Arizona

Well, whenever you can go into Phoenix and beat the D'backs 2 out of 3, you have to be pleased. In spite of young James McDonald's 3rd inning implosion Friday night, they managed to come back Saturday and destroy Arizona pitching, following a few solid innings from Brandon Webb replacement, Yusmeiro Petit while, out of nowhere, Eric Stults comes in fro New Mexico and pitches a gem and Randy Wolf looks like a Cy Young candidate yesterday afternoon. For the last few years, Stults has been one of those guys who gets a call up, pitches great, looks like he's ready, then goes out there and stinks so badly, it looks like he's doomed to be a career minor leaguer. The 28 year-old looked poised. Some of his stuff looked downright nasty. Could it be that, in spite of a poor spring training while mourning the death of his mother, that Eric is finally ready to be a big league pitcher? Maybe even fill that spot in the rotation for which James McDonald may not be quite ready? We'll see. Stults'll start again later this week. As for Wolf, I'm afraid it's typical. A poor outing, a great outing. If his next start follows along with his usual pattern, it should be a mediocre to poor outing. The Dodgers really need Wolf to string together some wins and be confident and consistent. He's never been anything more than a number 3 or 4 caliber starter. Maybe he can turn it up a notch in '09. He certainly has great stuff. The bats? Well, they had the 11 run game Saturday, but they've been kind of flat with the exception of Kemp, Hudson, Loney and Manny. And Manny's power swing still isn't quite there. No homers yet. They'll be there soon enough. Blake has a couple but he looks awful otherwise. Russell Martin looks terrible. Ethier and Furcal look close to breaking out. We'll see.