So I’m still reeling from the Dodgers losses to the Giants this weekend. It’s not just that they lost, it’s how they lost. They had the lead and then they lost and gave the Giants momentum going into the next series. Twice now the Giants have had highlights worthy of their yearly film at the hands of the Dodgers. They beat up Broxton again (he still should never pitch against the Giants), and the Giants marched forward.

The Giants also found out that Tim Lincecum can pitch again, so there is much joy up here. With the Padres losing 10 in a row at one point, the Giants thought they could grab the division. They can thank the Dodgers though, rolling over and getting swept by the Padres to keep the Giants out of the top spot.

It just seems that the Dodgers have given up. I realize they are still playing, but it seems that they are ready to fold the season and start over next year. There is no offense, despite really strong starting pitching of late.

In my opinion, it is a really interesting challenge for Ned Colletti right now. Honestly, I think he is waiting for a few chips to fall and then some major decisions are going to be made.

First, the divorce. No one knows if the team will be sold, or kept, and by who, and it affects everything. Based on what has come out, it makes sense that the Dodgers couldn’t get the big pitchers. They should be playing small ball for a while until they can get the debt down.

Second, Joe Torre versus the Previous Core Nucleus. I put these together because without it being directly said, I think it is going to be one or the other. First the Previous Core Nucleus. I call it previous because this year has exposed what everyone dreaded. Everyone has waited for Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Jonathan Broxton, James Loney and Russell Martin to take the lead and push the team into a consistent playoff team. Manny was added as the last piece, but these guys were the core. I purposely left out Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley because they have earned their keep this year, the others have not. The Dodgers have the worst outfield production of any team in the majors. The guys supposed to rock the bats (and who got raises to do so last year) haven’t come through. So much so that I wonder if there are major changes in store and guys will be traded away. After 7 years, people would expect All-Star numbers from Matt Kemp, and it just isn’t happening.

So now to the other coin, Joe Torre. He is a hall of fame coach, but doesn’t have it this year. I think a lot of it has to do with the players and the feeling by the coaches that the players don’t do enough behind the scenes and aren’t mentally tough enough to be totally successful.

So I think it comes to this. Dodgers free some money and trade a few of the studs – Torre stays assuming that they also keep Ted Lilly. If the Dodgers stay with the core, then Torre is gone. He doesn’t feel he can motivate them, therefore he will see greener pastures.  Ironically, this decision is more Joe Torre’s than Ned Colletti’s, but it will be based on past conversations with Ned Colletti.

We’ll see what happens, but it could be a winter full of change.  At this point though…the Dodgers need to wave the white flag.

It’s a good thing I’m not a real betting man. I would have lost a lot of money this weekend. I thought the Giants would take 2 of 3 and thought the Dodgers would win the first game.

The exact opposite happened. It’s all good for the Dodgers, but obviously my hunches were better when they played in SF, rather than L.A.

I watched most of the game and was very impressed with the boys in blue.  Randy Wolf looked shaky at first, but then hit a groove.  What impressed me though was that the Dodgers just took apart Tim Lincecum.  He is the reigning Cy Young winner and they just were patient and found the holes.  It was just good baseball and the better team won.

I was thinking about the decisions the Dodgers have made it the last few years to “wait on the kids.”  There is a general question of “how long do you wait for players to develop?”

There was a lot of pressure to wait for Kemp, Ethier, Loney and Martin to produce, but pressure to dump some of them too (especially Kemp).  The Dodgers are now reaping the fruit of their waiting.  Kemp and Ethier will both have over 100 RBI’s by the end of the season and are pulling the team, even over Manny.  The Dodgers should have a solid core for a few years to come, and the fans will really come to expect and enjoy it.

If the Dodgers can keep going strong, they should make a long run into the playoffs.  The pitching will be the gamble…but it’s been that way all year, and look where they are.  Go Blue.  Thanks for beating the Giants good this year.

Russell Martin - LA Times.com

Wow.  So it wasn’t quite supposed to be this way.  I’m glad for it, but wow.  I honestly do feel for the Giants and their fans because they were trying to make the playoffs for the first time in a long time.  They weren’t really a threat to the Dodgers, so these games didn’t matter as much against them. 

The Dodgers are essentially torpedoing all chances the Giants have of even making the playoffs.  At this point we should cut them some slack so there is the chance to see them in the playoffs rather than the Rockies.  We seem to have the Giants number. 

Ok – now back to the other side of my brain.  Yee Ha!  Go Blue!  That’s the way it should be!  Blow them out!  Show them who is number one in the league!  Show them the offense they have wanted all year!  Yes there is pitching, but you need both pitching and offense!  Ok – that’s better.

Credit Padilla tonight and Russell Martin.  Padilla really may be the missing pitching piece the Dodgers needed.  I was just reading an article about how well American League pitchers do in the National League because it is an easier league.  Whatever the case, he may very well be the dark horse #1 pitcher going into the  playoffs.

I have to tip my hat to Russell Martin tonight.  No matter what can be said against him this year, he really does hit well against the Giants.  Even more, I do have to give him some credit for the pitching staff.  No one expected the Dodgers pitching to be top notch, but here they are with the lowest ERA in the National League.  The pitchers are pitching, but credit the same catcher all year who really is guiding them well.

The amazing stat I heard recently is that the Dodgers have scored well over 100 more runs at this point in the year than the Giants.  There is the difference in the teams.  100 runs is a lot of runs.  The Dodgers seem to have found their offense again and hopefully they can ride this through.  I was glad to see the Rockies lose tonight.  Them Padres seem to be playing good ball these days and we need some more breathing room..

And to end tonight – the Manny Belly Flop.  No matter what is said about him – he hustled and gave one heck of a visual head first diving into 3rd.  Superman Manny in more ways that one.

So I’ll be at the game tomorrow.  For you all you fans in blue, I’ll meet you at the McCovey statue out front hopefully between 12:30 and 1.  I’ll have this hat on (click here) and my blue Dodgers batting practice jersey.  Hopefully they won’t lose tomorrow as the last game in the series, but at least the Dodgers already took 2 of 3.  (I have to have something to say back to Giants fans who taunt me….)

Go Blue.

Casey Blake - LA Times

Yee Ha!  What a way to start.  Big wins are always fun…especially when you live up here.  Sadly I won’t be at work the next few days for the weekend, because it would have been really fun to talk about this game.

I’m making it official.  Casey Blake is my favorite player on the Dodgers right now.  If you’ve read this blog, you know I’ve been partial for a long time.  I like Manny and Loney and Pierre, but Blake just gets the job done.  He is a good guy and a great player.  Sometimes up, sometimes down, but he is clutch when they need it.  I’m glad to see his body seems to be ok after resting for a bit. 

My prediction rang true that the Dodgers would have the advantage, but it definitely wasn’t what I expected.  Matt Cain is a good pitcher and the Dodgers ate him up.  It’s interesting how Manny is just playing smart these days.  He’s hit a few homeruns of late, but he’s trying to hit to the right side and he was involved in driving in runs tonight.  I agree with people that something seems a little off, but he’s a good enough player that he’s still contributing.

It was great to see Loney playing well too.  He has a sweet swing.  I still think he’ll win the batting title some day, but he when he connects, man does he drive it.

We saw history tonight too.  Buster Posey is the Giants true catching prospect, and he made is major league debut.  They’ve been talking about this guy for weeks as he just tore up the minors this year.  What was interesting was that they’ve had him in the majors for almost a week and he hasn’t been in a game.  Bruce Bochy said he was waiting for the right time, but it was weird that they waited so long.  I guess that being down 7-1 was long enough.  Based on his stats we’ll be seeing a lot of him, and he seems to be the heir apparent for Bengie Molina.

It was real interesting reading the local papers today to see what they said about the series this weekend.  What was interesting was that there wasn’t a lot to read.  The Giants are on the cusp of not making the playoffs and everyone knows the Dodgers are better, they just hope they can stay close to still catch the Rockies.  The Giants are playing the Dodgers this weekend, but the focus is the next series with the Rockies.  As a Dodgerfan, I wanted the big story on how important this series is…but none of that was there.  The focus was Tim Lincecum’s back, Buster Posey being in the bigs, and the hope to catch the Rockies.

Bring on tomorrow and Sunday.  If anyone is going to the game on Sunday, let me know and we can meet up.  The Willie McCovey statue might be a good place before the game.  E-mail me at scott@sfdodgerfan.com.

Go Dodgers.

Hiroki Kuroda - Fox Sports.com

Writing as I watch the game:

Great game so far.  As of right now, it’s the 6th and the Dodgers have a 4 to 1 lead.  I’m very glad to see the Dodgers offense starting to come around again.  After Manny hurt his hand, he seems to have slowed offensively, but he’s still getting on base, so hopefully he will come around soon.

Special thanks to all of you who checked in on the site as the Dodgers played the Giants.  It was obvious to me that more people are reading this week.  I’m in the process of looking for guest writers for SF Dodgerfan.com.  If you are passionate about the Dodgers/Giants and love to write (and ideally live in the Bay Area), shoot me an e-mail at scott@sfdodgerfan.com.

Here’s a few notables from the game:

Obviously Joe is still tweeking the lineup to manufacture runs.  Putting Russell Martin second, is different, but it worked tonight, so I’m sure he’ll keep it for a bit longer.

• Great to see Matt Kemp get the key hit.  He really is driving in the runs this year, and can’t be avoided.
• I had to agree with the announcers up here that the 1st base umpire really missed the calls at 1st base.  Twice he favored the Dodgers on the call.  Not that I mind, but he definitely got those wrong.
• Perhaps it was because the cameras only showed the lower fans, but there didn’t seem to be as many Dodger fans at this game.  I know there are always more up high, but perhaps it was just perspective.
• My hero so far in this game is Hiroki Kuroda.  In a game where Jason Schmidt was supposed to make his return to SF, Kuroda stepped right in where the Dodgers needed.  The thing I liked most was that he was hitting his spots…

Interruption——–

The Giants are again chanting “Beat LA.”  If I haven’t made it clear in previous posts, that has got to be the WORST sound on the face of the planet.  It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.  Arrggghhh.

Interruption ended———————

Kuroda just really has kept them off track and is going deep into the game.  If he is truly back and can be consistent, he is what the Dodgers need with Wolf to get into the Playoffs.  Time will tell if not getting Halladay was a mistake, but a healthy Kuroda definitely will help the Dodgers win the West.

We’ll see how this game ends up.  There’s still hope for Giants fans if Jonathan Broxton gets into the game.  He always makes it close for the Giants.  If he can finally beat the Giants strong – he has come a long way….otherwise, Torre should use Sherrill this series.  Go Blue.