidents of the United States, and in 1927, when they started chipping away at Mt. Rushmore, there had only been 30.  Still, picking four faces for that bad boy was a tough proposition, despite the fact that Washington and Lincoln were slam dunks. 

So if you make one of those for the Dodgers (perhaps carved into one of the hills around the stadium, or maybe next to the Hollywood sign), which four faces do you choose?  We're talking one hand, minus the thumb.  That's all you get from a franchise that's been in business, under one name or another, since 1884.  I'm not counting all the players you have to choose from, but it's a lot.  Hell, there are 49 players alone whose last names start with W.  And what about managers?  Certainly Walter Alston or Tommy Lasorda could be candidates. 

Just off the top of my head, here's how I see it.  Jackie Robinson is a given.  A) he was really good, and b) Robinson is simply too freakin' iconic both as a Dodger and in baseball history to leave off.  After that, I think you need a Koufax.  He is the Dodger pitcher in team history (unless you think it's Danys Baez...).  The other two?  Yikes.  If you go old school, there are the Babe Herman, Dazzy Vance, and Zach Wheat types.  What about Reese, Newcombe, Snider, Wills, Drysdale, or Campanella?  Piazza, if you want someone from the more recent past.  Or Fernando.  Or Cey, Garvey, and Sutton. 

It's a tough one.  Your thoughts? 

Four faces from a franchise that has been in business, under one name or another, since 1884. 

BK

Last night did NOT produce a 3-1 run loss to the Cubs that's become the norm during the series.  Instead, they fell in a 2-1 loss.  Still a loss, but hey, at least the Dodgers were allowing fewer unmatched runs.  Gotta count for something.  Right?  Right?

Okay, not really.

As per usual since touching down in the Windy City, bats of a blue color have struggled to paint the scoreboard.  So much so, in fact, that their only run came without the assistance of any wood.  Blake DeWitt's eye drew a bases loaded walk to force a score and from there, offense colder than a Chi-Town winter.  Ten men left on base, their stranded status entirely offsetting Derek Lowe's terrific work on the mound.  Thus, a slim lead got squared up in the ninth after Takashi Saito allowed a couple walks, bricked a play to first, then saw Geovany Soto sacrifice Ryan Theriot across the plate.  From there, Alfonso Soriano graces the box score with a 10th inning, game-winning knock, and the Dodgers are left wondering again why the slimmest of margins can't seem to be passed lately.

The "how" might be a little different (a blown save in the ninth from Takashi Saito, for example) but the "what" remained the same.  A lack of offensive production again haunts the Blue.  The Dodgers managed to scratch out seven hits (three from Russell Martin) and five walks against Chicago's Carlos Zambrano and a pair of relievers, but couldn't come up with a hit when it mattered, wasting another good pitching performance in a 2-1, 10 inning loss to the Cubs Wednesday night at Wrigley.  The only run that crossed the plate for the visitors came via a bases loaded walk from Blake DeWitt in the fourth.   Meanwhile, Derek Lowe has nothing to show for his seven innings of four hit, shutout ball.

The lack of production with men on base is becoming rather alarming.  Yes, Zambrano is a Cy Young caliber pitcher, but the problem is that everyone the Dodgers see these days seems to morph into some hardware toting HOFer. 

BK

After last night's 3-1 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley, Adam Rose, who hosts the UCLA and USC blogs for the LAT (woot!) and a sports guy at LAist.com sent these dispatches (and the fabulous pic at left) from the bleachers to the inbox at Blue Notes HQ.  He couldn't get the full audio of Tommy Lasorda singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the seventh inning stretch, but that doesn't mean there weren't other items of import:

• Wrigley was sweltering when the Dodgers played there on Monday, hovering close to 90 with high humidity. Tuesday, the temperature was cut in half and winds didn't help any. The Dodgers really could have used Andruw Jones. At least he's well insulated.
• Monday was a Memorial Day sellout, but Tuesday's tickets were being scalped for less than half of face value. Prices at Wrigley are low compared to Chavez Ravine. For less than $100, you could take a family of polar bears to the ballpark.
• A guy two rows in front of my was bundled up and in water-proof gear. Somebody spilled not one but TWO beers on him, and he didn't notice.
• The bleachers in Wrigley have more animosity towards each other than the visiting team. The left field periodically chanted, "Right field sucks!" and vice versa. (Seriously).
• Tommy Lasorda sounded fine, but was pretty much drowned out by the crowd. I had no idea if he said "root, root, root for the" Dodgers or Cubbies, but my money is on the former.
• Fans are still sporting apparel (particularly headbands) with the rising sun symbol in "honor" of Fukudome. Whoops.
• I had to travel a couple thousand miles to find a place that didn't report any news about the Lakers.
• A good, locally brewed beer for $5.75? Try finding that inside the Staples Center or Dodger Stadium.

Speaking of beer (segue alert)...