Dodgers sneak by the Cubs..

Not the prettiest ballgame to see. The end was much tighter than it might have been thanks to a 38 pitch performance by Broxton in a non save situation on Wednesday. It's bad enough we continue to carry 13 pitchers but you can't ask Mota or Ohman to get a few outs with a big lead instead of asking Belisario to try and go 3 innings and then jumping to Broxton in a non save situation? The end result was Troncoso having to go 2 innings and hit for himself in a big spot on Thursday. He came up with 2 men in scoring position in the top of the 9th with Loretta available but had to bat because neither Broxton or Belisario were available and for the time being they are the only 3 relievers Torre has any amount of trust in.

Fortunately, despite some dancing around he was able to strike out Bobby Scales and Jake Fox to end it and strand men on 2nd and 3rd. Fox is an interesting story. He was putting up Ruth-like numbers in AAA but is apparently a DH type who can hit but was never fond of the leather. He will be interesting to watch in the upcoming 3 games with lefties, Stults and Milton going on Sat. and Sun. respectively.

Dodgers improve to a league best 34-15. 6 more wins than any other team in baseball and a 9 game lead in the NL West. Interesting standings tid-bit. The 2nd place Padres are currently 9 games back of LA. That is equal or greater to the deficit by the last place team in 4 of the other 5 divisions. Pretty astounding.

Bills and Lilly tomorrow. Should be a great pitching mathcup!

--- Tim