A Phoenix Rises In Phoenix?

As I type, the Dodgers and DBacks are scoreless in the top of the 1st at Chase. I was wrong. There it is, I said it. Much to my surprise and delight, the Blue pulled it out last night. Doug Davis's ownership of them was at least temporarily halted and though Kuroda looked awful they managed an extremely rare 4 - count 'em- 4 home runs to win it in 11 innings. Being a Venice High School grad and having played ball there, it was mildly sad to see the winning home run given up by fellow Venice High alum, Doug Slaten, but that's what you get when you leave a ball up like that to a hittler like James Loney. But wait a minute... 2 HOME RUNS BY NOMAR??? And not only that, he's not even hurt??? Could it be that Nomar, like the great Thunderbird of legend has risen from the ashes, rejuvenated, restored, renewed, reinvigorated, revamped and renovated? Submitted for your approval, in spite of a marked lack of range, he's played a fairly seamless shortstop. In fact, he seems rather at home there. If Nomar can play a few more weeks before returning to his customary spot on the DL, it could give his hapless club a boost. Will Matt Kemp continue to go "K"less like he did in 6 at bats last night? ... nope. He struck out to lead off the game a few minutes ago.

In fact, in the bottom of the 1st, Conor Jackson has already hit a blast into the left field stands and O Dog (Orlando Hudson) has just hit a line drive to left which Delwynn Young horribly misjudged. He charged forward only to leap and have the ball go over his head. Pee Wee is playing for Andruw Jones who's out due to "flu-like" symptoms. Yeah, he's making us all sick to our stomachs having to watch him stink every day. Young is playing left and Kemp is in center and Billingsley looks like shee-ite, having just given up another double, this one to Chad Tracy. It's 2-zip, Snakes with one out in the 1st. I tell ya, Jones struck out twice before coming out of the game last night and I can almost guarantee if he stays in the game, he K's every at bat again. He is awful. They knew it in Atlanta when they let him go as a free agent, but the guy in LA didn't. I can safely say I've never seen a player have such a fine career and, then go south so definitively and aggressively. In fact, his .222 average last year with 26 HRs and 80 + ribbies are stellar numbers compared to what he's doing thus far in '08. On top of that, Jason Schmidt has been shut down again with a sore shoulder. Let me ask you something, people? Do ya think Ned Colletti should be allowed to keep his job?

Let's see what Donnie Baseball and new roving hitting instructor Jeff Pentland can do for them? By the way, I think it's a mistake to pull Chan Ho Park out of the starting rotation in favor of bad journeyman, Jason Johnson. The fact is, Dodger fans, baseball fans and people who just don't care, you can't just try to win the lousy Western Division. You need to try to beat the other playoff teams. Does this team have any chance whatsoever to do that? No as currently constituted. Haren, by the way, appears to be shutting them down. But, as Eric Karros would always say, "it's early."

Amazing play by Blakey DeWitt last night. That kid can pick it over at the hot corner. Sure wish he could bring his average up 20 points and hit some freakin' doubles. Gotta hand it to him though. He's supposed to be in Double A.

More Matt Holliday rumors, but the word is Captain America can't hit in the Ravine. Still, I like his game better than Jones'.

Congrats to the Cherubim for making a huge statement the last two days in Anaheim against the hated Bosox. Maybe Colletti can trade the Dodgers for the Angels in the biggest blockbuster deal in history.