It’s as simple as this:  We MUST win today.  End of story.  No discussion required!  We are currently 3.5 games behind the D-Backs after a horrid 8 game losing streak and had the D-Backs not been nearly as bad, we would be burried, BUT WE AREN’T.  We simply have to beat Brandon Webb today and take another game back.  That would leave us 2.5 games back with all of September to play.  There are 26 games left and we will need to go at least 18-8 the rest of the way to win this thing.  It will be out of character if we do it, but anything is certainly possible.  While I think it is unlikely we can do that, I will be rooting for it to happen.

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“to become too tense or nervous to perform well,”  which characterizes the current Dodgers as well as the Dodgers of the past 4 years!  CHOKE ARTISTS!  Everybody has to be good at something and they have been blessed with the ability to choke.  Hey, big series with a team we just swept?  CHOKE!  Now, we can gain some ground by playing the worst team in the league?  CHOKE!  Head-to-head with the team we have to beat to win the division?  CHOKE!  There’s no way to sugar-coat this.  Choking is an art and these Dodgers are good at it.  Eight straight losses when they had to win?  Choke!   What do you do about it?  I have no clue, but it’s a “team effort!”

RANTS & RAVES

• Report from Tony Jackson:

Jason Schmidt started and threw a scoreless, hitless inning for Las Vegas tonight against Colorado Springs, walking one batter. He’ll pitch again on Monday, and I suppose it’s possible he’ll be activated as a reliever after that, but when I asked Torre before the game, he was non-committal. Scott Proctor followed him and pitched two innings, allowing one hit while striking out four. Proctor is expected to be activated on Monday, the day you can expand rosters. Andruw Jones also is going to be activated that day, and possibly Delwyn Young. … By the way, when perusing the box score for the pitching lines of Schmidt and Proctor, I couldn’t help but notice that Greg Miller had another rough outing. He walked three, gave up three earned runs and allowed only one hit in ZERO innings. A tough stretch for a really good guy. Hope he can find a way to right himself, but this has been going on for a long, long time.

• Andrew Lambo was 4-4 with his 3rd HR in 5 games for Jacksonville.  To say that AA agrees with him would be an understatement.  This guy is flying through our system.
• Jeff Kent is due for an MRI on his knee which gave out on him last night (”Taps” Playing in the background).
• Will our Ace choke today?  Its been a trend…
• Andy Jones was 0-3 with a K.  Young and Ellis were 4-5 at Vegas last night.
• I am done!

Clayton Kershaw was trying to win 6 or 7 games at once (rushing his delivery) and looked awful, as did the rest of the pitching staff, but it still boils down to the fact that if they had given up only 3 runs, we still would have lost!  We are beat up, beat down and just plain BEATEN!  At least, we are going to see some of next years crop of rookies.  Kershaw was optioned after the game (he’ll be back for his next start) and Scott Elbert was recalled.  I still think he’s our closer (along with Lindblom) as early as next year!  In a few days,  we’ll see AJ Ellis, James McDonald,  Chin lung Hu, Delwyn Young, Jason Repko, Ivan DeJesus, Jr., Xavier Paul and (gulp) Andy Jones!

RANTS & RAVES

• It all boils down to this: we MUST beat the D-Backs at least 5 of the next 6 games!  Like that could happen…
• Andrew Lambo hit another 3-run HR for JAX - He seems to be making the transition from A to AA with no problem,  which is not bad for a 19-year old.  He also had a double and was 2-5 with 6 RBI last night. 
• Hu, Young and Repko were all 2-4 last night.
• It looks like Justin Orenduff is officially being converted to a reliever.
• Josh Lindblom pitched 5 innings at AA, allowing 2 runs.
• Ivan DeJesus was 3-4 and his BA is soaring to .325!
• Pedro Baez hit his 12th HR for Ogden

I sometimes wonder if Joe Torre is right for this team, but then I have to realize that no one could probably manage these guys.  It’s just bad chemistry.  We need a Kirk Gibson on the team and we don’t have one (Bowa doesn’t count beacuse he’s a coach, not a player).  We have a surley Jeff Kent, a passive Nomar, a vacationing Manny, a Blake who pines for Cleveland, a Good-ole-boy in Sweeney, Quiet Juan Pierre, Smiling Andruw Jones and a bunch of kids, but no true leader.  The blame falls on Ned.  End of story!  I’m tired of beating this horse.

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