LOS ANGELES DODGERS CLIPS

SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 2013

OC REGISTER

Ninth-inning rally leads Dodgers to victory

By Earl Bloom

LOS ANGELES – - The Tampa Bay Rays made their long-awaited Dodger Stadium debut Friday night.The game proved a little too long for it to be a successful one for the Rays, as the red-hot Dodgers scored seven runs in the final three innings, including four in the bottom of the ninth, to prevail, 7-6.

With one out in the ninth, Mark Ellis had an RBI triple for the Dodgers, followed by RBI doubles by Nick Punto and Adrian Gonzalez, all off Rays closer Fernando Rodney.

Rodney then threw the ball into center field on a potential inning-ending double play ball to allow Gonzalez to sprint home with the winner.

The planned post-game fireworks show was canceled because of the game length (three hours, 55 minutes), but the Dodgers rally provided plenty of entertainment.

“It's the best win so far,” Skip Schumaker said. “Down, 6-0, against (Tampa Bay pitcher) David Price, there's not a lot of hope involved.”

"It was unbelievable, really," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said of the ninth-inning flurry. "It just kind of happened so fast."

He said his team, which has won 35 of its last 43, didn't let the 6-0 deficit or a lack of sleep after the return from St. Louis affect it.

"Everybody knows we got in late," Mattingly said. "Even with that, these guys came out to play. We feel like we can win every day."

He said the relief work, particularly by Brandon League and J.P. Howell, was "huge" in keeping the Rays from expanding their advantage after the fifth.

All the Dodgers had to do was get Tampa Bay starter Price out of the game.

The left-hander, who is likely pitching better since he came off the DL on July 2 than he did in winning the 2012 AL Cy Young award, scattered seven Dodgers hits and left after seven innings with a 6-1 advantage.

“We're always talking about giving ourselves a chance to win,” Hairston said. “It didn't look good early on. David Price is as good a pitcher as we've faced. He was nasty.”

Price walked one batter, but that's news. The four-pitch walk Hairston Jr. drew to lead off the second was just the second pass issued by Price in 229 batters faced since he returned from a left-triceps strain.

The Rays scored three times in the second inning, aided by an error by shortstop Nick Punto, plus two ill-advised heaves to the plate by rookie center fielder Yasiel Puig, which allowed Tampa Bay runners to take extra bases each time.

Yunel Escobar singled in one run, and James Loney -- in his first Dodger Stadium at-bat wearing an opposing uniform -- drove in two with a hit. The Puig throws took away two double-play chances, but Chris Capuano was able to minimize the damage to the 3-0 deficit.

Puig's misadventures continued in the third, when he broke back to the wall on a Ryan Roberts dunker to right-center that fell in for a double -- despite right fielder Skip Schumaker's all-out sprint. Again, Capuano was able to pitch out of that jam.

In the fourth, Hairston tried to score from first on Juan Uribe's two-out double, but was thrown out -- by a healthy margin -- on a perfect Tampa Bay relay from right fielder Ben Zobrist to second baseman Roberts to catcher Jose Molina.That was the closest the Dodgers came to scoring until Schumaker's two-out, RBI single in the seventh. Puig doubled in a run, then scored on Uribe's two-out hit, against the Rays pen in the eighth. Joel Peralta retired pinch-hitter Carl Crawford to end that threat.

The Rays broke it open with three runs in the fifth. One came in on a single by Zobrist after rookie center fielder Wil Myers was walked intentionally, and Escobar drove in two more with a hit, chasing Capuano.

The Dodgers are 18-3 since the All-Star break, and their 35-8 mark since June 22 is the best such stretch for the franchise since 1953.

“You walk into the clubhouse and you feel like you're going to win,” Schumaker said. “That hasn't changed at all. It didn't matter what inning we were in.”

Whicker: Loney enjoying Ray-freshment

By Mark Whicker

LOS ANGELES – The Dodgers built their ground-level spa of a clubhouse, replacing Das Boot. They did so right after they traded James Loney.

He did not take it personally.

"I checked it out. A year late, I guess," he said in the visiting clubhouse before Friday's game, after he had visited his old mates and seen their new lockers and whirlpools and video rooms.

No problem. He knows that the team is what makes a house a home, and he has wandered fortuitously into the Urgent Care Center of Major League Baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays.

Loney seemed practically done at the end of 2012, hitting .254 with a feeble OPS of .646 before he was traded to Boston, and he hit .230 with four extra-base hits in 106 plate appearances there.

He checked into Dr. Joe Maddon's clinic with an ego contusion and a limp, thanks to tripping over the free-agent threshold and getting $2 million for one year.

So Loney arrived in L.A. with a .307 average and an .805 OPS. Both figures would be career highs for a 400-at-bat season. He has 10 home runs, but nobody in Tampa demands 20.

"There was never really pressure from the Dodgers, from the coaches or the organization, to hit home runs," Loney said. "But some people forget that when the game was invented, the object was to get a hit. I don't even think they had fences when they first started playing.

"Sometimes people's brains get skewed a little bit as far as what's really important. I know a lot of guys who used to hit home runs aren't hitting them anymore."

So is this just a matter of a 29-year-old settling into prime time?

"I don't know, I'm just being myself, having fun," he said. "And it's fun to be on a winning team. In high school (Elkins, in Missouri City, Texas) we had the best high school team in the nation. I've been on winners pretty much my whole life."I just looked at the track record, I guess," Loney added. "My career average (.285) is better than a lot of people might think. So I thought something would work out. I'm glad I'm here."

Then the fans saluted Loney when the lineups were announced, and they applauded during his first at-bat, and the Dodgers showed a nice video tribute.

He thanked them with a two-run single, as Yasiel Puig continued to ignore the concept of the cutoff man, and the Rays line-drove their way to a 6-0 lead.

Since these are the Dodgers, nothing stopped there. They won it, 7-6, in the ninth when they went triple-double-double off Fernando Rodney, who heaved Jerry Hairston's double-play ball into center field as those spectators who had remained faithful shook the foundations.

That made Tampa Bay 66-48 after they lost pitcher James Shields and outfielder B.J. Upton in the offseason. In 2011 they went 91-72 after they lost Carl Crawford, Matt Garza, Carlos Pena and Rafael Soriano.

They've become organic, with new blossoms replacing the old, and they're almost perennial. Since the beginning of the '08 season Tampa Bay is 124 games over .500. In the same span, the rich and well-attended Angels are 110 over, and dropping.

Fernando Rodney left the Angels in disgrace. Last year, with Tampa Bay, he was the Comeback Player of the Year. Ben Zobrist was a throw-in when the Rays shuffled Aubrey Huff to Houston. Now Zobrist might be the best multi-position player in the game.

Pena was an overanalytical nomad until he drifted to Tampa Bay and then averaged 38.7 homers and 107.6 RBI over three seasons.

And when Shields became unaffordable, the Rays didn't surrender him for "future considerations." They patiently waited for the Royals to surrender Wil Myers, now the MLB leader in homers and RBI among rookies even though he didn't surface until June 18.

"It's a game of adjustments on any level," Myers said. "The pitchers have already adjusted to me, and I've adjusted back. I haven't really had any surprises. Bigger crowds, I guess. Nicer hotels."

Maddon has studied the phenomenon of the urgent care center. He figures that if the players couldn't play, they wouldn't be here. So let them.

"All I did with (shortstop Yunel) Escobar and Rodney was hug them," he said. "I said, be yourself. With Loney we don't worry about lack of power. We celebrate the good things, the defense, the ability to hit to all fields.

"I think we get too hung up on rules. Now, playing hard, going from first to third? That's our identity – but it comes from the fact that we're relaxed and having fun. And you can do that if you have accountable professionals.

"Besides, how can I have all these rules? When I was a kid, my hair was down to my backside."

There's a procedure for that.

Small-market hit lands in Chavez Ravine

By Earl Bloom

LOS ANGELES – Dodgers second baseman Mark Ellis played against the Tampa Bay Rays every year for the nine seasons he spent in the American League with the Oakland Athletics.

So he knows a lot about the Rays, who played their first-ever game at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.

"They play incredibly hard," Ellis said of Manager Joe Maddon's team. "They're a hard team to win against. And they pitch well.

"They come out there and get after you basically every night. Their organization has a very good plan in place."

He said he paid a lot of attention to the Rays when he was with the A's, "because we were both small-market teams trying to find ways to compete against large-market teams, and there are a lot of similarities."

"The Rays do a good job of it," he said.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he'd only seen the Rays' Cy Young left-hander and Friday starter, David Price, "on TV and on video. But I'm looking forward to seeing him against us."

RAMIREZ BETTER

Shortstop Hanley Ramirez (left shoulder) continues to progress, and might be available to pinch-hit in this series."We're going in the right direction with him," Mattingly said. "He hasn't thrown yet, but we're happy he's feeling a lot better."

Mattingly said that "if it had only been a trip to the disabled list and a 15-day situation, when it happened (Sunday in Chicago), I would've been happy with that."

Center fielder Matt Kemp, on his second DL stint sandwiched around the July 22 game in which he sprained his left ankle, also continues to make progress, Mattingly said. Kemp had just come off a shoulder injury and was hurt in his first game back.

"Matt looks pretty good, too," the manager said. "He looked a lot better today."

LINEUP CHANGES

The mound presence of Price, the reigning AL Cy Young winner, made some Friday lineup decisions simpler for Mattingly.

Carl Crawford, coming off a .413 trip, got a night off, as did fellow left-handed hitter Andre Ethier.

"It seems like the more he (Crawford) plays the better he gets, but he needs a day," Mattingly said, noting that Crawford had played seven in a row, and has had no success against Price.

"It seems like the right day for me."

Crawford, battling hamstring trouble this season, is 0 for 9 against his former Rays teammate.

Ethier, like most Dodgers, had never faced Price, but is hitting .231 against left-handers. Ethier started six of the eight games on the trip to Chicago and St. Louis, and appeared in all eight.

Jerry Hairston Jr. started in left, Skip Schumaker (a left-handed batter) opened in right, and rookie Yasiel Puig made his fourth start in center field.

Rays rookie Wil Myers, who compares favorably with Puig in most rookie stat categories, made his second career start in center field.

WILSON UPDATE

Right-handed reliever Brian Wilson, the former San Francisco Giants closer who the Dodgers hope to add to their late-inning mix down the stretch, pitched Friday for Triple-A Albuquerque.

He retired all three batters he faced on seven pitches.

"They've got a plan for how they're going to use him the next 6-8 days, and then see where he's at," Mattingly said.Wilson is trying to come back from two Tommy John surgeries.

As with any reliever, Mattingly said it's important for Wilson to pitch in back-to-back games before he comes up. He would be used in a set-up role for closer Kenley Jansen.

On deck: Rays at Dodgers, Saturday, 1 p.m.

By Earl Bloom

Where: Dodger Stadium

TV: Fox/11

Did you know: Adrian Gonzalez leads the Dodgers in runs, hits, extra-base hits, home runs and RBI

Numbers game: .357 – Rays first baseman James Loney, the former Dodger, has hit .357 on the road, second in the majors to only David Ortiz (.359) of the Boston Red Sox

THE PITCHERS

ZACK GREINKE (9-3, 3.40)

The Dodgers are 14-4 in Greinke's 18 starts, and have won 8 of the past 9. The right-hander allowed two earned runs in 61/3 innings Monday at St. Louis to record his 100th career victory in his last outing. He also drove in the deciding run.

Greinke, hitting .405 (15 for 37), gives the Dodgers an edge against AL teams that can't deploy a DH in NL parks. vs. Rays: 2-6, 3.70, 14 games at Dodger Stadium: 6-1, 2.47 Loves to face: Evan Longoria, 3 for 19 (.158) Hates to face: Matt Joyce, 6 for 15, (.400), 1 HR

ROBERTO HERNANDEZ (6-11, 4.75)

The right-hander, formerly known as Fausto Carmona, has never faced the Dodgers in a 205-game MLB career.

Hernandez went just 42/3 innings against the Giants in a no-decision Aug. 4. In his previous start, he pitched a complete-game, 5-2 victory July 30 over the Diamondbacks, losing his shutout in the ninth. Hernandez has spent his career in the AL and has only 17 career at-bats. He's hitless.

vs. Dodgers: First game

Loves to face: Carl Crawford, 4 for 19 (.211) Hates to face: Nick Punto, 8 for 20 (.400)

Crawford, Either get night off against Rays ace Price

By Earl Bloom

The mound presence of left-hander David Price, the reigning AL Cy Young winner, made some Friday lineup decisions simpler for Dodgers manager Don Mattingly.

Carl Crawford, coming off a .413 trip, gets a night off, as does fellow left-handed hitter Andre Ethier.

"It seems like the more he (Crawford) plays the better he gets, but he needs a day," Mattingly said, noting that Crawford had played seven in a row, and has had no success against Price. "It seems like the right day for me."

Crawford, battling hamstring trouble this season, is 0 for 9 against his former Rays teammate.

Ethier, like most Dodgers, has never faced Price, but is hitting .231 against left-handers.

Ethier started six of the eight games on the trip to Chicago and St. Louis, and appeared in all eight.

Jerry Hairston is in left, Skip Schumaker (LH hitter) is in right and Yasiel Puig makes his fourth start in center field.

LA TIMES

Dodgers score four runs in ninth inning to defeat Rays, 7-6

By Bill Shaikin

The creaky old stadium roared to life, late in the evening, so late that the Dodgers canceled the fireworks show scheduled to follow the game. City curfew and all.

No worries. The best show in town was the one on the field. The Dodgers scored four runs in the ninth inning and seven runs in the final three innings, to stun the Tampa Bay Rays and delight a spirited crowd with a 7-6 victory on Friday.

“That was one of the best comebacks I have ever been a part of,” Dodgers utilityman Skip Schumaker said.

“By far the sickest win I have ever been a part of!!” tweeted Dodgers pitcher Ricky Nolasco.

Rays closer Fernando Rodney fielded what could have been an inning-ending, double-play comebacker and threw the ball into center field, sending the Dodgers spilling onto the field as they unpacked their road heroics for the home fans.The Dodgers came from six runs down, tying the largest deficit they have overcome to win since moving to Los Angeles in 1958, according to the team.

"The magic is here, even at home," Vin Scully said.

The Dodgers are 18-3 since the All-Star break, including 13-1 on the road.

The fans were so loud in approval that the postgame interview over the public-address system could not be heard. The fans did boo the announcement of the canceled fireworks, but not too loudly.

This might have been the most magical night in a run full of them. David Price, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, toyed with the Dodgers for seven innings.

Then he was done. Then the Rays were done -- done in, that is, by a shoddy bullpen.

The Rays had a 6-0 lead after six innings. The Dodgers scored an unearned run in the seventh inning off Price, who departed after 99 pitches.

Surely the Rays could get six outs without giving up five runs. Nope. They got four outs -- among four relievers -- and gave up six runs.

In the eighth inning, the Dodgers got two runs off three relievers, cutting the Tampa Bay lead to 6-3.In the ninth inning, the Rays turned to Rodney, and Schumaker singled.

After Dee Gordon struck out, Mark Ellis tripled home one run, Nick Punto doubled home another and Adrian Gonzalez doubled home the tying run.

After the Rays walked Yasiel Puig intentionally, Jerry Hairston Jr. grounded a ball to Rodney. What could have been a inning-ending double play became a game-ending error. Rodney threw the ball into center field, and Gonzalez scored the winning run.

“We will throw this one in the wastebasket as soon as possible,” Rays Manager Joe Maddon tweeted, “and come back ready to play tomorrow.”

Rodney has converted 27 of 34 save opportunities this season, but he has blown his last two. His earned-run average was 0.60 last season, but it's 4.24 this season.

The Dodgers scored an unearned run in the seventh inning off Price on a double by Schumaker and added two earned runs in the eighth inning on a double by Puig and a single by Juan Uribe.

Puig has driven in 26 runs this season, one fewer than the injured Matt Kemp. Puig has 224 at-bats, Kemp has 228.

For minor-league Quakes, Brian Wilson's outing was a major deal

By Lance Pugmire

The telephone is ringing again, and Shelley Scebbi, office manager for the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, knows precisely what to say.

"Yes, Brian Wilson is scheduled to pitch here this evening," Scebbi tells the caller. "The special tonight is to see a major league pitcher."

On a typical Wednesday summer night, the Quakes, the Class-A affiliate of the Dodgers in the California League, might draw 1,200 fans.

Thanks to the arrival of Wilson, the newly signed Dodger best known as the long-bearded former San Francisco Giants closer who ended the 2010 World Series, 2,007 people clicked through the turnstiles.

The right-hander hadn't pitched in a professional game since April 2012, when injury required reconstructive right elbow surgery and caused the Giants to abandon him.

Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti, while working in San Francisco's front office, had drafted an injured Wilson in the 24th round in 2003, and that move blossomed into 171 major league saves.

So the pair reconnected late last month, Colletti giving Wilson a $1-million contract with the hope the pitcher could again be a stable bullpen arm.

Those interested in taking that first look Wednesday at how the arrangement might play out could do it for a ticket price of $9 to $13 at the same place where the Dodgers' 2012 first-round draft pick, Corey Seager, just landed and where Yasiel Puig starred last August.

"The Dodgers have been great to us this year, sending us Hanley Ramirez, Carl Crawford, Zack Greinke on rehabs," said Mike Lindskog, Quakes marketing and media relations director.

Whether it's the player announcing his impending arrival in Rancho Cucamonga or Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly telling reporters of a coming rehabilitation assignment, Lindskog and team officials watch closely and react quickly. They promote the visit on the team's website and its Twitter account, fire email blasts to customers and alter a local newspaper ad if time allows.

Ticket sales director Monica Ortega said when Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier came on a Wednesday, the team sold 2,700 tickets.

"We don't manage the team and can't guarantee these guys will play, but we can say, 'Brian Wilson is scheduled to pitch,' and that gives us a little out," Lindskog said.

"It's an energizing thing, a better atmosphere, a nice spike, and nine times out of 10, the Dodgers who come are happy to be here, willing to do things like sign autographs, because they're so excited to be back on the field in this intimate setting."

Wilson, 31, last pitched as a full-fledged high Class-A player in 2005 in Augusta, Ga.

Sitting in the Quakes' clubhouse four hours before his appearance, two ham-on-wheat sandwiches in front of him, Wilson reflected on the parallels of navigating the minor league ladder and rallying from a career-threatening injury.

"It's all about the work ethic," Wilson said. "This, pitching in the big leagues, is all I've ever strived for. When I hurt myself, I said, 'This is going to be a grind.' But I knew I had to stick to it.

"And that's what the minor leagues is. Stick to it. Trust it. Work at it. Believe you'll make it."

Wilson was assigned by the Dodgers to pitch one inning. He started a game for the first time since 2006, retired the first Lake Elsinore Storm batter on his first pitch, a groundout to second base.

Wilson found himself behind 3-1 to the next batter but answered with two cut fastballs for a strikeout, ending the eight-pitch outing by getting the next batter to also ground out to second.

"I'm not going to sit back and look at accomplishments," Wilson said. "When it's done, it's just another three outs that get me closer to the next time I'm asked to get three outs, and I'll do that until they don't ask me to get three outs anymore."

It's that type of perspective that Quakes pitching coach and former Dodgers reliever Matt Herges hoped his young pitchers would soak up while shagging fly balls with Wilson during batting practice or getting a minute with him in the clubhouse.

"I'm sure they'll stare at his beard for a couple of minutes," Herges cracked. "I think they'll watch his every move. What I hope they'd notice is his overall consistency with command, how the ball will be at the knees nearly every time — to see how simple it is for him, the consistency of his throwing. That's what we preach: down command.

"I'm not going to say a word to Brian. I know why he's here and what he's doing: He's on a mission to the major leagues."

Quakes pitcher Jon Michael Redding said he wanted to give Wilson his space, "but him being a guy who's where you want to be, someone who's been at the top of the game, I'd love to hear anything pitching-related he has to say. His preparation, his daily routine, how he might pitch to a given guy."

The Quakes watched as Wilson strode into the clubhouse, a Dodgers organizational trainer by his side. The pitcher with a Mohawk-type-mullet and left arm covered in a sleeve tattoo carried a black backpack and exchanged a quick hello with his manager for the day, Carlos Subero, recognizing his locker only because a Quakes jersey with "WILSON" on the back hung at one.

"I'm so excited," 23-year-old pitcher Freddie Cabrera said after being told he'd pitch the inning after Wilson. "He's a big, big, big pitcher, I remember him a lot."

At his introduction, Wilson gave newly black-bearded Quakes mascot Tremor the rallysaurus a fist pump on the mound, did his work, signed an autograph for a young girl, walked past two ballpark workers blowing up inflatable cow and horse heads and assessed his outing with reporters from the Inland Empire, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Then he left the ballpark, Cabrera extending Wilson's "no-hitter" into the seventh inning in what would be a Quakes' victory.

Wilson left something behind, however, a secretary named Jessica from his agent's office phoning Quakes clubhouse attendant Johnny Allaway before the game and ensuring that more than $1,000 of food from local restaurant Boston's Pizza was coming for a postgame spread that included steaks, ribs and pasta.

Ethier had a sushi chef come on his rehab trip to Rancho, and Juan Uribe brought in a Brazilian barbecue cook.Asked why he opted to do his part, Wilson said, "I better. Tonight, I'm a Quake."

After the game, Quakes designated hitter Bobby Coyle made himself a full plate, shoving a piece of garlic bread into the pasta — a huge upgrade from the usual fare of PB&J and ramen noodles.

"First-class guy, respectful, awesome," Coyle said of Wilson. "He was just excited to be here, happy to be part of this organization and I'm sure he'll do great things for them.

"This was an outstanding gesture from him, from all the guys that come in here. They were all here once, they remember what it's like. We can't be thankful enough."

Dodgers manager doesn't see Clayton Kershaw as MVP

By Bill Shaikin

Clayton Kershaw for most valuable player? His manager won't be leading the campaign.

With the National League lacking a dominant offensive player along the lines of Miguel Cabrera or Mike Trout, Kershaw has emerged as a candidate in a field of solid but not spectacular position players, including Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Yadier Molina of the St. Louis Cardinals, Carlos Gomez of the Milwaukee Brewers and Paul Goldschmidt of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly declined Friday to endorse Kershaw as an MVP candidate, and there is a history behind his reluctance.

In 1986, Mattingly batted .352 for the New York Yankees, leading the American League in hits, doubles, total bases, slugging percentage and OPS.

"I had the year of my life," Mattingly said.

He finished second in MVP voting. The winner: Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox, who went 24-4 with a 2.48 earned-run average.

Kershaw is 10-7 with a 1.91 ERA. He could become the first qualifying pitcher to finish with an ERA under 2.00 since 2005, when Clemens posted a 1.87 for the Houston Astros.

Mattingly did say that Kershaw's value extended beyond the days he pitches. Kershaw has worked at least seven innings in 19 of his 24 starts, reliably giving the Dodgers a chance to win on the day he pitches and a fresh bullpen on the following days.

Kershaw, who starts Sunday on a national ESPN broadcast, is on pace to become the first player since Greg Maddux to lead the major leagues in ERA in three consecutive years. Mattingly said Kershaw should be "right there" atop Cy Young Award voting. He hesitated to promote his ace for MVP but said he understood the argument.

"I think it's a position player thing," Mattingly said. "As a manager, I can see the other side for sure."

Wilson watch

Brian Wilson pitched one perfect inning in his debut for the Dodgers' triple-A Albuquerque affiliate Friday. Mattingly said he expects the former San Francisco Giants closer to stay with Albuquerque for about a week before joining the Dodgers.

Mattingly said Wilson would be thrown into the mix of setup men. He said the Dodgers made clear to Wilson they had no interest in him if he wanted to supplant closer Kenley Jansen.

"Kenley is our guy," Mattingly said. "Everybody else is there to get the ball to Kenley."

Short hops

Players are not allowed onto the field without official team apparel, so shortstop Hanley Ramirez was sent back when he emerged from the dugout wearing a random T-shirt. He returned in a Dodgers pullover, then tested his injured right shoulder in a throwing drill and said he felt no discomfort. Ramirez also took batting practice, five days after jamming the shoulder, and said he hoped he could return as soon as Saturday. The Dodgers probably will give him a couple more days. … Mattingly said center fielder Matt Kemp, who sprained his ankle July 21, was probably 10 to 14 days from returning. Said Kemp: "I don't know when I am going to be ready. … It's an ankle injury. Ankles are tricky." … Dee Gordon has played 15 games at second base at triple A this season — the first time in his pro career he has played anywhere but shortstop — but Mattingly said he probably will not use Gordon ahead of Skip Schumaker at second base if starter Mark Ellis needs a day off.

Home magic: Dodgers score four times in ninth to stun Rays, 7-6

By Steve Dilbeck

The lights were wrong and the throws were wrong, and this whole Dodger Stadium thing just looked wrong.And then suddenly, things went right, things went very, very right.

After falling behind six runs to Cy Young winner David Price and Tampa Bay, the Dodgers rallied late, rallied some more and then finally rallied once more to stun the Rays.

The Dodgers scored once in the seventh inning, twice in the eighth and then four times in the bottom of the ninth to defeat the Rays, 7-6, before a Dodger Stadium crowd of 51,083.

After hits by Skip Schumaker, Mark Ellis, Nick Punto and Adrian Gonzalez off Tampa closer Fernando Rodney had tied the score, 6-6, in the bottom of the ninth, the winning run scored when Rodney took a comebacker from Jerry Hairston Jr. and threw the ball wildly into center field in an attempt to start an inning-ending double play.

Suddenly, the road wasn't the only place the Dodgers found a little magic.

The Dodgers had just completed a 7-1 road trip and had won 17 of their last 18 away from Dodger Stadium.

But they returned home about 4 a.m. Friday, caught some quick sleep and then came to the ballpark to face Price.

It was not pretty early on, and that’s just talking about their defense. Hairston and Yasiel Puig each lost balls in the lights.

Puig missed the cut-off man twice, each time allowing runners to advance. Punto booted a ball for an error.

Not that the roller-coaster man known as Chris Capuano was pitching particularly well, but it’s not like he was given sterling support.

Capuano was rocked for 10 hits and six runs (five earned) in 4 1/3 innings. That makes nine consecutive starts where Capuano has amazingly allowed either zero or five earned runs; he’s allowed none five times in that stretch.

The Rays scored three times in the second inning and three more in the fifth, and with Price in control, it seemed almost overkill.

The Dodgers’ only run against Price was unearned and came in the seventh inning. Hairston walked and was safe at second base when Evan Longoria threw the ball away for an error on a Juan Uribe grounder.

Tim Federowicz bounced into a double play, but Schumaker doubled down the left-field line to score Hairston.Maybe Puig noticed, but it’s doubtful. His disdain for hitting the cut-off man and just unleashing a wild throw to show off his arm strength continues to get the Dodgers in trouble.

But the Dodgers started their comeback with a pair of runs against the Rays bullpen with two outs in the eighth inning. Mark Ellis walked and scored on a ground-rule double by Puig, and Uribe singled home Puig. With runners on the corners, pinch-hitter Carl Crawford hit a soft fly to shortstop Yunel Escobar.

Price went seven innings for the Rays, giving up the unearned run on seven hits and a walk –- his first walk in 35 1/3 innings.

Former Dodgers first baseman James Loney celebrated his return to Dodger Stadium by going three for four with a pair of RBIs, raising his average to .312.

Hanley Ramirez could pinch-hit for Dodgers this weekend [Updated]

By Bill Shaikin

Hanley Ramirez could appear as a pinch-hitter as soon as this weekend, but Brian Wilson is likely to be activated by the Dodgers before Matt Kemp.

Ramirez, who jammed his shoulder last Sunday, took batting practice at Dodger Stadium on Friday. He said "maybe" to the possibility of starting Saturday.

"Hanley is pretty optimistic, but he hasn't thrown yet," Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said.

However, Mattingly said the Dodgers no longer are worried that Ramirez might require a stint on the disabled list. In the initial days after the injury, Mattingly conceded Friday, he was concerned that the DL would be inevitable and was simply hoping for the minimum 15 days.

"I'd have been happy with that," Mattingly said.

Wilson, the former San Francisco Giants closer, pitched one scoreless inning for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga on Wednesday and is set to pitch for triple-A Albuquerque on Friday. Mattingly said he expects Wilson to spend about a week with Albuquerque before joining the Dodgers.

The Dodgers figure to want Wilson pitch on back-to-back days and enter games in the middle of an inning before calling him up.

"Kenley [Jansen] is our guy," Mattingly said. "Everybody else is there to get the ball to Kenley."

Kemp, on the disabled list since July 22 because of a sprained ankle, started a running program Friday. Mattingly estimated Kemp would return in 10 to 14 days.

"I have no time limit," Kemp said. "I don't know when I am going to be ready. The sooner the better. It's an ankle injury. Ankles are tricky."

[Updated, 9:54 p.m.: Ramirez pinch hitted in the seventh inning against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night.]

The return of James Loney, hitting .307, to Dodger Stadium

By Steve Dilbeck

James Loney, scourge of sabermetric lovers everywhere, was back where it all began for him Friday, in Dodger Stadium.And maybe he wasn’t getting a last laugh, but he certainly had to be allowed a certain satisfaction.

After the Dodgers traded him to the Red Sox last season, Boston did not pursue him as a free agent. He was momentarily adrift, and some wondered if any team would be all that interested in a first baseman coming off a season in which he had hit a career-low .249 with six home runs and 41 runs batted in.

Loney, 29, said he was never too concerned.

“I always tried to look at it as a track record,” he said. “My career average (.285) is a lot better than some people might think. I’m kinda sneaky, I guess. But I’m here.”

Here would be the starting first baseman for the Tampa Bay Rays (66-47), where even after a recent slump (2 for 22) he is seventh in the American League in hitting (.307). He has 10 homers and 51 RBIs.

The 51 RBIs would be second on the Dodgers and his 10 home runs fourth. Yet Loney said he feels no particular sense of redemption.

“I’ve always believed in myself,” Loney said. “There are times I feel like I can do certain things other people can’t, as far as being in the batter’s box. I always take that confidence with me. I’ve felt that since I can remember. I was made to do this. And I work hard to keep doing this.”

The Rays weren’t so sold on him that they signed him to an exorbitant, multiyear contract. Tampa signed Loney for one year at $2 million; the previous season he'd had a $6.4-million contract with the Dodgers.

Now he appears to have been a tremendous bargain. The left-handed-hitting Loney is batting .318 against left-handed pitching, compared with a .248 career average against southpaws.

Loney said his lack of power for a first baseman was never an issue with the Dodgers, same as in Tampa.

“They never said anything to me about power or anything,” Loney said. “A lot of times people just make up stuff. When one thing is written, certain people believe it. You have to go to the source sometimes. And there you go, you came to the source.

“If you look around the game now, guys that were hitting all those home runs ain’t hitting home runs. I think the game is kinda going back to probably what it was intended for. Just getting those hits.”

Loney said when people ask how he’s turned things around in Tampa, he says the Rays have simply allowed him to be himself, to relax and play. Which is slightly different than what he experienced with the Dodgers.

“There were times over there when I would struggle for a little bit and wouldn’t get to play for awhile, stuff like that,” he said. “It is what it is. It happens other places.

“If that didn’t happen, I wouldn’t be in the great position I’m in probably. It would not have worked out like that. We weren’t really winning too much when I was there last year. It’s good to be on a winning team.”

Ill Dodgers fan befriended by Matt Kemp dies

By Steve Dilbeck

Even the warmest of stories can have the saddest of endings, and so it is with Joshua Jones, the fatally ill young fan befriended so memorably by Matt Kemp last May.

Jones is the 19-year-old Dodgers fan Kemp gave his cap, jersey and cleats to after making the final out in a Dodgers loss at AT&T Park. It was heartwarming, even touching Giants fans. Then, three weeks later, Kemp flew Jones and his family to Los Angeles for a game at Dodger Stadium, bringing them on the field to meet teammates.

But Jones’ battle with inoperable tumors on his spine has come to an end, with Yahoo Sports reporting he died Tuesday night.

The video of Kemp and Jones in San Francisco went viral and then quickly drew national media attention.

“I was in shock,” Jones told The Times' Bill Plaschke the next day. “I was sitting there thinking, ‘I can't believe he's doing this.'”

Said Kemp to Plaschke in May: “I don't think some athletes understand how big it is to be an athlete, what they can do with just a simple gesture of shaking a kid's hand. It can make a fan's day. It can make a fan's life.”

DODGERS.COM

Four-run ninth lifts Dodgers to walk-off win

By Ken Gurnick

LOS ANGELES -- Down 6-0 to Cy Young winner David Price going into the seventh inning, the Dodgers capped a furious rally with four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Rays, 7-6, Friday night on a walk-off throwing error by Tampa Bay closer Fernando Rodney.

The six-run comeback opened a six-game homestand after the Dodgers went 7-1 on the road, 18-3 since the All-Star break and 35-8 since June 22. They have restored their division lead to 5 1/2 games and won their last 11 one-run decisions.

"I thought something was going on here for the last three weeks," said Nick Punto. "It was incredible. The crowd was incredible. I think the fans are feeling what we've been feeling for a month inside the clubhouse. Now that the fans are getting involved, I was standing on second base in the ninth inning and was deafened. There's a lot of excitement in this clubhouse and in L.A., and for good reason."

The Dodgers spotted Price and the Rays three runs in the second inning with a defensive meltdown and Tampa doubled the lead with three more runs in the fifth inning to chase Chris Capuano.

But after scoring an unearned run in the seventh inning and a pair of runs in the eighth on an RBI double by Yasiel Puig and RBI single by Juan Uribe, the Dodgers scored four runs in the ninth off Rodney. Skip Schumaker singled to lead off the ninth and scored one out later on Mark Ellis' triple, his third hit. Punto doubled home Ellis and Adrian Gonzalez doubled home Punto to tie the game at 6-6. Puig was walked intentionally to bring up Jerry Hairston.

Hairston tapped a comebacker to Rodney, who wheeled toward second and tried to start a double play but instead threw the ball into center field as Gonzalez scored from second and the Dodgers rushed the field to celebrate, only the third time this year they've won when trailing after eight innings.

"It was unbelievable, really, it happened so quick," said manager Don Mattingly, who considered removing Gonzalez when down by six runs.

"We will throw this one in the wastebasket as soon as possible and come back ready to play tomorrow," Rays manager Joe Maddon tweeted.

The game lasted five minutes short of four hours, so long that the Dodgers canceled postgame fireworks because of a curfew. It was an exhilarating ending nonetheless to a day that started with an overnight flight home from St. Louis that landed at 2:40 in the morning.

Because of that, Mattingly canceled batting practice, fielded a lineup with only two Opening Day starters and without Carl Crawford, Andre Ethier and A.J. Ellis against Price, the 2012 American League Cy Young winner and Tampa Bay's version of Clayton Kershaw.

Also on the bench for a fifth consecutive start was Hanley Ramirez and his sore right shoulder. He pinch-hit in the seventh inning and struck out.

Price allowed one unearned run on seven hits in seven innings and issued his first walk in 35 1/3 innings. The win went to Ronald Belisario, one of four Dodgers relievers who pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings, including two by Brandon League.

"Brandon and J.P. [Howell], their innings were huge," Mattingly said.

The Rays scored three runs off Capuano in the second inning, when the Dodgers couldn't catch a routine fly, field a routine grounder or hit the cutoff man. Two runs were singled home by James Loney, who had three hits in his return to Dodger Stadium for the first time since being traded to Boston last summer. Yunel Escobar had three RBIs.

Most of the Dodgers' defensive bungling was in that three-run second inning. Wil Myers' led off with a routine fly to left-center that dropped because of miscommunication between left fielder Hairston and center fielder Puig, both making rare starts at those positions.

That was followed by Punto, starting at shortstop, booting Ben Zobrist's grounder for an error. Then Puig got into the act again, airmailing throws on back-to-back singles by Escobar and Loney, Escobar's driving in one run, Loney's bringing in a pair. Puig's throws overshot the cutoff men and allowed the batter to take second base both times.

The defensive circus continued for the Dodgers in the third when Puig broke back on Ryan Roberts' pop fly in shallow center that dropped for a gift double. Before the inning was over, Ellis missed a tag at second base (according to umpire Doug Eddings), but Capuano pitched out of the mess his teammates created without allowing another run.

"That was the sloppiest I've seen five innings played from this team all season long," Punto said. "It was really ugly, unfortunately for Capuano. We were just very sloppy."

Mattingly said Hairston and Puig had trouble seeing the ball in the twilight sky.

In 4 1/3 innings, Capuano was charged with five earned runs. In his last nine starts, he has allowed five earned runs four times and no runs five times.

Hanley returns to action as pinch-hitter

By Austin Laymance

LOS ANGELES -- Hanley Ramirez was held out of the Dodgers' lineup Friday for a fifth straight game, the result of a jammed right shoulder, but was able to pinch-hit in the seventh inning.

Ramirez struck out swinging against Rays starter David Price with a runner on third and the Dodgers trailing, 6-1, to end the seventh. But it was a positive sign for the Dodgers because it was Ramirez's first action since Sunday.

Ramirez said he planned to hit in the cage before Friday's game to see how his shoulder felt. He hit off a tee at full speed Thursday in St. Louis and played catch in the outfield at Dodger Stadium on Friday afternoon.

"We're just happy right now he's feeling a lot better," said Dodgers manager Don Mattingly. "He's feeling good, but we want to be careful and make sure that he's ready."

Ramirez injured his shoulder when caught a popup and fell into the stands Sunday at Wrigley Field. The Dodgers have no plans for the shortstop to undergo an MRI exam on the shoulder.

Nick Punto started at shortstop Friday.

Kemp unsure of time needed for ailing ankle

By Austin Laymance

LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp said Friday he doesn't know when he will be able to return from a sprained left ankle that has kept him on the disabled list for nearly three weeks.

"I have no time limit," Kemp said. "I don't know when I'm going to be ready. I just know when my leg feels good, I will know when I'm ready. The sooner the better."

Kemp did some light jogging on the field at Dodger Stadium on Friday afternoon for the first time since he injured his ankle in an awkward slide at the plate July 21 in Washington. But he still had a noticeable limp and retreated to the clubhouse after a brief workout.

Kemp started taking batting practice earlier this week and has been playing catch. But he has not been cleared to run."It's an ankle injury, ankles are tricky," Kemp said. "We'll see how it goes, every day is different."

Kemp has been limited to 62 games this season. He previously spent time on the disabled list with hamstring and shoulder issues.

"It's been tough," Kemp said. "But I'm proud of the boys, they have been playing good and hopefully I'll come back stronger than ever and join in on this fun they're having."

Greinke looking to stay steady for Dodgers

By Sam Strong

After giving away a six-run lead Friday, the Rays again will try to claim their first-ever win at Dodger Stadium on Saturday.

After Rays ace David Price shut down the Dodgers through seven innings Friday, Dodgers starter Zack Greinke will look to flip the script Saturday.

Greinke has been dominant at Chavez Ravine this season, where he is 5-1 with a 2.56 ERA. The Dodgers are 14-4 in Greinke's starts and he has wins in six of his last seven outings.

While Greinke would be a No. 1 starter on nearly any team without Clayton Kershaw, Rays starter Roberto Hernandez's situation is not as secure.

It is possible that Hernandez's start Saturday could be his last for the foreseeable future as starters Alex Cobb and Matt Moore prepare to return to the rotation from the disabled list.

Additionally, many feel Chris Archer -- who filled Cobb's rotation spot after he was hit in the head with a line drive by Kansas City's Eric Hosmer on June 15 -- has pitched too well to go to the bullpen or back to Triple-A Durham. Archer was named both the American League Pitcher of the Month and Rookie of the Month for July.

Hernandez was in danger of being pushed out of the picture when Tampa Bay went to a four-man rotation because of five off-days in August but remained after Moore was shelved with a sore muscle in his left elbow.

"They have to do whatever they have to do, but I don't think about that," Hernandez said at the time. "I can't control that. I can control how I pitch."

Hernandez has just two wins since June 11 but the Rays have wins in four of his last five starts. He threw his first complete game since 2010 on July 30.

Rays: Lueke recalled

There was a new face in the bullpen Friday when the series opened against the Dodgers.

The team designated reliever Kyle Farnsworth for assignment and recalled reliever Josh Lueke from Triple-A.

Lueke appeared in the eighth inning Friday and gave up a double to Yasiel Puig before he walked Jerry Hairston. Lueke was replaced by Joel Peralta.

Manager Joe Maddon said the move was prompted by Lueke's impressive run this season with Durham, where he compiled a 0.72 ERA in 34 games.

"Lueke was having a very good season, it's just something we thought we wanted to do at this particular time. ... If Josh was not looming, we probably would not have done this at this time."

Maddon added he plans to use Lueke primarily early in games and in multiple-innings situations.

A 16th-round Draft choice of the Mariners in 2007, Lueke has been with the Rays since 2011 when he was acquired through a trade for John Jaso.

Farnsworth was Tampa Bay's closer in 2011 but struggled to find a role in the crowded back end of the team's bullpen this season.

"I thanked him for all the good work he's done here," Maddon said. "And really I'd hoped that as he moves forward, that if he wants to pitch again, that he can pitch."

Dodgers: Ramirez returns

Shortstop Hanley Ramirez's pinch-hit appearance Friday in the seventh inning was his first at-bat since Sunday.Trailing by five runs, Ramirez struck out swinging, stranding Skip Schumaker at third base.

Ramirez had missed time because of a jammed right shoulder but was not placed on the disabled list.

"We're just happy right now he's feeling a lot better," Mattingly said. "He's feeling good, but we want to be careful and make sure that he's ready."

Worth noting

• Third baseman Evan Longoria's throwing error in the seventh inning of Friday's game was the Rays' first error since July 27.

• Greinke, a Florida native, is 2-6 with a 3.70 ERA in 11 career starts against the Rays.

Wilson perfect in second rehab outing for Dodgers

By Austin Laymance

LOS ANGELES -- Brian Wilson pitched a perfect inning of relief with Triple-A Albuquerque on Friday in his second Minor League rehab appearance since signing with the Dodgers.

Wilson entered in the seventh inning, made seven pitches and induced two outs on the ground. The right-hander had tossed a 1-2-3 inning with Class A Advanced Rancho Cucamonga on Wednesday.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said Wilson would make a few appearances in Triple-A before he's activated from the disabled list. The Dodgers want to see how his surgically repaired elbow responds to pitching three out of four days and on consecutive days.

"We want him to be ready and he wants to be ready," Mattingly said. "He doesn't want to come up here and not pitch well. We want him to be ready to pitch. We're trying to get him ready."

The Dodgers signed Wilson, 31, as a free agent on July 30. The former Giants closer has not pitched in the Major Leagues since he had Tommy John surgery in April 2012.

Loney excited to play at old stomping grounds

By Austin Laymance

LOS ANGELES -- James Loney called Dodger Stadium home for nearly seven seasons, and Friday was the first time the Rays' first baseman returned to the ballpark since he was traded last August.

The Dodgers drafted Loney out of high school in the first round of the 2002 Draft, and he came up through their farm system before making his Major League debut with the club in 2006.

Loney went to the postseason three times with the Dodgers but was traded to the Red Sox last season in the deal that brought Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto to Los Angeles.

Regardless, Loney was excited Friday to be back at Chavez Ravine.

"I remember my first game here and stuff like that," said Loney, still getting acclimated to the visitor's clubhouse. "It's crazy how long ago that was. I'm just taking it all in. I'm happy to be playing back here. It's going to be fun."

Loney finished the 2012 season with the Red Sox, and then signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the Rays. He struggled offensively during his final year with the Dodgers, but he has enjoyed greater success in his first year with Tampa Bay and entered Friday hitting .307 with 10 home runs and 51 RBIs.

"I'm getting to play, being myself, having fun and relaxing," said Loney, who still keeps in touch with some of his former Dodgers teammates.

Loney was a popular player during his time in Los Angeles but said he wasn't sure what kind of reaction he would get from the crowd.

After the top of the first inning, the Dodgers showed a clip of Loney's grand slam in Game 1 of the 2008 National League Division Series against the Cubs, and the crowd cheered.

"I haven't found many people who don't like James," said Dodgers manager Don Mattingly.

DAILY NEWS

Baseball: Rolling Dodgers are a "perfect storm" according to Ron Cey, Don Mattingly

By J.P. Hoornstra

Ron Cey was on the field in April 1977 when the Dodgers authored the best month in franchise history. As good as that season began -- the Dodgers were 17-3 when the calendar turned to May -- it also ended pretty well, with 98 wins and a National League pennant.

Flash forward to 2013. The Dodgers were 13-13 when April ended and showed no potential of going on an historic run. Yet the Dodgers opened an interleague series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night with a 34-8 record since June 22. In the process they blew through the Los Angeles records for best stretches in franchise history, better than the best-game stretch in '77, and were targeting a 35-8 run that hasn't been seen since 1953.

"It's a great change for us," Cey said.

Cey, who now works in the Dodgers' marketing and community relations department, and manager Don Mattingly have witnessed the team's transformation from two different vantage points. Yet both used the same phrase to describe what they've seen: A "perfect storm."

For Mattingly, that means that the team came together in a way that no amount of spring-training bonding could achieve.

He pointed to the return of Hanley Ramirez from the disabled list June 4, one day after Yasiel Puig was recalled from the minors, as the first turning point. "Both those guys were hitting .400 for almost a month," Mattingly said.

Outfielder Andre Ethier was hitting .230 on June 6. Since then, he's been hitting .309 through Thursday. First baseman Adrian Gonzalez has been both consistent and healthy, having played 111 of 114 games, and took a .293 average into Friday's game.

"All of a sudden you've got a four-guy mix of the big part of your order all swinging the bat pretty good," Mattingly said. "And our pitching's been good."

The last point can't be overstated.

A bullpen that was supposed to hand the ball from Ronald Belisario to Kenley Jansen to Brandon League needed a full three months to find its footing.

"You're kind of counting on those three guys at the end of the game early in the year," Mattingly said, "and none of them were that great."

Since the All-Star break, the Dodger bullpen leads the majors with a .179 opponents' average and ranks second in the National League with a 1.97 ERA.

For the season, Dodger starters ranked second in the majors with a 3.23 combined ERA. Ace Clayton Kershaw had a July to remember, going 4-1 and walking two batters all month, while the No. 2 through No. 5 starters -- Zack Greinke, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Ricky Nolasco and Chris Capuano -- did nothing to warrant coming out of the rotation. That kind of consistency is something the Dodgers simply didn't have in the first half.

"The deeper your starters go, the better your bullpen usually is because you get into the right guys most of the time," Mattingly said.

Cey pointed to another perfect storm, the one brewing in the standings.

While the Dodgers were going 34-8, no other National League West team managed even a .500 record. In fact, thanks to the miracle of interleague play, only four National League teams have better than .500 records since June 22. That allowed the Dodgers to go from fifth place to first place in their division in the span of 17 games.

"We were able to not only jump one or two teams, but four teams," Cey said. "The odds of that happening? Microscopic in comparison to going on the winning streak."

It may be another 36 years before the Dodgers go on another run like this one. For now, they can set their sights on the postseason and try to eclipse their forebears from '77 -- this time with a better finishing touch.

DODGERS 7, TAMPA BAY 6: Dodgers rally in ninth to stun Rays

By J.P. Hoornstra

The Dodgers gave the American League's hottest team a taste of their own medicine.

The Dodgers used a four-run ninth inning to upend the Tampa Bay Rays, winning 7-6 in front of an announced crowd of 51,083 at Dodger Stadium on Friday.

The game ended on a stunning error in the bottom of the ninth inning. With runners on first and second and one out in a 6-6 game, Jerry Hairston Jr. hit a ground ball back to Rays closer Fernando Rodney. He turned toward second base to start a double play, but his throw sailed wide of the base and into center field.

Adrian Gonzalez, running all the way, scored from second base without a throw, touching off a raucous celebration."We think we can win every day," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

The Dodgers are a major-league best 35-9 since June 22. The Rays, playing here for the first time in franchise history, have a 29-12 record in that span -- second only to the Dodgers.

Rodney (4-3) entered a 6-3 game in pursuit of his 28th save and allowed a single to Skip Schumaker to lead off the ninth inning. Pinch hitter Dee Gordon struck out, and Mark Ellis tripled to past a diving Ben Zobrist in left field to score Schumaker.

Nick Punto doubled down the right field line to easily score Ellis from third base and bring Adrian Gonzalez to the plate.

Gonzalez dumped a double into left field to score Punto with the tying run. Yasiel Puig (2 for 4) was intentionally walked, bringing up Hairston. In a misleading stat line, Hairston finished 0 for 3, the Dodgers' only starting position player without a hit.

Dodgers starter Chris Capuano extended his streak of allowing either zero or five earned runs to an uncanny nine starts. The veteran left-hander allowed 10 hits in 4 plus innings, walked one, struck out three and was undone by a pair of big innings.

Capuano allowed three runs in the second inning, two earned. He was not helped by a pair of overthrows to home plate from Puig in center field that allowed runners to move up, or an error by Punto at shortstop in the same inning.

Tampa Bay knocked Capuano out of the game in the fifth inning with three more runs. Capuano showed his displeasure by tossing a water cooler from the Dodgers' bench.

The Dodgers had little margin for error against Rays starter David Price. The left-hander pitched seven innings, allowed seven hits and one unearned run, and struck out four.

Hairston drew only the second walk against Price in 64 1/3 innings since the All-Star break, ending a streak of 35 1/3 innings by Price without a free pass.

Several Dodgers regulars, including catcher A.J. Ellis, left fielder Carl Crawford and right fielder Andre Ethier weren't in the starting lineup after the team's inbound flight from St. Louis arrived in the wee hours Friday.

Ramirez appeared as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning and struck out against Price with a runner on third.

The Dodgers ended Price's shutout bid in the seventh inning. After Hairston walked to lead off, Schumaker doubled with two outs to drive in Hairston.

The Dodgers trimmed the deficit to 6-3 with a pair of runs in the eighth inning. Mark Ellis walked against reliever Jake McGee. Josh Lueke, making his first appearance since being recalled from the minors earlier in the day, allowed a ground-rule double to Puig that bounced into the right-field bleachers and scored Ellis. Puig scored on a single by Juan Uribe.

ESPNDEPORTES.COM

Hanley Ramírez ya realiza práctica de bateo

By Rigo Cervantez

LOS ÁNGELES -- El parador en corto de los Dodgers de Los Ángeles, Hanley Ramírez, mejora notablemente del hombro derecho, que se lastimó durante el juego del pasado domingo, en el Wrigley Field de Chicago, y este viernes ya realizó la práctica de bateo, junto a sus compañeros, por primera vez desde el domingo pasado.

"Ya me siento mejor, y voy a realizar la práctica de bateo y si todo sale bien, espero jugar mañana", aseguró el torpedero dominicano, mientras se calzaba la indumentaria de juego, en el vestidor, antes del primer duelo de la serie ante Rays de Tampa Bay, que se celebra este viernes, en Chávez Ravine.

"El solo hecho de que él manifieste que ya se siente recuperado para jugar, es un gran síntoma," señaló, por su parte, el manager de los Dodgers, Don Mattingly.

Sin embargo, el timonel no ofreció garantías de que eso sucederá, tal y como lo anticipa Hanley, de que pueda jugar el sábado.

"El todavía necesita lanzar," estableció Mattingly, refiriéndose a la prueba, quizá, más exigente, para el hombro de Ramírez, el demostrar que está tan bien, como él asegura, como para lanzar metralla hacia la primera base. La que sí dejó abierta Don Mattingly, es la posibilidad de utilizar, a partir de este viernes, a Ramírez, como bateador emergente.

FOXSPORTS.COM

Series-ly, who's gonna stop Dodgers?

By Ken Rosenthal

OK, this is too easy, saying the Los Angeles Dodgers are headed to the World Series. The Dodgers are in the middle of their best 43-game stretch in 60 years. Of course they appear headed to the World Series.

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

So much can happen in the final seven weeks of the regular season. Anything can happen in the postseason. But tell me: Which National League team would you pick, right now, to beat the Dodgers in a best-of-five Division Series or best-of-seven NLCS?

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My leading candidate, believe it or not, would be the Pittsburgh Pirates, but more on that in a moment. The Dodgers, who host the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend (Saturday, MLB on FOX, 4:05 p.m. ET/1:05 p.m. PT), are on one of the more spectacular rolls in recent memory — and that’s with center fielder Matt Kemp, the runner-up in the 2011 MVP balloting — appearing in only 11 of these fabulous 43 games.

Through June 21, the Dodgers were 30-42 with a negative-51 run differential. Since then, they’re 35-8 — that’s right, 35-8 — with a plus-79 run differential.Credit the arrival of right fielder Yasiel Puig and return of shortstop Hanley Ramirez. Credit the 1-2 combination of left-hander Clayton Kershaw and righty Zack Greinke, the trade for righty Ricky Nolasco, the stunning rise of closer Kenley Jansen and revival of a previously sorry bullpen.

Whatever, it’s all working, and working in a big way.

The Dodgers lead the Arizona Diamondbacks by 5-1/2 games in the NL West after trailing by a season-high 9-1/2 on June 21. Things soon could turn — the Dodgers figure to cool, and the Diamondbacks might get hot and again make this a race. But at this point, would anyone be surprised if the Dodgers won the division by 10 or more games?

FASHION STATEMENTSee what charity this represents, see the bow ties Ken has worn and learn about BowTie Cause.

Don’t tell commissioner Bud Selig, father of all wild cards, but the NL playoff picture appears almost set. The Atlanta Braves hold a 15 1/2-game lead in the East. The Dodgers look increasingly comfortable in the West. And the three Central powers — Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Cincinnati — all would make the playoffs if the season ended today. The D-Backs, the biggest threat to the status quo, trail the Reds for the second wild card by 4-1/2 games.

So, why do I like the Dodgers, at this moment, to win the entire NL? For the obvious, time-honored reason: starting pitching.

Kershaw leads the majors with a 1.91 ERA. Greinke is one of the game’s top No. 2 starters. Lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu is a formidable No. 3, and Nolasco is quite adequate as a No. 4. Oh, and by the way, Jensen had retired 27 straight hitters as the closer — 15 by strikeout — before the Cardinals’ David Freese hit a two-out single off him Thursday night.

None of this means the Dodgers are a lock. Heck, they’re only 13-11 behind Kershaw, in large part because they’re giving him the fifth-worst run support in the majors. Greinke flopped in his only three postseason starts with the Milwaukee Brewers. And Ryu could wear down in his first major league season, even though he worked 180 or more innings five times in seven years in Korea.

Still, what other NL contender could even come close to matching Kershaw and Greinke?

The Braves, with lefty Mike Minor and possibly righty Julio Teheran, would bring far less experience. The Cardinals would face a similar issue — their ace is veteran righty Adam Wainwright, but their No. 2 is rookie righty Shelby Miller.

The Reds, with righties Mat Latos, Homer Bailey and, if healthy, Johnny Cueto, could pose an interesting threat. And the Pirates, with lefty Francisco Liriano, righty A.J. Burnett and lefty Jeff Locke, might be the most legitimate challenger of all.

The Pirates, in fact, are the only team in the majors who rank ahead of the Dodgers in rotation ERA; the Cardinals are third, the Reds fourth and the Braves sixth. And, as pointed out by ESPN’s Jayson Stark, opponents are batting just .229 overall against the Pirates’ pitching staff, a mark that would be the lowest against any NL staff since the 1986 Astros.

The problem with the Pirates is their offense, which ranks only 10th in the NL in runs per game. Still, they’ve been slightly better since the All-Star break, averaging 4.19 runs, fourth in the NL, compared with 3.84 before the break, 12th in the league.

“Right now that team just believes,” one NL general manager said of the Pirates on Thursday. “Until someone pops their bubble — and it might never pop — they’re going to be competitive.”

A Pirates-Dodgers NLCS? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. A waiver trade could alter the equation for one or more of the contenders. Injuries are even more likely game-changers, and it would be a shock if all five of the top NL contenders remained physically intact.Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen was scratched Thursday because of shoulder discomfort. The Dodgers’ Ramirez, suffering from his own shoulder issue, is trying to avoid his third trip to the DL. Kemp is in the middle of his third trip, and left fielder Carl Crawford has been on the DL twice.

POWER RANKINGSSee if your favorite team is pointed in the right direction this week.

It’s baseball. Crazy stuff happens. But for now, I’ll take the team that is in the middle of a 35-8 blitz. I’ll even take it a step further, and dream of a Dodgers-Detroit Tigers World Series: Kershaw vs. Max Scherzer, Greinke vs. Justin Verlander, Ryu vs. Anibal Sanchez.

Rarely in any sport do we see this type of reversal.

Seven weeks ago, most of us were ready to bury the Dodgers. Now, with seven weeks left, they look like the favorite in the National League.

Dodgers rally from 6 runs down to stun Rays

By Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Reliever Fernando Rodney's throwing error allowed the winning run to score in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving the Los Angeles Dodgers an improbable 7-6 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night.

Rodney (4-3) took the loss, allowing four runs -- three earned -- and four hits while getting just one out in the Ray's first-ever visit to Dodger Stadium.

Ronald Belisaro (5-6) got the victory in relief, helping the Dodgers extend their winning streak to three games.

Jerry Hairston Jr. grounded into a fielder's choice to first base and Adrian Gonzalez scored on Rodney's throwing error. Gonzalez' RBI double tied the game 6-all after Mark Ellis' RBI triple and Nick Punto's RBI double -- both hits landing in the left field corner -- sparked the Dodgers' rally.

The Dodgers scored two runs in the eighth on rookie Yasiel Puig's RBI double and Juan Uribe's RBI single.

James Loney went 3 for 4 with two RBIs in his first game at Dodger Stadium since he was traded to Boston in a nine-player deal last August that was the biggest in Dodgers' history. Los Angeles acquired Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Punto, all of whom have contributed in the team's last-to-first turnaround since June. The Dodgers also got pitcher Josh Beckett, who is injured.

David Price allowed one unearned run and seven hits while striking out four. He walked Hairston in the seventh, snapping a streak of 35 1/3 innings without a walk, the longest stretch in Rays' history. Price was one of three former Cy Young award winners set to pitch in the series, with Dodgers teammates Zack Greinke starting Saturday and Clayton Kershaw on Sunday.

Chris Capuano gave up six runs -- five earned -- and 10 hits in 4 1-3 innings. He struck out three and walked one. The left-hander hadn't allowed a run in his previous 13 innings over his last two starts since July 28.

The Rays scored three runs in the fifth when they batted around. Yunel Escobar's two-run single made it 6-0 after Ben Zobrist's RBI single accounted for the other run. Capuano allowed three singles and a double to center field in the inning before being replaced by J.P. Howell.

Escobar's RBI single led to Tampa Bay's first run in the second. Loney tacked on a two-run single to give the Rays a 3-0 lead.

Notes: Because the game lagged past the Dodgers' 11 p.m. curfew, the usual Friday night fireworks display was cancelled. ... The Rays recalled RHP Josh Lueke from Triple-A Durham and designated RHP Kyle Farnsworth for assignment. Lueke came on in the eighth, and promptly gave up Puig's double and walked Hairston with two outs. He was 0-2 with a 3.75 ERA in two previous stints with the Rays this season. ... Dodgers reliever Brian Wilson made his second rehab start for Triple-A Albuquerque on Friday night. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said Wilson would need to pitch in back-to-back games before he gets called up. ... The Rays were the last major league team not to have played at Dodger Stadium.

Brian Wilson has another smooth outing in minors

By Michael Martinez

Right-hander Brian Wilson had another smooth outing Friday night, retiring all three batters he faced in relief for the Dodgers' Triple-A affiliate at Albuquerque. Wilson needed just seven pitches after throwing eight pitches Wednesday night for Class A Rancho Cucamonga. He got two ground outs and one fly-ball out. The Dodgers want to see how the right-hander, who is coming off reconstructive surgery on his pitching elbow, reacts to working on a frequent basis. Manager Don Mattingly said the team wants him to pitch on back-to-back days and three times in four days before adding him to the roster. He’s expected to remain in Albuquerque for about a week. Wilson, 31, will most likely be used in late-inning situations as a setup man for closer Kenley Jansen. "We want him in important innings," Mattingly said, “but we really want everybody in that mix."

Kemp reflects on passing of terminally ill fan

By Michael Martinez

LOS ANGELES -- Matt Kemp didn't have a chance to say goodbye to Joshua Jones, the terminally ill Dodgers fan he met in May while the team was in San Francisco. But it was clear Friday that the 19-year-old left an impression. "I'm just glad I got a chance to meet him and do what I did for him and make his dreams come true," Kemp said of Jones, who died Tuesday night after battling brain cancer.

The Dodgers held a moment of silence before their game against the Tampa Bay Rays, their first home game since Jones' passing. Kemp met Jones after the Dodgers played the Giants at AT&T Park on May 5, giving him an autographed baseball plus his jersey, hat and spikes. Kemp was not aware that their meeting was being recorded on video, but it was posted online and went viral.

Kemp later flew Jones from Oakland to Los Angeles and invited him to a Dodgers game, where he met Clayton Kershaw and Angels outfielder Mike Trout. Kemp said he had planned to call Jones but was not able to before Jones died. Kemp said when he learned of Jones' death, "it was a little bit shocking, but you knew it was going to happen. I know that doesn't sound too good, but he was a big-time Dodger fan, and hopefully he was excited about the way the boys were playing. It's just a tough situation." Kemp has been on the disabled list with a sprained left ankle but was on the field before the game against the Tampa Bay Rays performing agility drills. He said he also did a light jog and has been taking batting practice. "I have no time limit" regarding a return, he said. "I don't know when I'm going to be ready. I just know when my leg feels good. I know when I'm ready. The sooner the better." Kemp is eligible to be activated at any time. Manager Don Mattingly said, "He's moving in the right direction," but the Dodgers have not said when they expect the outfielder to return. In his absence, the team is 14-3. "It's been tough, but I'm proud of the boys," he said. "The boys have been playing good. Hopefully I'll come back stronger than ever and join in on this fun they're having."

ESPNLA.COM

It's hard to convince this team it's going to lose

By Mark Saxon

LOS ANGELES -- In May, when the Los Angeles Dodgers fell behind by a run or two in the fourth inning, it felt as if their path was being blocked by a sleepy Brachiosaurus. They weren't going anywhere.

Now, when they fall behind 6-0 in the seventh inning, against one of the hottest pitchers in baseball and one of the best teams, with the fatigue seeping deep into their bones, it feels as if a ladybug has settled on the path in front of them.

They either step on it or it gets out of the way.

The Dodgers did the nearly impossible Friday -- according to one of those probability programs, their chances to win were less than 1 percent in the eighth inning -- but it never felt all that improbable. They rallied for all seven of their runs in the final three innings for a 7-6 defeat of the Tampa Bay Rays, scoring four times off closer Fernando Rodney.

When the Dodgers were at their low point, losing in lifeless, low-scoring games early in the season, manager Don Mattingly said he wanted to be the kind of team that never considered itself out of a game. By now, we can probably safely say they've become that team.

Even when they're operating on a few hours of sleep after spending the previous week in the Central time zone, and then flying half the night. Even when their fielding in the early innings feels as if it needs a laugh track.

The Dodgers sleepwalked until they realized they might actually lose Friday night. When you see a team start to take on that kind of identity, able to will itself to wins, you can see the makings of a special season.

"Everybody knows we got in late. We know we got in late and came off a road trip, but even with that, these guys still

came out to play," Mattingly said. "We feel like we can win every day."

And they're proving it, day after day, week after week, soon to be month after month.

The Dodgers are 18-3 since the All-Star break, 35-8 since June 21, and pretty much immune to their opponent. They looked sleepy and uninterested while sweeping four games from the hapless Chicago Cubs. They kept right on going, winning four of the next five against powerhouse teams, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Rays.

You always wonder when a team's fortunes will change. They invariably do in baseball, at some point, right?

But the end wouldn't appear to be imminent. The Dodgers have Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw pitching in these next two games. After that, they welcome a lousy New York Mets team to Dodger Stadium.

Even if none of that were true, the Dodgers would still go into each of those games feeling as if they would win. They'll keep thinking that way until the evidence suggests otherwise.

Dodgers overcome a wobbly start

By Mark Saxon

LOS ANGELES -- Every once in a while, a major league game begins, and one of the teams doesn't look ready.

The Los Angeles Dodgers had one of those nights Friday -- and it's probably no coincidence they spent Thursday night in the air, flying home from St. Louis -- but these days, nothing bad seems to stick to them.

The Dodgers closed furiously, scoring all of their runs in the final three innings, including four in the ninth off Tampa Bay closer Fernando Rodney, who -- at least for one night -- didn't shoot off any imaginary arrows.

In fact, it was his errant throw into center field on Jerry Hairston Jr.'s comebacker that sent home the winning run and delivered a 7-6 Dodgers' victory after they had faced a 6-0 deficit.

As long as the slow starts don't happen repeatedly in the next couple of months, the Dodgers probably don't have much to worry about. But this was a doozy.

In the second and third innings, the Dodgers seemed to be playing to the theme song from "The Benny Hill Show." Hairston and Yasiel Puig both lost pop ups in the twilight. Nick Punto flubbed a routine grounder to shortstop. Puig airmailed cutoff men left and right, seemingly firing at will and allowing runners to take extra bases.

Meanwhile, for most of the game, the Rays played their usual stalwart defense, Evan Longoria's wayward seventh-inning throw their first error in two weeks.

But the Dodgers withstood all their early foibles, rallying once Tampa ace David Price was out of the game. Price did a demolition job on the Dodgers' bat rack, shattering bats left and right. Price pitched to the game, dominating early and protecting a big lead late by throwing strikes.

The Dodgers kept their NL West lead at 5 1/2 games over the Arizona Diamondbacks. The game took three hours, 50 minutes to complete and the Dodgers were forced to cancel their postgame fireworks show because of curfew limitations.

The Dodgers will get their chance at a sweep when they send their Cy Young winners, Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw out to the mound over the next two days.

A somewhat vexing problem was a step backward from No. 5 starter Chris Capuano, who was out of the game by the fifth inning. Capuano had pitched into the seventh inning without giving up a run in each of his two previous outings, but this was a return to earlier form. He gave up 10 hits and five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.

This series -- though it's an odd matchup of teams that rarely cross paths -- has some comparative value. The Dodgers and Rays started slowly, but have each hit their stride since June, cutting their way through the standings.

The Dodgers have gone 35-8 since June 22. The Rays have the second-best record in that span, going 28-12.

Maybe this is a preview of the World Series. Who knows? If so, the Dodgers can only hope they get off to a faster start in October than they did in August, but they'll gladly take the finish.

Paco Rodriguez: The most underrated Dodger?

By Mark SaxonLOS ANGELES -- You could run through a lot of names for National League Rookie of the Year before you landed on Paco Rodriguez, but the Dodgers have leaned heavily on their young reliever.

Rodriguez, who was the first player from the 2012 draft to reach the major leagues last season, has emerged as the team's primary setup man. When closer Kenley Jansen was given the day off Monday in St. Louis, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly turned to Rodriguez for the save.

He got it, by pitching two innings and not allowing a base runner.

Rodriguez has been so reliable -- he has a 1.60 ERA since May 1 and opponents are batting .123 off him -- that Mattingly has found it difficult to avoid going to him, particularly when a team's best left-handed hitters are due up. Rodriguez has appeared in 56 games, something of a concern given that he was pitching on a college schedule -- four games a week -- a little over a year ago.

Rodriguez pitched in just 21 minor-league games before joining the Dodgers last August. Two weeks ago, pitching coach Rick Honeycutt asked Rodriguez to cut back on his throwing routine before games.

"It's crazy. I've gotten to a point where I have coaches talking to me. I've asked players what they do when their body is wearing down, because sometimes you wake up the next day and you're dragging," Rodriguez said. "So, I've been talking to the guys to find out what their routines are when that starts to happen."

The two-inning save Monday was the Dodgers' first in more than four years. Mattingly said he and Honeycutt have been concerned for weeks about limiting the workloads of Rodriguez, 22, and Jansen, who has pitched in 57 games.

"It's a little bit of a double-edged sword for us, because you want to control their usage and stay on top of it, but if you have a chance to win a game, it's not like you're going to sit there like, 'Oh well, I'm not going to use him,' " Mattingly said.

Rodriguez is excited about his first trip with the Dodgers to his hometown of Miami later this month. His mother was able to secure 100 tickets from a family friend.

The Dodgers Pull Out an Incredible Comeback

By Jimmy Bramlett

Dodger Stadium has seen soccer, ski-jumping, boxing, supercross, basketball. It's seen Madonna, Elton John, KISS, Depeche Mode and the Cure among other bands and musicians. It's even seen the Pope.

Thus it's a big occasion when the stadium hosts the Tampa Bay Rays for the very first time — the last active Major League holdout. But then you see what the Dodgers accomplished in this game, you just sit back, jaw agape and wonder what exactly you witnessed.

For context, at the seventh inning stretch the Dodgers trailed the Rays 6-0 with David Price on the mound. To that point the Dodgers mustered only six hits against Price. Since coming off of the disabled list on July 2, Price came into the game with a 1.57 ERA in seven starts only allowing a .189 batting average to opponents while walking only one batter.

"He's as good of a pitcher that we've faced this season," Jerry Hairston said.

"We didn't do much against him," Skip Schumaker said.

That's why when Price led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a four-pitch walk to Hairston, the tone of the game changed. At 86 pitches it was starting to look like the end of his night was imminent. Schumaker doubled off of Price which scored Hairston, and the Dodgers got their foot in the door trailing 6-1.

Then it was on to the bullpen in the eighth innning. A combination of Jake McGee, Josh Lueke and Joel Peralta gave up two runs to the Dodgers creating even more intrigue. The Dodgers now just trailed 6-3.

Then the ninth inning with closer Fernando Rodney. Skip Schumaker singled to left-center. Pinch hitter Dee Gordon struck out swinging. Mark Ellis lined a ball to left field that got past a diving Ben Zobrist for a triple scoring Schumaker. Nick Punto lined a ball just fair into left field for a double that scored Ellis. The Dodgers trailed 6-5 and had the

tying run in scoring position. Adrian Gonzalez golfed a line drive to right field that just hit into fair territory. Punto scored and the Dodgers

tied the game at 6-6. Yasiel Puig intentionally walked, something they probably should have done in the eighth inning. But you know,

hindsight... Jerry Hairston grounded back to Rodney, a sure double play ball. Instead Rodney threw the ball into centerfield.

Gonzalez scored.

"And the magic is here even at home," Vin Scully exclaimed on the broadcast as the Dodgers took the improbable 7-6 win.

There is magic and mystique blanketing the Dodgers these last six weeks. The Dodgers improved to 35-8 in their last 43 games, their best since 1953. Everything the Dodgers touch seem to turn to gold. Down 6-0 while staring down one of the more dominant pitchers in the league on the mound, there was no hint of a win.

"You don't like your chances," manager Don Mattingly admitted. "But what we've been able to recently everything seems to be working out."

"We did everything we could to win that game," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "Give them credit."

The Dodgers just completed winning three of four games in St. Louis proving they are a very good team. In this first game against the AL East contending Rays, it looked evident that the Dodgers landed at the airport at 2:30 this morning.

The fun started in the second inning: Jerry Hairston lost Wil Myers' fly ball to left field. The ball dropped about ten feet towards centerfield. It was

ruled a single. Shortstop Nick Punto misplayed Ben Zobrist's grounder. Ruled an error.

Yunel Escobar lined a single up the middle that scored Myers and sent Zobrist to third. Yasiel Puig tried to cut off Myers at home ill-advisedly. Escobar advanced to second.

James Loney lined a single up the middle that scored Zobrist and Escobar. Again, Puig tried to cut off Escobar at the plate. Loney advanced to second.

"Sometimes it's a tough at twilight to read the ball once it's way up in the air," Hairston admitted.Starting pitcher Chris Capuano was able to get out of the inning getting Jose Molina, David Price and Sean Rodriguez to ground out, however the Rays had the 3-0 lead.

The fifth inning was Capuano's own doing. A leadoff single to Sean Rodriguez and a one-out double to Evan Longoria, it was thought intentionally walking Myers to load the bases was a good idea. Unforunately Capuano gave up singles to Zobrist and Escobar that gave Tampa the 6-0 lead.

Capuano was pulled after Escobar's single, and he took it out on a bucket of water sitting on the bench. As Eric Stephen of True Blue LA noted, this marks the ninth straight start he has given up either five earned runs or no earned runs. "I felt like I threw the ball pretty good until the fifth inning when I kind of left a few over the plate," Capuano said still smiling from the comeback win despite his not-so-stellar outing.

Still absent were Matt Kemp (left ankle) and Hanley Ramirez (right shoulder) from the lineup. Kemp started running supervised by Stan Conte but gave no indication when he would be back in the lineup. "I have no timetable," Kemp said. "I'll know when I'm ready. Hopefully the sooner the better."

"Matt looks pretty good," Mattingly said sounding optimistic. "He looked a lot better. He's going in the right direction."

Ramirez tested his shoulder with live batting practice in the cages before the game. "I'm going to hit today and see if it feels good," Ramirez said. Evidently he felt good enough to be used as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning. He struck out.

"We'll have him pinch hit tomorrow," Mattingly said acknowledging that Ramirez probably thinks he could play tomorrow.

If this game didn't make believers of the doubters, I don't know what else will.

TRUEBLUELA.COM

Dodgers 8/9/13 minor league report - Scott Van Slyke homers in win

By Craig Minami

Minor League Player of the Day – Scott Van Slyke (Albuquerque) - 2 for 4 with a home run and 2 RBI

AAA – The Isotopes were in the winning column on Friday night with an easy 6-1 win over the Tacoma Rainers (Mariners). The highlight could have been Brian Wilson making another rehab appearance with an inning of perfect work. But instead the light shined on one of Wilson's former teammates, Jonathan Sanchez won his 5th game, pitching 6 innings, giving up 1 run, 8 hits and 2 walks and 8 strikeouts. Scott Van Slyke homered and singled with 2 RBI. Tony Gwynn, Jr. also had 2 hits. Justin Sellers also homered.

AA – The Lookouts and Stars of Huntsville (Brewers) had their game suspended in the 1st inning. That game is scheduled to be resumed today.

HiA – The Quakes saw the Storm (Padres) put up 5 runs in the first on their way to a 9 -3 victory over Rancho Cucamonga. Geison Aguasviva led 5 Quakes pitchers in their ineffectiveness, giving up 6 runs and 8 hits in 4 innings. Noel Cuevas got 3 hits in 4 at bats, scoring 2 runs and hitting a double.

LoA – The Loons were shut out by the Hot Rods (Rays) 3 to 0. Miguel Sulbaran started for the Lookouts, he gave up a run with 2 hits, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. Kevin Taylor got the only hit of the day for the Loons.

Rookie Ogden – The Raptors took one on the chin by the Owlz (Angels) as they lost 10 to 5. J.D. Underwood gave up 6 runs in one inning of work. Jesmuel Valentin and Adam Law each had 3 hits. Jacob Scavuzzo and Joey Curletta had 2 hits.DSL – The Dominican Dodgers only had 2 hits in a weather shortened loss to the Indians 5 - 0. Kevin Guzman pitched 4 innings, with 6 hits, 3 runs, a walk and 2 strikeouts.

Transactions: RHP Brian Wilson sent to Albuquerque Isotopes on rehab assignment; Chattanooga Lookouts placed C Dashenko Ricardo on the 7-day disabled list and also placed 3B Osvaldo Martinez on the 7-day disabled list retroactive to August 8, 2013. Great Lakes Loons activated RHP Ralston Cash from the 7-day disabled list and placed RHP Alan Garcia on the 7-day disabled list.

Coming up – Brandon Martinez starts for the Loons, Matt Magill tries for another win for the Isotopes. Victor Araujo gets the ball for the Raptors and Gustavo Gomez throws for the Quakes. And Zach Lee toes the rubber for the Lookouts.

Dodgers 7, Rays 6: 'We feel like we can win every day'

By Eric Stephen

Trailing by six runs against David Price, the Dodgers didn't stand much of a chance against the Rays. But after chipping away in the final few innings, the Dodgers exploded for four runs in the ninth inning to stun Tampa Bay 7-6 at Dodger Stadium.

In a game filled with misplays and mistakes, mostly by the Dodgers, Rays closer Fernando Rodney committed the final misstep. His errant throw into center field on a force attempt allowed Adrian Gonzalez to score from second base with the winning run.

Gonzalez drove in the game-tying run off Rodney, the third of three consecutive run-scoring extra-base hits in the ninth. Mark Ellis tripled to score Skip Schumaker, who singled, and Nick Punto doubled home Ellis to set the table for Gonzalez.

"The little guys really came through really good for us," Gonzalez said with a smile.

Schumaker, one of the "little guys," was 2-for-4 with a double on the night. He said Friday was one of the biggest comebacks he has ever been a part of.

"It didn't matter what inning, as long as we kept adding on runs," Schumaker said. "Down 6-0 against David Price, there's not a lot of hope. We managed to find a way."

The Dodgers fell behind 6-0 thanks to a pair of sloppy innings, one by the defense, and one by Chris Capuano. The top of the second inning was as sloppy as it gets for the Dodgers. Here were the first four batters of the inning:

Wil Myers flew to left fielder Jerry Hairston Jr., who somehow let the ball drop for a gift single. Ben Zobrist grounded to Punto at shortstop, who booted it, costing at least one out if not two. With runners on first and second base, Yunel Escobar singled out of the reach of a diving Yasiel Puig in center

field. Puig, with no chance to get Myers at home, overthrew the cutoff man, allowing runners to advance to second and third.

Old friend James Loney singled to center to plate two runs, and Puig threw home and again overthrew the cutoff man.

"As a pitcher, that stuff is going to happen. When something like that happens, it's just a chance for you to pick your teammates up," Capuano said. "At that point you're just trying to get outs, trying to get the team through that."There was also this double play that wasn't in the fourth, though this was less the Dodgers' fault than it was comic relief:

Price pitched scoreless ball into the seventh inning, and on the night allowed eight hits while striking out four. Price in eight starts since returning from the disabled list has a 1.40 ERA and .44 strikeouts, with just two walks. One of those two walks came by Hairston to lead off the seventh inning, which snapped Price's franchise record streak of 35⅓ innings without a walk. Hairston eventually scored..The Rays tacked on three more runs against Capuano in the fifth inning with four hits and an intentional walk to put the game away, and also extend a crazy streak for the left-hander. Capuano in his nine starts since returning from the DL has either allowed zero runs (five times) or five earned runs (four times), with no in between.

"We feel like we're never out of it, especially at full strength." -Jerry Hairston Jr.

"At three runs, if I can get us deep into the game, three runs you have a chance with our team. Once we got to six, I felt I let us down a little bit," Capuano said. "But you're never out of it."

After the run in the seventh inning against Price, the Dodgers struck for two in the eighth inning on a ground rule double by Puig and a single by Juan Uribe. The Dodgers actually brought the tying run to the plate in the eighth inning, which seemed improbable enough, but Carl Crawford popped out meekly to shortstop to end the threat.

"We feel like we can win every day," said manager Don Mattingly.

Notes Hanley Ramirez pinch hit in the seventh inning, his first appearance since injuring his shoulder on Sunday.

Ramirez struck out against Price. Mattingly said Ramirez would likely be able to pinch hit on Saturday, then "we'll go from there," he said.

Puig was 2-for-4 with a double on Friday, extending his hitting streak to 8 games (14-for-29, .483). Puig has 27 multi-hit games in 55 starts.

Mark Ellis, who was in a 1-for-17 slump entering the game, went 3-for-4 with a walk on Friday while batting leadoff.

Brandon League pitched the sixth and seventh innings without allowing a run, his fourth scoreless outing of two innings since the All-Star break.

Carlos Marmol pitched a scoreless eighth inning, though he did allow a hit and a walk. He stayed in to pitch the ninth inning but allowed a hit and a walk before getting removed. As a Dodger, Marmol has recorded 18 outs and allowed 15 runners to reach base.

Loney, in his return to Dodger Stadium, had three singles in four at-bats, with two RBI. It was his 26th three-hit game at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers before Loney took the field in the bottom of the first inning played a video of his grand slam in Game 1 of the 2008 NLDS at Wrigley Field against the Cubs, followed by a "Welcome back, James Loney" message on screen.

Up nextThe Dodgers look for their fourth straight win on Saturday afternoon with a 1:05 p.m. PT start on Fox. Zack Greinke gets the call for the Dodgers, the second of three Cy Young Award winners to pitch at Dodger Stadium this weekend. Roberto Hernandez, who used to pitch under the name Fausto Carmona, starts for Tampa Bay.

Hanley Ramirez makes progress, might pinch hit vs. RaysBy Eric StephenThe Dodgers will go for their third consecutive win on Friday night as they open a three-game series with the Rays at Dodger Stadium. They won't have Hanley Ramirez in the lineup during the weekend series, but the shortstop could be available to pinch hit.

Starting LineupsManager Don Mattingly was asked if he was confident that Ramirez, who has missed four games since jamming his right shoulder on Sunday at Wrigley Field, would make an appearance during the weekend series against the Rays.

"Yeah, definitely," Mattingly said.

What about Friday night?

"Maybe," siad Mattingly. "We'll see."

Ramirez hit in the batting cages off live pitching on Friday, his second straight day doing so.

"He came in today good. After he hits again in the cages we'll see where we're at. We're going in the right direction with Hanley," Mattingly said. "Throwing is probably going to come after hitting."

Ramirez mentioned he might be ready to play the field this weekend but Mattingly didn't think so, because the shortstop hadn't thrown before a pregame workout Friday. It sounds like a trip to the disabled list will be avoided, and as of now there are no plans for Ramirez to have an MRI, something that won't be done unless he stalls in his comeback.

"We're just happy right now. He's feeling a lot better. The fact that he's talking about that is good news for us. When they said it might be only a DL and a 15-day situation when it first happened, we were happy with that," Mattingly said.

"He's feeling good, but we're trying to be a little careful."

Nick Punto gets the start at shortstop Friday night, his third start at the position since Ramirez was hurt. Dee Gordon has started the other two games at shortstop this week, but also played 15 games at second base in Triple-A Albuquerque. But Mattingly said it would be unlikely to see Gordon play second for the Dodgers this time around, with Mark Ellis and Skip Schumaker continuing to fill the position.

"I don't really see him at second, with Mark and Schu. Those are our guys at second," Mattingly said. "(Gordon) will keep taking some ground balls there but he's right now, I talked to him the other day, he needs to take the majority of his work at short, because until Hanley's back that's where he's going to play."

The Dodgers arrived back in Los Angeles at 3 a.m. PT on Friday morning from St. Louis, and the lineup shows it. Andre Ethier is sitting against left-hander David Price, with another lefty in his place in Skip Schumaker. Carl Crawford, 0-for-9 in his career against Price, sits as well, with Jerry Hairston starting in left field despite his 0-for-5 mark against the southpaw. Yasiel Puig makes his fourth start in center field.

"It was a little bit of everything. I kind of did the same thing when we got into Chicago a little bit late" Mattingly said.

"The matchup with Price, Carl didn't have a whole lot of success. It seemed like the right day for everybody, with the day game tomorrow."

Tim Federowicz gets the start behind the plate, his seventh straight time catching a start by Chris Capuano.

Crawford hit .419 (13-for-31) on the road trip, which also included a day off, the second game of the Chicago series. Crawford had played the last six days.

"He's been going pretty good. We're finding out the more I can keep him in there, the better he swings it. But he also needs his days, and this was the right day for me," Mattingly said. "We're trying to figure out the combination of too much and not enough."

Because they got in late, the Dodgers did not take batting practice on the field before Friday's game.

Dodgers vs. Rays preview: Q&A with D Rays Bay's Ian Malinowski

By David Lauterbach

The Dodgers are 3-3 against the Rays in six total games. Los Angeles took the first series two games to three back in 2002, while the Rays took the second series two games to three in 2007. But that's what happened in the past between these two teams. Ian Malinowski from DRaysBay recently took the time to answer a couple questions about Tampa Bay's season for True Blue LA.

DAVID: Who are the Rays Cy Young and MVP as of right now?

IAN: The team Cy Young is without a doubt David Price. His ERA was slightly high at the beginning of the season, and he spent some time on the disabled list, but since he's been back he's been great. More interestingly, he's been great in a different way than last year when he won the American League Cy Young award. Basically, he's stopped walking batters entirely. He's been 2008 Cliff Lee-esque, and the most efficient pitcher in the majors (the list [link:http://www.draysbay.com/2013/8/5/4590514/toward-a-better-understanding-of-pitch-efficiency#comments] with Clayton Kershaw at #7).

IAN: As for the team MVP, he's mired in a major slump right now and he's now striking out at a rate that makes me nervous, but it still has to be Evan Longoria. By wRC+, he's been the 28th best batter in the majors this year (13th in the AL), and when you factor in his position and his gold glove caliber defense, he ranks as the seventh most productive player by fWAR (fourth in the AL). He's a legitimate league MVP candidate, but this recent slump has been rough.

DAVID: Do you think Wil Meyers was called up to late, or do you think he was called up at the right time?

IAN: There was plenty of teethe gnashing over this before Myers got the call, but I think he was probably promoted at the right time. The simple truth is that the Rays are in a comparatively tough spot as far as money goes, and they probably always will be. Andrew Friedman has a strict policy of playing for the present and planning for the future simultaneously. To be a happy Rays fan, one needs to come to terms with this.

IAN: Wil Myers has been fantastic since he arrived, but Ben Zobrist, Matt Joyce, Kelly Johnson, Sean Rodriguez, Ryan Roberts, and Sam Fuld are all great to serviceable (in the order listed) players themselves. The difference between a combination of those guys and Myers as an everyday player over half a season isn't all THAT large, and if it means avoiding the super-2 date and being able to afford Myers for another year during his prime, it's definitely worth it.

DAVID: Also, did you like the Meyers for James Shields (and others) trade at the time, or did you think it was a bad move for the Rays?

IAN: I loved it. Everybody knew Big Game James would probably be traded. The Rays have a steady stream of young, talented pitchers coming up, and very few impact bats in their minor league system. The only real question was what they would get back. Wil Myers plus was more than I had hoped for. That is not to say that Shields wasn't worth it (he's criminally underrated), just that the return was good.

DAVID: What has it been like over the last couple years watching great young starters come up to the big leagues for Tampa Bay? (David Price, James Shields, Chris Archer, etc.)

IAN: It's been a blast. The thing about watching pitcher after pitcher get called up and succeed is that we fans have come to trust pitching coach Jim Hickey and the Rays' entire development process almost completely. Of course every pitcher is different, but there are a few commonalities to the Rays approach. 1) Establish and command the fastball. 2) Develop a great changeup and throw it to batters of either handedness, both inside and outside, in any count. I'm to a point where I can look at someone like Chris Archer, who is predominantly a fasball/slider guy, and say with confidence, "he's good now, but just think how he'll be once he refines his changeup."

IAN: In listing top young pitchers, don't forget Alex Cobb, who was arguably the most effective pitcher on the staff before he took a line drive to the head and went to the DL with concussion issues. He'll likely return soon.

DAVID: Does this team miss Carl Crawford's skills at all in the outfield or at the top of the lineup?

IAN: Yes and no. There is no team that wouldn't like to have Carl Crawford playing left field. In his prime, he was the best defensive left fielder in the game, and very possibly the most valuable defender at any position. But to miss him would mean to not have had replacements ready. Desmond Jennings (now on the DL with a fractured finger) is an incredibly smooth fielder. Ben Zobrist is solid. Matt Joyce is a lot less good of a fielder, but he's one of the better bats in the league versus right handed pitching. Now there's Wil Myers, who is still learning the position (he was a converted catcher), but who obviously is the future of the Tampa Bay outfield.

IAN: Sure we miss Crawford, because he's quality, but there are replacements, so the Rays replace.

DAVID: Did you expect the kind of production James Loney is giving the lineup when the Rays signed him?

IAN: No way. I expected him to be the long side of a first base platoon. He started off that way, but then grabbed the position full-time with great defense, lots of contact, and unexpected power. That power has been absent recently, but I'm still pretty happy with what he's given us.

IAN: Loney gets comparisons to Casey Kotchman around here, but those aren't quite right. Kotchman was a below-average hitting contact and defense first baseman having a great year. Loney is an average hitting contact and defense first baseman having a great year. It's less unbelievable what he's done.

DAVID: What does Tampa Bay have to do down the stretch to pass Boston and win the division?

IAN: Get and stay healthy. Matt Moore must come back and pitch like he can. Alex Cobb must come back and pitch like he can. Desmond Jennings will likely miss a few weeks. Jesse Crain is coming off the DL sometime too.

IAN: Oh, and it would be nice if Longoria would start hitting like an MVP once more.

DAVID: Do you think the Rays should've done more at the trade deadline?

IAN: Not really. The Rays are close to a complete team and any improvements would either need to have come in blockbuster deals or would be on the margins. That's what they did with Jesse Crain. He's a top right handed reliever (which fills a need) who they acquired at minimal cost (due to his DL status).

IAN: There were some rumors about Michael Morse, who would have formed the short side of a DH platoon. That's nice and all, but not that exciting, and it was arguably the only place the Rays could have hoped to improve themselves short of making a major trade and giving away a significant part of their future. Andrew Friedman just won't do that, and while there are some fans who rail against his acceptance and appreciation of basic economics, I think he's right.

DAVID: Series prediction?

IAN: TB 2, LA 1. The Rays beat TBD twice and lose to Kershaw.

Dodgers vs. Rays: A matchup worth the wait

By Eric Stephen

The Dodgers, 34-8 since June 22 own the best record in the National League during that span. This weekend they welcome to Dodger Stadium the Rays, 28-11 during that same span, the best record in the American League. Here are some notes before the series opener on Friday night at Chavez Ravine.

One more to go

In the 17th season of interleague play, this is the first matchup between the Rays and Dodgers in Los Angeles. The Dodgers had a similar scheduling quirk corrected earlier this season with their first-ever regular season trip to New York to face the Yankees.

After this weekend, the only interleague matchup to not yet happen will be Padres at Blue Jays, per STATS LLC.

Welcome back

James Loney this year with the Rays is enjoying his finest season since 2007, hitting .307/.355/.449 with 10 home runs and 23 doubles in 109 games.

After hitting just .218/.256/.299 against left-handed pitchers with four home runs in 425 plate appearances from 2010-2012, Loney has hit .318/.357/.439 with three home runs in 116 PA against southpaws for the Rays this season.The former Dodger is a career .279/.335/.379 hitter at Dodger Stadium, with 25 home runs in 454 games.

Going streaking

Chris Capuano takes a streak of 12 consecutive scoreless frames into Friday night's start, including each of his last two starts without allowing a run. Capuano has never had more than two starts in a row without allowing a run.

In his last eight starts, Capauno has allowed zero runs five times, more than he had done in any one season in his career. His previous high was in 2006, when he had four starts with no runs allowed for the Brewers.

Last 'perfect game' before Jansen

The Dodgers say the last pitcher in franchise history before Kenley Jansen to retire 27 straight batters was Greg Maddux, who retired 32 straight from Aug. 13-19, 2006. Maddux retired the final 22 batters he faced against the Giants at Dodger Stadium on Aug. 13, a game that saw Maddux throw just 67 pitches in eight scoreless innings in a duel with Jason Schmidt, a game eventually won 1-0 on a walk-off home run by rookie Russell Martin. Maddux followed that up by retiring the first 10 batters he faced, against the Giants but this time in San Francisco. Omar Vizquel broke up the string with a single.

Price has been right

Since returning from the disabled list on July 2, David Price has been doing David Price things. He sports a 1.57 ERA during that span and has lasted at least seven innings in all seven starts, including four starts of nine innings during that span.

Price, whom the Dodgers drafted out of high school in the 19th round in 2004 but did not sign, set a Rays record of 27 consecutive innings without a walk from July 2-19. He walked one batter, and has since gone 29⅔ innings without another walk to set a new record. To go with that one walk during that span, Price has 40 strikeouts.

Roster move

The Rays before the game recalled relief pitcher Josh Lueke from Triple-A Durham and designated Kyle Farnsworth for assignment in a swap of right-handers in the bullpen. Lueke in a previous stint with Tampa Bay this season was 0-2 with a 3.75 ERA in 12 innings, with eight hits and nine walks allowed, and 15 strikeouts.

Dodgers vs. Rays TV schedule, starting pitching matchups

By Eric Stephen

The Dodgers welcome the Rays to Los Angeles for the first time ever in a battle of two of the hottest teams in baseball. The Dodgers are 34-8 since June 22, the best mark in MLB during that span, and the Rays are second best at 29-11. Here is a look at the television schedule and starting pitching matchups for the three-game weekend series at Dodger Stadium.In their last 42 games Dodgers pitchers have a 2.60 ERA, the best mark in the majors. The Rays were the best during that span until allowing nine runs in Arizona on Wednesday; now the Rays hold a 2.80 ERA in their last 39 games.

Friday, 7:10 p.m. (Prime Ticket)

Chris Capuano since returning from the disabled list on June 19 has made eight starts; in five of them he has allowed no runs, and in the other three he has allowed exactly five earned runs each time. Capuano on Friday brings an active streak of 13 consecutive scoreless innings to the mound. David Price since returning from the DL has been very ace-like with 10 runs allowed in seven starts. Price has a 1.57 ERA during that span and has lasted nine innings in four of the seven games.

Saturday, 1:05 p.m. (Fox)

Zack Greinke has a 1.91 ERA over his last six starts, with 34 strikeouts and eight walks during that span. Roberto Hernandez, who used to be Fausto Carmona, has lost each of his last four road starts, allowing 15 runs in 23⅓ innings during that span (5.79 ERA).

Sunday, 5:05 p.m. (ESPN)

Clayton Kershaw has allowed two runs in 14 innings in his last two starts, both Dodgers losses. The team has scored two or fewer runs in 13 of Kershaw's 24 starts this season. In those 13 games Kershaw has been his normal self with a 1.97 ERA, but the Dodgers are 4-9. After 17 strikeouts and no walks in his first two starts of July, Jeremy Hellickson has 10 walks and just 10 strikeouts in his last four starts combined.

SBS EVENING NEWS

'Ryu vs. Choo'.. Korean Wave in Dodgers StadiumBy Paul Chunhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHNti_eUm3M

GRANTLAND.COM

This Week in Internet: Nelly Destroys the Dodgers and Jay Bilas Destroys the NCAA

By Andrew Sharp

There are very few times in life when you might be depressed and hopeless and disgusted with yourself for missing a regular-season baseball game. It just doesn’t happen. Unless someone hits three home runs or attacks a pitcher, every regular-season baseball game is basically the same. If you missed one, don’t worry, there are 161 others. When do we see an exception to this rule?

NELLY NIGHT.

Nelly night: “On Tuesday, August 6th, join the Cardinals for a special tribute to American Grammy Award-winning, hip hop recording artist, entrepreneur and proud St. Louisian - NELLY! Nelly will be on hand for a pregame ceremonial first pitch, and wants YOU to take home an exclusive giveaway! Fans who purchase the special Nelly Night Theme ticket will receive their own exclusive and unique Nelly Cardinals bobblehead!”

I can't believe I missed Nelly Night.

I can't believe you missed Nelly Night.

We're all such failures.

Some additional facts and thoughts here:

1. “He’s a hero,” explained Grantland’s resident Cardinals fan, Sarah Larimer. “The 'Country Grammar' video was an important moment in Cardinals history.”

2. Nelly Night spawned this headline: "Oops! Nelly Not So Hot In Herre With First Pitch At St. Louis Cardinals Game."

3. You can see video of the first pitch here. Nelly blamed a miscommunication for the poor delivery. “'I thought it was a pitch out,' he said post-pitch. 'A pitch out was called. Freese called a pitch out, what they didn't show was him giving me the fist outside and the guy didn't even raise out he left me out to dry.'"

4. David Freese is no longer a hero in St. Louis for his inspiring rise to fame or his World Series home run. He betrayed Nelly. GODDAMN DISGRACEFUL.

5. In case you’re not familiar with St. Louis ... Nelly is the closest thing St. Louis has to Li'l Sebastian.

6. He was also a star baseball player once. As STL Mag explains:Nelly played basketball, baseball, and football at University City High School, where he was praised in his senior yearbook as a standout wide receiver: “Haynes was [quarterback Terrance] Wilkes’ favorite target this season, as the [University City] Lions’ leading receiver. He dazzled the crowd with amazing catches.” He also played for the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Association and later went to training camps for the Atlanta Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates. But “I got wrapped up in the streets,” he once told Rolling Stone. “Money was coming in faster than [team] letters, and I got distracted.”

7. “Money was coming in faster than [team] letters, and I got distracted.” This is also my excuse for quitting varsity tennis during the spring of my senior year.

8. Asked whether he wanted a Grammy or a championship ring, Nelly once said, “Oh, a championship ring. Definitely. Preferably a World Series ring with the Cardinals.” There’s gotta be a roster spot somewhere. Or — coaches get rings, right? Make him the bullpen coach. MAKE HIM THE BULLPEN COACH.

9. Two days after Nelly Night, the Cardinals held Star Wars Night. The only thing worse than missing Nelly Night would be showing up to Star Wars Night and then realizing you could've been at Nelly Night two days earlier. And most importantly:

10. The best part of Nelly night: The Dodgers were on a 15-game road winning streak coming into Tuesday’s game with the Cardinals and were far and away the hottest team in the baseball. Then? BOOM, they ran into a buzzsaw. Carlos Beltran and someone named Matt Adams homered in the eighth, and the Dodgers' record streak was done. I know absolutely nothing about baseball, but we all know what made the difference. We all know WHO made the difference..@Nelly_Mo will be happy to hear the Cardinals kept Nelly night rolling by playing this in the clubhouse postgame http://t.co/3xxUptUjfI— Ben Frederickson (@Ben_Fred) August 7, 2013Nelly Night forever.At least until the A's have Too Short night.

As for the rest of the Internet ... We'll keep things quick this week, because it's Friday and you're probably not paying attention anyway.

Fun With Jay Bilas and the NCAA

If you're reading this column you've probably heard that Jay Bilas's Twitter account went to an extra awesome place this week. You can see his tweets over here, where he exposed the NCAA's blatant hypocrisy by pulling back the curtain on the officially licensed NCAA store. "The NCAA claims it doesn't make money off individual athletes, just their teams and their sport." Bilas:

Go to http://t.co/qpH4tNnIpH, type in "Manziel" in upper right search box, hit enter. This comes up. pic.twitter.com/N7KNvXIu24— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) August 6, 2013It was glorious. Even better: After all this made its way around the Internet, the NCAA panicked and disabled the search function on its website. And NCAA president Mark Emmert announced the NCAA is getting out of the jersey business altogether because it's hypocritical, which would be admirable if not for the hundreds of other websites that are still selling jerseys, exploiting college athletes the exact same way. Anyway, this loophole has been there for a while, but props to Bilas for making it obvious enough to send Emmert into a panic attack.

You probably hate the NCAA, and with good reason. But make sure to savor the current era. First because, as Will Leitch points out, whenever the NCAA finally implodes for real, the new reality could be just as messy and unfair. But more importantly, it's just great that there's a billion-dollar enterprise that everyone knows is bullshit — including Mark Emmert. We're just going to spend the next few years with everything getting more and more ridiculous, and with people like Emmert looking more and more helpless.

Bradley Beal Has Some Hot Marine Biology TakesIt's prob allll type of creatures in the open sea !! #imcoolonthat— Bradley Beal (@RealDealBeal23) August 5, 2013Great take. Nobody's arguing. For more hot ocean takes, check out Danger Guerrero's definitive commentary on the ocean, and why it should be avoided forever.And then, on the other end of the spectrum...White People Are CrazySwimmer (a.k.a. 'The Shark') completes 22-mile swim while pulling 2,000 lbs of BRICKS http://t.co/pmZEdGtrc0 pic.twitter.com/8oiRyKsXZG— Daily Mail US (@DailyMailUS) August 7, 2013Did You Know Wayne Gretzky Was Once a Babysitter for Robin Thicke?Now you do! As fellow Canadian Alan Thicke remembers (via Puck Daddy):

I was reminded of it a few days ago on the occasion of the anniversary of his trade from Edmonton to Los Angeles (on Aug. 9, 1988). [Gretzky] was house-sitting at my house in L.A. the night he got traded. I was in Norway with my other son (Brennan), and Wayne and Janet were house-sitting for my son Robin (11 years old at the time). I called from Norway because I picked up the Oslo morning paper and saw pictures of Gretzky — but I couldn’t understand the text, of course. And I thought maybe there had been a fire, a mudslide, a drive-by shooting, who knows? So I called home, and I learned Wayne left early in the morning; he got traded last night. He got the call at about 9 p.m., and he was gone by 6 the next morning. So we had to find a substitute nanny instantly, which is not as bad as what Edmonton had to find to replace him.Wayne Gretzky deserted Robin Thicke, you say? Sure. Fine. But just for the record, that is the BEST POSSIBLE SCENARIO if you're telling professional hockey players to babysit your children. If you leave your kid with hockey players, he's far more likely to wake up in the middle of an orgy, walk into his living room to see grown men throwing kegs at each other, and then walk outside to find strangers tossing his furniture off a roof. That's a Tuesday night in the NHL.The Adventures of Pau Gasol

Nobody knows why everything Pau Gasol does is hilarious, but I hope it never ends.Normal Humans Just Shouldn't Play Football

FUN FACT: Jonathan Ogden went to my high school in Washington, D.C. He's pictured here in 1991, via St. Albans' official Flickr account, about to mutilate some helpless 16-year-olds.Additional fact: Jonathan Ogden's experience playing football for St. Albans was nothing like my experience playing football for St. Albans. In fact, looking at that picture is just a reminder that, really, if you're not a gigantic human and/or an athletic freak, there's just no good reason to play football, because you will always end up getting throttled at the hands of someone like Jonathan Ogden. Just give up early, save yourself the time and medical bills. (Can't wait to deliver that speech to my son one day.)

While we're on the subject, Solid Verbal shared Vince Wilfork's high school highlights this week, and they are every bit as vicious and nightmarish as you'd imagine. Don't play football if you're not Vince Wilfork or Jonathan Ogden.This Is What a Midlife Crisis Looks Like

Gregg Williams, former #Redskins defensive coordinator, current beat poet: pic.twitter.com/FeMFFG8gM2— Chase Hughes (@chasehughesCSN) August 8, 2013The Life and Times of Mark SanchezThanks for your support man! #classy RT @YOUNGSTOWN4LI4E .@Mark_Sanchez F*** YOU HOPE YOU TEAR YOUR ACL ON FRIDAY— Mark Sanchez (@Mark_Sanchez) August 8, 2013Plaxico Burress Is Selling You Luxury Socks

Plaxico Burress tore his rotator cuff at Steelers training camp this week, an injury that'll likely end his season and his career. It's pretty terrible news. But you know what's pretty great news? Plaxico Burress started his own line of luxury socks. This may be old news to some, but reader Zach Goldsmith brought this to our attention this week, and it needs to be celebrated here.

As the website explains: "The Plaxico Burress Collection is the brainchild of NFL star Plaxico Burress. An avid collector of luxury socks, Plaxico found himself always looking for the 'perfect sock.' Often, he would love the design, but not like the fit. Or he would like the fabric/material, and not like the length. Rather than continue to settle for the often limited styles his favorite stores had to offer, Plaxico decided to create his own brand. Confident that with his direction, the design team could create his 'perfect sock.'"

The lesson: If the world won't give you the "perfect sock," then you go out and create the "perfect sock" yourself. The Plaxico Burress Collection is an inspiration to all of us. Be the change you want to see in the world. Wear it. Wear it on your feet.

This isn't even the only athlete fashion line we found this week. There's also Brad Richards's button-down collection at Untuckit, whose website explains, "Finally, shirts designed to be worn untucked, at the perfect length." FINALLY.I can't tell whether Richards is an owner, an investor, or just an enthusiastic brand ambassador. Either way, it's just good to have him involved: "NHL Star Brad Richards knows shirts. Once dubbed the most stylish man in the NHL, Brad offers his sure-fire picks to draw oohs and ahs from onlookers!"

There you go: Brad Richards knows shirts, Plaxico knows socks. And if Plax is really done playing football, then nothing could make me happier than him retiring in style on the strength of a luxury sock fortune. (Socks > stocks.)... And that's it for this week. If you know of other athlete-funded fashion ventures, please send them my way. In the meantime, let's start a movement to replace the national anthem with "Country Grammar."

"Smoke blunts in Savannah, blow 30 mil like I'm Hammer."

AMERICAN DREAMIN', Y'ALL.

DODGERSCRIBE.COM

Dodgers 7, Rays 6 … a night we won’t soon forget

By Tony JacksonThe most important run of the game might have been the one the Dodgers scored in the seventh, the one that cut the deficit to 6-1. With the Dodgers dragging from travel fatigue and down by six, manager Don Mattingly said he considered resting Adrian Gonzalez for the rest of the game. But then that lone run, which Skip Schumaker drove in with a two-out double off David Price in the seventh inning, caused Mattingly to change his mind.

Or at least that’s what Gonzalez said Mattingly told him.

Three innings later, there was Gonzalez, yanking a soft line drive just inside the rightfield foul line to complete the comeback. Two batters later, Gonzalez came roaring around third to complete the victory after Rays closer Fernando Rodney fielded what should have been an inning-ending doubleplay ball by Jerry Hairston and threw it into center field.

Sometimes it’s the littlest decisions that can have the biggest impact. On a game. And sometimes, on a season.

We’ll have to wait and see how much impact this one will have. But there was no denying that in a season full of stirring, emotional victories for these Dodgers, this was the most stirring and most emotional thus far.

The Dodgers (65-50) maintained their five-game lead over Arizona in the National League West, but there is no rest for the weary: this one lasted almost four hours, and they have a 1:10 start on Saturday.

Yasiel Puig went 2-for-4 with a double, extending his hitting streak to eight games and raising his average to .379 and his on-base percentage to .440. But he also made three overzealous throws early in the game, two of which involved him firing home when he had no chance to cut down the runner, allowing the batter to get into scoring position.

“We talked about that,” Mattingly said. “It’s the same thing we have been dealing with. He has to keep the ball down.”

Puig also almost ran into Jerry Hairston on a fly ball to left-center in the sixth when Hairston clearly was calling for the ball. But when you’re producing the way Puig is right now — he is 14-for-29 during the hitting streak — a lot of sins get overlooked, and those that don’t are quickly forgiven.

On a night when Mattingly really didn’t want to use Kenley Jansen, Ronald Belisario or Paco Rodriguez, it’s worth nothing that much-maligned relievers Brandon League and Carlos Marmol made huge contributions to this victory.

League turned in two perfect innings, the former All-Star closer continuing a recent resurgence in which he has given up zero runs in eight of his past nine appearances (the exception being Tuesday night in St. Louis when he allowed three in one-third of an inning). And Marmol flirted with danger, but pitched out of his own jam in the eighth to keep the Rays within striking distance before getting into more trouble in the ninth, forcing Mattingly to reluctantly call on Belisario.

The game lasted so long (three hours, 55 minutes) that they had to cancel the customary Friday Night Fireworks because a local curfew doesn’t allow fireworks shows after 11 p.m.

That’s a wrap on Day 1 of the new blog. Thanks again for stopping by, and let’s do it again in a few hours. Good night everybody.