It doesn’t take much in this division. The Dodgers dropped the final two games of their series with the Angels and just like that, we’re in fourth place.
Brad Penny, our All Star representative, got the job done on Friday. He gave up only a single run on seven hits with six strikeouts in seven innings of work. Andre Ethier hit his fifth homerun of the season and drove in two and Nomar Garciapara (more on him) had two hits and two runs in the 6-1 win.
It went downhill from there. Mark Hendrickson had a poor start and while four of the five runs he gave up were unearned, he did give up seven hits and two walks in five innings. Nomar got a hit to extend his hitting streak to 13 and Matt Kemp had two hits and an RBI in the 9-2 blowout loss.
Yesterday, John Lackey and the Angels pen shut us out. Nomar did double so he has a 14 game hitting streak and Chad Billingsley took the loss. He gave up four runs (two earned) on four hits and four walks through six innings. In all, the Dodgers struck out 15 times.
Brad Penny made the All Star team, but Nomar Garciapara, who leads the league in hitting, didn’t. Nomar is part of the fan vote in though so be sure to stop by MLB.com and vote often for Nomar.
Next up is the Diamondbacks and they’re the one team that’s behind us. We need to make sure we keep it that way.
