Jimmy Bramlett

I watch the Dodgers play in front of me, and I keep wondering what the hell is wrong with them. On the road they could nearly do no wrong, scoring when they needed, getting pitching performances when they needed. Instead, against a team without Melky Cabrera and a struggling starting pitcher in Tim Lincecum, the Dodgers pissed away yet another game losing 4-1.

The Dodgers had everything going for them: a 7-3 roadtrip; the Giants without the services of Melky Cabrera; Clayton Kershaw on the mound. But Giants starter Madison Bumgarner proved too much for the resurgent Dodger bats as he tossed eight four-hit shutout innings in the Giants 2-1 victory.

In their preview of the 2012 season, ESPN had 50 of their writers and personalities make predictions of division winners, wild card teams, pennant winners and World Series champions.

The end might be near. Then again, knowing how this has been festering over the past year or so, the end might not be near. Nevertheless ESPN is reporting that a four-team trade will finally result in Dwight Howard becoming a Laker.

Last night's speculation did turn out to be true, mostly. The important part was that the Lakers landed Dwight Howard from the Orlando Magic. That much was true.

Things could have turned out really bad for the Dodgers with it being Clippers night. But the Dodgers got past that and their two losses to open this three-game series to nip the Colorado Rockies 6-4.

Watching the Dodgers lose for the second consecutive night to the laughable Colorado Rockies proved one thing: I do indeed have a soul. It took almost 3 1/2 gut-wrenching hours for the Dodgers to finally lose to the Rockies 3-1.

"It just wasn't a good day," manager Don Mattingly said before the game. Mattingly was speaking about having to designate outfielder Tony Gwynn, Jr. for assignment Monday morning, but the malaise seemed to hang over the team throughout the game as they lost to the woefully bad Colorado Rockies 2-0. It was only the Rockies second shutout of the season while the Dodgers got blanked for the tenth time.

Nothing much about the Dodgers worries manager Don Mattingly these days, supposedly. Against the Cubs, why would they? Despite trailing 2-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning and 5-4 into the bottom of the seventh and Kenley Jansen blowing his sixth save of the season, the Dodgers emerged with a 7-6 victory over the Cubs for their first sweep of the Cubs at home since April 24-26, 1998.

With the San Francisco Giants hitting the cover off the ball in Denver beating the Rockies 11-6, the Dodgers did just enough to eke out a 3-1 win over the Chicago Cubs. Of course having reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw on the mound gives a team quite the insurance policy when the offense can't get to the opposing pitcher.