.200 ball over 10 games in the heart of a pennant race ought to bury a team, but in this NL West, "ought" has very little to do with anything.  They may have only won two games, but the Dodgers made 'em count.  Sunday night, the LA took the rubber game of their critical series in Arizona 8-1, behind a strong effort from Derek Lowe on the mound and big nights at the dish from Andre Ethier and Casey Blake against Arizona ace and NL Cy Young favorite Brandon Webb.  That means the Blue come home to kick off a three game set Monday three games under .500 but only 2.5 games back in the division.  On the 21st, they left town three games over and two behind the Snakes.  Sure, you always want to make progress, but people, 2-8!  Fair to say the Dodgers have much for which to be thankful. 

One bummer, though, was the news on Jeff Kent.  His troublesome left knee will require an arthroscopic procedure, which will put him out anywhere from two to eight weeks.  Obviously, somewhere in the neighborhood of the latter means he'd be done for the year, and very possibly his career.  Hopefully he makes it back this season.  Love him or hate him, a guy who has had a career like his deserves to finish it on the field.

BK

Manny Ramirez was imported to L.A. with the hopes of him being able to strap a team on his back every now and then.  Belting two homers (both solo) and scoring another run on a 4-5 day at the plate would to help inspire a 6-2 win over the Diamondbacks qualify as that specific hope fulfilled.  Matt Kemp followed suit with a long ball of his own and Chad Billingsley offered up seven innings of two-run bal.  But as is often the case, the attention remained focused on Manny.  For a clubhouse running a bit on the edgy side during a hard stretch, the performance helped provide exactly what the team needed.  Not just a winning box score (although that certainly was important), but the ability to actually crack a smile and breath.  After the contest ended, Manny was making hair jokes in the clubhouse and cranking his music, helping recreate the fun ambiance that accompanied his arrival and has since been missing upon the Dodgers taking the road. 

Previously downed eight consecutive games and trying to remain alive in an NL West race, the Dodgers were beginning to resemble a man just trying to prevent drowning after getting tossed overboard in the Pacific.  Obviously, it'll take more than just good vibes and grins to turn things around, but Manny being Manny (which can be a double edged sword, for certain) provide a metaphorical (maybe even literal) flotation device.

Lots of fun if you're talking card games.  Not nearly as much when it's the measure of how many games the Dodger losing streak has reached while in pursuit of the NL West crown (now just a little further out of their grasp).   Kicking off a deadly important series against Arizona (the team they just happen to be chasing) and squaring against the most beatable of the pitchers offered over the weekend (Doug Davis), it was easy to consider last night's game a "must win" of sorts.  Thus, it's even more frustrating to see final outcome was a 9-3 score in favor of D-Backs where all the issues plaguing the Blue during their skid remained firmly on display.   

Take the first inning, for example, where Davis struggled with location and managed to load the bases.  The Dodgers continued their ways of leaving dudes twisting in the wind, wrapping up the frame with a goose egg in the run column.  Three more innings with Davis scuffling and runners yearning to touch home followed.  Three more repeat wastes, providing at least preliminary indications that Russell Martin (1-5, no runs) at the top of the order isn't the answer for what ails them. Two runs were eventually racked in the fifth, but it's gonna take more to come out on top when you're allowing the floodgates to open through fielding gaffes, as Nomar Garciaparra did.  Twice.  If this strikes you as the type of stuff that doesn't winning box scores make, it's probably not your first day taking in a little baseball.

Martin - C
Ethier - RF
Manny- LF
Kent - 2B
Kemp - RF
Loney - 1B
Nomar - SS
Blake - 3B
Kuroda - P

And a few comments emailed to me via the PR staff. 

• Joe Torre felt Kemp- who hasn't scored a run this roadie- needed a change and hoped a leadoff mindset would do Martin good.
• Andruw Jones will rejoin the team on Monday and play OF tonight for the Vegas squad.
• Scott Elbert will first be placed into situations with theoretically high odds for success before entering a tight contest. He'll also be a one inning guy (for now) and won't throw in consecutive contests.
• Injured pitcher updates: Takashi Saito threw 15 pitches off the mound (all good). Jason Schmidt will throw 25 pitches tonight at Vegas. Scott Proctor will throw two innings tonight (and return Monday).  Brad Penny threw on flat ground today. He and Schmidt are still projected to come out of pen, if able to contribute.  Torre also emphasized that Clayton Kershaw would have went down "even if he threw a two-hit shutout."

Here's to a happy holiday weekend (complete with success in the desert).

AK

First, a semi-facetious/semi-serious multiple choice quiz:

Do you think the Dodgers' seven game losing streak is due to:

a) Joe Torre asking Manny Ramirez to cut his hair- triggering a "Samson" effect- as opposed to the obvious approach of requiring the other 24 players on the roster to grow dreadlocks.  Or at the very least, get dreadlock extensions.

b) Casey Blake opting (voluntarily, to the best of my knowledge) to trim up his once glorious and majestic beard, destroying the aura of a man who could not only come up with timely hits, but casually snap with one hand the neck of grizzly bear wandering through the Dodger clubhouse.  He was the closest thing the Dodgers had to "The World's Most Interesting Man."

c) Jeff Kent protesting that Manny's presence behind him had nothing to do with his immediate uptick in production, which has since been grounded in fashion similar to the overall team's production.  Is it possible Kent managed to single-handedly suck all the energy out of Manny Mania?

d) Manny Mania's energy running out of steam on its own, leaving us with the sobering realization that this team wasn't "one player away," meaning one player can't make a sustained difference by himself.

Swuppted: Defined by Blue Notes dictionary as the hybrid of "swept" and "whupped." 

And rather appropriate to bust out on this particular Friday, as last night's 11-2 loss to the Nationals represented the words' origins for the Dodgers.  The defeat represented a brooming at the hands of baseball's worst squad (to say nothing of it being the second consecutive brooming on this current roadie).  And as the score makes perfectly clear, a whupping took place.  The burial's dirt was ultimately shoveled during a first inning where young Clayton Kershaw experienced some big league lumps. Five runs allowed, all earned, including a three run jack by Elijah Dukes.  The lefty's disastrous work negated any advantage gained from a two run opening frame for the Blue, not to mention laid the foundation for Christian Guzman to enter the Nationals history books by hitting the cycle.  After all, when you've only hit six homers all year, getting one out of the way in the first makes such a mission considerably more realistic.  Thankfully, the lousy box score (along with the ones before) haven't done nearly the damage they could, since Arizona also seems uninterested in securing the NL West crown.

Then you apparently think Blue as a practice, because them Dodgers are having a rough go as we speak.  Last night's 5-4 loss to the Nationals rounded out their sixth straight defeat and continued to highlight issues largely responsible for coming up continually short. For example, it's all fine and dandy to launch three solo shots (belonging to James Loney, Andre Ethier and Casey Blake, who's slowly on the rebound), but that's no substitute for taking care of bidness with teammates on base.  Along those lines (last night was a 1-11 with RISP showing), the Dodgers continued their stranding ways. 

They've also grown increasingly less reliable defensively, the disease even extending to 17-time gold glover Greg Maddux, whose throwing error led to a run and helped prevent him from picking up a Dodger win.  In other words, despite Matt Kemp's willingness to throw himself on the sword after an 0-5/failed steal attempt leadoff performance, fault for the insufficient box score is easily spread about. Thankfully, the D-Backs have also turned inept, allowing the Blue to hang around in the NL West race.

Mind you, I'm not limiting y'all to just one pattern.  You can pick from a list of items, if that makes it easier.  Such trends include:

1) Losses.  In this case, 5-4 against Washington.

2) Sweeps. The Blue are flirting with their second straight series at the wrong end of a brooming.

3) Failure to come through with RISP: Don't let the trio of long balls hurt you, as they were all solo.  With dudes actually on the basepaths ready to keep going, the evening's clip was a delightful 1-11.

4) Greg Maddux winless: Granted, he's only had two shots, and tonight's quartet of runs contributed to the box score were only twice earned, but his late season arrival has nonetheless remained a far cry from the 2006 version.

5) Chan Ho Park growing considerably less reliable: With a homer allowed tonight, what was once a fairy tale season hasn't turned "Brothers Grimm" quite yet, but it's certainly no longer the Cinderella Fest we had been enjoying.

6) Arizona keeping the Dodgers alive in this crummy division: Good lord, nobody seems interested in representing the NL West in the playoffs.

Anything I'm leaving out?

AK

I guess someone else will pinch run for Jeff Kent during the eighth or ninth innings.  Just got word that Pablo Ozuna has been designated for assignment, with Blake DeWitt reentering the fold.  Make sense, considering all plethora of dudes on the DL counting against the 40-man roster space for impending September call up's (and DeWitt was guaranteed to be one), something had to give.  Or in the case of Ozuna, someone.

Fare thee well, Pablo.  We'll always remember that slide into third. 

AK 

Sorry for the late notice.  There's a technical test of sorts that unfortunately needed to be scheduled during our time slot.  Nothing we or the NowLive folks can do about it.  But we'll be back on Sept. 3rd. Until then, figure out another way to waste time at work for an hour on the company's dime.

AK