Juan Pierre - Andrew Carpenean - US Presswire

I exaggerate a little, but with an 8-0 win over the Giants last night, the Dodgers still look good. Even more, Pierre is on fire. We’ve all watched him a lot the last few years, and it seemed that every time I watched him, he grounded out weakly to the second baseman. Not now. I don’t know if he’s just in a groove, or has just waited so long to play that he has something to prove; either way, he’s hot. I love the way he is hitting the gaps right now.

High props to Eric Stults last night and to Ned Colletti. The Dodgers pitching is not bad at all. Actually they have the 3rd best ERA in the National League right now. The Dodgers management definitely knew the pitching would hold, even when everyone else doubted. If Eric Stults can put together a few more of these starts, the Dodgers will continue to do well.

So here’s my only gripe from last night, and it has been that way for the last few years. Why can’t the Dodgers run the bases? I mean, they teach how to run the bases in little league, don’t they have a coach who can teach it in the pros? How many times have you seen the Dodgers get thrown out at second trying to stretch a single…just this year? And I’m not talking close ones. Ones where they are caught up in a run-down because they had no business to chance it. Matt Kemp and Russell Martin are the biggest offenders. I guess when you have the speed they do, they assume they can pull it off. We all know what happens when you assume.

Anyway, the rubber match is tonight against Lincecum. Here’s hoping Jeff Weaver can continue to rebound back to form and make a game of it. Either way, I’m sure Pierre will be up for the challenge. I’ve never heard of a team batting a lead off guy 9th, but when you have 3 leadoff men, batting them back to back to back is pretty cool.

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Go Blue.

Dodgers Mob James Loney - Brian Vander Brug - LA Times.com

I was gone for a few days to go see the Dodgers in L.A., and when I got back a Giants fan I work with told me that he was hoping that I didn’t get back until Thursday.  With the beating the Giants took on Monday, he hoped I was gone at least until the second game of the series, hoping the Giants would win and level out the series.  He felt if the Giants won game two, that he could point out that Monday was just one game, and wasn’t all that significant.

Well – sorry Jon.  No luck.  I came back, AND the Dodgers won game two.  The Dodgers are still better.  He even told me yesterday that the Giants were better than the Dodgers because all time they still have a better winning percentage than the Dodgers.

Again – sorry Jon.  Maybe so, but this year so far is all Dodgers.

I’m not sure if Dodger fans are aware of this, but Matt Cain is still 0-6 lifetime against the Dodgers.  He always pitches them well, but continues to come away with a loss.  It really became obvious last year when he consistently held them to less than 3 runs, but then once he left the game, the Dodgers beat the bullpen and won the game.  Last night Casey Blake got the best of him, but he pitched well…the Dodgers just beat the bullpen.

Got to love Casey Blake and Clayton Kershaw.  Blake is the 8 hitter and has 3 homeruns.  He may hit 30 this year.  Kershaw strikes out 13 and looks brilliant.  Running tally – the Giants have struck out 24 times out of 54 at bats in 2 games.  That has to be rough for a pitching coach.  Between Stults, Wolf, Billingsley and Kershaw, Ned Colletti obviously knew something more about the pitching staff than we all did.  They could still use one more arm, but they look great right now.

You could have an interesting debate as to if Loney was trying for walks in two of his at bats last night, including the one to win the game.  He stared down multiple beautiful fastballs, and then took the walks.  You could say he was afraid to hit and wanted the walk, or you could say he just knew the pitchers would end up throwing balls, and therefore he just let them do it.

I don’t buy that he was afraid to hit as he has been hitting the ball like crazy the last few days.  I think he’s just a smart hitter who knew the power of a walk, and was going to let the pitchers do it if they couldn’t throw strikes. How bitterly sweet that the Giants walked in the winning run.

Brian Wilson is a good closer, so tough luck to him, but to the Dodgers gain.  Even if the Dodgers lose tonight, the series has been won.