[PilotMan]

9/1 15-1 L to the Phillies
Rookie Michael Cunningham (0-1) was shelled and still lowered his ERA to 14.63. Sergio DelRosario made his ML debut and failed to record an out, allowing 2 hits and 2 walks. He was followed by Rafael Montalvo who got 2 outs, but allowed 2 hits and walked 5 in a 9 run 5^th inning. To make matters worse Rickey left the game in the first on a diving attempt in center. It's not looking good, but we'll have to wait and see. To his credit, Dwayne Murphy went 3-3 replacing him.

9/2 6-4 L to the Phillies
Ron Gant hit his first of the year to break a 3-3 tie and put the Phillies up 6-3 off of Valenzuela. It was one of 3 that Valenzuela gave up. He had 7 K's in 7 innings, but takes the loss to drop to 14-10. Inky went 2-4 batting. Dwayne Murphy left the game after leading off. It looked like he might have pulled something. Prospect Doug Jennings took over and scored 2 runs.

Major bad news for the Dodgers today. Rickey is heading to the DL again for recurring back spasms. That's not good for a guy who just signed a big contract. That's going to be it for his regular season. He might be back for the playoffs.

The other blow is to Murphy. He's also on the DL, and he's going to miss the rest of the year too with a foot injury. In 2 days, our offense and our depth has been neutered. Rick Rhoden was activated off the DL.

Fred Lynn, who started in CF last year, looks to take that spot back again, and Tom Beyers is going to get the initial shot in LF. Jennings will be the 4^th OF.

9/4 10-6 L to the Mets
The losing streak hits 3. Rhoden (14-8) makes his return and it's not good. He serves up 13 hits and couldn't get out of the 7^th innning. He was on the hook for all 10 runs, but only 6 were earned. Sax and Lynn each had 3 hits and Inky hammered 2 HR's (28, 29). Even Rhoden went 2-3 and got a go ahead RBI early in the game. The Mets Edward Lindsey got his 13^th win on the year.

Young Brewers utility guy, Dale Sveum hit for the cycle in a 14-9 W over the Twins. He's been getting a lot of time at first for the Brewers.

9/5 4-2 W over the Mets
LA gets 8 strong innings from Downs (13-8) as he allows 6 hits and 2 runs, while striking out 6. LA went down 2-0, but BJ Surhoff hit a 2 run homer as part of a 3 run 5^th inning to put LA on top for the game. Sax went 2-5 and Pete O'Brien walked 3 times and scored 2 runs. Robinson pitched the 9^th for his 8^th save and lowered his ERA to 5.53.

9/6 8-2 W over the Mets
LA put up 4 in the first, and 3 in the second, helped along by 2, 2-HR by Fred Lynn (35,36). Knight also homered in the first (14). The Dodgers got another strong start, this one from John Denny (15-9), who went 8, allowing only 1 run. Pena finished the 9^th. Tom Byers finally got his first career hit, as the 29 yr old went 2-4. O'Brien and Surhoff also added 2 hits.

9/7 11-4 L to the Reds
The new Big Red Machine rolled over us today. Just after LA tied it up in the top of the 7^th, the Reds exploded all over Brian Holton (1-1) and Ken Howell for 6 runs in the bottom half. Valenzuela started, and went 6, although he did allow 4 across. The Reds had 13 hits, 11 of which went for extra bases. Yeah. Read that again. Glenn Hubbard, a July trade pickup, has been hitting .130 for the Reds. He went 3-5 with 3 doubles. We're sliding backward early here.

9/8 12-9 L to the Reds
Rough. There were 6 lead changes and 7 HR's hit in the game. LA struck first, but between Tanana, 6 runs allowed, 2 gopher balls, Pena (2-2) and his 4 unearned runs, with 1 gopher, and Dravecky (another gopher) LA could not stay in it. The Dodgers committed 3 errors, and got homers from Lynn (37), Inky (30) and Knight (15). They brought the tying run to the plate in the 9^th and forced the Reds to bring in Goose, who promptly struck out Phillips to end the game. LA has slipped to 2 games back and are only a half ahead of the Reds.

9/9 14-6 L to the Reds
Good god. 37 runs allowed in 3 games. LA wasted another 2-HR day by Lynn (38,39) and Inky's 31^st and they went back to back in the 3^rd to go up 4-0. Rhoden (14-9) walked 6 in 3.2 innings of work. LA pitchers walked the Reds 11 times, and Reds pitchers allowed 9 walks. That's 20 combined walks. LA also wasted a 7-14 batting day by the 3-4-5 guys in the lineup and a 3-3 day by Phillips. LA drops to 3^rd in the West.

9/10 2-0 W over the Braves
One day. When you need a hero. One will arrive. The hero today? None other than Kelly Downs (14-8) who has been hot lately. Downs pitched 6.2 innings of no hit ball before ex Dodger, Candy Maldonado broke it up with a single. Downs had faced the minimum up to that point. The Braves started Zane Smith (11-16), who has been hard on LA over the years, and both men went zeros over 9 innings of work. Smith had scattered 8 hits, Downs 2. Both pitched the 10^th and LA finally broke through on a Sax 2-run single. Downs allowed a lead off double in the 10^th, but the Braves could muster no more.

Twins outfielder, Dave “The Cobra” Parker got his 2000^th career hit.

Mike Scioscia was activated from the DL. Surhoff played alright for a backup, but not good enough to supplant the ingrained Scioscia.

9/12 5-2 L to the Braves
LA struck first when Scioscia got his an RBI in his first game back, but the Braves just chugged along, helped by a 2-run HR by the Candy Man (24), the didn't surrender it. Lynn had a couple hits. Denny (15-10) went 5, in an unimpressive start.

9/13 10-5 W over the Braves
LA got 4 runs in the first, then gradually gave it back. Valenzuela (15-10) got the win, but managed to allow 5 in 7 innings. It was worse for Braves starter Mulholland (7-8). For some reason he pitched 8 innings, walked 7 and struck out none. He also allowed 9 hits and 7 runs. Going into the 8^th, LA had relinquished the lead thanks to a Craig Biggio HR (8). LA grabbed it back with 2, and piled on in the 9^th on the Braves pen. Don Robinson lowered his ERA to 5.40.
So I keep reporting Robinson's ERA just because he is sucking so badly and because we lost Howe. So how is Howe doing? Well, he didn't go far. He's the closer for the Angels over in Anehiem. He is 7-6, with 22 saves and a career high, 6.18 ERA. His WHIP is an astronomical 1.84 and he's blown 10 saves. Sooooo, we're not missing much this year. I blame his decision to leave the Dodgers for this.

9/14 2-1 W over the Astros
Nothing like a comeback. We get the Astros at home, only a game behind, take game 1 to tie things up in the West. The Dodgers took the lead when Lynn hit #40 in the 2^nd inning. Rhoden (15-9) got the start and pitched well. The only run being a Barry Larkin run off of a Bill Madlock double. A pinch hit single by Bream in the 7^th put LA back in front when Jennings scored. Don Robinson pitched the 9^th for his 9^th save in 9 tries. He lowered his ERA to 5.27.

9/15 9-8 (11) L to the Astros
LA fought back the entire game. Tanana pitched poorly, and struggled to 102 pitches in 4 innings of work. He make career sub .200 hittter, and career .278 SLG, Mike Brumley look amazing. Brumley hit his 3^rd career HR and had 2 other hits off of Tanana. LA got a run in the 8^th to cut the lead to 2 heading into the 9^th. With Astros closer, Garrelts on the mound, LA got the bases loaded with no outs and the middle of the order up. They'd tie it up and put the winning run on third (1 out), then fail to bring him in. Rookie reliever DelRosario, who is really sucking bad on the mound (allowed 2 more in 2 innings, still lowered his ERA, but struck out 4) did better in the box. In his first career at bat, knocked a single to right. Pena and Niedenfuer didn't allow a runner in 4 innings, but it was Ken Howell (0-1) in the 11^th that let Houston take the lead. Reardon closed it out for his 16^th save.