It was a tough loss for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday night as they dropped game four of the NLCS by the score of 7-5. Heading into the eighth inning, the Dodgers had a 5-3 lead and things looked like they would be evening up the series with the Philadelphia Phillies at two games each. However, the Phillies had other ideas as they hit two two-run home runs in the inning to take the lead and go on and win the game by the score of 7-5.

Cory Wade and Jonathan Broxton each gave up a home run in the eighth inning as they pretty much blew the game for the team. Wade ended up getting the loss in the game.

Starting pitcher Derrek Lowe pitched ok but wasn’t as good as he usually is. Lowe tossed five innings and gave up six hits and two runs while striking out four batters. He allowed two first inning runs and then settled down after that.

Clayton Kershaw and Hong-Chih Kuo were both charged with giving up a run as well. Kershaw’s run actally came on a Chan Ho Park wild pitch in the sixth inning.

Four different Dodgers had one rbi each for the offense. Manny Ramirez, Casey Blake, Russell Martin, and James Loney each provided an rbi. The offense did enough in the game to pull out the win, the bullpen just didn’t do their job to secure the victory.

The two teams will be off on Tuesday and then pick things back up on Wednesday for game five of the series. This is a must win for the Dodgers as they have to win to send the series back to Philly. It will be tough as they will be going against Cole Hamels while they will counter with Chad Billingsley.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers find themselves down 2-0 in the best of seven series against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies used big innings in the second and third innings where they scored for runs in each inning to blow open the game and go onto win by the score of 8-5.

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 Los Angeles Dodgers clinched atleast a share of the West division on Wednesday night as they beat the San Diego Padres 12-4. Now all the Dodgers have to do is win one more game or have the Arizona Diamondbacks lose one game and the Dodgers will be the 2008 National League West Champions!

Manny Ramirez hit a two-run home run while Nomar Garciaparra added a solo home run of his own against the Padres. Matt Kemp, James Loney, and Angel Berroa joined Ramirez and Garciaparra with two rbi’s each in the game. Not to be left out, Andre Ethier and Chin-lung Hu both had one rbi in the game as well.

The Dodgers offense kept pressure on the Padres pitchers all night long as they scored runs off of five different Padres hurlers. Great job by the Dodgers bats!

Clayton Kershaw was the starting pitcher for the Dodgers and he tossed 5 2/3 innings but was pulled after giving up six hits and three runs. Kershaw struck out seven and walked two while picking up the win to improve to 5-5 on the year. Chan Ho Park gave up one run in relief but then Joe Beimel, Cory Wade, and Scott Proctor finished off the Padres.

The Dodgers will be looking for the division crown on Thusday night when they take on the Padres once again. Dodgers Blog

The Los Angeles Dodgers had to play extra innings on Thursday afternoon but it was well worth it as they came away with a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Great win for the Dodgers who needed to pick up a win as the Diamondbacks were getting closer in the standings.

James Loney singled in Russell Martin for the winning run in the top of the 13th inning. Earlier in the game Blake DeWitt had a two-run single and Matt Kemp scored on a infield single by Andre Ethier. I would have liked to see more offense out of the Dodgers but at this point in the season you will take a win any way you can get one.

Scott Proctor ended up picking up the win while Jonathan Broxton picked up his 14th save of the season. Clayton Kershaw pitched good during his five innings of action as he only gave up two hits and one run. However he was pulled and then Takashi Saito and Wade each gave up a run in relief.

The Dodgers will now head back to the West Coast as they will begin a series against the Giants on Friday. This is a must win series for the Dodgers so they can stay ahead of the Diamondbacks in the standings.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers had no problems with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night. The Dodgers whooped up on the Pirates by the score of 8-2. Scoring in five out of nine innings, they really put a lot of pressure on the young pirates team and they had no shot at coming back.

Hiroki Kuroda pitched seven innings to pick up the win and improve his record to 9-10. Takashi Saito and Brad Penny both tossed an inning of relief with Penny giving up two runs in the ninth inning on a Adam LaRoche home run.

James Loney went 2-4 and finished the game with three rbi to lead the team at the plate. Manny Ramirez had another good game as he went 3-4 and had two rbi. Blake DeWitt and Juan Pierre both finished up the scoring with one rbi each. Pierre actually hit his first home run of the season to account for his rbi.

The Dodgers are looking very strong and I don’t think they will have any problems winning the West division especially the way the dbacks have been playing.

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Manny Ramirez was awesome for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night against the San Diego Padres. Ramirez hit two two-run home runs that blew the game open in the late innings as the Dodgers went on to beat the Padres 7-2 as the two teams finished up their three game series. The Dodgers took two out of the three games and extended their divisional lead to 3.5 games over the Arizona Diamondbacks. I’d say it has been a very good couple of weeks for the Dodgers!

Ramirez finished the game with a team high four rbi. Russell Martin, James Loney, and starting pitcher Derek Lowe all contributed with one rbi each as well. It was a nice balanced offense for the Dodgers on Wednesday night as there were other players that helped out manny.

Lowe received the win after tossing 5 1/3 innings. Lowe would have pitched longer in the game except he was taken out due to an undisclosed injury to his right leg. Hopefully it isn’t too bad as it would be a big blow to lose Lowe for any amount of time.

Let’s hope the Dodgers can extend their lead this weekend as they play the Colorado Rockies in a three game weekend series.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers hit three home runs on Wednesday night but they still lost to the Washington Nationals. The Nationals were able to hold off the Dodgers for the 5-4 victory. Tough loss for the Dodgers because the Diamondacks also lost and they could have picked up a full game in the standings.

Greg Maddux got the start for the Dodger but he only lasted 5 1/3 innings and allowed eight hits and four runs. Maddux needed to throw the ball a little better then he did for the Dodgers to get the victory. Chan Ho Park sucked it up once again as he gave up another run in relief.

It was really too bad that the Dodgers hit three home runs but only scored three runs on them as they were all solo shots. James Loney, Casey Blake, and Andre Ethier all went deep in the game. Blake also added on a rbi single in the eighth inning.

The Dodgers will need to win on Thursday to avoid the embarassing sweep by the Nationals.

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First off, sorry for the lack of updates as things have been busy around here.  The blog will hopefully have someone writing game recaps here in the near future on almost a daily basis.  In the mean time, please bear with us!

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.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies combined to scored 26 runs on Monday night as the two teams played in a slugfest at Coors Field.  The Dodgers had jumped out to a 16-4 lead after five innings but the Rockies didn’t back down and scored the next six runs of the game as they kept chipping their way back.  Luckily for the Dodgers, there are only nine innings in a game and the Rockies ran out of time.

What I found interesting was that the Dodgers scored 16 runs at Coors Field but they did not hit one home run!  It was a lot of run scoring singles and doubles that scored most of the Dodgers runs.  James Loney went 3-6 and had five rbi in the game to lead the team at the plate.  Andre Ethier, Jeff Kent, and Angel Berroa all had two rbi each to chip in.  Matt Kemp, Russell Martin, Andy LaRoche, and Eric Stults all contributed with one rbi each.  The Dodgers should have probably scored even more runs but they left 22 runners on base.

The pitching staff was kind of dissappointing as all five pitchers were charged with atleast one run.  Starting pitcher Stults lasted just 3 2/3 innings as he was rocked for six hits and three runs.  Stults gave up a solo home run to Matt Holliday as well.  Brian Falkenborg and Joe Beimel both were charged with one run each.  Cory Wade pitched two innings and gave up three runs.  Hong-Chih Kuo gave up two more runs in the bottom of the ninth inning before he was finally able to get the last out.  Falkenborg ended up getting the victory and is now 2-2 on the year.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers took a beating from the bats of the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday night.  The Braves came out swinging and defeated the Dodgers 9-3 to even the three game series at one game each.

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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