The L.A. Dodgers Are Driving Me Nuts—Just Clinch The Division Already!

I mean, really, you couldn’t split a series with the Pittsburgh Pirates and just clinch the NL West?

It was supposed to be a weekend of celebration; heck, the champagne was on ice in the Dodgers’ locker room on Sunday afternoon following a three-run ninth inning rally to surge ahead of the Pirates 5-2.

Then, Jonathon Broxton went all Brad Lidge on us, and the clubhouse crew frantically ripped the plastic from the locker room and stored the alcoholic beverages for another time.

But those bubbles and brews are taking a long flight back to the West Coast.

The Dodgers looked atrocious on Monday afternoon, surrendering five unearned runs en route to an ugly 11-1 loss in the series finale with the last place Bucs.

Monday’s circus act included a throwing error by Mark Loretta to begin a five-run second inning, not to mention two other miscues on the day.

Sunday’s blown save by Broxton was highlighted by two throwing errors.

A 3-1 defeat on Friday night featured Blake DeWitt getting in on the action with a throwing error of his own, in addition to a booted ball by James Loney on the other side of the diamond.

That’s seven errors in three losses to an absolutely terrible team.

In the blink of an eye, the ghost of Chuck Knoblauch has followed Joe Torre west, and he has infected the Dodgers with his unbelievably wild throws.

The Pirates might be awful, but at least they can throw the ball across the infield.

The Dodgers, however, are screwing up simple plays and have pissed away two games that could have clinched the NL West title.

Not to mention the base-running mistakes they have made in the past two days.
They lost two runners yesterday on stupid plays after mounting two runners on with none out.

Today, they lost three runners to bad mistakes—in the first three innings alone.

The base running issues are almost more concerning than the errors, because they signify a lack of mental focus. At least with the errors, guys are just letting balls fly and having bad results.

Throughout the season, Los Angeles has been one of the top fielding teams in the league, so the recent swoon in the field will work itself out. But losing that many base runners because of poor awareness on the bases is unacceptable.

Then, to compound the problem, there is the issue of Torre playing the Junior Varsity squad, as Juan Pierre, Mark Loretta, Brad Ausmus, and Juan Castro all started today with the magic number to clinch the west at just one.

Look, I understand that Casey Blake is hurting. In fact, he was sent back to L.A. this morning to see a doctor about his hamstring, which has been bothering him for weeks now. The Dodgers said that poor field conditions held him out of games this weekend, but I’m starting to think there is more to this injury than we have been told.

And Ronnie Belliard tweaked a hamstring, so he needs rest.

But why does Manny Ramirez need to rest? He is listed as having hamstring soreness, but give me a break. That’s his calling card, an injury that you can completely fudge and one that has no clear timetable for return.

I was Manny’s biggest defender throughout the whole PED issue earlier in the season, but for God sake’s, the guy is hitting like Willie Bloomquist right now. I take that back—give me Bloomquist.

At least, he doesn’t need to rest back-to-back days at the end of a season in which he took 50 games off; and hasn’t shown any signs of exerting energy or even breaking a sweat in the past three months.

Manny needs to figure out how to hit before the postseason, and sitting him down for multiple days isn’t going to help out his timing. And that’s what it’s all about for him, timing.

Manny just keeps hacking at bad pitches and popping them up, and hasn’t shown the mental toughness to make any adjustments.

But I digress.

Torre can’t just sit on hands and coast into October—this team is young and relies on riding waves of momentum during hot streaks.

Especially with the ridiculous amount of errors and mistakes that have jumped up lately, this club just looks terrible at the most important time of the season.

The Dodgers seemed to have found their rhythm earlier in the month, ripping off two series wins against the waning San Francisco Giants and padding their once slim lead in the division.

Now that seems like a distant memory, all because they dropped three out of four games to the Pirates.

The team heads to PETCO Park for two games with the San Diego Padres with the magic number still sitting at one, and the Colorado Rockies looming just over the horizon for a three-game tilt to end the season.

Even though the division is all but locked up, it’s a scary proposition to have that giant monkey still on their backs when the Rockies roll into town.

But one, as we all know, is the loneliest number—and the Dodgers are having a heck of a time getting down this one final win.

PJ Ross is a Featured Columnist for the Los Angeles Dodgers