LAst Night's Action: The Misery Continues

San Francisco Giants' Pablo Sandoval, left, is greeted by teammate Aubrey Huff, right, after hitting a home run off Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Chad Billingsley during the fourth inning of their baseball game in San Francisco, Monday, July 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

The first pitch Chad Billingsley made in the bottom of the fourth inning went a couple of feet short of being deposited into McCovey Cove. Nonetheless there was no doubt that ball was a home run from the instant it left Pablo Sandoval’s bat. And there was never any doubt that despite the Giants only taking a 1-0, there would be no way for the Dodgers to mount a recovery.

But that does seem to fit in with the motifs of the season: offensive ineptitude and hopelessness. It’s not like the Dodgers can’t get runners on base. Even when they can’t hit, they still can manage that. Take the third inning when they had Billingsley on second and Rafael Furcal on first thanks to an error. Aaron Miles struck out swinging.

Then the Dodgers started hitting in the fourth inning thanks to back-to-back one-out singles by Matt Kemp and Juan Rivera. With the runners on the corners, James Loney grounded into a double play. All in all the Dodgers went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

And just so even a casual fan won’t get any illusions about having any hope for the Dodgers, Billingsley gives up a four-run sixth inning.

The Dodgers are bad. That much is understood by everyone. General Manager Ned Colletti’s deals have been fire-able offenses (see: Matt Guerrier’s three-year, $12 million deal; the albatrosses of Andruw Jones, Jason Schmidt and Juan Pierre.) But rather than focus on the past, let’s get Colletti to bring in some help.

Oh wait. The Dodgers can’t afford to pay players because they’re bankrupt. Their owner preferred to be the new-money litigation-happy East Coast yuppie scum than give two shits about Dodger fans. All he cares about is his ego in his fights with his ex-wife and Bud Selig. As a result, the best that Colletti could do was bringing Juan Rivera from the Toronto Blue Jays to be the tenth player this season to play left field for the Dodgers.

The franchise is burning in flames all around him. True he’s not playing the fiddle, but he might as well be. Instead of doing what’s best for the Dodgers and selling the franchise, he wants to drag the Dodgers down into the cesspool with him. And just to add insult to injury, the Pittsburgh Pirates look like a model franchise compared to the Dodgers: at least they’re in first place in their division.

But the Dodgers continue to play on. They wound up losing to the Giants 5-0.

TONIGHT’S ACTION

Texas Rangers at LA Angels. 7:05 p.m. KCOP, AM 830 KLAA.

LA Dodgers at San Francisco Giants. 7:15 p.m. KCAL9, AM 790 KABC.