Jimmy Bramlett

The Dodgers are hanging precariously off of a cliff right now, coming into their day-night doubleheader 1 1/2 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals for the second wild card. To get themselves back on track, all the Dodgers have to do is beat the best team in baseball in the Washington Nationals and the second-best team in baseball in the Cincinnati Reds over the next six games. Easy, right?

The sheen from ElyMania 2010 has long lost its luster. Locked in a 2-2 stalemate for much of the game, Ely once again melted down in extra innings for the Dodgers allowing the St. Louis Cardinals to escape town with a 5-2 victory.

It's amazing that a guy who was in Triple-A back in June was able to buffer the pain of the bad news of Clayton Kershaw being put on the shelf indefinitely. But Luis Cruz and the Dodgers did just that overcoming a deficit to walk off against the St. Louis Cardinals 4-3.

Before the game the Dodgers got some good news for a change on Friday. The better news was that it seemed to carried into the game with Luis Cruz putting the game away with a three-run homer in the sixth inning to get the 8-5 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

The sheer weight of nostalgia from Dodger fans brought the ice cream snack Cool-A-Coos back to Dodger Stadium for the first time since 1998 on Thursday. Too bad the influence of the fans couldn't bring a win to the Ravine.

With the Dodgers contending for a playoff spot, there is expected to be a lot of highs and lows and the fanbase goes on the rollercoaster to see if the team makes it to October. It's supposed to be exciting and adrenalin pumping. Well someone forgot the highs with the Dodgers.

We still can't bury the Dodgers yet. This despite the Dodgers going to San Francisco this past weekend trailing the Giants by 4 1/2 games and coming out of it five games back. This despite the Dodgers losing a 1-0 game to the D-backs.

With the FYF Fest distracting my plans for the first college football Saturday, I’m diving head first into this week’s slate of games. So there is no Michigan-Alabama this week. Wasn't that a shit-show anyhow?

With the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres tied at 3-3 in the top of the sixth inning, manager Don Mattingly took Luis Cruz out of the game as part of a double switch. To quote Mattingly from before the game: "We can talk about the bullpen and the guys we don't have, but at the end of the day we haven't done enough offensively."

The Dodger pitching staff keeps getting interesting as the days go by. On Wednesday, things took yet another turn.