[PilotMan]

9/1 7-5 W over the Expos
Valenzuela (11-9) got the win, but he was far from his best today. He was just lucky. LA got to Reuschel to the tune of 9 hits and 6 runs in 5 innings. LA got the rare Scioscia HR (5) in the 4^th and we had a 6-0 lead halfway home. The Expos got 3 back in the bottom of the 5^th. LA would tack on an extra run in the 8^th, and Franco came on to pitch the 9^th for his 23^rd save. Steve Sax left the game in the 2^nd while rounding the bases. Ty Dabney made his ML debut. He ended up 2-3 with an RBI. Stubbs went 3-4 on the day. In the game, Robin Yount got his 2000 career hit. The game was held up for the ceremony and both teams congratulated him.


Sax has a knee bruise and will miss a few days, but isn't heading to the DL.


9/2 2-0 L to the Expos
Bryn Smith (14-6) is well on his way to another 20 game season. He kept the bums quiet all game long. Scioscia had a couple of hits, and LA wasted a CG by Tanana. Tanana (13-6) allowed 5 hits, and it was Galarraga that knocked both runs in off of him. LA wasted 8 hits, and grounded into 3 double plays.


9/3 3-1 (11) W over the Expos
We even the season series with the tough road win in Montreal. Nolan Ryan started, didn't allow a hit until the 7^th inning, but Rick Rhoden was equal to the task. LA scored in the 7^th on a Rhoden Rbi single, but the Expos got it right back and that's how it stayed until extras. In the 11^th Ron Kittle and BJ Surhoff, both got RBI singles off of Jeff Reardon (2-9). Niedenfeur gets the win (4-8) and Franco pitched the 9^th for his 24^th save.


9/4 2-1 W over the Mets (makeup)
Denny (13-7) picked right up in September where he left of at in August. He pitched 8 strong allowing 1 run, and lowering his ERA to 3.08. Denny even got an RBI single to put LA on the board in the 7^th. Franco pitched the 9^th for his 25^th save.


9/5 1-0 W over the Phillies
Charles Hudson (12-9) and Kelly Downs (8-5) went toe to toe for the whole game. It was tied at 0 heading into the 9^th. Hudson had DeCinces on a 1-2 count when our third basemen hammered the ball 391ft to left-center (26) to put us up. Niedenfeur came on for the 9^th for his 4^th save of the year.


9/6 5-3 W over the Phillies
LA gets the 4^th win in a row with nary an extra base hit in the game. LA put a string of hits together off of Kevin Gross (8-16) and scored 3 in the first. With that Valenzuela (12-9) was able to cruise along. They added 2 more in the 6^th to pad the lead and that ended up being enough to hold on. Ken Howell pitched the 9^th for his 5^th save of the year. That's 3 different closers in 3 days. We saw former Dodger first round pick Kurt Stillwell playing for the Phillies. We also saw the the ML debut of Oswaldo Peraza who pitched a little over an inning, and got a hit in his first ML at bat.


Former Dodger pitcher Rick Reuschel got his 200^th career win.


9/7 5-4 L to the Phillies
Frank Tanana (13-7) and the case of the missing baseball. Missing because it's flying out of the ballpark. He only lasted 4 innings this outing, serving up 2 gopher balls to Steve Balboni (32). LA had a couple of homers of their own, with DeCinces getting us started in the first (27). LA fell behind 5-1 and nearly clawed it all back. Roy Smalley hit his 5^th in the 7^th. We nearly came back, but the Phillies pen shut us down.


There's a major award race going on in the NL, and it's for who will become the first player to reach the 40/40 club. It's seems a nearly foregone conclusion that both men will reach it, but who will get there first? Darryl Strawberry leads the NL with 35 HR's and 46 SB, while Eric Davis is 2^nd with 34 HR's and 49 SB. Strawberry is hitting .323, while Davis .333. Imagine if at some point these two titans were ever on the same team?! That team would be nearly unbeatable! (note: yes, this is a reference to Dodger fans.) One of them WILL win the MVP this year.


9/8 8-3 L to the Braves
So the worst team in the West, with a 7 game losing streak knocks us off again. Yippee. Rhoden (18-6) on the mound. Big Franklin Stubbs 2-run HR (27) in the first, and we should have rolled. Nope. Four errors, 2 wild pitches, contributed to an embarrassing loss at home. Stubbs did all the damage going 2-4. Rookie pitcher, Charlie Kerfeld saw his 2^nd pro game, going 2.1 scoreless and striking out 3.


LA committed to first base overnight by finalizing a 4-year contract extension for first basemen Sid Bream. Bream, 26, took over the starting job last year and has held it down all year long. He's coming off the best month of his career. His contract is valued at a very affordable 1.1M over 4 years. That's nearly reserve pay for a guy just coming into his prime. Good deal for the team.


9/9 3-2 (10) L to the Braves
All of LA's scoring was thanks to Dwayne Murphy hitting a 2-run homer (6) in the 5^th. That gave Denny the lead and it looked like it was going to hold. The Braves got one back in the 6^th when former Dodger Candy Maldonado hit his 16^th and then Brook Jacoby tied it in the 7^th. It came down to the bullpens and once again, John Franco (4-7) would be the one that let us down, but it was unearned, but it was his error. Double boo.


9/10 4-1 L to the Astros
LA drops it's 4^th straight. Kelly Downs (8-6) threw 7 innings, allowed 2 runs, but it wasn't good enough LA to overcome. They were helpless against McCaskill (9-15). Dwayne Murphy hit an RBI triple for our only run. Houston put up 2 more in the 9^th off of Pena to lock the game up.


9/11 2-0 L to the Astros
Uh Oh. This makes 5 straight losses and August is being undone. Our offense has disappeared and the standings are closing up fast. Valenzuela (12-10) pitched hard, struck out 8, 1 out shy of a complete game, and yet the bats were silent in his support. Tony Phillips lead off and he went 4-5. LA had 0 extra base hits, left 11 on and had 10 singles. It was a completely wasted effort.


9/12 5-4 (14) L to the Reds
LA had to rally for 3 in the bottom of the 9^th off of Dennis Lamp to send it to extras. In extras John Franco walked the bases loaded only to work his way out of it for no damage. No, the ruler of the day was Danny Tartabull. The Reds right fielder homered in the 1^st off of Tanana, then homered again in the 14^th off of Ken Howell, that gave the Reds the winning margin. Tanana allowed 10 hits and 2 more homers in the game. Tony Phillips again had the only offense for LA, as Phillips homered for his 8^th time during his 2 hit game.


While LA has lossed 6 in a row, the Padres have won 6 in a row. We are now .5 game behind them in the race for 2^nd.


9/13 4-3 W over the Reds
Larry Parrish and his 2-run HR (3) in the bottom of the 7^th broke a 2-2 tie. Rhoden won his 19^th game of the year and struck out 6. The Reds sent Vida Blue to the mound and he struck out 8 guys enroute to his loss. Jim Beattie pitched the 9^th as yet another different pitcher saved a game for us. His first of the year. Thank god we got a win, finally.


Tom “Terrific” Seaver won his 300^th game last night while pitching for the Blue Jays.


9/14 10-3 W over the Reds
10 runs, 15 hits. The 9 of those hits for extra bases. The Reds have great offense, but damn, their pitching gets ripped up by our hitters. Top hitter, was.....Mike Scioscia. No seriously, dude went 4-5, 5 RBI's and 3 doubles. Pete Incaviglia hit his 2^nd HR of the season. He also had 2 doubles. John Denny (14-7) went 8.


Fred Lynn and Steve Sax were both activated from the DL, and should be back in the lineup.