[PilotMan]

9/1 8-2 L to the Expos
Picking up right where we left off. LA played sloppy. Rhoden (14-9) wasn't effective, and the team committed 3 errors that lead to 3 unearned runs. Willie Randolph was again, the only bright spot, getting nearly half the team hits and all the RBI's, hitting his 3^rd dinger of the year. Kelly Downs made his season debut and Ricky Wright made his ML debut, both pitched scoreless innings. This is the first 3 game losing streak of the year.


9/2 2-1 L to the Expos
Not good. A 3 game sweep by the Expos and our longest losing streak of the year. The Expos also won the season series 7-5. Milt Wilcox (13-7) went the distance and pitched great for the most part. Except for a HR allowed by Dawson he was on point. John Candelaria (18-2) should be the Cy Young, and probably the MVP. He allowed 3 hits, struck out 6 for the win. Ron Kittle finally hit his first.


9/3 4-2 L to the Padres
Oh man, LA now has a 5 game losing streak. Another wasted Pena start. Bob Ojeda is having a great year, but has only been getting 2 runs of support per game. He would've had the same here, had it not been for a 2-run homer by Luis Salazar off of Niedenfeur (9-2) in the 9^th that was difference in the game. Pena had pitched well, but it was his bat that tied the game up. He hit his second homer of the year in the loss. Tony Phillips left the game after a collision on a defensive play.


The news is bad. In addition to the 5 game losing streak the MRI on Phillips came back and showed a partially torn labrum. That will do him in for the rest of the year. UL Washington will resume the starting role at short. Greg Brock was called up.


9/4 8-2 (12) L to the Padres
This is really going south. Frank Tanana went 9 and gave up 2 homers, one to Dodger killer Luis Salazar. Again. Greg Brock hit his first homer of the year and Scioscia went 3-6. The game was tied 2-2 into extras and it was the unspectacular pitching of Steve How and his allowing 5 baserunners without getting an out, along with 2 errors in the 12^th that broke the game open. Fernando will be back on the mound to play stopper tomorrow.


It appears that Lasorda is going in a different direction at short. The shortage of offense had caused him to move Benazard back to short (ugh) against righties and Smally against lefties. There are enough big bats in this lineup that this shouldn't be happening.


9/5 6-1 W over the Braves
A WIN! Woohoo! Valenzuela (16-10) pitched a great game. Eight strikeouts in 8 innings of work and only 4 hits allowed. Ron Kittle provided all the offense. He hit a 2-run shot in the 1st and a 3-run shot in the 3^rd. Roy Smalley added his 10^th homer in the 6^th.


9/6 4-3 (10) W over the Braves
It's going to take a long winning streak to undo some of the damage that's been done. Rhoden went 8 and got the PoG award. LA drew 7 walks off of a very distracted Pascual Perez. Mike Scioscia gave LA a lead in the 2^nd with his 6^th homer of the year, but the Braves clawed back. Tony Brewer won the game with his first career ML hit, and that plated Roy Smalley from second. John Franco (2-0) got the win.


9/7 5-2 W over the Reds
Milt Wilcox (14-7) pitched beautifully, striking out 9 and shutting the Reds down except for a Nick Esasky 2-run homer (22) in the first. Dwayne Murphy got one back in the second with his 21^st of the year. Jack Morris shut us down though and it took a Scioscia double in the 7^th and a big single by Roy Smalley tied everything up. Wilcox kept plugging away and went the distance. In the 9^th it was a Sid Bream pinch hit single, then an intentional walk of Scioscia to get to UL Washington, but instead it was Ron Kittle (Mike Marshall is back and got the start). Kittle promptly deposited the ball in the left field pavilion (4) for the walk off win. On the negative side Dwight Evans has gone completely cold. He's hitting .143 with no extra base hits for September and hasn't hit a homer is 2 weeks.


The Expos have clinched the East and now sit 4.5 games ahead of the Dodgers for home field.


9/8 13-3 W over the Reds
Alejandro Pena (17-4) struck out 11 and pitched into the 9^th before he ran out of steam. Reds pitchers walked 8 Dodgers and gave up 3 home runs. LA put up 6 spot in the 8^th inning, but this game was over before then. Buck Martinez went 3-4 with a HR (2) and 5 RBI's. Mike Marshall (16) and Willie Randolph (5) each hit home runs.


9/9 5-4 W over the Reds
Tanana struck out 7 en route to his 14^th win. Dwayne Murphy his a solo shot in the 2^nd inning and went 3-4 with 3 RBI's. Sid Bream got a rare start at first and went 2-3 leading off with the other 2 RBI's. Burt Hooton pitched the 9^th for his first save of the year.


LA wins their 5^th in a row and the magic number is 1.


9/11 7-6 W over the Padres
The DODGERS WIN THE WEST! That's 4 in a row for LA. Good pitching was hard to find. Greg Brock lead off the game (yes, somehow, Greg Brock batted lead off today, don't ask) with his 3^rd hit of the year, it also happened to be his 2^nd homer. That was nothing, at the end of 1, it was 4-3 SD. In the 4^th Grich hit his 16^th homer of the year and put LA up for the 3^rd time, and he would add 4 RBI's in the game. LA drew another 7 walks off of the Padre pitching, but Valenzuela (17-10) walked 4 of his own. Niedenfuer pitched the last 2 innings. A Tony Gwynn triple would allow the Padres to climb within 1, with the tying run on third, but McReynolds would ground out to end it. That's the 30^th save for our closer. He's still only blown 2 all year. How's this for a bad pitching line: 3.2 IP, 8 H, 7R/ER, 5 BB, 1 K, 2 HR, 101 Pitches, 53 strikes. That's how Dave Dravecky (12-12) fared. We should be thankful that we've made it all year without a line that bad.


9/12 5-1 W over the Padres
LA pushes the win streak to 7 games. Willie Randolph went 3-3 with 2 walks, 2 runs and an rbi. He is just the key in the #2 spot in the lineup. LA put up 4 in the 4^th thanks to a Bobby Grich 3-run shot. It was his 17^th on the year. Rick Rhoden (15-9) allowed 3 hits and pitched into the 9^th. Hooton finished the game. While we've won 7 in a row, the Expos have won 8 in a row and are 5 ahead of LA for home field.


9/13 7-2 W over the Reds
LA banged out 16 hits and 7 starters had 2 hits or more (Randolph had 3 because of course he did). Alejandro Pena ran his record to 18-4 and lowered his ERA to 1.87 by going 8.1 and allowing 1 run. LA scored in each of the first 5 innings. They were helped by Dewey finally hitting his first home run in 3 fucking weeks. Good god. That was his 26^th. Dwayne Murphy hit his 23^rd in the 5^th and Stubbs hit #12 in the 8^th.


The Expos have now opened up a 29 game lead on 2^nd place St Louis. The Cubs are languishing in last 51 games back. The Twins have their magic number down to 5. The Blue Jays and Yankees are still only separated by 1 game.


9/15 2-1 L to the Reds
LA put runners on 2^nd and 3^rd with no outs in the 9^th and couldn't cash in. So the win streak comes an end, but it was close. They had plenty of chances. They drew another 8 walks off of Cincy pitching. Wilcox (14-8) took the loss, but only allowed 2 in 7 innings. Ted Power made us look silly in the 9^th when we had him in trouble. Should've won.