The Dodgers have clearly given up for the season. Tonight, playing one of the worst teams in the National League, they scored 1 paltry run with their anemic offense. Billingsley was good for an an inning or so but gave up 4 walks and 4 runs in 5 innings, with Grady "Do" Little leaving him in a few batters too many, a disease he's shown since his days in Boston. If that wasn't enough, Little waved the white flag by sending in rust-bucket Hernandez to pitch mop-up duty. Surprisingly, the bullpen pitched well, but it was too late for the Dodgers, who missed 14 opportunities to score.
In a sign of just how desperate the Dodgers are, they picked up castoff Shea Hillenbrand, who has been thrown off two teams in the last year for causing problems in the clubhouse. Nomar Garciaparra showed a little fire at the plate, not by getting a hit, but by getting thrown out of the game for questioning a strike call. Unfortunately the excitement did not spread and Hillenbrand replacing him began his Dodger career by going 0 for 2 with a double play.
The closest thing to a Dodger star of the game was Pierre, who got 3 hits out of the 7 spot, 1 a bunt and 1 a bloop.
Astro pitcher Roy Oswalt pitched well, but the Dodgers should have done a lot better. This is their 3rd straight loss, and they are 3-9 in August. Announced attendance at the game was over 49,000, and it was a sizeable crowd for a Monday night, but expect those number to plummet if the Dodgers do not go on a winning streak starting this week.
Little announced that Hendrickson would be moving back to the bullpen, but would not announce who the replacement starter will be, forcing speculation that the Dodgers are going to pick up another aging clubhouse disaster, David Wells. If they do, this would be the worst act of desperation in the team's recent history.
The Dodgers have 44 games left in their schedule. Only 16 of those are non-division, leaving 28 games left in the NL West. 6 of those are against last-place SF, meaning there are 22 games left in the season against divisional contenders. They are 6.5 games back from Arizona. They were in first place virtually every day of the season until three weeks ago. On paper, this is exactly the same team they were when they were in first place (with a few more injuries, and a lot more slumps). They certainly have the time to pull it off, but they need to start winning almost immediately, and certainly by this weekend against Colorado.
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