All By Himself

Andre Ethier is the lone bright spot in the sputtering Dodgers offense. He's putting together a pretty damn good year, having hit his 26th & 27th homers last night in Denver, hitting .290 with 87 RBI. (Nice of Joe to finally decide to hit him in front of Manny) The rest of them, in spite of a rare Loney home run last night, just stink. That's right. Manny, who did a great piece of hitting Tuesday night in the 9th to tie the game, stinks. At least compared to Manny Ramirez, he stinks. The new Manny - the steroid-free Manny, can no longer hit the ball over the fence. Not even in Mile high air. On top of that, his bat seems slow as molasses. What does that tell you? Meanwhile, Furcal continues to swing like a rusty gate, the O Do's bat has parvo and Kemp has been missing. But the main reason is the team, in spite of their win last night against Josh Fogg, the worst pitcher who's ever lived, pushing their lead to 3 games over the Mountains seems to have redefined the word, "complacency." I'm beginning to understand what the fiery Jeff Kent was talking about last year when he yelled at the youngsters in the clubhouse. With the exception of Ethier and a few guys, they play like they just don't care and it's showing in the standings. I'm curious to see how newcomer ass, Vicente Padilla does in his Dodger debut today against hot Rockies' resurrected hurler Jorge De la Rosa. If they win today, the Dodgers can go into Cincy with some confidence and a 4 game lead and a good shot at holding on to the lead in the West. If they lose, the Rockies will be in first place in the West one week from today. Needless to say, today's game is important.

The fact still remains, the Phils and the Cards are not getting any worse. They're getting better. Yes, Raul Ibanez is slumping, but so what? They have Utley, a hot Rollins, Howard, Werth and Victorino. They have Lee, Happ, Hamels and Blanton. Good team. The Cards? Cy Young candidates Carpenter and Wainwright, along with Joel Piniero and a middle of the lineup like the '27 Yankees. The Dodgers have a talented, but shaky Kershaw and Billingsley, a dizzy, headachy Hiroki Kuroda and a new found ace in Randy Wolf, who, I can gurantee you, will lose that ace status against teams like Philly and St. Louis. August 31st is Monday. That's the waiver trade deadline. Nothing short of Roy Oswalt, Dan Haren or Zack Greinke can help us now. Oh, and by the way, we can use a first baseman who can hit. Wonder if David Ortiz still has his mitt? Maybe even Lance Berkman is available. Doubt it. Barring a miracle, and there have been a few in baseball, they have no chance whatsoever in the playoffs, IF they get that far. So why am I still even bothering to watch, you ask? Well, someone has to write this blog.

My dad is at Cedars Sinai Medical Center for his 27th consecutive day. He's hanging in there but it's been a rough road. I believe the Dodgers come and visit that hospital and support some of their facilities. Odd, disappointing and frustrating that the huge, well known LA hospital doesn't carry Prime Ticket - the Dodgers' main cable channel on which most of their games are aired. My dad would like to attach some of his hope to the Dodgers and he'd like to hear Vin Scully.