With this afternoon’s 7-6 loss to the Colorado Rockies in front of an announced 38,503, the Los Angeles Dodgers saw a five game winning streak come to an end as, unlike yesterday, this afternoon’s efforts to come from behind fell short. more ›

Since Don Mattingly tinkered with the batting order on Monday in St. Louis, the Dodgers have averaged 7 ½ runs in those four games. Mattingly said the focus of the changes was Matt Kemp. “It was really more with Matt getting him an extra at-bat,” Mattingly said. “We talked about it. Matt’s a three-hole guy: he hits for power, he hits for average.” more ›

LA Dodgers defeat Colorado Rockies 8-2. No Andre Ethier, no problems for the Dodgers in Coors Field. Out of the lineup with an infected big toe, the Dodgers used Tony Gwynn, Jr., Justin Sellers and Aaron Miles ahead of MVP candidate Matt Kemp in the cleanup spot. It wasn’t a lineup that inspired a lot of confidence. more ›

The Dodgers hate Hiroki Kuroda. After all, how else can one explain the lack of run support Kuroda this season? “I think it’s him being unlucky,” Dodgers’ Manager Don Mattingly said directing the propaganda. If “unlucky” means “unworthy of getting any runs from us,” then that quote is spot on. more ›

Clayton Kershaw would have lost the pitching battle with Colorado Rockies’ starter Jhoulys Chacin had it not been for an adventurous fourth inning in the field for the Rockies. The two unearned runs by Chacin combined with one earned run in that inning gave the Dodgers enough offense for the 3-2 victory over the scuffling Rockies. more ›

Sometimes the Dodgers can kill fans with their one-run nail biters. Sometimes the Dodgers can do what they did Monday night against the Colorado Rockies. Going into the top of the ninth with the 8-1 lead, Javy Guerra wound up with his team-leading eighth save in the Dodgers’ 8-5 victory. more ›

Colorado Rockies defeat LA Dodgers 9-7. We can file this game under “Coors Field Classic.” more ›

After hitting the skin off the ball the last three games, the Dodgers came crashing back down to earth on Ubaldo Jimenez’s (W, 1-5) arm. The previously winless Rockies’ starter with a 5.86 ERA entering the game tossed a complete-game three-hitter, the third shutout of his career, in the Rockies’ 3-0 victory over the Dodgers. more ›

For most of the first two months of the baseball season, the Dodgers couldn’t hit worth a lick and waste great performances by their starting pitching. Whether it was the fire at Dodger Stadium Saturday night that jolted the team, they have started to buck that trend. For the first time this season they look like a competitive Major League team as they stomped on the Colorado Rockies 8-2. more ›

Having missed the Dodgers’ 17-hit victory against the Florida Marlins Sunday afternoon, I was wondering what happened. Was all of this hitting a fluke? Am I a jinx against the team? more ›

LA Dodgers defeat Colorado Rockies 7-6. Matt Kemp hit a homer in consecutive games for the first time since August 21 and 22. Fortunately for the Dodgers it was his fifth career grand slam that gave the Dodgers the 5-1 lead in the third inning. The Rockies being resilient, they had the bases loaded and one out in the ninth inning down 7-5 with Ronald Belisario on the mound. But Belisario got out of the jam allowing only one run to score. The Dodgers sweep the series begging the question where this performance was when they were still in the wild card hunt back in the last weekend of August. more ›

LA Dodgers defeat Colorado Rockies 9-7. It was up, down and all around for both teams with the Rockies needing a win to stay alive for one more day. Casey Blake denied them belting two homers in the game, his first multi homer game since April 24 in Washington DC. After the Dodgers jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the... more ›

LA Dodgers defeat Colorado Rockies 3-1. Casey Blake gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead in the first inning against Ubaldo Jimenez (L, 19-8) with a line drive single off Jimenez’s foot that blooped over shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, and that was all Ted Lilly (W, 9-12) needed. Lilly pitched eight innings giving up only a run in the fourth inning. With Blake on third base, AJ Ellis accounted for the third run in the ninth inning with a line drive single of his own. Hong-Chih Kuo pitched a perfect ninth for his 11th save of the season. So one question begs to be asked here: with first base open why in the hell do you pitch to Ellis especially with a runner on third base? more ›

LA Angels defeat Tampa Bay Rays 6-3. The Angels’ light weight hitters have now come through twice in their three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays. After Brandon Wood hit the game-winning homer in the ninth inning Friday night, Peter Bourjos, whose batting average is also below the Mendoza line... more ›

Despite left field and the mound being quite bodacious adventures for left fielder Jay Gibbons and starter Clayton Kershaw, all was forgotten thanks to the bullpen and AJ Ellis coming off the bench as the Dodgers scrapped through with a 7-6 win in 11 innings staving off official postseason elimination for one more day. more ›

Bad pitching, bad offense, bad defense. The punchless Dodgers were demoralized 12-2 against Colorado Rockies’ starter Jhoulys Chacin and slugging shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. more ›

LA Angels defeat Tampa Bay Rays 4-3. As Matt Vasgersian would say, “Santa Maria!” After the Rays came back in the sixth inning to tie the game 3-3, the unlikeliest person came through for the Angels. Brandon Wood, whose batting average has fallen further south of the Mendoza line than a bra-less great-grandmother, led off the ninth inning with a go-ahead homer, his fourth of the season. Perhaps most notable was in the second inning when Mike Napoli stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by Rays’ catcher John Jaso which set him up to score on Howie Kendrick’s single. Fernando Rodney had another rocky ninth inning but held on for dear life for his 11th save. more ›

Down 2-0 to the Rockies, the Dodgers came back to tie the game. Down 5-2, the Dodgers managed to get to within a run. But the last two runs given up by former closer Jonathan Broxton in the top of the seventh inning were the ones that ultimately broke the camels’ back as the Rockies bruised the Dodgers 7-5. more ›

LA Angels defeat Boston Red Sox 7-2. Looking to avoid going winless against the Boston Red Sox for the first time in their history, Alberto Callaspo’s RBI double and Hideki Matsui’s three-run homer in the sixth inning off of Josh Beckett (L, 3-3) gave the Angels the 4-1 advantage. It help to left Angel starter Ervin Santana (W, 13-8) whose only mistake was a hanging changeup left over the middle of the plate to David Ortiz that landed deep in right field. Santana ended up going seven innings being charged with another run in the eighth inning after leaving the game with the bases loaded an no one out. And instead of collapsing like they did in Wednesday night’s game, the Angels actually scored three more off of Beckett and reliever Manny Delcarmen in the seventh inning. The 1-9 record the Angels had against the Red Sox this season ties for the worst in franchise history with the 1999 team. more ›

Ted Lilly (W, 7-8), coming into the game with a 3-0 record and a 1.89 ERA since joining the Dodgers on July 31, continued his dominant streak with a complete game two-hit shutout while a powerful Reed Johnson supplied the offense in the Dodger’s 2-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies in the rubber match of the three-game series. more ›

Boston Red Sox defeat LA Angels 7-5. With a 2-2 tie going into the fifth inning, Alberto Callaspo hit his first homer as an Angel - a three-run dinger that gave the Angels the 5-2 lead. However that wasn’t enough to give the Angels the win. Adrian Beltre belted a two-run homer in the bottom half of the inning off of starter Scott Kazmir to pull the Sox to within one, but it was a meltdown by reliever Kevin Jepsen (L, 2-3)in the seventh inning that did in the Angels. Jepsen made a wild pitch during JD Drew’s at-bat allowed Victor Martinez to score to tie the game, and hit Daniel Nava with the bases loaded to give the Red Sox the 6-5 lead and former Angels’ starter John Lackey (W, 11-7) the win for the Sox. The Sox added a run in the eighth. The Angels are now 0-9 against Boston this season. more ›

It was a game of curious decisions and mishaps. Perhaps the warm weather, an 85 degree start temperature at 7:11 pm, had something to do with it. With nothing decided after nine innings, Dodgers reliever Octavio Dotel (L, 2-3) took it upon himself to end things in the tenth inning despite not giving up a hit with three wild pitches, one of them driving home the winning run for the Rockies 3-2 win. more ›

Boston Red Sox defeat LA Angels 6-0. Coming into the game Angels’ starter Jered Weaver (L, 11-8) had a lifetime 7.06 ERA in four games pitched at Fenway Park. Thanks to a grand slam in the fourth inning by Ryan Kalish, a solo homer by Darnell McDonald in the third inning and an RBI double by Victor Martinez in the fifth, Weaver’s ERA at Fenway ballooned to 7.76. Meanwhile Sox starter Clay Buchholz (W, 14-5) left the Angels punchless shutting out the Angels in his seven innings of five-hit ball. The Angels had a prime chance to put a dent into the deficit when they had the bases loaded with two outs in the eighth inning on reliever Felix Doubront, but Erick Aybar struck out swinging to end the threat. Torii Hunter made a spectacular grab in the second inning robbing Adrian Beltre at the Red Sox bullpen. more ›

Everything came together cleanly for the Dodgers in their 6-0 shutout of the Colorado Rockies. more ›

Ghana defeats US 2-1 (ET). Read my recap of the game. Perhaps the most disheartening development is that the US played four matches in the World Cup without putting together a great game. more ›

NY Yankees defeat LA Dodgers 2-1. Both starters were on their A game, but it was the Yankee’s starter CC Sabathia (9-3) outlasting Vicente Padilla (1-2) in the opening game of this interleague series. Just as the sell-out crowd of 56,000 were making their way to their seats, Manny Ramirez and the Dodgers struck first in the bottom of the first with an RBI single that scored Furcal for the 1-0 lead. Padilla gave up the tying run when Jorge Posada singled Alex Rodriguez home. Both pitchers put up zeroes on the scoreboard thereafter until Alex Rodriguez hit an “A-Bomb” off of Padilla for the winning run in the sixth inning. Sabathia wound up pitching eight innings striking out seven while Mariano Rivera struck out Manny, Matt Kemp and James Loney for the save. Incidentally after Loney struck out home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi ejected him after he threw his helmet in disgust. more ›

Seattle Mariners defeat LA Angels 8-1. While the Seattle bats woke up, the Angel bats decided to wait until they got home for Monday’s game to appear. In the fourth inning Angels’ starter Ervin Santana gave up an Earl Weaver to Josh Wilson and a solo homer to Michael Saunders back-to-back to give the Mariners the 4-0 lead. Franklin Gutierrez doubled home Ichiro Suzuki in the fifth inning to add on a run. And after a wild pitch by Brandon League on a swinging third strike by Kendry Morales allowed Reggie Willits to cut into the Mariners lead 5-1 in the eighth inning, the Mariners got three more off of Brian Stokes in the home half of the inning to avoid the sweep. more ›

Dodgers’ starter Clayton Kershaw really seems to get up for the big guys. With a brilliant seven-inning one-run outing against Barry Zito and the San Francisco Giants on a Sunday matinee last month, Kershaw came up big against the Colorado Rockies’ ace Ubaldo Jimenez in the Dodgers 2-0 victory. more ›

Los Angeles Dodgers’ knuckleball pitcher Charlie Haeger had a rough day at the office. At least it was quick. more ›

LA Angels defeat Seattle Mariners 8-0. Mariners’ All-Star shortstop Jack Wilson had problems in the field this week, so Don Wakamatsu decided to go with Josh Wilson at short. The Angels pounced on the Mariners in the first innings. With the bases loaded, Kendry Morales hit a bases-clearing double to left field and advanced to third on a throwing error by Josh Wilson. Oops. Morales came home on a Juan Rivera sacrifice fly to spot starter Jered Weaver four runs. Mariners’ starter Felix Hernandez wasn’t kingly getting knocked out of the fourth inning after giving up homers to Rivera, Howie Kendrick and catcher Ryan Budde to give the Angels the 8-0 lead. Weaver would pitch a no-hitter into the seventh inning when Ken Griffey, Jr. singled to right with two outs. Weaver would go 7 1/3 innings giving up two hits and three walks while striking out seven. Scot Shields pitched the remainder of the game yielding only a walk in the ninth inning. more ›