[PilotMan]

7/18 2-1 (15) L to the Cardinals
Rick Rhoden lost a no hitter in the 9^th inning. Frank White had given LA a 1-0 lead with a pinch hit homer in the 8^th inning and Rhoden had his chance to get the no-no. Alas, it wasn't to be. The bullpen did great, but an Andre Thornton error in the 15^th set up the Cardinals winning run.


7/19 6-4 L to the Cardinals
Tanana (5-5) and the gopher ball. He served up 2 more in his 4 innings of work, but he also allowed 12 baserunners on. Pena came on, pitched 4.2, allowed 1 hit and struck out 7. Stubbs hit his 12^th in the first inning and the top 4 in the order produced 8 of our 9 hits. It was crickets after that.


7/20 5-3 L to the Cardinals
And as quickly as we rise, we fall. Three in a row by the Cards, at home, really crushes the momentum we were building. John Denny (6-10) didn't allow a hit until the 5^th inning, and had been staked to a 3-0 lead. The Cardinals beat you with speed and defense, most of the time. They took over in the 7^th, on a bad inning for Denny. Stubbs cracked another homer. This is his 13^th now, and along with Evans and Randolph went 2-4 in the game.


7/21 5-2 W over the Cardinals
Valenzuela (11-4), our top dog, showing why he's the top dog. No hits through the first 4 innings. Struck out the first 4 batters he faced (his opponent, John Stuper walked the first 3 he faced), ended up with 10 K's in the game. LA got three long balls, first was a solo shot by Scioscia (7), later in the inning Mike Marshall hit #13, and later in the 7^th, when the Cards had crept up, it was Valenzuela himself with his first long ball of the year, second for his career. John Franco got the final 5 outs for his first career save.


7/22 5-3 W over the Pirates
Jim Beattie with another start, and you know, aside from the 2-run homer he served up to Jim Dwyer in the first inning, this was one of his better starts. He struck out 6, but was still in trouble nearly every inning. He didn't get the win though, as we were down 3-1 when he left. In the 7^th Mike Scioscia tied the game with a 2-run double. Later on, after a slew of lefty/righty swaps by Lasorda, Andre Thornton hit a pinch hit, 2-run double that put us up for good. Reuss (4-2) got the win and Franco got the last 6 outs for his 2^nd save.


7/23 3-0 W over the Pirates
We still aren't racking up the runs, but we didn't need to today. Rick Rhoden (13-5) was in charge and threw the first complete game shutout in a long, long time. He allowed 5 hits, struck out 6. LA drew 7 walks to go with their 5 hits.


7/24 9-7 W over the Pirates
Ron Cey bashed 5 hits against Dodger pitching and Jose DeLeon was well on his way to his 14^th win in the 7^th inning. Mike Marshall his a completely useless solo shot (14) that looked pointless, because it made the score 7-3. Bottom of the 8^th though, things started to happen. Frank White reached on an error, followed by a Randolph single. Buck Martinez sac flied home White, for 1 out. Dwight Evans flew out for the second out. Stubbs hit a double to left-center that moved Randolph to third, and Mike Marshall smoked the ball to the left power alley for his 15^th and that tied it up. Guante came in to face Sid Bream, who singled. Then Graig Nettles pounded the first pitch into the right field corner for his second home run of the game (7,8) and that was the difference. Reuss (5-2) had come on in relief of Tanana got the win and Franco closed for his 3^rd save. If we could keep this up....




7/25 5-2 W over the Cubs
John Denny (7-10) went 8, striking out 8. He was helped along by Mike Marshall and the 3-run home run (16) off of David Cone (4-7) in the 3^rd inning. That was enough for us. Mike Scioscia went 3-4. Ken Howell pitched the 9^th for his 6^th save. The Cubs have dropped 12 straight. I'm sure they'll get one against us.


7/26 7-2 W over the Cubs
Good outing from Valenzuela (12-4) as he pitches deep and allows our bull pen to get more rest. He struck out 8, while the bats beat up Kurt Kepshire (4-9). LA broke out 5 runs in the 3^rd inning, with the big hit belonging to Graig Nettles, who continues his July hot streak, with his 9^th home run.


7/27 4-3 L to the Cubs
See?! This was a rematch of Jim Beattie and Mark Vaji (1-2). Vaji got his first career win, he pitched 8 good innings, and we should have been able to do better than that. Beattie, shockingly, shut out the Cubs through 5 innings, allowing only 2 hits. Then he left the game with discomfort. Jerry Reuss came on and gave up runs, John Franco (0-1) came in and he served up a home run to Tony Armas, who was pinch hitting, that put the Cubs up for good.


Beattie just has some shoulder tenderness and he's only expected to miss 1 start. Not sure if this is a good thing or not.


Huge blockbuster trade, but not for LA. The Yankees have sent pitchers Mario Soto and Mark Gardner to the Royals for the aging hot corner man, Mike Schmidt. I've mentioned before that the Yankees have pitching depth. This gives them another big bat in the middle of the lineup to go with Mattingly and Keith Hernandez. The Royals lose their DH and clean up hitter, but gain a big arm. They lost Bob Welch for the season earlier. Their problem is that they can't replace that power. Carney Lansford is expected to take over at DH. The Yankees are .5 game back, and the Royals are 2 back. This could work for both of them. Or just as easily, not.


7/28 13-6 L to the Cubs
Thank god that crappy games only count as 1 loss, because this one should have counted for 3. Forget that Randolph went 2-3 or that Scioscia went 2-5 and hit a 3-run homer (8). The Dodgers committed 5 errors, Rick Rhoden (13-6) was awful, Ken Howell gave up 5 runs in relief. It was bad. Happy it's only worth 1 loss.


7/29 4-2 L to the Giants
We have now dropped 3 straight to a couple of the worst teams in baseball. The season is slipping away. We were stopped today by our old friend Floyd Bannister (7-10). Tanana (5-6) gave up 3 in the first and we played behind from the start. Frank White just punished a ball to center for his 4^th HR of the year. Brought us to 1, but that's as close as we got.


7/30 7-6 L to the Giants
John Denny (7-11) went 5, allowed 5, struck out 6. The Giants had a 5-1 lead by the time Denny was out of there. In the 7^th Sid Bream hit #10, and went 2-3 in the game, to make it 5-2. The Giants would add 2 more in the 9^th as a result of 3 errors in 1 inning. It didn't seem like much at the time, but when LA scored 3 times, on walks, 3 in a row, it got close. The tying run got on third, but they just couldn't get home. Those errors cost us. Now we've dropped 4 straight.


7/31 8-7 (13) W over the Giants
LA tied the game in the bottom of the 9^th inning when Mike Marshall his a 2-1 pitch, with 2 outs, dep to left and out. It was his second home run of the game, and his 18^th of the year. Valenzuela had started, and struck out 8, but he didn't pitch great today. The Giants bullpen tired out as the innings wore on and it was Bob Stanley (0-6) who had to carry the load. He would end up walking Dwight Evans with the bases loaded to walk us off. Pena (3-2) pitched the last 2 for the win. Mike Marshall went 4-6, with 4 RBI's.