Dodgers Home for Fish Fry; Casey Blake Returns

Marlins @ Dodgers
7:10pm
Game 1

Casey Blake Returns After Missing 27 Games

After a momentary breather and day off yesterday, the Dodgers look to regroup after a disappointing roadtrip. They open the home series with three games vs. Florida and then three games with the Rockies to wrap up messy May and begin June. The Dodgers hope to get some wins, because after this homestand they will take to the road for an incredibly difficult stretch of games where they'll play in Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Colorado. Right now they are 7 games under .500 and 6 games back of SF in the standings.

Jon Garland (1-4, 4.75) will get the start for the Dodgers after a disastrous start against the White Sox, his former team. He complained of both a blister and not being on the same page with the catcher Big Rod. We'll see which catcher starts today since Big Rod has been sitting and Navarro has been playing in his place. Either way, sorry Jon, but you will get a crappy catcher nonetheless. Gar is trying for his second win of the season, and has been mediocre since his return from the DL earlier this year. He has played well against the Marlins with a 5-1 record, and 2.36 ERA in 8 starts in his career. On April 25th, at Sun Life Stadium, Garland allowed only 2 runs in 7 innings against the Marlins in a no-decision. The Marlins won 2 of the 3 games when the Dodgers visited them in April in Florida. Javier Vazquez (3-4, 6.41) will go to the mound for the fish. The Marlins are just coming off of a series sweep vs. the Giants and have won 5 of their last 6 games.

With over 50 games now in the book for 2011, we can see how the frustrating injuries have plagued this team tremendously. Casey Blake should be returning today after suffering an elbow infection that sidelined him for some time. Even if Casey doesn't start everyday, he can bolster this weak bench. Andre Ethier better be back in the lineup after resting for what seems like weeks.

In breaking news this afternoon it has been reported that Dodgers executives have said that James Loney is a non-tender candidate at the conclusion of the season. Most likely we still will have him with the team the remainder of the season, and unless he starts putting up some miracle comeback numbers, his time in Los Angeles are winding down. You know, this is a bit sad since at one time I did like Loney. I remember watching the young core of Dodgers just coming up and starting out a few seasons ago. But the Kemp, Ethier, Loney, Martin, Billingsley, Kershaw, and Broxton story is unfolding as they progress in their careers, and we are losing some along the way. We already lost Russell Martin during the offseason. Broxton looks to be toasted as a dominant relief pitcher. James Loney just never panned out as the first baseman we needed. C'est la vie. It's time to move on and let someone else take over at first.

In other MLB news, most of you have heard about Buster Posey's collision with Scott Cousins in the 12th inning in a game vs. Florida. He broke his ankle, and will be out for the remainder of the season. We never like to see any player injured, and this collision was pretty tough to watch. The debate about whether the catcher should be more protected has ensued. What do you think? Should there be more rules put into place to protect the catcher when he's blocking home plate? Tell us in the comments. Here's the video of the collision *graphic footage warning*

Cousins Collides with Posey

Lineup:

Furcal 6
Blake 5
Ethier 9
Kemp 8
Gibbons 7
Loney 3
Barajas 2
Carroll 4
Garland 1

The Dodgers have optioned Russ Mitchell back down to AAA to make room for Casey Blake. Blake will bat second tonight followed by Ethier who thankfully is not sitting again. Big Rod also returns from haitus. Unfortunately instead of Sands, Gibbons will be in left field. Can't have a lineup totally void of blackholes now can we?

Welcome back, Blaker! Go Blue:)

Matt Guerrier blows another game.

Dodgers 1  6  0
Astros    2  9  0
WP-Melancon-4-1
LP-Guerrier-2-3
HR-Kemp-12-Bourne-1

Honestly, I dont think Don Mattingly is going to last very long as Dodger Manager. I just dont understand his decisions. they are baffling to the mind. first of all, he rests Ethier, again, then allows him to pinch hit with first base open, knowing full well, the Astros would just walk him. he bats James Loney third again, and continues to play useless players like Gibbons, Navarro, Guerrier. etc. etc.

all of these poor decisions, plus a lousy team, lead the Dodgers to a 2-1 loss to the cellar dwelling astros, and another series loss for the boys in blue. there on pace to lose 90 games, unless they get rid of these terrible players, and get a new manager. why not Tim Wallach? im sorry Im just not a fan of Don Mattingly.

the pitching matchup was an odd one. Youth vs. age. Houston's rookie rule 5 draft guy, Aureny Rodriquez, against, Ted "father time" Lilly. Lill normally underwhelming with declining velocity, pitched well, only allowing 1 run through 6 innings. but the Terrible Dodger offense again couldnt score.

Lilly allowed a first inning run on the very first pitch of the game. a leadoff Meatball down the pipe, led to a leadoff homerun for Micheal Bourne. 1-0 Houston.

the Dodgers didnt have a hit until the 4th inning, when Kemp singled.

it was 1-0 in the 5th, when the Dodgers had a chance to score, but as usual left runners stranded at second and third.
Navarro, reached base by way of a bunt single. perfectly placed. funny seeing a 240 pound Man of blubber, beating out an infield single.

Sands strikes out. Miles singles, Navarro goes to second. Lilly sacrifices the runners to second and third, but furcal grounds out. meh

move to the top of the 6th, the Dodgers get their only run on a Matt Kemp homer to lefti field. serioulsy Kemp crushed that pitch. tie game. Kemp his 12th homerun of the year, to lead the team.

in the top of the 7th, Wilton Lopez comes in to relieve Rodriguez.

here are both starting pitchers lines-Lilly- 6IP- 6 hits 1 BB 2 strikeouts.
Rodriguez- 6IP 4 htis, 1 run, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts

with Lopez pitching, the Dodgers had a rally going, but Another one of Mattinglys puzzling moves leads to failure as usual.
Navarro another infield single leading off the inning.  Sands struck out. (sands had a bad game striking out three times) Miles hits into a force play at second. what happened was the astros second baseman did not step on the bag at second. so the runner is out at first, but Navarro is safe at second. replays showed a good call by the umpire, Hall's foot was indeed not on the bag.
with the pitchers spot up next, Mattingly foolishly uses Dre as a pinch hitter, knowing full well with first base open, Houston would just walk him again, (they did this same move last game) and Dre would be wasted. this happens. putting dre at first, and Navarro still at second. this brings up Furcal, who hasnt started hitting yet. he grounds out back to the box.

the Dodger bullpen is so innefective, you cant use certain guys with the game on the line. Macdougal (dougie) comes into to pitch the 7th, and almost blows it, if not for a great play by Navarro. (dont worry guerrier would easily blow the game away in the 9th, well get to that in a minute)

Hall leads off by strikeing out. J.R. Towles, the catcher, singles to left. here we go. Michaels pinch hitting for Lopez, walks. first and second. Bourne grounds into a fielders choice. Michaels out at second, Bourne safe at first. the Dodgers would have been out of the inning, but cant turn the double play. Towles goes to third. with Sanchez at bat. Dougie throws a wild pitch in the dirt, that gets away from Navarro. the ball takes a lucky bounce off the back wall, behind home plate, and bounces back a few feet away from Navarro. Towles the runner at third, breaks for home Navarro, makes a really great play, he scoops up the ball, and heaves himeself in front of home plate, just in front of the sliding Towles. Towles is unable to slide around Navarro's blubber fat, and is called out, and somehow the Dodgers get out of it. you would have to see this play with your own eyes to believe it.

in the 8th inning, Folchino relieves Wilton, and the Dodgers still cant score. although with two outs, Kemp doubles, but the Astros walk Gibbons, and get Navarro to fly out.

Javy Guerra a non bum reliever, pitches a 123 8th inning. (why wasnt he brought in to pitch the 9th?)

melancon, who ends up getting the win, retires the dodgers in order in the top of the 9th.

move to the bottom of the 9th. with the game tied at 1-1, Mattingly brings in Matt Guerrier. it was obvious to everyone in the world, that Guerrier would blow this game very easily. Guerrier and Jansen, both have been so inneffective, you just cant bring them into 1 run or tied games, in the 9th innings, as there is zero chances for error.

after a johnson fly out, Guerrier blows the game away. not suprising at all. what a watse of money on this loser. Wallace doubles over Kemp's head in center. maybe Kemp should have had it, but maybe Guerrier shouldnt be throwing meatballs in a tie game? or maybe Mattingly shouldnt be bringing in ineffective pitchers in tie games, or maybe Don Mattingly should be fired for his epic failures. yep all of the above.

Bogusevic runs for Wallace at second. Bill Hall flies out, there is two outs. another two out blown game as usual. although techincally speaking this wasnt a save chance, but still a blown game none the less, and with two outs again. it never fails. J.R. Towles, the catcher, who was tagged out at home on the wild pitch in the 7th, redeems himself. he hits a single into center, clean base hit, the winning run scores easily, and thats it. the dodgers lose another series, and fall to 22-29 on the season, as they continue their quest for the NL west Cellar.

in all seriousness, im done with this team. its time to throw in the towel, and start making some changes. time to sell some players for some prospects, and fire Don Mattingly. this kind of play is unnaceptable to us Dodger fans. we all deserve better than this. too bad there is no one really running things that would step up, give out some pink slips to some of these loser players, and fire Don Mattingly. just make sure that when you give the pink slip to Gibbons, you hold it up right in front of his face so he can see it.

tomorrow is an off day, and the Dodgers return home to play the Marlins, and Rockies. they should lose 4 out of 6. well be back Friday night for the usual losscap. DBF and the Dodgers will be taking a much needed day off. Jon Garland takes the mound friday night for the Dodgers. go blue

Road Trip Wraps Up, Dodgers Looking for Series Win

Dodgers @ Astros
11:05am
Game 3

Rookies on the Loose

Rubby De La Rosa

Jerry Sands

When you only win one game every three or four, you relish in it for a bit. Last night, we had the refreshingly nice chance to watch an actual victory and what an exciting one at that. Before the game we were jubilant in the news that Lance Cormier was gone finally. "With Lance, it wasn't working out," Mattingly said. Cormier pitched 13.2 innings, allowing a staggering 22 hits, 17 runs, 4 homeruns with a 9.88 ERA in his short time with the Dodgers. ¡Hasta La Vista, Lance! Then we get the icing on the cake with a Jerry Sands grand slam! Grand slams are always one of my favorite things to see in baseball, especially when the Dodgers hit them and a deserving rookie at that. I'm very happy that the Dodgers gave Jerry Sands the opportunity to play even though he has had a slow start to his MLB career. Then we also got the treat of seeing RDLR throw some nasty good fastballs, and the ho-hum underwhelming pitching of let's say Ted Lilly may soon be replaced in the future by the young phenom...we can hope, right? 



Speaking of Ted Lilly, oh yeah he's starting today. Lilly's (3-4, 4.71) numbers aren't horrible, yet there's something about him that's somehow not up to par to our other three starters in the rotation, Kersh, Bills & Kuroda. He allows a ton of fly balls and homeruns (9 this season so far), and he's just not very dominating. The good news is he has played very well against the Astros in his career. In 13 starts, he is 7-2 with a 2.36 ERA. He will go up against Aneury Rodriguez (0-2, 5.72) who has only started four previous times in his career. He went 5 1/3 innings last start which was his longest outing thus far. 


The Dodgers will try to win their first series since Pittsburgh today, before they travel home and enjoy an off-day tomorrow. 


Lineup:
Furcal 6
Carroll 4
Loney 3
Kemp 8
Gibbons 9
Navarro 2
Sands 7
Miles 5
Lilly 1

Looks like Andre Ethier is still not in the lineup today. Loney is once again hitting third, why oh why? Gibbons and Navarro are hitting 5th and 6th while Jerry Sands is hitting 7th? Hmmm....doesn't make sense now does it? I guess Donnie doesn't want the 7-8-9 batters to be totally useless, so he's putting Sands down there.

Let's see if we can win 2 in a row, when's the last time we did that? Go Blue:)

Kids Incorporated-Dodgers youth lead team to 5-4 win

Dodgers  5  6 0
Astros    4  5  1
WP-Billingsley-3-4
LP-Happ-3-6
SV-Guerra-1
HR-Gibbons-1-Sands-2

Ruby De La Rosa, Dodgers top prospect, debuts in houston, pitching a scoreless inning.

Jerry Sands crushes a monster grand slam home run

ill say one thing about the Dodgers, its never a dull moment. right before the game, we learned the Dodgers had called up their top pitching prospect Ruby De La Rosa, and Designated the worst pitcher in baseball, Lance Cormier for assignment. this of coarse was followed by intense celebration, at the gift of never having to be forced to watch another Lance Cormier appearance ever again. we also got our first look at the Dodgers minor league pitcher of the year in 2010. RDLR was in uniform for the game, and pitched a scoreless inning, while the Dodgers scored 5 runs, four of them off one swing of the bat by rookie phenom Jerry Sands. Sands clobbered a  grand slam homerun, leading the Dodgers to a much needed win.

lets get to the highlights. after scoreless first innings, from Chad Billingsley, and J.A. Happ, the Dodgers broke things open in the second. Jay Gibbons, hit a line drive homerun to right field, his first of the season, putting the Dodgers ahead early 1-0. apparently his contacts under the roof at the juice box, dont bother him.

Bills allows a double to wallace int he second, but strikes out Hall and Johnson.

the Dodgers score the rest of their runs in the third. Bills leads off the inning by striking out. hit machine grounds out, with two outs the Dodgers score 4 runs. I dont know what it is with two outs this year with the Dodgers.
Carroll walks.  Loney singles to center, sending Carroll to secdon. Kemp hits a sharp grounder to secondbase. Bill Hall, (who the Dodgers decided not to sign in the offseason) bobbles the ball, and cant throw out Kemp. bases loaded for Sands. Sandman absolutly crushes a pitch out to deep center field. this kids got pop! its a grand slam home run for Sands. the first of the year for the Dodgers putting them ahead 5-0.

Bills had good stuff, he struck out 9, but he had a bad inning in the bottom of the 3rd.
Quintero flies out, Happ strikes out. two outs. then the astros score three runs of Bills, with 2 outs. two outs again. are we noticing a theme here?
Bourne walks. Barmes bloop single to left, Bourne to second. Pence, (the guy with the high socks, who hits with his elbows sticking way out.) who is a good hitter, doubles to right, scoring Bourne, Barmes to third. 5-1. Lee singles to center, scoring Barmes, and Pence. 5-3 Dodgers. Bills gets pissed. with his anger over allowing those runs, he strikes out Wallace to end the inning.

both teams go down 123 in the fourth and fith innings. Happ is taken out after only 5 innings, after he allows 5 runs, on only 3 hits mind you. 2 walks 4 strike outs.

in the bottom of the 6th inning, Bills runs into trouble again, but is able to get out of it still ahead.
Pence leads off with a double. then Bills cant throw a strike. Lee and wallace are both walked to load the bases, with noone out. ive got my noose ready.
Johnson hits a fly ball to center, which scores Pence, its a 1 run ballgame 5-4. were all getting ready for the worst, but Bills digs down and strikes out Hall, and retires Quintero on a foul out. thank the lordy.

Del rosario relieves Happ and pitches two scoreless innings, int he 6th and 7th.

Bills goes 6 innings, allowing 4 runs, on 5 hits, walks 3 but strikes out 9. he leaves leading 5-4.

Dougie comes in to pitch the 7th, and proves that hes more consistent, then Guerrier, and Jansen. he strikes out Bourn and Barmes, making them look foolish, with some nice heaters.

Escalona strikes out Carroll and Loney, and then Houston brings in flamethrower Wilton Lopez. he strikes out Kemp.

the score is still 5-4 in the bottom of the 8th, and we finally get to see top prospect Ruby De La Rosa.
the youngster comes in throwing heat. 95-97 MPH heaters. he goes 3-2 on the first hitter Pence, and strikes him out swinging, on a 95 fastball.
Carlos Lee grounds out to Furcal, who makes a wide throw, but Loney comes off the bag for a nice tag. two outs.
next Wallace, who is hitting well right now, is called out on a called strike three. a nasty off speed pitch, gets Wallace looking.

the top of the 9th gets interesting, with no one throwing in the bullpen for the Dodgers, De La Rosa was all set to come out for the bottom of the 9th. since the bullpen has been so innefective, I dont blame Donnie.

Lopez still in to pitch the 9th, strikes out Sands. Navarro amazingly singles into right field. Gwynn reaches on a fielders choice. Miles singles, gwynn to third. so theres first and third, with 2 outs. the pitchers spot due up. Donnie decides to roll the dice again. why not right? it worked last night. Ethier who had been resting for the second straight game with a lefty starter, is called off the bench to pinch hit again. last night he had a go ahead pinch hit single, which was wasted by another meltdown.

predictably, the Astros intentionally walk Dre to load the bases for Furcal. furcal battles Lopez deep into the count, but is called out looking on strike three.

so who would be closing for the Dodgers? Javy Guerra, come on down! the rook does his job quite nicly. Johnson lines out to right. 1 out. Hall strikes out two down. could this be? a for reals 123 9th inning save situation for the dodgers? tis could. sanchez flies out, to end the game. Dodgers win 5-4!

finally a win! the rooks came through for us today. Sands is really heating up! De La Rosa, looked very good. Guerra and Elbert have been solid. lets also not forget Bills despite a bad inning, pitched well, and kept us in the game. they all get game balls tonight. so hey we finally get a win, and things dont seem to bad after a win dont they? so Cormier is gone (halleluja!), Dre should be back in the lineup tomorrow, and Blake, and Hawksworth should be back by later this week. Blake is actually on a rehab assignment right now. baby steps towards respectability.....baby steps towards respectability......

tomorrow afternoon, in the rubber game, Lilly vs. Rodriguez. game time at 1105AM. well see you then Dodger fans. GO BLUE

woefull Dodgers continue descent into hell

Dodgers lineup
Furcal6
Carroll4
Loney3
Kemp8
Sands9
Navarro2
Gibbons7
Miles5
Billingsley1

Chad Billingsley-2-4 vs. J.A. Happ-3-5

the woefull Dodgers continued their spiraling descent into hell last night, as this awful season continues. what may bright spots are few and far between this month. the Dodgers would need to win 4 of their last 7 games in order to avoid finishing with the worst record in may in LA dodger history. wow just wow. after the latest 2-out 9th inning blown save, im almost left speechless.
the entire bullpen has been rendered ineffective. Broxton, Kuo, Padilla, Hawksworth, are all out with injuries. the rest of the bullpen is so ineffective, you might as well pull names out of a hat.
the bench is lousy, nonexistent offense, unless its from kemp and or ethier. and other than Kemp, no speed. our catchers are awful. Big Rod is a feast or famine hitter, he hits homeruns every week, but with a .235 avg, and an awful .280 OBP. Navarro is horrendouz, and both cant block the plate, throw out runners, or even call a good game, as evident the other night, when big rod, and Garland couldnt agree on pitch selection.

after last night's latest confusing, agonizing debacle, were left with little positives.
one positive, Dre isnt hurt serious, as evident by last night's pinch hit single. the starting pitching is very good normally, and Jerry Sands is starting to develop into a good slugger with tons of opposite field pop, and hes proven to be an adequat defender.
it seems like every night, the starting pitching, Dre, Kemp and Carroll, play their hearts out and do all they can to keep the team in games, and the rest of the team is just lousy. all im going to say at this point is that moves need to be made, there is no shame in rebuilding. please stop playing Gibbons over tony gwynn, and can we please please please for the love of all that is holy in this world stop batting Loney third? for cyring out loud, Jeez!
Ethier stis out again tonight. Donnie better use him in the late innings then. Navaro is still playing, and Loney batting third again....cries.......

so how can the Dodgers overcome, and get back on the right track? well winning tonight would be one. they have to start winning games, and winning series. as fans we need to take whatever positives we can get, I mea it cant get any worse right? could it?.....ughhhhhh

as far as the pitching matchup in tonight's game 2. Chad Billingsley takes the mound for the Dodgers, hes 3-3 against houston, and 2-4 on the regular season. he will counter J.A. Happ. thw astros got him in the oswalt trade last year, and while hes had a bad start, hes pitched much better of late, and is 3-5 on the year.

weve just learned that the Dodgers will be calling up top pitching prospect Ruby De la Rosa from AA. I support this decision. weve run out of options. the bullpen is this bad people. well keep you informed on this story as it developes, but De La Rosa is expected to be with the team by later this week.
enjoy the games while their on Dodger fans, because the season goes by quick, and its looking like its going to be a long depressing winter. but lets stay focused on this year. lets not throw in the towel just yet, (throwing in the towel is now called throwing in the cormier). baby steps. game time at 505.
GO BLUE!

Jansen's Meltdown Wastes Dre's Clutch Pinch Hit & Strong Outing By Kersh

Dodgers 3 7 0
Astros    4 9 1
WP- Fulchino (1-2)
LP- Jansen (1-1)
HR- Kemp (11)

In the 7th inning we saw Ethier and Kershaw smiling and congratulating each other after Dre delivers a clutch pinch hit single after Kershaw is lifted from the game. Hey guys, haven't you ever watched a Dodger game? It's never over until the last out is made.

Clayton Kershaw made a valient effort to try to get his 6th win of the season in his home state of Texas. But alas, the Dodgers always find a way to lose somehow. Even the league worst Astros looked like a first place team when up against the reeling boys in blue. We haven't seen a good old-fashioned bullpen meltdown in awhile. Well, tonight be the night ladies and gentleman!

Both Norris and Kershaw swap 1-2-3 innings in the 1st.

The 2nd inning starts off with a bang, as the Bison goes deep for his 11th homerun of the season and his 100th homerun of his career! 1-0 Dodgers. Kershaw sends the Astros down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning.

The Astros tie it up in the 3rd when the pesky Hall leads of with a double. Gibbons is unable to catch the ball in right field. Any other right fielder would have caught it. It boggles my mind that Donnie would start Gibbons over Gwynn. Quintero promptly singles in Hall to tie it at 1 a piece.

In the 4th Kemp and Gibbons both whiff. Sands walks, and is caught stealing second by a mile. Still young, still learning. Kershaw once again has a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the 4th.

The Dodgers go down in order in the 5th. Kershaw allows a lead off double (his second in as many at- bats) to Hall, but strikes out Quintero and Norris and gets Bourn to fly out.

Miles Is Unable to Tag Hall as He slides into Second

In the 7th, Navarro gets a lucky 2-out ground rule double. The Astros intentionally walk Russ Mitchell thinking they will get to pitch to Kershaw. Now under any other situation there's no way you pull Kershaw this early since he's pitching well, and our bench is horrendous. But tonight is different, because we have Ethier on the bench since he didn't start today after being banged up in yesterday's game. Dre comes up to pinch hit for Kershaw, and on a 2 strike count singles up the middle scoring both Navarro and Mitchell! 3-1 Dodgers! Bourn, the center fielder, also makes an error on the play. MacDougal comes in and pitches a great 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the 7th.

Kershaw goes 6 innings, allowing 4 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, and striking out 7.

Norris goes 7 innings, allowing 6 hits, 3 runs, 3 walks, and 5 strikeouts.

Instead of leaving Dougie to pitch the 8th which I would have done, Donnie brings in the sketchy Guerrier. He promptly walks Bourn, strikes out Barmes, Bourn steals second of course, then Pence gets an infield single sending Bourn to 3rd base. We all see a meltdown swirling. Lee pops out thankfully. Honeycutt visits the mound along with most of the infield. Wallace grounds out, phewwww.

In the 9th Sands leads of with his 3rd walk of the game, but of course Navarro hits into a double play.

Kenley Jansen is called in to pitch the bottom of the 9th. Now we know 2 outs is not much, and any lead whatsoever is always in jeopardy with the Dodger bullpen. Yet, we have some positive thoughts that Jansen may be able to close this out and get us a much-needed win. He strikes out Johnson after going 3-0 on him. Ok, good way to battle back. Hall singles. Downs strikes out after Jansen goes 3-0 on him as well. Ok, two outs, but let's not get excited just yet. Hall takes second. Jansen walks Sanchez. Another Honeycutt visit. Runners take 2nd and 3rd on a double steal while Navarro drools. Our meltdown sensors are going off...Bourn then doubles down the first baseline, past Loney, scoring both runners, 3-3 game. Then Jansen hits Barmes with the pitch. At this point we see Jansen is totally Chernobyled, why not bring in Elbert or someone else? Well they don't, so Pence singles to left field, scoring Bourn and the Astros win 4-3.

We now fall back to 7.5 behind San Francisco in the standings. Hope is dwindling for this team. We need to start looking at some different options. There's no point in continuing this downward spiral. Tomorrow Chad Billingsley will go to the mound. Oh but on the bright side, James Loney's little dribbler single extends his hitting streak to 9 games! Till tomorrow Dodger fans, Go Blue:)

Dodgers Hobble into Houston

Dodgers @ Astros
5:10pm
Game 1

The Dodgers Desperately Need Some Vitamin C to Stay Healthy

After the usual weekend of losin', the Dodgers continue to trudge on despite the multitude of injuries adding up. Uribe, Blake, Thames, Kuo, Broxton & Hawksworth are already sitting on the disabled list, and yesterday's game sent two more players, Ethier and Big Rod, back to the dugout early with injuries. Jon Garland has complained of a blister on his thumb, and new word is that Hiroki Kuroda noticed a bloody cut on his finger during the game yesterday. Both pitchers had disappointing starts. Garland made a comment that Big Rod and him weren't on the same page as far as pitch selection and that accounted for the less than stellar results. We all know Big Rod is not the best catcher, but like Don Mattingly said, the pitcher has the last word on the mound. We will keep you updated on the injury front.

The Dodgers are now 6 games below .500 and in fourth place. The Houston Astros are even worse and are 13 games below .500 and in last place in the NL Central division. That doesn't mean anything though when it comes to the Dodgers actually winning this series. The last time the Dodgers won a series was two weeks ago in Pittsburgh when they won 2 of 3 games after the 4th game of the series was canceled due to rain. Actually, that has been their only series win in May so far.
Clayton Kershaw (5-3, 3.09), a Texas native, will go up against Bud Norris (2-3, 3.93). Kersh is 1-1 with a 4.76 carer ERA against Houston. Last outing Kershaw was dishing out singles like they were going out of style against the Giants.

While injuries and losses have caused us to essentially chalk up this season, there has been a few bright spots lately. Jerry Sands' bat is heating up, and James "Groundball" Loney has a little 8 game hitting streak going on. Rafael Furcal has rejoined the team, and Casey Blake is expected to return shortly after a rehab assignment.

Lineup:

Furcal 6
Miles 4
Loney 3
Kemp 8
Gibbons 9
Sands 7
Navarro 2
Mitchell 5
Kershaw 1

Wow, this lineup is full of holes. First of all Ethier, Carroll, and Barajas are not in the lineup. Ethier and Barajas reportedly will not be going to the DL, but are sitting out tonight and I'm unsure if they are available at all. Miles is back in the lineup after suffering a rib strain. Luckily Hit Machine is at shortstop, because I doubt Miles will get to many balls (not like he does anyways). Gibbons is playing in right field for Dre. Let's hope that darn Texas wind doesn't mess with his contacts and the retractable roof is closed at Minute Maid Park for his sake. Mitchell will be at third base, and the utterly useless Navarro is behind the plate. Navarro only has 3 hits and is hitting .115. *shudder*
So Kemp is the lone player hitting anywhere close to .300 in this lineup, so don't expect much ya know hittin'.

They say "Everything is Bigger in Texas." Well, that doesn't apply to our lineup. Let's hope for the best! Go Blue:)