Don’t look now, but just as we turned our backs on the baseball season for a day, every team that the Dodgers are battling for a playoff position lost in today’s action. Best yet, since the Dodgers were idle today, we didn't have to worry about them yielding any 1st inning runs. In today's National League action:
The San Francisco Giants lost 6-5 in Colorado. Once again they attempted a comeback, being down 6-2 in the 7th. They fell just short. The Giants are now 5 games ahead of the Dodgers at 79-62.
The Pittsburgh Pirates who started the day at 72-67, a full game behind the Dodgers in the standings and tied in the loss column, lost in a hard fought 14 inning game to Cincinnati. They now are 1 1/2 games behind Los Angeles.
 |
| Logan Forsythe of the Padres triples in first inning action against St. Louis. The Padres won 11-3. (photo by Dennis Poroy/Getty Images) |
The St. Louis Cardinals were blown out at San Diego tonight 11-3. The Cardinals now are just one game ahead of the Dodgers. They took a couple of hits to their roster today as well. Lance Berkman went under the knife with season ending knee surgery and starter Jake Westbrook has a dreaded oblique injury that will force him out of the Dodger series. Westbrook has been awful lately, so maybe the Dodgers didn’t catch such a break with him being out. Berkman, on the other hand, has always been tough on the L.A. club. St. Louis still has a lineup to be respected, but the losses of Berkman and Furcal definitely hurt them.
The Cards are playing just as awful as the Dodgers, 4-6 in their last ten games and getting beaten up by such teams as the Padres, Brewers, Mets, and Nationals. They have another two on this west coast swing with the red hot Padres. If the Dodgers can hang with the D-Backs for two games, they should be in good shape returning home for four with St. Louis.
The Dodgers will have their hands full in Arizona facing the always tough Ian Kennedy on Tuesday and Trevor Cahill, a guy they have never faired well against, on Wednesday.
One last interesting thing to note is that the Phillies and Brewers have crept back into the wild card race. They are 5 games back of St. Louis for the 2nd Wild Card spot, (4 games behind the Dodgers). Imagine that. Both teams were sellers and unloaded key pieces of their roster and they still are in contention. Both are long shots, but they aren’t out of it yet.
Just when we were thinking this season was over, it isn't...go figure.
No comments:
Post a Comment