LA Clippers defeat Memphis Grizzlies 99-98. Did anyone let the Clippers know that they were in the playoffs? The last time we saw this team in the playoffs, we saw them lose by 20 points in Game 7 of the second round of the playoffs to the Phoenix Suns in 2006. more ›

It was a nearly perfect lazy Sunday afternoon at the Ravine: 74 degrees, a slight haze to temper the glaring sun. Despite some other sort of sporting event taking place in town concurrently, 48,753 came out to watch the Dodgers sweep the Washington Nationals 2-0 in yet another pitchers' duel. more ›

LA Kings defeat St. Louis Blues 3-1. Matt Greene scored his first playoff goal which just happened to be a shortie. Dustin Penner added an empty netter to ice the game. The Kings win a postseason game against the Blues for the first time in their ninth try. more ›

When the Nationals had a rain out in Miami last Sunday that set their pitching rotation back a day, it seemed like a disappointment for baseball fans losing the would-be Clayton Kershaw and Stephen Strasburg duel Friday night. To compensate the baseball gods decided to bestow upon Los Angeles the Major League debut of the Nationals' wunderkind outfielder Bryce Harper. more ›

Cleveland Indians defeat LA Angels 3-2. Prior to the game, Manager Mike Scioscia named Scott Downs as the new closer replacing Jordan Walden. Too bad it didn't matter in this game. After Jered Weaver tossed six innings of shutout ball staked to a 2-0 lead, Hisanori Takahashi was charged with the tying runs. The bullpen held strong until rookie David Carpenter gave up the winning run on Asdrubal Cabrera's single. Of note was Cabrera's bat flip after hitting the game winner. more ›

A couple of months ago, an imagining of the top two National League teams would have probably entailed the Philadelphia Phillies, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers or Arizona Diamondbacks. But the Washington Nationals and the Dodgers? That's just plain silly talk. more ›

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and holy shitballs is my heart fonder of the NFL right now. The NFL schedulers were geniuses in scheduling the New Orleans Saints to visit the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers. After the threat of a lost season, people don’t want to see 3-2 defensive quagmires. They want to see offense, offense and more offense. With the Packers beating the Saints 42-34, this game delivered. more ›

You know what’s sad? As anemic as the 2011 Angels have been, they might still make the playoffs. The only tough teams left on their schedule is this weekend’s three-game stand against the Yankees and the final three games of the season against the Rangers both at Angel Stadium. more ›

I don’t know if anyone realized that today was Stephen Strasburg’s season debut for the Nationals. Just about a month ahead of schedule from Tommy John surgery and limited to 60 pitches, he really packed the Washington crowd into the stadium. All 29,092 of them. Well, maybe the shitty weather dictated the attendance more than anything else, but still. 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 ›

On a night when the Dodgers celebrated Don Drysdale’s 75th birthday, it was the offense that bailed out the Dodgers in their 7-6 victory over the Washington Nationals. Specifically it was the struggling Rafael Furcal who bailed the Dodgers out. more ›

If I were Dodgers’ starter Hiroki Kuroda, I’d waive my no-trade clause to the first contender that wanted me and high-tail it out of Dodger Stadium after getting tagged for the Dodgers’ 7-2 loss to the Washington Nationals. more ›

While there isn’t that much disparity between two 1-0 games, the ramifications were night and day to the two Los Angeles-area teams. First to the bankrupt team. Minnesota Twins defeat LA Dodgers 1-0. Dodgers’ starter Rubby De La Rosa gave up a leadoff triple to Ben Revere in the first inning. That was his only mistake which ended up scoring on Tsuyoshi Nishioka’s groundout. more ›

Minnesota Twins defeat LA Dodgers 6-4. After their 25-hit bonanza, the Dodgers came back down to reality. Sort of. They did manage four runs. They even got a homer from Aaron Miles in the fifth inning, his first since Sept. 16, 2008. more ›

It looked like bankruptcy served the Dodgers well on the field. They blasted the Twins with 15 runs and 25 hits in their second win ever in the Twin Cities. All nine starters recorded at least two hits, one run scored an one RBI in getting the most hits since they also hit 25 against the Angels on May 19, 2006. All outfielders had four hits with Matt Kemp a triple short of the cycle and Trent Oeltjen a double short of the cycle. more ›

Lacking the big hits since the All Star Break, the Los Angeles Dodgers resorted to small ball for an 8-3 victory over the Washington Nationals. more ›

“Players Win Games, Teams Win Championships,” reads a sign on the Dodger clubhouse wall. Tonight, in the bottom of the tenth inning, James Loney was the player. His single into left field off of Washington Nationals reliever Sean Burnett scored Ronnie Belliard, cued a massive Dodger celebration on the field, dropped Burnett’s record to 0-6, and earned his team a game in the standings on NL West leaders San Diego Padres. more ›

LA Angels defeat Detroit Tigers 4-2. The Angels won a game! Jered Weaver (W, 11-7) tossed seven innings of two-run ball to get the Angels back into the left side of the ledger. Torii Hunter with a two-run homer in the first inning and another two-spot in the second inning off of Justin Verlander (L, 12-7) gave Weaver all the run support he needed. Hunter and manager Mike Scioscia were ejected in the eighth inning for arguing a third-strike call at the knees by home plate umpire Ron Kulpa. Hunter got really heated, came too close to Kulpa and might be subject to an additional suspension. Brian Fuentes (S, 21) after walking leadoff hitter Jhonny Peralta in the ninth retired the side for the save. more ›

Washington Nationals’ slugging first baseman Adam Dunn was a one-man wrecking crew overpowering Clayton Kershaw (L, 10-7) and the Dodgers in their 6-3 loss to the Nationals. more ›

The Washington Nationals first baseman slugger Adam Dunn was claimed off of waivers this afternoon by an unknown team. The Nationals placed Dunn on waivers Tuesday afternoon Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle confirmed that the Giants were not that team that claimed Dunn. Schulman went on to speculate that the Dodgers were the team to claim Dunn, however nothing has been confirmed. It is typical of teams not to acknowledge any impending waiver wire transactions until they have been completed. more ›

LA Dodgers defeat Washington Nationals 7-6. What is it about the Washington Nationals that confound the Dodgers? The Dodgers pounced on rookie starter JD Martin with a four-spot in the first inning thanks to a Manny Ramirez RBI single and a Matt Kemp Earl Weaver. But they allowed the Nationals to come back and eventually tie the game up at six in the sixth inning. But Rafael Furcal led off the eighth inning with a solo shot to put the game out of the way. Furcal was a triple short of the cycle while Kemp was a double short of the cycle. Furcal now has two consecutive games of four-hit ball, and Kemp with his homer in the first inning collected his 100th RBI. Kemp and Andre Ethier become the first Dodgers duo to have 100 RBI since 2001 when Shawn Green and Gary Sheffield. With the Rockies loss to the Padres the Dodgers magic number for the NL West is four. more ›

Washington Nationals defeat LA Dodgers 5-4. Chad Billingsley made his first start in since September 13, and he didn’t look to shabby. In fact in five innings he had a no-hitter going. But in the sixth inning, his usual trouble inning, he walked two and then gave up his first hit to Ryan Zimmerman. Unfortunately that hit was a homer that screamed its way out into the Dodgers bullpen. After the Nationals took a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the eighth, shortstop Christian Guzman committed two errors to allow the Dodgers to tie the game. With a runner on third in the bottom of the ninth, Pete Orr hit a sac fly to Andre Ethier in right field who muffed the ball which is inconsequential since the runner was going to score anyhow. Thanks to the Rockies losing, the Dodgers REAL magic number is reduced to six. more ›

LA Dodgers defeat Washington Nationals 14-2. The danger of this series against the Washington Nationals was demonstrated last season. The Dodgers were swept on the road by the Nats. I normally would have been worried about this, but having been in the Dodger clubhouse for a lot of the season I know these guys are focused. And boy did they show it when they batted around the fourth and seventh innings. Rafael Furcal went 4-for-5 driving in four runs and scoring twice, and the scoring parade allowed Jason Repko, Blake DeWitt, Chin-Lung Hu and Juan Castro to play some extended innings. more ›

The Dodgers acquired infielder Ronnie Belliard from the Washington Nationals for right handed minor league pitcher Luis Garcia and a player to be named later. The 34-year old Bronx, NY native has a .246 batting average with five homers and 22 RBI in 86 games. Belliard started slow but in the month of August has posted a .361 average with five doubles and three homers. So there you have it: this year's Julio Lugo. more ›

Taking the sports world and yet another NFL franchise hostage for the second consecutive offseason, The Quarterback Who Shall Not Be Named has officially become the quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings signing a one-year deal worth between $10 to $12 million. A day after the Fox Sport's Jay Glazer reported the rumors, it has come true one day later. Former Vikings wide receiver and current ESPN NFL analyst Cris Carter also reports that TQBWSNBN will also start in the Viking's preseason game on Friday against the Kansas City Chiefs. more ›

LA Lakers defeat Houston Rockets 111-98. For a while there I was expecting a penalty box to be set up. Derek Fisher was thrown out of the game for a flagrant two on a hard body check to Luis Scola. Ron Artest was thrown out of the game after yelling at the refs for calling a foul on him against Kobe Bryant in the fourth. Bryant got a technical for jawing to Shane Battier saying, "You still can't guard me." Von Wafer was thrown out of the game by his head coach Rick Adelman before the fourth quarter started. Even Jack Nicholson got in on the action giving the refs a lovely gesture. All that said, the Lakers finally looked like they understood that these playoff games are the road to their NBA championship. Bryant led all scorers with 40 points while Pau Gasol was strong with 20 points and 14 rebounds. Yao Ming was in foul trouble getting only 12 points in 26 minutes played for the Rockets. While game one was physical who knew it would be a prelude to this game? This has officially become a series, and it will be a great one to watch. And I'll issue a mea culpa now: I have underestimated the Rockets. Meanwhile it remains to be seen if Fisher gets suspended for his hit. more ›

Nashville Predators defeat LA Kings 4-3. The Kings fell late in the third period when the Predators Ryan Jones scored a goal with 2:18 remaining. With a power play and the goalie pulled, the Kings could not pull out a goal. With 13 games left, the Kings are now six points away from a playoff spot. The chances are now very slim, but the Kings cannot afford another regulation loss if they want to make it to the postseason. more ›

Oakland A's defeat LA Angels 6-5. Joe Saunders left the game in the second inning. Howie Kendrick and Erick Aybar left the game with sore hammies. Outfielder Juan Rivera forced to come into the game at second base. It was one of those games for the Angels yet they managed to make it close. With Joe Saunders pitching with an ailing hand, he was absolutely crushed by the A's giving up six runs in two innings. He left the game, and the bullpen clamped down on the A's. But the Angels would come back, and they had many chances to actually take the lead but could not capitalize on all the walks the A's were giving away. The Angels got nine hits and eight balls but did their best impersonation of the Dodgers. The difference though is that the Angels actually have the ability to win games. more ›

LA Angels defeat Oakland A's 5-1. Angel's starter John Lackey pitched a complete game giving up only one run in the ninth on seven total hits while walking no one and striking out five. This is Lackey's third complete game since coming off the disabled list in the middle of May. And how about some run support? The Angels gave Lackey a lovely third inning where they got timely hits and had four runners come across home plate. The Angel's magic number is 15 to clinch the AL West. more ›

Every fear I had going into Friday night’s Dodger game against the Washington Nationals came true. more ›