Did anyone feel that earthquake and aftershock last night at around 6:30? According to seismologists the epicenter was the first baseline at Shea Stadium in Queens, NY. The rumbles started after the newest oldest Dodger pitcher David Wells laid a bunt down the third baseline and tromped to first base to beat out the throw.

The aftershock occurred later in the inning when Matt Kemp hit a bloop single to right field. David Wells came charging home to score only his seventh run in his entire career.

It’s amazing that I could feel that rumbling from New York and not the two shakers we had recently in Chatsworth.

The Dodgers have a certain way of making me look like a complete asshole. Just when I proclaim that it would take a miracle for the Dodgers to make the postseason, the offense explodes as if some saintly being was guiding them in the outfield. You know, they should make a movie about that.

Against the Phillies on Wednesday the Dodgers scored 15 runs in an obvious show of laziness since a horrible Texas Rangers team put up 30 runs on the Baltimore Orioles the same day.

Thursday afternoon saw the Dodgers become even more apathetic with a mere five runs scored. It’s by the grace of Shiva they were able to win both games.

As of Thursday evening they are still 2 ½ games out of the wild card lead, however with the Atlanta Braves tanking they only have the Padres and Phillies to overcome.

Since it’s been obvious the Dodgers are not quite comfortable winning, they go and sabotage everything.

Someone at work came up to me the other day sounding very optimistic about the Dodgers.

“They’ve been winning games again,” he said. “They have a chance to get to the playoffs.”

I really don’t like being the party pooper, but sometimes a situation dictates it.

“Look,” I replied, “How many teams are in front of them in the wild card?”

“Well there are the Padres, Phillies and Braves.”

“And don’t forget about the Rockies, Cub and Brewers that are just on the Dodger’s heels,” I added. “Now with this clusterfuck of a race, do you think all of those teams will tank at the same time the Dodgers start winning?”

And so the conversation went on for another 15 minutes.

Former Dodger Jose Offerman got hit by a pitch in the leg during a minor league game Tuesday night and he ran to the mound with his bat. Offerman, who in his heyday was a .300 hitter, swung and hit the Bridgeport Bluefish pitcher Matt Beech in his non-throwing hand and also got some of the catcher with this second swing.

The 38-year-old Offerman came up through the Dodger farm system and was an All-Star shortstop for Los Angeles in 1995 now plays for the Long Island Ducks in the Atlantic League in the minors. Offy's comeback might be stalled by the meltdown, subsequent arrest, and probable banishment.

"It was one of those moments that you want to forget. I lost it for about 10 seconds," Offerman told the Connecticut Post. "That's what happened to me. I didn't have any intentions and I feel sorry for what happened and the way it happened."

Bridgeport catcher John Nathans got a concussion that's likely to sideline him for the rest of the season. Pitcher Matt Beech wound up with a broken finger.

"I called [Atlantic League executive director] Joe Klein immediately after the incident and told him what had occurred on the field," Bridgeport Bluefish CEO Mary-Jane Foster told the Connecticut Post. "And I have asked that the Atlantic League suspend Jose Offerman from the league for life." - ESPN

Dodger fans will never forget San Francisco's Juan Marichal hitting Dodgers catcher John Roseboro in the head with the bat. It's an infamous part of history that no one wants to revisit, yet here we are. And although Marichal and Roseboro became friends after their fight, it is probably best of Offerman simply becomes a former pro, because there's nothing professional about what went down Tuesday.

AP Photo/Connecticut Post, Christian Abraham

The Dodgers hitters shortened up their swings. They were a bit more patient at the plate. They hit with runners in scoring position. And most importantly of all the Dodgers won a game!

In fact Tubby got the first victory for a Dodger’s starting pitcher since July 26th when he posted a 5-4 at Colorado.

Now Tubby didn’t have his best stuff. The Astros managed to get 10 hits off of him in six innings, but he minimized the damage only giving up three earned runs.

It’s a good thing because he left the game still trailing 3-1. But in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Dodgers offense came to life when Juan Pierre and Matt Kemp singled to open up the frame. James Loney would hit a sacrifice fly to score in Pierre, and Russell Martin hit a two-run homer, his second homer of the night. At 4-3 it was the Dodgers first lead of the night which they wouldn’t relinquish.

A point of concern for the team now is Rafael Furcal. In the seventh inning, he tweaked his already injured left ankle and was visibly limping when he was crossed home plate. He’s not going to sit out any games nor go on the DL, but it may hinder his production at the plate and at shortstop.

As thrilling as the victory was, I’m still concerned about plate discipline. While it was great they chased Jason Jennings out of the game, he had only thrown 84 pitches. Until that sixth inning most of the hitters were getting behind on the count rendering them pretty much useless.

So they won a game which is good, but I’m not going to call this a turning point or other such gibberish. I'm not ready to buy into the team again.

It’s up to the Dodgers to keep this up. But at least for one night I won’t have to lose sleep over a boneheaded base running error.

AP Photo by Mark J. Terrill

I know I said I wouldn't do a write up on this game, but what happened in the ninth inning just can't be left unsaid.

Picture this.

Andre Ethier doubled to right, and then moves to third on a wild pitch during Shea Hillenbrand's at bat. Hillie walks. Mark Sweeney hits a pinch-hit single that scores Andre Ethier. THE DODGERS SCORE ON A HIT WITH A RUNNER IN SCORING POSITION!!!! Dodger's are still losing 7-4.

Brad Lidge enters the game in relief and strikes out Rafael Furcal. One out.

Juan Pierre comes up to bat and pops a ball behind home plate in foul territory. Two outs right? Oh the play doesn't end there.

After a couple of seconds while first baseman Lance Berkman jumping up and down screaming to catcher Brad Ausmus to throw him the ball, douchebag Sweeney makes no attempt to go back to first. In fact he's still moving towards second base.

Ausmus throws to Berkman and doubles up the douche. Three outs. End of game. Even a complete idiot like Wilton Guerrero wouldn't have made that tee-ball mistake.

So how will the Dodgers lose tomorrow?

AP Photo by Mark Avery

I don't usually do a pre-write for a game, but since I won't be writing about the game tonight I just needed to put in my two cents.

Nomar is sent to the DL with a strained left calf which means today is the start of the Shea Hillenbrand era. Excuse me if my optimism has died like my faith in the Democrats.

To further muddle things, Grady inexplicably has put Juan Pierre back in the two spot while dropping Russell Martin to the six spot.

The line up according to Inside the Dodgers:

Furcal, SS
Pierre, CF
Kemp, RF
Kent, 2B
Loney, 1B
Martin, C
Ethier, LF
Hillenbrand, 3B
Tomko, P

It's going to be a long long night.

AP Photo by Chris Pizzello

Now it’s so pathetic it’s just plain funny.

Last week Grady Little was quoted as saying that the team had hit rock bottom. Obviously he didn’t see what lie ahead.

Now that the Dodgers have a firm grip of fourth place in the NL West, it looks like the offense has completely collapsed. I knew that there would be games where the Dodgers wouldn’t be able to score since they have no power, but never in my imagination did I think the Dodgers would go into a slump of this magnitude.

What really kills me is the Dodgers have had opportunities to get into games. Of all of their losses, only one was a loss by more than three runs: their Sunday afternoon 12-2 loss against the St. Louis Cardinals. All it would have taken was a hit here, a hit there, and the Dodgers would have won those games.

So how did the Dodgers attempt to get out of their slump and not embarass themselves in front of a national audience?

My did the Dodgers look horrible in their 5-1 loss against the Cardinals today. For that reason, I’m going to look forward to the future of the Dodger organization.

One hope for optimism lies in 19-year old left handed pitcher Clayton Kershaw. With the single-A Great Lake’s Loons of the Midwest League, Kershaw struck out 134 batters in 97.1 innings pitched, a 2.77 ERA, 12.39 strikeouts per nine innings pitched and 1.25 walks and hits per innings pitched. Unfortunately he did give up 50 walks which indicates he still needs to work on his location.

Kershaw was just called up to AA Jacksonville this past Monday. If he keeps working on his pitches, he should come up in the next two years. He was picked by the Dodgers in the first round of the 2006 draft and looks to be the future ace of the team.

A prospect that’s a bit closer to being in the big leagues is right handed pitcher Jonathan Meloan. He’s pitched 57 innings with 81 strikeouts, 21 walks, a 2.05 ERA, 12.79 K/9 and 0.95 WHIP. Opponents are hitting only .166 against him. During Ned Colletti's web chat on Tuesday he did mention Meloan has a chance of making the team when rosters expand on September 1.

What will it take for the Dodgers to score a run?

I’ll give Grady Little some credit in tweaking the lineup a little in Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to the Reds. Juan Pierre was the leadoff batter with Rafael Furcal hitting second. Andre Ethier was put in the fifth spot, and Luis Gonzalez was given the night off.

But that’s about all the credit I’ll give him for now.

Something that absolutely confuses me is why Jeff Kent wasn’t told to bunt with runners of first and third with one out in the fourth inning. I know that Kent has the ability to rip a double, but with the Dodgers struggling to score why not go with that approach?

Or how about in the eighth inning when James Loney led off the inning with a double? Matt Kemp ended up lining out sharply to second which doubled off Loney. Why not have Kemp bunt Loney over to third?

Coming into Tuesday night’s game the Dodgers were 58-53 and the Cincinnati Reds were 47-64. The Dodgers were still in striking distance for the division title, and the Reds had the third worst record in all of baseball.

It was this horrible Reds team that shut out the Dodgers. This would be the third game in the last four games the Dodgers have put up a goose egg.

Count it: in the last 19 innings the Dodgers have gotten 15 hits and no runs. NOTHING.

And if this keeps going, after September 30 the Dodgers will have nothing.

Right now the Dodgers are a horrible horrible team, and watching them is like living a scene from A Clockwork Orange. I would rather be forced to watch those awful Dane Cook MLB postseason commercials on repeat than watch a Dodger’s game right now.

Part of the problem is how obstinate Grady Little is. Why is Andre Ethier, one of the hottest hitters the Dodgers have had as of late, hitting in the seventh or eighth spot? Why is Russell Martin not tied down to a chair in the clubhouse?

Tony LaRussa over the weekend decided to have his pitcher hit in the eighth spot in order to hopefully get some spark out of the offense. At this point, perhaps Grady Little should follow suit in doing something drastic to get something out of the team. And by drastic, I don’t mean having the team’s most ineffective offensive player in Olmedo Saenz to hit fourth.

But change up the lineup. Do something.

Because right now with 50 games left to go, being patient is not working.

AP Photo by Al Behrman

The Dodgers made a better showing of things Friday night against the Diamondbacks.

The game ended up being a good pitcher’s duel between Chad Billingsley and the D-Back’s Doug Davis. Bills ended up making one mistake, an eighth inning lead off homer to Chris Snyder which was the only offense mustered by either team.

Bills tamed a D-Back’s locomotive that had won 10 of their last 12 games, five of which they scored seven or more runs. He did not allow a base runner to get past first base with the exception of Snyder on the home run.

The offense was a whole other story.

Olmedo Saenz proved to me Thursday night that he has outlived his usefulness. That strikeout in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded against the Giants made me sick to my stomach.

Since July 1, Saenz has appeared in 18 games and has exactly one hit. For the season he has a batting average of .179, an on-base percentage of .294, four doubles, three homers, 14 walks and 21 strikeouts.

Call me crazy, but I think it’s time to bid the so-called Killer Tomato adieu. But naturally Grady Little is patient to a fault, which is why Saenz started Friday night.

Although I’m not ready to throw in the towel quite yet, if something doesn’t happen soon the Dodgers' season will be over.

AP Photo by Mark J. Terrill

The word for the day is picayune. The main definition of picayune according to Dictionary.com is "of little value or account; small; trifling."

To use it in a sentence: The Dodger's offense in Thursday night's 4-2 loss against the Giants was picayune.

It's taken over 19 hours for the bad taste of the game to leave my mouth. Hell, I've even had to use a dictionary to describe it other than "fucking pathetic".

Where do I start?

Let's try the 11 hits, all of which were singles except for Andre Ethier's double in the seventh inning, that batted in zero runs. The two runs were scored on a bases-loaded walk and a bases-loaded ground out by Luis Gonzalez in the ninth inning.

How about the 13 runners left on base seven of which were in scoring position?

How about Brett Tomko's 43-pitch first inning in which the Giants batted around the lineup?

How about Grady Little mismanaging the team yet again and putting in rally-killer Olmedo Saenz as a pinch hitter with the bases loaded?

Last night the Dodgers made the last place Giants look like a juggernaut. And just writing about this right now is raising my blood pressure.

I hope the Dodgers will have a better series against the D-Backs this weekend. I hope the Dodgers find their identity, because right now it's getting really tiring to repeat the same "bad pitching, bad offense" song.

AP Photo by Mark J. Terrill

That was just plain pathetic.

Here you have a bad Giant’s team with aging position players and suspect pitching. The Dodgers could only manage one run off of five hits while giving up three runs off of 10 hits and an error in Tuesday night’s loss.

The sad thing is nothing the Dodgers have been doing since the Mets series at home would indicate they would muster any sort of production anywhere.

They lost two of three games at home to the Mets, two of three to the abysmal Houston Astros and two of three to the mediocre Colorado Rockies.

It’s time for the Dodgers to wake up from whatever coma they are in.

After the All Star break last year, they went lethargic and had to rely on blistering August where they won 17 of 18 games. Even then they barely squeaked into the playoffs earning a wild card berth.

The Dodgers on paper are the best team in the division. They have the capability of producing offense as opposed to the San Diego Padres, they don’t solely rely on their young layers like Colorado or Arizona nor do they rely on their old guys like San Francisco.

They have the capability of running away with the division. The fact that as of today they are one game behind the D-Backs makes it very frustrating as a Dodger’s fan.

With how ultra competitive the NL West is this season, the Dodgers can’t afford to loaf around. They need to start playing aggressively and close out the final two months on fire. As the St. Louis Cardinals showed the entire world last year, it’s all about how you finish the season. Actually in their specific case, it’s about how you finish the postseason.