Last night, Angel Berroa made an uber-slick, sliding grab of a Fred Lewis gapper, but his toss to James Loney hit the dirt and the ball eventually dribbled out of his glove.  Berroa got tagged with the error, but in the coaching staff's mind, it was a sequence Loney could have also handled better.  Thus, as we met with Joe Torre for the daily chat, James Loney was doing some defensive work with Don Mattingly.  The goal was to break the youngster's tendency of catching the ball further back instead of moving up to meet it.  "He'll give himself a hop instead of getting it in the air," explained Torre.  "It's just basically a bad habit, because there are very few bad hops in the air."  We were informed today that the error was shifted to Loney ("As a result of his conversation," laughed Torre), but the respect the Dodger manager has for the kid's game is very evident.  There's also affection, on display during an exchange when Loney passed us on the way back to the clubhouse. 

Torre:  "There's my man.  How we doing, James?"

Loney: "Great.  You?"

Torre: "I'm getting there."

Loney: "I was gonna say, if I'm doing great, you're doing great."

Torre (laughs): "That's potentially very good."  (Loney leaves)  "He's great.  He's great."

Here you go.  Andruw Jones in, Juan Pierre gets a breather.  More to come later.

Giants
Dave Roberts - LF
Jose Castillo - 2B
Randy Winn - RF
Bengie Molina - C
Aaron Rowand - CF
John Bowker - 1B
Rich Aurilia - 3B
Omar Vizquel - SS
Jonathon Sanchez - LHP

Dodgers
Kemp -RF
Blake - 3B
Martin - C
Kent - 2B
Loney - 1B
Jones - CF
Ethier - RF
Berroa - SS
Bills - RHP

AK

I forgot to put up a reminder, but it's a go.  Dodger talk a-plenty.  Have at it.

AK

Typically a doll that ranks among sports' most popular promo giveaways, but during last night's 2-0 win over the Giants, "bobblehead" could be a nickname for San Fran left fielder Fred Lewis.  And not one he'd take with an easy chuckle.   On some level, an sixth inning error by Lewis was entirely meaningless, since the Giants found themselves handcuffed throughout the contest by the Blue's pitching, whether you're talking Jason Johnson- getting both his first big league start and win in two years- or the relief tandem of Chan Ho Park and Jonathon Broxton.  When you're reduced to zero runs on the night and are already down by a score, whatever comes from an error doesn't really matter.  But Lewis' mishap nonetheless ended up the talk of the Ravine.

James Loney had just reached first after knocking Matt Kemp across the plate, then watched Casey Blake stroke a double to left field.  Before fielding down the ball, Lewis briefly bobbled it onto the top of the stands, then snatched it up for a relay to Omar Vizquel, who turned around and nailed a charging Loney at the plate with plenty of time to spare   Unfortunately for the visitors, it wasn't that simple.   The  umpires ruled the ball entered the stands courtesy of Lewis' error, which meant Loney (who was on third at the time) and Blake each get a free base for their troubles.  Among the stranger sequences you'll ever see shape a box score, and one that helped ice a Dodger quest to hit .500 again, one game behind the NL West-leading Diamondbacks.

It's been just under two years (8/18/06, for the detail sticklers among us) since journeyman pitcher Jason Johnson took the hill as a starter, a few months beyond the May 16th, 2006 date that marked his last Major League win.  Tonight's 2-0 win over the Giants changed both stats for the righty.   His six innings on the hill included a couple of hiccups (drilling Aaron Rowand in the second, a fourth inning wild pitch), but mostly efficient work.  Five hits and three K's, with zeros gracing both the "walk" and "earned run" sections of the box score.   "Any time you pitch six quality innings like that is huge," said Joe Torre of tonight's unlikely hero, who delivered and then some in his manager's mind.  "He settled in nicely and he had his curve ball working for a strike," praised Danny Ardoin, who made the rare appearance behind the dish in place of a resting Russell Martin.  "Going to the game, our goal was to hopefully get through six innings with one run or less.  He didn't give up any."  The only guy seemingly unhappy with Johnson's performance was the Man of the Hour himself, Scrooging himself pretty hard when it came to back pats.  "I just didn't feel like I had exactly what I wanted," shrugged an overly casual Johnson.  "I was able to get through it."

Everyone is a critic, I guess.

The breakdown is below.

But not on this particular side of the region.  Instead, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are the squad now sporting the services of first baseman Mark Teixeira, which may or may not be disappointing news to Dodger fans.  His migration from Atlanta was a hot topic during Joe Torre's pregame discussion, considering how the Dodgers are in need of a little pop and Teixeira certainly provides it.   If you recall, he was rumored to be a part of proposed packages involving the Dodgers last season.  Was that the case this time around again, with the Dodgers simply coming up on the short end of the bartering table?  According to Torre, no, since if a move revolved around swapping out first baseman (as it did between the Angels and Braves), the Dodgers are cool with James Loney.    While conceding that Teixeira has more power and experience, the front office didn't see whatever discrepancies as big enough to make a similar offer.

"We never really had any interest in Teixeira because we're pretty satisfied with our first baseman," insisted Torre.  "I can't tell you how the Angels feel about their first baseman.  The only thing I can tell you is how we feel about out first baseman.  We never talked about Teixeira.  Do I know he's a good player?  Sure, I do."   

There are a lot of hedges and caveats in this report, but if nothing else, it links the words "Manny Ramirez" and "Los Angeles Dodgers" in the same sentence, which is always good for a discussion.

BK

Dodger fans (and especially Hiroki Kuroda) wish it were that easy, but last night's 7-6 loss to the Giants will unfortunately remain in the MLB 2008 season's official books.  And likely inside Kuroda's head, as what began as a reasonably effective game exploded into an unmitigated nightmare in the blink of an eye.  Or more specifically, the cramp of the brain, as a lapse in judgment on the pitcher's part ended up costing him dearly.  With one out, Aaron Rowand on third and John Bowkers on first, Kuroda gloved a shot from Rich Aurilia, and after checking Rowand, opted to attempt a double play move for Bowker- who'd already broken- at second instead of getting the easy out at first.  The decision led to bags juiced, a potential headache that appeared alleviated when Kuroda fanned Omar Vizquel and SF pitcher Kevin Correia took the dish with two out. 

Not so fast, easy breathers. 

Because man alive, did tonight's 7-6 loss to the Giants offer a kitchen sink's worth of thrills, spills and good ol' fashioned oddities.  If you showed up at the Ravine or turned on the tube with hopes of being able to say you'd seen it all after the final pitch, this one likely fit the bill.  Heroic rallies.  Terrible fielding.  Clutch pinch hits from Mark Sweeney and Andruw Jones in the SAME GAME.  Pitchers getting two run doubles.  Ejections of players, managers and fans.  Umpires and security guards overstepping their boundaries in random fashion.  Human sacrifice!  Dogs and cats living together!  Mass hysteria! 

Okay, the last three items obviously didn't take place (at least not at Dodger Stadium), but if your standard box score treated "loopiness" as a stat worth tracking, better believe tonight's show would have stuffed the sheet chock full of numbers.  "It was weird," agreed Torre of my assessment.  "You're right.  It was a weird game.  It looked like order was restored, but we just fell a little short."

I'm not really sure order was ever restored during this bad boy, but I got what he was saying.

The breakdown is below.

The results of the knee exam are in and they sound... iffy.  Garciaparra was diagnosed with a Grade-1 (the least severe, for those like me who confuse this medical jargon with Defcon One) sprain of left MCL ligament.  He'll take part in very little activity over the next few days, then will "progress to baseball activities as tolerated."  How long said progress will take remains to be seen.  On one hand, the sprain results came out favorably, as far as sprains go.  But given Nomar's injury history that doesn't include the fastest of healing times, optimism isn't the first mood that hit me.

More info as it's presented.

AK