Nobody? That’s what I thought.

Show of hands — how about the pitching?

Whoa, whoa! Really? You all think the pitching is going to be a problem? Why is that?

Is it because our Opening Day starter in Hiroki Kuroda had a sub-.500 record last season? Ah, but how quickly one forgets the lack of offense that plagued him and the Dodgers the entire season. ‘Roki still amassed an ERA of 3.73 on the season and proved to be a warrior in the postseason.

What about the presumed staff ace in Chad Billingsley? You’re probably still worried about the leg injury. I don’t blame you. But he looked more than solid in the exhibition game against Milwaukee. Besides, he claims to be 100-percent. He is still young, so its not as if he will be declining from his 3.14 ERA last season. All Billingsley needs to work on is being economical with his pitches and the question will not be if he can win, but if he is beatable at all.

Kershaw — “He’s got a bad case of the yips,” said a few contemporaries of mine. Yeah? The numbers last year really showed his ineffectiveness, didn’t they? He may not have the pinpoint control of Greg Maddux, but that’s not necessarily the formula for success — well, not the ONLY formula. Vin Scully said it best. Kershaw is “effectively wild.” Think Rick Vaughn from the “Major League” series. You know the 96 mph fastball is coming at you, but where? It could be right over the plate or it could be coming literally right at you. Throw in the Zito-esque curveball and young Clayton is quite a force on the mound.

Upset about the Randy Wolf experiment? Realize he is a fourth starter, not your staff ace. I would gladly take 12 wins and an ERA around four from my fourth starter and that’s exactly what Wolf will bring.

James McDonald — who? One of the few bright spots in the NLCS for the Dodgers (up there with Manny Ramirez and the infamous Shane Victorino incident), McDonald breezed through his postseason relief appearances without giving up a single run. Not that he will become the next Orel Hershiser (the scoreless streak), but a Rookie of the Year wouldn’t be out of the question for the fomer minor league pitcher of the year.

The Dodgers offense struggled the entire night against Hamels. Three errors by Rafael Furcal sure didn’t help either. The only offense on the night was as solo home run by Manny Ramirez when he went yard in the sixth inning. The game could have been different except everytime Manny came up to bat, no one was on base. He has to have runners our there for the home runs and singles to really matter.

Blake DeWitt had a terrible game and series at the plate. He twice grounded into double plays that killed rallies.

Starting pitcher Chad Billingsley struggled from the get go. He only lasted 2 2/3 innings as he was charged with four hits and three runs. He walked three batters and also gave up solo home run. Jimmy Rollins took him deep in the first inning and things only got worse from there.

Greg Maddux also gave up two runs in relief. However, those three errors we mentioned before by Furcal really hurt Maddux so it wasn’t all his fault.

So now we head into the off season wondering what management will do with Ramirez and Furcal. Will Ramirez except a 2-3 year deal? I really doubt it but time will tell. What do you think?

Chad Billingsley struck out four of the first six batters he faced, but quickly ran into trouble after fanning Pat Burrell and Jayson Werth in the second. Greg Dobbs hit a soft single up the middle and scored when Carlos Ruiz hit a double to left-center. Myers lined the next pitch to right-center to drive in Ruiz and give the Phillies a 2-1 lead. Jimmy Rollins bounced a single up the middle and Myers chugged toward third. Matt Kemp misplayed the ball in center field or he could’ve thrown Myers out to end the inning. Rollins hustled into second on the play. Shane Victorino followed with a two-run single to left-center to make it 4-1.

Billingsley also was charged with the four runs in the third inning when he gave up a two-run rbi single to Myers and and left runners on base for Chan Ho Park who entered the game in relief. Park then gave up a two-run triple to Victorino for the final two Phillies runs.

Manny Ramirez led the offense once again as he went 1-4. His one hit however was a three-run home run that got the team back in the game in the fourth inning. After the home run, the score was 8-5 but the Dodgers were unable to score over the final six innings to draw closer. James Loney and Blake DeWitt each had a rbi as well for the Dodgers.

It is time to go back to the drawing board if you ask me. The team is down 0-2 as they head back to Los Angeles for the next two and hopefully three games of the series. Hiroki Kuroda will take the mound for the Dodgers against Jamey Moyer and the Phillies. Hopefully the offday on Saturday will do the team good and they will bounce back with a victory on Sunday.

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The Dodgers took advantage of four cubs errors in the game on Thursday night as they came away with a 10-3 victory. Russell Martin made the Cubs pay in the second inning after they commited two errors. Martin cleared the bases with a three-run double which gave the Dodgers a 5-0 lead and they never looked back.

Manny Ramirez hit his second home run of the series as well in the game as the Dodgers clobbered the Cubs in pretty much every was shape and form.

Chad Billingsley was lights out as he pitched 6 1/3 innings while limiting the Cubs to only one run. Billingsley struck out seven while only walking one. Takashi Saito was charged with three hits and two runs in the ninth inning when the Cubs attempted to come back from the large deficit but they were unable to do so. Jonathan Broxton came into the game and finished off the Cubs rally by getting all three outs in the inning.

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Chad Billingsley pitched six innings and gave up seven hits and three runs. Billingsley took the loss as he received to run support and is now 12-10 on the season. He had some control issues as he walked five Phillies and struck out three others. Chan Ho Park had a bad seventh inning as he gave up three hits and two more runs that pretty much put the game out of reach for the Dodgers.

The Dodgers offense left an outrages number of runners on base in the game. Thirty-two runners were left on the bases for the Dodgers and right there is why the did not score any runs. Talk about not being productive at the plate and coming up with a key hit when you really need one. Ten strikeouts sure don’t help either.

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Jonathan Broxton was the losing pitcher as he gave up the winning run in the ninth inning. Broxton is now 3-5 on the season. Dodgers starting pitcher Chad Billingsley gave up five hits and two runs over six innings of action to get a no decision. Chan Ho Park pitched two innings of relief and gave up two hits and one run.

In the first inning when the Dodgers scored all three of their runs, Matt Kemp had a rbi single and then Nomar Garciaparra and Russell Martin both scored on an error by Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.

The Dodgers need to beat the Rockies on Thursday to avoid the three game sweep. They also need to win the game as they are now two games back of the league leading Diamondbacks.

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On Wednesday night, the Dodgers finished off a three game series with the Giants and they shut them out 4-0.  After losing the first game of the series, the Dodgers game back to win the final two and win the overall series.  That is what they have to do if they want to stay in this playoff race.

Chad Billingsley was awesome against the Giants as he tossed a complete game five hitter and shut them Giants down.  He did not walk a batter and struckout eight others.  The Giants pretty much looked lost at the plate against him.  Hopefully the other Dodgers pitchers can follow what Chad did.

Russell Martin had two – two run singles while Jeff Kent added a rbi double and James Loney a rbi sac fly.  That is how the Dodgers scored all four of their runs in the first three innings of the game.  One run in the first inning, and then three more in the third inning.  The way Billingsley was dealing, he didn’t need much scoring from the offense.

So hopefully our new Dodgers blogger will start soon, and if not I won’t be able to update the site until around August 12th as I have to head to a couple of computer conferences in Chicago.  If there is another Dodgers fan out there that would like to write game recaps (4-5 a week) can you please email me by clicking the contact us link at the top of the site.  I will have access to my email and will reply with more details.

Thanks

Dodgers starting pitcher Chad Billingsley gave up six runs on six hits in only 5 1/3 innings of action.  Five of the six runs were earned and charged to Billingsley as he took the loss and dropped to 8-8 on the season.  Billingsley struck out eight batters but also had control issues as he walked four others.

Ramon Troncoso pitched 1 2/3 innings without giving up a run but then Joe Beimel gave up three hits and a run and Cory Wade allowed two more runs to score in the ninth inning.  It just wasn’t a good night to be a Dodgers pitcher.

James Loney had a rbi double in the in the sixth inning that score Andre Ethier for the Dodgers first run of the game.  The Dodgers did not score again until the ninth inning when Delwyn Young scored on a rbi groundout by Nomar Garciaparra.  Loney also scored on that play when Kelly Johnson committed a throwing error.

The Dodgers just didn’t play good and most of the blame has to go on the pitching staff.  Will they get it together and come back and get a victory on Wednesday?

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Chad Billinglsey got the start on the mound for the Dodgers but only pitched 6 1/3 inning while he gave up five hits and one run.  It was good enough to get the win, but it would have been nice to see Chad throw a few more innings and save the bullpen.

Joe Beimel and Jonathan Broxton both pitched in relief of Billinglsey and they both did a great job by not allowing any runs to score.  Takashi Saito came in closed things down in the ninth to record his ninth save of the season.  That is exactly what you want your bullpen to do.

The one run in the game came in the fourth inning on a Andy LaRoche solo home run.  Other then that one hit, the Dodgers struggled all game long and never made much of a threat to the Padres.

Chad Billingsley took the loss after pitching seven innings and giving up eight hits and all four of the Padres runs.  Billingsley gave up two home runs early in the game which was a supirse because it is so hard to hit home runs at Petco.  Hong-Chih Kuo pitched the eighth inning and did not have any problems for the Dodgers.

The Doders and Padres will play on Thursday which will be the rubber game of the three game series.

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