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Are the Dodgers officially dead in Joe Torre’s eyes or is he still envisioning a wild card or division win?
“My intention is to try to win five or six games in a row,” Torre said. “I can’t worry about the wild card until we start winning some games. We need to go out there and win games. We need to put a streak together of six or seven games.”
Torre still holds on to hope that the team can achieve this.
“Our players are fine - nobody is phoning it in.
“But we need production. Our starters have been doing a great job. Our hitting has been erratic, inconsistent. Our pitching staff has kept the games close or given us leads and we haven’t been able to hold on.”
Well by pitching staff Torre, I assume, meant the starting pitching because anything past the seventh inning has been shaky. It’s been exacerbated by Torre pulling Jonathan Broxton from the closer role and gone with a platoon on Hong-Chih Kuo and Octavio Dotel.
That duo didn’t fare quite so well in Monday night’s game against the Atlanta Braves when the Dodgers had a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the eighth.
Kuo retired the side in order in the bottom of eighth but struggled in the bottom of the ninth giving up two singles and a walk to load the bases. Enter Dotel stage right and he gave up a walk and a walk-off two-run single to Melky Cabrera to give the Braves the 4-3 win.
“It’s been weird where the bullpen and the people we send out there were a huge part of our success the last couple of years,” Torre mused. “To have the games we’re getting out of our starters to go for naught has been frustrating.”
If the Dodgers have a save situation tonight, Torre will use either Dotel or Broxton.
“I’m guessing Kuo won’t be available because of the attempted two-inning stint yesterday,” Torre said. “We have Broxton. Dotel is probably available. We’ll see where we are, and try to match up as best as we can.”
Manny Ramirez is expected to begin a rehab stint with Class-A Inland Empire 66ers tomorrow with Rafael Furcal joining him soon after. Russell Martin is still on crutches and the decision on whether to have surgery for his hip won’t be decided until he visits the doctor in two weeks to check the progress of his healing.
Lineup
Colorado Rockies
LA Dodgers
