Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw was given his physical Cy Young Award in a pregame ceremony that must have sparked not only the Dodgers’ pitching but also their bats in their 4-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. more ›

Hip-hop and modern rock were noticably absent from the Dodger Stadium public address system this afternoon. Music from the 1940’s could be heard; it matched the Dodgers' powder blue Brooklyn uniforms from that era. However, with an emotional 9-8 loss to the Phillies, the Dodgers’ contemporary struggles were very much on display. more ›

The game of baseball never fails to amaze and wonder those who follow the game. Part of the appeal of going to a game is the hope of seeing something unseen. While Chad Billingsley’s outing against the Washington Nationals might not qualify as something unprecedented, it was still quite a wonder to see him and the team wriggle from the potential catastrophe and defeat the Nationals 3-1. more ›

What in the holy name of Davey Lopes is going on here? It’s one thing for Dodgers’ starting pitcher Chad Billingsley (W, 1-0) to take third on the fly ball to right field and taking leads off the bases as if he were an everyday player. more ›

Jamey Carroll really didn’t have much to do as an acting manager. With Chad Billingsley (W, 12-11) pitching a shutout after seven innings, the Dodgers went on to a 3-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks despite a bumpy eighth. more ›

By the sixth inning the Dodgers hope for postseason play was officially doused thanks to the San Francisco Giants’ 1-0 win over the Chicago Cubs. The Dodgers decided to pay them back by being shut out by Clayton Richard and the San Diego Padres 6-0 to keep the Padres ½ game behind the Giants in the NL West. more ›

Chad Billingsley wanted it his way, and he did it in the Dodgers’ 4-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants. more ›

Putting it politely, the Dodgers have been offensively challenged since the All-Star break. For one night, at least, the Dodgers bucked that trend doing all the kicking of Cincinnati Reds’ starter Johnny Cueto (L, 11-4) by belting four solo homers off of him en route to an 8-5 victory. “Four home runs - that certainly came out of nowhere,” Torre said. “We knew it was in there somewhere.” After hitting back-to-back homers only once this season when Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier did it in the first inning in a game against the San Francisco Giants on April 16, the Dodgers did it twice: Ryan Theriot and Ethier in the second inning, and Jay Gibbons and Kemp in the third inning. more ›

Two wins was too much of a good thing for the Dodgers as they got shut out by the San Diego Padres 5-0. more ›

After the hijinks that occurred in the first two games, a palette-cleansing pitchers’ duel between the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants was what the doctor ordered to release the toxins brewing amongst the Dodger faithful for the last week. It also helped that Dodgers’ starter Chad Billingsley (W, 7-5) tossed a 125-pitch complete game shutout in the Dodgers 2-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants breaking the Dodgers six-game losing streak. more ›

After being shut out by Cubs’ starter Ted Lilly for seven innings on May 27 at Wrigley Field in their 1-0 loss, the Dodgers went to town against him in their 9-7 win over the Cubs. more ›

While Detroit Tigers’ slugging first baseman Miguel Cabrera marveled at Dodger Stadium, his teammate Dontrelle Willis would have to object. Dodger Stadium has been a house of horrors for the starting pitcher throughout his career. While with the Florida Marlins he made three starts in Los Angeles to come away with a 0-2 record and a 5.30 ERA and a 1.607 WHIP. The passage of time and a change of leagues did nothing change his fortunes as the Dodgers beat up on him and the Detroit Tigers 4-1 in his first start at Dodger Stadium since July 6, 2007. more ›

It is amazing how facing a pitcher with a 16.20 ERA can jump start an offense. Home runs by Andre Ethier and James Loney helped propel the Dodgers to a 6-2 win breaking a five game losing streak. more ›

Remember the days when Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley was that reliable arm? It didn’t matter what happened the night before. It was a given when he was given the ball you could pencil in a win for the Dodgers. Since August 23 Billingsley in five starts has an 0-4 record with an 5.67 ERA. Opponents are batting .342 against him. Mind you these aren’t World Series caliber opponents. These numbers are against Cincinnati, Chicago Cubs, Arizona Diamondbacks twice and the San Francisco Giants. more ›

The Dodgers offense was thoroughly stymied in their 4-1 loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley and DBacks starter Max Scherzer had a nice pitchers’ duel going. Both were shutting out the opposing team while Billingsley went one better - a perfect game through four innings. Then the fifth inning happened which was an inning sooner than his usual sixth inning collapse. more ›

Last night’s 9-5 loss in 12 innings against the Atlanta Braves has thrown a monkey wrench in the Dodgers pitching rotation. After Jason Schmidt was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a shoulder injury, Scott Elbert was supposed to take his spot to start in Sunday’s game. However Elbert was sent to pitch in the 12th inning after Ramon Troncoso allowed runners to get on first and second and gave up the winning RBI single and three-run homer by Ryan Church. more ›

Consider this scenario: your opening day starter starts only one game then goes on the disabled list; your slugger will be suspended for 50 games; your rookie starter who showed promise has no idea where to find the strike zone; two of your bullpen pitchers are on the disabled list; you can't etch the names of your fourth and fifth starters. more ›

Joe Torre announced today that the opening day starter for your Los Angeles Dodgers is Hiroki Kuroda on April 6 in San Diego. Kuroda who went 9-10 with a 3.73 ERA last season only went 3-8 on the road. One of those road victories however was against San Diego. If the rotation goes as planned, Chad Billingsley would be the starter for the home opener against the San Francisco Giants on April 13. more ›

Why are the Dodgers doing this to us? Yesterday’s come-from-behind victory in the ninth inning was great. Never could I have imagined the Dodgers would execute the Earl Weaver (a three-run homer) perfectly to take the lead. It was only the third time this season the Dodgers had won a game when trailing after eight innings; they had lost 59 times in that situation. As high of a high as that was, reality starts... more ›

It's a national holiday, so we got this one posted a little late. For those of you wondering why we're not inundating you with USC coverage, that's because I'm posting All Things Trojan over at latimes.com. If you'd like to help us do some Trojan coverage here, drop me a line at adam@laist.com. Also, "LAst Night's Action" is only posting about three times a week but will return to a regular M-F schedule starting September... more ›

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... more ›

James Loney was a star pitcher in his high school in Houston. In his senior year of high school, he went 12-1 with 120 strikeouts in 69 innings pitched. More than once this season, he has been willing to pitch if asked. As unlikely as that may have seemed a few weeks ago, it looks like it could be a distinct possibility now. In the fifth inning in Wednesday’s night 2-1 loss to the... more ›

Chad Billingsley was just what the doctor ordered for the Dodgers Monday night. With the Dodgers bullpen so exhausted they’ve started using Prozac as a reliever, the Dodgers needed Bills to go deep in the game against the Houston Astros. In his last three starts he had not gone longer than six innings with 90 pitches. In fact his last game he went five innings on 113 pitches. So the fact he pitched a... more ›

The All Star Break has come to an end, and so goes my week of leisure. I caught up on the Romanesque orgies, coke parties and golden shower extravaganzas that I have missed out on since April. My how Caligula would have blushed. more ›

Monday night came news that Nomar Garciapopup would be the third baseman in the near future. Who knew the near future meant Tuesday? more ›

My Boyfriend was at it again. He hit is first career grand slam Saturday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Not only was it merely a grand slam, he hit it in the bottom of the tenth tied 3-3. This only adds fuel to my argument that he is the MVP of this team. As for this team, I’m plenty happy with them right now. After watching a preseason game against the Angels of Anaheim... more ›

The Dodger’s 2-1 victory over the Rockies Tuesday night was a marked improvement over Monday’s game. I missed the first inning and didn’t get to see Hammster (Nomar Garciaparra) hit a single to drive in My Boyfriend, but Brett Tomko pitched one hell of a game for his first outing of the season. He toyed with the Rockies’ hitters to strike out nine, allowing one hit and no runs. He should have had the victory right? more ›

Orlando - When the Chicago Cubs decided (foolishly) to pay $40 million for southpaw Ted Lilly, they no longer could afford the much better Jason Schmidt who was scooped up today by the Dodgers. more ›

"Baseball is a team sport," or so the old adage says. Ready to contribute are the 9 men out in the field, a bullpen filled with potential firemen and a bench ready to climb into the box at a moment's notice. As you know, one player cannot carry a team throughout a season. It takes a strong effort by the entire organization to earn a playoff birth. more ›

The fear was that Dontrelle Willis was done losing ball games. The high-flying cocked-capped southpaw came to life last night at Chavez Ravine, striking out nine Dodger batters and even helping himself at the plate with a long ball that hit the wall for a triple. But the thrilling and dazzling pitcher couldn't do it on his own, and the home team's victory was led by Nomar Garciapara, one of the team's many shortstops.... more ›