Carl Crawford Vs. The Boston Red Sox

The media seems to have turned the three game series versus the Boston Red Sox into Carl Crawford versus the Boston Red Sox. Carl Crawford basically said before the series that he really didn't enjoy his time in Boston for whatever reason and he really wanted to win all three of these games pretty badly. Just about every player would say that about his old team. This series is much bigger than a Carl Crawford grudge match. The Dodgers are now leading the National League West by 10 1/2 games over the Arizona Diamondbacks and Boston is fighting it out with Tampa Bay over the leadership of the American League East. Boston and Tampa are virtually tied for first place. Now the Dodgers have to be thinking about potential World Series matchups. The Dodgers won game one of the Boston series 2-0 behind Ricky Nolasco (10-9). He allowed 2 hits in 8 innings and Kenley Jansen closed them out in the 9th for his 22nd save. Nolasco got all the run support he needed from Hanley Ramirez who hit his 13th homerun, a two run shot to center field in the 4th with Carl Crawford on second. Crawford had two of the Dodgers three hits and stole two bases. He is playing to win all three of these games.

Better Late Than Never

Yasiel Puig was late yesterday for the Dodgers game against the Marlins, was benched and fined, and made a late game appearance and hit the game winning homerun in the top of the 8th inning. The homerun was his 12th and the RBI was his 28th. His heroics are to many to number. Chris Withrow (2-0) picked up the win with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Kenley Jansen came on to pitch a scoreless 9th and earn his 20th save.

A Streak In The Wrong Direction

The Dodgers lost their second game in a row last night for the first time in a couple of months, this one to the Miami Marlins 6-2. Hyun-Jin Ryu (12-4) pitched well enough to win (7 1/3 innings, 3 earned runs) but the offense fell short again. Juan Uribe had 3 of the Dodgers 6 hits, including an RBI. The Dodgers ran into a hot pitcher, Marlins rookie Jose Fernandez (9-5) and potential Rookie of the Year, who gave up 1 earned run in 6 innings, only giving up 3 hits and striking out 8.

The Streak Ends

A couple of Hanley Ramirez errors in the ninth inning, including a potential inning ending double play, allowed the Philadelphia Phillies to score the winning run in a 3-2 loss on Sunday afternoon. Starter Ricky Nolasco pitched a solid game, 6 innings, 2 earned runs, but reliever Brandon League absorbed the loss (6-4). The Dodgers offense consisted of Andre Ethier's solo homerun, his 9th and he scored both runs, the second on a Jerry Hairston, Jr., RBI single. The bottom half of the Dodgers lineup-Ethier, Van Slyke, and Hairston all had 2 hits- had 7 of the Dodgers 8 hits. That loss ended the Dodgers 10 game winning streak and dropped their lead in the National League West to 7 1/2 games.

Still Rolling

The Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies last night 5-0 behind Clayton Kershaw's 8 shutout innings. He improved his record to 12-7 and dropped his ERA to 1.80. The Dodgers offense was powered by Juan Uribe's 9th inning three-run homer, his 7th. That homerun kept Kershaw from pitching the 9th as he gave way to Brandon League. Kershaw even drove in his 7th run on the season with a 5th inning double. The Dodgers are 42-8 in their last 50 and are 22 games over .500 for the first time this season. They maintained their 8 1/2 game lead on the Arizona Diamondbacks.

A Streak Like No Other

The Dodgers are on a winning streak like no other in Dodgers history. They are 41-8 since they were 30-42 at their lowest point of the season. They were behind 9 1/2 games to the Arizona Diamondbacks at that point. They have now built a 8 1/2 game lead in the National League West. Their current winning streak is nine straight. They swept the Tampa Bay Rays, one of the Contenders in the American League East, last weekend. They won an improbable 7-6 game in which they were behind 6-0 and won 7-6 in extra innings when Rays reliever Fernando Rodney took a one hopper and potental game emding double play and fired it into centerfield, allowing Adrian Gonzalez to score the winning run. They beat Mets wunderkind and potential Rookie of the Year, Matt Harvey, in a sweep of the Mets. Hanley Ramirez comes back from missing nine games and stayed just as hot as he did before he got hurt. No matter who they plug into the lineup to replace hurt regulars, they hit like future Hall of Famers, Skip Schumaker and Nick Punto are prime examples of that. Schumaker had a 4 RBI game against the St. Louis Cardinals and Punto hit his second homerun of the year against the New York Mets. Punto got to celebrate his homerun with television and movie star Danny De Vito. De Vito was wearing his Nick Punto #7 Dodgers jersey and De Vito might also be one of the few people that Punto towers over.

Back With A Vengeance

The Dodgers got back on the winning track with a vengeance in a 13-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. Carl Crawford knocked out Cardinals starter Shelby Miller with a line drive off his pitching elbow on the second pitch of the game and Miller's night was over. The Dodgers scored 6 runs in the second inning off of pitching replacement Jake Westbrook and they ran away with it from there. Andre Ethier and Skip Schumaker had 3 hits and 4 RBI's a piece, Carl Crawford had 4 hits and Tim Federowicz had 3.The Dodgers totalled 18 hits but only three of them went for extra bases. Dodgers starter Ricky Nolasco went 5 innings, gave up 3 runs (0 earned) to improve to 8-9 on the season, 3-1 since being acquired by the Dodgers.