Red Hot One Hundred

Red Hot One Hundred is not only Viewtiful Joe's special move, but could be used to describe Randy Wolf's amazing month where he has won 5 straight decisions and finally earning his 100th career win. He was amazing through 7 innings and has been the best starting pitcher on the Dodgers pitching staff both both sides of the ball. The hope now is that Wolf will be the Kuroda of this year and finish strong and dominate in the playoffs as well. Because the way Billingsley has been pitching and bad luck that Kershaw has been getting in the run-support department, I would promote Wolf to be the 1st or 2nd pitcher if the playoffs started today.

You have to ride the horse that is hot, especially during the playoffs. What Billingsley did in the beginning of the season doesn't matter if he doesn't rediscover it soon. If the playoffs started today, I would go with Wolf, Billingsley, Kershaw, and Garland (and Kuroda to round off the 5 in case the Dodgers make it to the NLCS). Right now, our top 2 of Billingsley and Kershaw is not better than the Cards (Wainwright, Carpenter), Phillies (Lee, Hamels), and Giants (Lincecum and Cain). Sure they have greater potential than the other combos, but that is because they haven't even come close to reaching their full potential. That is not good if you want to win now.


Of course, the problem with the team now that they are in a slump is the offense hasn't been producing run despite getting a lot of base hits. They still suffer from mad situational hitting and making unproductive outs with runners on base. Sacrifices are something this team cannot take for granted. I feel the Angels are much better at playing small ball despite being a power hitting team. Unfortunately, the Dodgers don't have someone like Chone Figgins, one of my favorite offensive players. Not only is he a pretty good contact hitter, Figs is also an excellent bunter with nice speed. Of course, the Dodgers don't have the luxury of squandering opportunities in the playoffs, especially if they face off against pitchers like Wainwright, Carpenter, Lee, Hamels, and probably Lincecum and Cain. Get hot soon, or go home.

Oops I've Fallen

The Rockies are now 4 games back. Despite a critical defensive mistake by Rafael Furcal, Broxton sealed the deal as the Dodgers gained another game on the second place Rox. Hopefully, their bats will aid them at another spacious ballpark, the Great American in Cincinnati. Best case scenario, the Blue Crew could be 7 games by weeks end.

Despite not having the best offensive showing at Coors Field, the pitching, once again, held the opposition in check. Newly acquired Vicente Padilla pitched well. The spot-starters have all pitched well for the team this season. When Kuroda does make it back soon, the Dodgers will have quite a dilemma in their rotation, especially if Haeger and Padilla continues to pitch well. Once again, you can't complain with having too many effective players on the team.

Nothing more for tonight.

Finally!!!

Photo by Jack Dempsey, AP

After bashing James Loney last night, he finally made me eat my words, at least for one night. The Garbage Man hit a 3-run home run in the fourth inning, his first since July 10th, or last time the swallows came back to San Juan Capistrano. Ethier had his 6th multi-homer game of the season, hitting his 26th and 27th, and could go .300/30/100 this season. Wolf pitched another masterpiece and earned his third victory in a row, this time without having to provide his own run support. After Kershaw had a wonderful month and a half, Wolf has been the proxy ace in the pitching staff in August, especially with the injury to Kuroda and disappearance of early-season Billingsley.

The Dodgers push the Rockies back to 3 games and have a chance to push them all the way back to 4 games by winning the rubber-game tomorrow.

"We look at it as all the pressure's on them. They're supposed to win the division. They were up by 15 1/2 . We're just messing around, I guess." -Troy Tulowitzki

Oh Troy. If the Rockies lose tomorrow, they could see their run cut short. Since the Jim Tracy has taken over, the Rockies have not hit a wall yet. That wall could come really soon. After tomorrow's game, they face the best of the Giants pitching staff, Lincecum, Cain, and a resurgent Zito at San Francisco, where the Giants have been swallowing up every team that they played against. Meanwhile, the Dodgers face the Reds on the road, and hopefully could get their licks against Homer Bailey and Bronson Arroyo. If somehow, the Dodgers take tomorrow's matinee and 2 out of 3 from the Reds, and the Rockies lose 3 out of the 3 from the Giants, the lead would be 6 games going into the final month of the season. If that should happen, the Rockies would have the Giants and Marlins chasing them down in the wildcard race.

Karmic Balance

After a horrible night of watching Dodgers pitcher Hiroki Kuroda get hit in the side of the head by a comeback line drive and having them eventually blowing their lead and losing the game, Sunday proved to be the the karmic equalizer to the Saturday blues.

Hiroki Kuroda was released from the hospital without any major injuries and was clear to fly back with the team for their next homestand. Randy Wolf, who have been plagued by bad luck this season, responded by singlehandedly winning the game for a slumping Dodgers team. He pitched into the 8th inning, giving up 3 runs. Even more impressive, Wolf did most of his damage with his bat by amassing three hits, including a homer and 3 RBIs, and came within a triple of hitting for a cycle.

For more on my Sunday, please visit my blog: an Infinite Saga.

Kuroda hit in the head

Hiroki Kuroda was hit in the side of the head on a comeback liner off the bat of Diamondbacks' pinch hitter Rusty Ryal in the bottom of the sixth inning. He was carried off on a stretch and was carted off the field, and taken off to nearby St Joseph hospital.

No Mercy

One night after having a 9th inning rally come 1 run short against the Brewers, the Dodgers made sure that this game would not require any late-inning heroics. The Blue Crew crushed the Brew Crew 17 to 4, scoring 9 earned runs off starter, Yovani Gallardo, and 8 more off their bullpen. If there was any doubt that Manny's hand was bothering him, all doubts were negated tonight, as he had a solo homer and a 2-run double down the line. It was his first run-batted-in since his pinch hit home run on his bobblehead night over 2 weeks ago.

Everyone in the lineup had their licks against the Brewers pitching staff, even Guillermo Mota. But most importantly, the Duck Dodgers favorite, Matt Kemp, had 4 hits, including a 2-run homer off R.J. Swindle to deep center to add insult to injury. The Bison had led the club with 5 RBIs.

Hiroki Kuroda had to get himself out of several jams and was finally hit up for 3 runs in the top of the 5th inning to trim the deficit to 1. However, the Dodgers put up 13 unanswered runs starting with Manny's solo shot. After struggling for runs for many games after the All-Star break, the Dodgers offense have scored 20 runs in the past 9 innings, including their 3 run rally last night.

The game got so out of hand, I was just collection Vin Scully zingers for most of the rout. Here are some of my favorites for the night:

"Strike out on that and you have been Swindled" (referring to Swindle's 52mph breaking ball)

"...and the beer has gone flat here."

"Since we have a no game right now..." (before discussing Trevor Hoffman's history against bases loaded jams)

Kemp 4, Astros 3

Rarely can you say that one guy singlehandedly won the game in the sport of baseball, but Matt Kemp showed that his career-high 4 runs were enough to take the final game of the series against the Houston Astros. Ever since being put into the Final Vote ballot, Kemp has been impressing fans on both sides of the ball. Today, he went 3-3, stole a base, scored 3 runs, and hit the game winning home run on the bottom of the 8th, allowing the Dodgers to fuel another comeback and win another one-run game. His homer was a massive blast to left-center, measuring about 450 feet.

The bottom of the lineup did all of the damage for the Comeback Kids. Andre Ethier, Brad Ausmus, and Kemp accounted for all of the team's hits. Ausmus had 2 timely doubles and 2 RBI filling in very well defensively and offensively for Russell Martin. Hiroki Kuroda looked very shaky in 5 innings of work, as his pitches weren't fulling anyone in the Astros lineup. He was fortunate not to give up more than the 3 runs he gave up in the 3rd inning.

It was another hot day at the ballpark, as I kept drinking a lot of fluids to keep from getting heatstroke. But I was glad to finally witness a late-inning comeback in person. This is my 3rd blog posting about Matt Kemp, so I might as well be joining the Kemp and also the Clayton Kershaw fan club.

Speaking of Clayton, he had another magnificent pitching performance last night, picking up his 5th straight win with his 7 shutout innings. By far, these two youngsters have carried the load for this team for the past month. Kershaw has given up 4 earned runs in the past 7 outtings (42-2/3 innings). In that same stretch, Chad Billingsley has not won a game in 6 tries, including losing 2 of them, and allowing 25 earned runs in the last 33-1/3 innings. Very interesting numbers to consider for fans and observers.

Anyways, I will be at the game tomorrow to watch the return of Jason Schmidt, our highest paid player in the pitching rotation.