Dodgers Try to Avoid Sweep in Last Game vs San Diego

San Diego Padres @ LA Dodgers
7:10PM PT
Game 3

Hiroki Kuroda
10-13
3.36

Mat Latos
14-7
2.84

Lineup:
Furcal 6
Theriot 4
Ethier 9
Gibbons 7
Kemp 8
Loney 3
Blake 5
Barajas 2
Kuroda 1

The Dodgers will send Hiroki Kuroda to the mound in order to try to redeem themselves and avoid a sweep to the first place San Diego Padres. Kuroda has a record of 4-4 against San Diego with a 5.21 ERA. Mat Latos has a 1-2 record against the Dodgers and a 2.57 ERA. In his last start against the Cardinals Latos allowed 8 runs in only 1 1/3 innings. Let's hope the Dodgers can muster some runs against him since he has allowed 13 earned runs in his last 2 starts.

The Dodgers have been anemic in the offense category, and watching them quickly go down 1-2-3 each inning is becoming depressing. The Dodgers website reported that, "Torre made no excuses. He said his team was simply not good enough this year." Well, Joe, I'd like to add that our manager and coaching staff was also simply not good enough this year. David Wells had some trash talkin' to do when he was speaking with Yahoosports.com about his ex-manager, Torre. "I don't like him at all. As a manager, I think he's terrible. He wasn't a fair manager. He didn't treat people the same. He definitely didn't treat me the same. … If he tells you anything else, he's a liar." Wells was still bitter about an incident back in 1997 when Torre told pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre they were going to sit him out during the first round of playoffs. Very amusing.


There is also talk of transitioning Casey Blake from full-time 3rd baseman to allowing him more rest time. Casey is 37 and in the final year of his contract for next season. Let's take a closer look at Blaker's numbers this year. In 483 ABs, he has 15 homeruns, 60 RBIs, with a .246 batting average and 15 fielding errors at 3B. His career high for HRs was 28 back in 2004 with Cleveland. I think what is most concerning is his plummeting batting average from last season's .280. I must admit he has made some strong plays at third when we really had no one else to play there since Belliard was horrendous and Carroll was needed at shortstop when Furcal was on the DL. 


Today is also Matt Kemp's birthday, our Dodgers record holder for most strikeouts in a season. He has already surpassed his 2008 record and collecting more whiffs than ever. Remember: K is for Kemp!


Go Blue:)