Sanity Returning

What a week! First I get frozen out of making entries into this Blog because of some weird investigation by Blogger that I was spamming???? No one even knows about this Blog except me & I have had no one read it except me; seems eerie.

Anyways, in the interim the Dodgers tanked, the Angels & Padres floundered and the Lakers lost 2 in a row in Salt Lake City. Things are looking up however, as the Dodgers rallied in the 9th inning last night and won convincingly today in Milwaukee. The Lakers rebounded to a Game #5 win last night and now lead the series 3-2 after holding serve at the Staples Center.

"Backs" are the main topic in L.A. this week. Kobe's back started acting up while the Lakers were on the road losing 2 to the Jazz. Raphael Furcal (Dodgers MVP and maybe the League MVP to this point) went on the DL with back spasms retroactive to the start of the 5 game slide.

Lastly, today, minutes before the 1st pitch Blake DeWitt went down with back problems requiring Russel Martin to start at 3rd and Gary Bennett to catch. Now that worked out well as Bennett went 2 for 4, 3-run homer and RBI double - 4 RBI's in total. It was all good news as Andruw Jones & Jeff Kent homered in support of Craig Billingsley's excellent start.

Starters have been weak for the Dodgers over the past stretch and the usually dominant Jonathon Broxton has been a little shaky. Two recent good outings by Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda give some reason for optimism but we need both Derek Lowe and Brad Penney to step it up to their previous standards. The Dodgers missed 3 opportunities in a row to pare the D'Backs lead to 2 1/2 games and finally, with their 5th loss in a row fell 4 1/2 back. Next up - the Angels at the Big A over the week-end. Chan Ho Park will make a start in the series - he sure has earned it as he has been great in long relief all season.

The Padres are floundering - they cut loose Jim Edmunds who landed on his feet with the Cubbies (a legitimate World Series contender) and went 1 for 4 today against his former team. Greg Maddux achieved win #350 before losing today to the Cubs at Wrigley. The Pads have lost 7 of the last 10 and there is no reason to believe anything will change soon. They have the worst record in major league baseball.

The Angels got John Lackey back and he was very impressive last night - however, the Angels lost when Scott Shields imploded. The Halos have gone 2 and 4 since the last post and have held their ground in the race so far. Injuries to Chone Figgins and Howie Kendrick haven't helped and Vlad is just now coming out of his recent funk. I think they will be fine, this is a quality team that plays great fundamental baseball and should be near or at the top at the end of the season.

Lastly, how about those Devil Rays or is it D-Rays no, wait ... its the Rays! They are making franchise history and are perched atop the AL East ahead of the BoSox & Yankees. Ya gotta love it - how can you not feel good for Troy Percival. Today they beat the Yankees 5-2 with Scott Kazmir pitching a brilliant game and Troy getting his 10th save. They took 3 of 4 from the Bronx Bombers - unfortunately there were only 19,976 in attendance. Yet, it was a Thursday getaway game at an odd hour; the post game radio guys in Tampa are quite excited and are praising those that showed up at the game.

Lakers Basketball Rules

Since yesterday's post all of the Southern California major league baseball teams have been on a losing streak. The Angels lost to KC as Jerrod Weaver had an unimpressive performance. The Padres lost both last night & today to the Braves.

All the Padre buzz is about the impending release of Jim Edmonds, a 5 time All Star and recent expensive acquisition. The Braves broadcasters were thrilled with today's win as it was their 1st 1-run win of the season. I am glad that the Padres were able to accommodate the home team. Clutch hitting by the Braves and a bull pen collapse by the Padres will be the main story.

On a better note the Lakers won game 2 last night and are now up 2-0 on the Utah Jazz. Kobe played like an MVP and the Lakers seemed to win in a breeze. Soon we will be inundated with Laker flags flying from every car in Southern California. The bandwagon is rolling into town and the locals are anxious to jump on board.

The Dodgers entertain Houston on the week end and strangely I feel that this may be an important early season series. Loaiza is on the DL, Kuo looked great against the Mets and there is talk of bringing up Kershaw. This spot in the rotation is being skipped in this series and it will be interesting to see who eventually gets the call. Derek Lowe goes Friday after a rough outing last time out, Craig Billingsley Saturday after a pretty good outing although his strike outs were down, and Kuroda Sunday after his shortest outing of the year. This is followed by Brad Penny Monday in Milwaukee after a disastrous performance yesterday. The starting rotation will be under the microscope over these 4 days and by & large needs to rebound from their recent less than stellar efforts.

Going into tonight's game against the Washington Nationals the Astros have won 5 in a row and 6 of 7. Lance Bergman has been "en fuego" but at least we avoid Roy Oswalt. I kind of have a soft spot for the Nats (formerly the Les Expos de Montreal). They were Canada's 1st major league baseball team and I happened to be in Washington DC their opening week end as they christened their new stadium. The community appears to be quite supportive of them despite their struggles.

Mets Find an Unlucky Penny

WOW! UGH! Mets 12 Dodgers 1 - and it wasn't even that close.

Let's hope the Boys in Blue got that out of their system and can quickly get back to their winning ways. It's been a great ride over the past couple of weeks and I think this is just a bump in the road. Bright spots included ...... well not much - James Loney made a great defensive play. Andruw Jones got a hit, Matt Kemp kept his hitting streak going and ...... Vin Scully was his usual brilliant self.

Tonight it's the Lakers in Game 2 of the Western Semis and Kobe's 1st game as the reigning MVP of the NBA. Wouldn't it be something to see Lakers vs. Celtics? Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar & Magic Johnson vs. Bill Russell, John Havlicek, the Jones Boys & Larry Bird - we can only dream. Maybe this time we win and start a streak that compares to that of those great Celtic teams. Let them lose to us in the finals 6 out of the next 8 years and we will be even.

The Angels are in KC on a nice hot streak; Vlad's bat is waking up and injuries haven't slowed down Mike's troops. The Padres are in Atlanta living down to expectations; worst record in the Major Leagues and little sign of life. That makes it even harder to take the ramblings of Matt & sidekick and Teddy with his entourage. Thank goodness for XM radio & MLB Premium services.

Don't miss Don Cherry's debut on ESPN Friday night; I hope he translates well into the USA market. He is a legend on Hockey Night in Canada - go get 'em Grapes! Detroit v. Dallas - I like the Wings; Philly v. Pens - I like Crosby et al. Then again I thought it would be the Ducks vs. Habs in the Cup Finals.

Lastly, I am cheering for ex-Dodger Eric Gagne to turn it around. I like the Brew Crew and (despite the drug allegations) I admire Gagne for his efforts to get back to where he was with the Blue Crew. Unfortunately he has looked too much like "Wild Thing" - "just a bit outside".