After taking two out of three from the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers returned home for a three-game series with the Houston Astros, and a current four game set with the Milwaukee Brewers.  The weekend saw some amazing highlights from the Blue Crew and they continued their hot play.  I was lucky enough to attend the Dodgers 5-1 win over the Astros on Sunday.  Clayton Kershaw pitched a solid 7 innings on Friday night, but the Dodgers lost 3-1.  Astros rookie Lucas Harrell threw 7-plus solid innings, matching Kershaw pitch for pitch.  The Dodgers threatened in the eighth, but were unable to break through.  Saturday night’s matchup saw another close game.  Chad Billingsley and Bud Norris matched each other pitch for pitch in two shaky, but still effective starts.  With the game tied 3-3 in the 9th, Houston lefty Wesley Wright hit Andre Ethier on an 0-2 count, certainly not intentional.  Scott Van Slyke proceeded to lay down a picture perfect bunt to move Ethier over.  The Astros intentionally walked James Loney to set up the force play, bringing up A.J. Ellis, one of the Dodgers’ brightest surprises this season.  Ellis drilled a fastball from Wilton Lopez deep into left field for a three-run blast, leaving no doubt about it with a little bat flip.  The 31-year old lifetime farmhand, had his biggest hit of his big league career, and blew up Twitter in the meantime as well.  Sunday’s game, which I was lucky enough to attend, was a lefty-on-lefty pitchers duel.  Chris Capuano threw a dominant 7 innings, giving up only 1 run on 2 hits, and striking out 8.  Houston’s J.A. Happ matched Capuano for six-plus, striking out 10!  Again in the absence of Matt Kemp, the Dodgers continued to get run production from unlikely sources, including a 5-for-5 day for Jerry Hariston, Jr. and  a home run from Matt Treanor, that barely squeezed out of the glove of Houston centerfielder Justin Maxwell on a leaping play at the warning track.  The Dodgers started a four-game series with Milwaukee today, dropping the opener 3-2.  Milwaukee’s Shawn Marcum improved his lifetime record against the Dodgers to 4-1 pitching 7 solid innings giving up only 1 run and striking out 9.  Jonathan Axford struck out Elian Herrera with a runner on 2nd to end the game.  Although the Dodgers lost the series opener, they can look forward to the return of Matt Kemp tomorrow.  Although many players have stepped up in Kemp’s absence, one can only imagine he is chomping at the bit to get back out there and play.  The Dodgers currently sit at 32-16 tops in the Major Leagues, including a league best 21-6 at Dodger Stadium.  The Dodgers embark on a major road trip after the Milwaukee series, including trips to Philadelphia and Colorado, and an interleague matchup in Seattle.  Ted Lilly was also placed on the 15-day DL with shoulder inflammation, the Dodgers will miss his 5-1 record.  Nathan Eovaldi will start in Lilly’s place.

Hello Dodger fans, it’s good to be back on here talking about the league leading boys in blue!  The Dodgers currently stand at 29-13 tops in MLB after roughly a month and half’s worth of play.  Matt Kemp has picked up where he left off last year as a true MVP candidate, and making good on his promise to let Beast Mode off its’ leash.  Kemp was National League Player of the Month for April with a .417 average accompanied by 12 homeruns (a Dodger record) and 25 RBI.  However, Kemp has been dealing with a troublesome hamstring in May, consequently forcing him to the 15-day DL.  However, aside from Kemp’s MVP effort, the Dodgers have also been carried by another star.  Andre Ethier, appearing to be fully recovered from an injured knee last year, is leading the league in RBI.  Carrying over from last year is the Dodgers’ strong starting pitching.  Four of the five starters have more wins than losses, including 11-1 between Ted Lilly and surprising acquisition Chris Capuano.  The Dodgers trail only the Washington Nationals in team ERA, so pitching is clearly a strength.  Both C A.J. Ellis and 2B Mark Ellis are among the league leaders in OBP and runs scored, respectively.  And the biggest difference from last year to this, the Dodgers are finding a way to manufacture runs.  The scored 6 runs a game in their weekend sweep of the defending World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals.  All without Matt Kemp in the lineup.  The Dodgers have also been without Juan Rivera, however, the acquisition of Bobby Abreu has certainly offset that.  Most recently Mark Ellis sustained a leg injury that will force him to miss the next 6 weeks.  Ellis is an outstanding defensive second baseman, and has been instrumental in moving runners over and setting the table for Kemp and Ethier.  The team will look to offset that with the callups of Elian Herrera and Scott Van Slyke, who hit the go-ahead 3-run homerun last night for his first big-league blast.  The other noticeable difference has been in the attendance at the stadium,  the fans have returned to Dodger Stadium.  Frank McCourt is finally out as the owner after selling the team for a remarkable $2 billion, a record for any pro-franchise.  The group fronted by Lakers great Magic Johnson and and backed by money from a Chicago investment firm are now in place as the owners.  One of the first moves of the new ownership group was to drop the price of parking from $15 to $10.  Certainly, a popular move.  The Dodgers continued their hot play in Arizona scoring another six-runs behind homers from Andre Ethier, James Loney, and Matt Treanor!  Chris Capuano, continued to dominate on the mound giving up a run in 6 innings, and to further augment the Dodgers strong pitching, Clayton Kershaw was named NL player of the week.  Matt Kemp is eligible to return from the DL a week from today.  The sky could be the limit for the Dodgers this season.

Dodgers GM Ned Colletti said he would go into this offseason looking to fill the Dodgers basic needs.  He has largely followed the same formula he has in previous offseasons, staying away from the elite, top-tier free agents, but doing a fantastic job of snatching up the next best available players.  Above all else, Colletti took care of the Dodgers most pressing offseason issue, signing Matt Kemp to a multi-year extension.  Kemp, who finished 2nd in NL MVP voting,  inked an 8-year, $160 million contract back on November 19.  Other than Cardinals 1B Albert Pujols and Brewers 1B Prince Fielder, this year’s free agent class is not the most loaded.  And even the perennial big spenders, the Yankees, Red Sox, and Phillies, won’t be bidding on Pujols and Fielder because they are already committed long-term to their respective 1B.  Thus, locking up Kemp long-term was the best possible move the Dodgers could have made.  Kemp plays a premium position, and is a true, five-tool player.  Not only that, Kemp has the makeup and personality to be a true superstar here in L.A.  Kemp is only 27, and if the Dodgers didn’t pay him this year, all 29 other teams would have been lining up to pay him after next year.  The first signing of the offseason Colletti made was to resign LF Juan Rivera.  The Dodgers became a different team after Rivera arrived last August.  Not only did he fill the glaring void in left field, he finally gave the Dodgers some right-handed protection in the lineup.  With James Loney slumping for most of the year and Andre Ethier battling knee issues, it was easy enough for opposing teams to pitch around Kemp, that changed with Rivera in the lineup.  With Kemp, Ethier, Rivera, and Loney, the Dodgers have a solid and consistent middle of the order that will drive in runs next year.  Next, Colletti shored up the infield defense by signing, veteran 2B Mark Ellis to a 2-year deal.  Ellis is a solid, versatile defender, who can get on base and move runners over.  Ellis essentially replaces Jamey Carroll, who departed to join the Minnesota Twins, and gain the playing time he deserves.  Veteran C Rod Barajas left for Pittsburgh, so the Dodgers will roll with long-time farmhand A.J. Ellis behind the plate, but Colletti signed veteran C Matt Treanor as a capable backup and mentor for Ellis.  Neither has the pop that Barajas has, but at the end of the day, Rod Barajas is 36 and is a career .238 hitter.  The Dodgers also signed utilityman, and SoCal native and Cal State Northridge alum Adam Kennedy to shore up the bench.  Although it appears unlikely the Dodgers will re-sign Hiroki Kuroda, they will continue to have one of the deeper starting rotations in all of baseball.  Clayton Kershaw is coming off a Cy Young season, and shows absolutely no signs of letting up.  Kershaw is under club control for the next two years, so he will probably get a big money extension following next season.  Colletti inked former Mets lefty Chris Capuano to a 2 year, $10 million deal, and former Padre Aaron Harang to a similar 2-year $12 million dearl.   Although losing Kuroda would hurt, the additions of Capuano and Harang will certainly help to offset that.  Throw Ted Lilly and Chad Billingsley in there, and the Dodgers have one of the most solid rotations around.  One would assume Colletti will look to add to the bullpen at this point.  However, the way the Dodgers are set up, they appear poised to build on the turnaround of the last two months of the season that saw them go from 15-games under .500, to finishing the season above .500.  The NL West continues to be a winnable division.  Arizona will return to defend their crown.  They have added former Oakland A’s pitcher Trevor Cahill to their rotation, coming off a rough year that saw him post a 4.16 ERA.  The Giants continue to be built around pitching, but their lineup does not match the Dodgers.  The Padres will continue to do the same, building on pitching, but fielding a lineup that will struggle to score runs.  The Rockies have some promising pitching prospects, but they do not appear to be ready to make an impact at the major league level yet.

If you didn’t watch it last night, you’ve probably heard about.  Last night’s Game 6 between the Cardinals and the Rangers was without question one of the greatest baseball games of all time.  It looked like the St. Louis Cardinals were trying to give the game away by committing 3 errors, allowing 2 runs to score.  The St. Louis bullpen exploded, giving up back-to-back homeruns to Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz in the 7th inning.  Ian Kinsler drove in another run to give Texas a 7-4 heading to the bottom of the 7th.  It looked like the wheels had finally come off for St. Louis and their taxed bullpen.  The Cardinals threatened in the bottom of the 8th, Allen Craig blasted a solo homerun to make it 7-5.  Rafael Furcal came up with the go-ahead run on base, but grounded out to end the threat.  Again, it looked like Texas was about to clinch the Series, Texas’s all-star closer Neftali Feliz was in for the ninth.  Albert Pujols got the rally started for the Cardinals with a one-out double,  Lance Berkman walked, Allen Craig struck out.  It all came down to David Freese with 2 on and 2 out.  The Rangers were a strike away from winning the World Series, but Freese lined a Feliz fastball (the second straight fastball from Feliz) deep into right.  Nelson Cruz appeared to have a read on the ball, but wary of the wall, he misplayed the ball, allowing the tying runs to score.  The Cardinals had mounted an improbable comeback.  Heading into extra innings it could be anybody’s game, but just as soon as the 10th inning had started, Josh Hamilton had absolutely drilled a Jason Motte fastball deep into the right field stands, a no-doubt about it home run.  Just as quickly as the Cardinals had come back from 2-down, they were down two again.  This time for the Rangers, Darren Oliver and Scott Feldman would try to close out the bottom of the Cardinals order.  But it was the bottom of the order that started the rally, Daniel Descalso started it off with a single, followed by a Jon Jay single.  Jay had been hitless in the World Series going into last night.  After intentionally walking Pujols, Lance Berkman came up with two out.  Berkman has been the Cardinals hottest hitter in the World Series, hitting .389 going into last night, and he had already homered earlier in the game to give the Cardinals a short-lived 2-1 lead.  Berkman delivered again, drilling Feldman’s pitch into the gap in right-center allowing Descalso and Jay to score, tying up the game.  Again, when it looked like it was over, the Cardinals fought back.  After getting a scoreless inning from Jake Westbrook, it would again be David Freese up to bat in the bottom of the 11th.  Freese worked the count and crushed Mark Lowe’s pitch deep into center field, capping off a day that saw Freese drive in the game tying, and game winning runs.  Now the scene shifts to Game 7 and the Cardinals will send Chris Carpenter to the mound on short rest.  The Rangers will counter with Matt Harrison, but Ron Washington completely emptied the Rangers bullpen last night.  If he has to go to the bullpen, he will be going to his starters C.J. Wilson and Derek Holland.  The Rangers also have huge questio.n marks with both Mike Napoli and Nelson Cruz sustaining injuries last night, both are expected to play.  The Cardinals will be without Matt Holliday, who re-aggravated a hand injury while being picked off third base last night.  Holliday has struggled in the World Series, however, and although his presence in the lineup will be missed, the Cardinals probably get a defensive upgrade in the outfield.  Game 7 is where anything can happen, and this improbable and amazing offseason is coming to an end.  Who would have thought at the beginning of April that we’d be watching the Cardinals and the Rangers in Game 7.  I had picked the Cardinals, largely because they have Carpenter going tonight at home, now is their chance to cap off another improbable comeback.

The Texas Rangers rebounded from a crushing defeat in Game 3 with 4-0 shutout of the St. Louis Cardinals last night.  The Rangers finally received the starting pitching performance they needed from an unlikely source.  Derek Holland pitched 8 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out 7, and allowing only 2 hits, both to Lance Berkman.  Holland delivered the best start of his young career, and it was totally unexpected, Holland was sporting a 5.27 postseason ERA coming into last night.  All of course after the Cardinals 16 run, 15 hit outburst the previous night.  Holland attacked the Cardinals lineup by attacking the inside part of the plate, and feeding them a steady diet of low breaking balls.  Edwin Jackson kept the Cardinals close, despite walking 7 batters.  But after Jackson was lifted for Mitchell Boggs, Mike Napoli drilled the first pitch he saw from Boggs deep into the left field stands for a 3-run home run.  Other than Napoli’s blast, the game was literally all Derek Holland.  Now the series is evened up again 2-2.  The Cardinals will look to bounce back by sending Chris Carpenter back to the hill.  Carpenter is looking for his 9th postseason win, which would be the most among active pitchers.  The Rangers C.J. Wilson will be going for his first win of this postseason.  He has struggled in the playoffs, but pitched considerably better in Game 1, lowering his postseason ERA from 8.04 to 7.17.  If the Rangers win tonight, they would have a very nice one game cushion heading back to St. Louis.  If the Cardinals win tonight, they will be completely in the driver’s seat for the series, heading back home.  Pivotal Game 5 starts soon.

Albert Pujols spent much of Friday dealing with criticism from the media, for the fact that he did not stick around in the clubhouse for interviews following Game 2.  He silenced all of his critics last night with quite possibly the single greatest hitting performance in a World Weries game.  Pujols went 5-6, hitting three home runs, driving in six runs, and scoring four runs.  Pujols joins Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson as the only players to ever hit three home runs in a world series game.  Pujols finished with 14 total bases, setting a World Series record.  Not only did the Cardinals re-take home field advantage, they stopped any momentum Texas had gained from their ninth inning rally Thursday night.  The Rangers will have to find a way to rebound from a crushing 16-7 loss.  They will send 25-year old lefty Derek Holland to the mound against journeyman right-hander Edwin Jackson of the Cardinals.  This game has to be seen as a must win for the Rangers, if they were go down 3-1, the series would surely be over with two of the next three games back in St. Louis.  The Rangers bullpen got taxed for 10 earned runs in 5 1/3 innings of work last night.  Hit especially hard was Alexi Ogando who threw 35 pitches, allowed 3 hits and 3 earned runs, and recorded only one out.  The Rangers need a good start from Holland tonight, if the Cardinals can get to the Texas bullpen, there’s no reason to think they won’t do what they did last night again.  And if the Cardinals win tonight, Chris Carpenter will be coming back to pitch in a closeout game, last time that happened, he outpitched Roy Halladay.  We’re heading to the third inning and the Rangers are up 1-0.

After two games in St. Louis, the World Series is tied 1-1.  The Cardinals took game 1, 3-2, an Allen Craig pinch-hit single drove in the deciding run.  It looked like deja vu last night when Craig had another pinch-hit single in the 7th inning to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.  But, for the first time this postseason, Tony LaRussa’s moves didn’t pay off.  After Jason Motte allowed singles to Ian Kinsler and Elvis Andrus, La Russa lifted his closer, who had previously allowed only one baserunner in 9 innings this postseason.  With Josh Hamilton at bat, La Russa inserted veteran lefty Arthur Rhodes.  Hamilton pulled Rhodes pitch deep enough into right field to allow Kinsler plenty of time to score from third.  Michael Young followed with a deep sac-fly of his own, giving the Rangers a 2-1 lead, that would hold up for the final.  Both teams received surprising, dominant starts from Colby Lewis and Jaime Garcia.  There were a multitude of events that took place during the pivotal 9th inning.  The gutsiest move, was the first one, a stolen base by Ian Kinsler.  Kinsler beat the tag by a fraction of a second, but all of Fox’s replays showed Kinsler was in safe, and it was the right call.  The other event that will be highly examined, is Albert Pujols, a gold-glove first baseman, grazing the throw to the plate with his glove, essentially allowing Elvis Andrus to reach second base on a single.  This sets up LaRussa removing the flame-throwing Motte for the soft-tossing, veteran Rhodes.  Obviously, the numbers say go lefty-on-lefty, but Josh Hamilton is a former MVP, and among the best hitters in the game.  On top of that, he is clearly injured.  Hamilton’s groin has been bothering him and he has been unable to get his lower body into his swing.  Instead of challenging Hamilton with pure heat from Motte, LaRussa opted for lefty-lefty, but all Hamilton had to do against Rhodes was get the bat on the ball and make contact, exactly what he did.  Now the series heads to Arlington, where the Rangers scored more runs than any other team at their home ballpark.  Kyle Lohse will take the mound for the Cardinals tomorrow, and he has done nothing but struggle this postseason, going 0-2 with a 7.45 ERA, giving up a .310 batting average to opponents.  It could spell doom if the Cardinals were to fall behind early on the road, especially in Arlington, where the crowds have been fired up.  The Rangers will send lefty Matt Harrison to the hill.  Harrison has very good, but somewhat inconsistent stuff.  Tomorrow is definitely a chance for the bats to break out and for some runs to be scored.  I’m picking Texas to win tomorrow’s game, but the Cardinals only need 1 of 3 to send it back to St. Louis, and although I don’t think it will be tomorrow, I do think the series will return to St. Louis.

The World Series is finally here! After 162 regular season games, and two rounds of the playoffs, we’re finally down to two teams left, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers.  Both teams have been offensive powerhouses all year long,  and both teams were surprisingly, carried by their bullpens in their respective LCS’s.  The Rangers led all of MLB during the regular season with a .283 batting average, and were second only to the Yankees with 210 HRs on the year.  The Cardinals led the National League during the regular season with a .273 batting average and were the NL’s highest scoring team at 4.7 runs per game.  By virtue of the National League winning the All-Star Game, the Cardinals will have home field.  Of course, the question always asked about AL teams going to NL cities, is what will happen without the DH.  The Rangers lineup is stacked and they should be able to put runs on the board, but Ron Washington might want to tinker with his lineup.  The Rangers best hitter, Nelson Cruz, has been hitting out of the 7th spot.  With the pitcher’s spot now batting 9th, it will be much easier for teams to pitch around Cruz.  Instead of being protected by both David Murphy and Mitch Moreland, he now only has Murphy behind him.  On the other side, Tony LaRussa has been making all the right moves and pressing all the right-buttons this postseason.  When it comes to switching role-players in and out of the lineup, no one does it better than LaRussa.  Chris Carpeneter and C.J. Wilson will start tonight’s game.  Carpenter is the only elite pitcher in the series, and he’s going in games 1, 4, and 7 (if necessary).  If the series gets drawn out, one certainly would like the Cardinals chances with Carpenter on the mound.  Carpenter is 2-0 with a 3.71 ERA this postseason and opponents are hitting only .230 against him.  On the other side, Wilson, who had a teriffic regular season (16-7, 2.94 ERA , 223 1/3 IP) including his first all-star appearance, has struggled mightily in the postseason going 0-2 with an 8.04 ERA, all while allowing 29 baserunners in just over 15 innings of work.  Although the Rangers bullpen has been lights out in the postseason, they will need more from Wilson, and the rest of their starters in order to beat the Carpenter and the Cardinals pitching staff.  The Cardinals have home field, the better, more experienced pitching staff, and the guy at the helm is a Hall of Famer.  I’m predicting Cardinals in 6 games.  Unfortunately, I didn’t do a whole lot of writing this season, so I’m looking forward to writing some game recaps, as the World Series goes along.  The Rangers are in the World Series for a second straight year, any time a team is in the championship back-to-back, it is to be commended.  The Cardinals are one of the classic franchises in baseball, and anytime one of the original teams is in it, it’s always a good thing.