No Raffy = no offense... AGAIN

For the 2nd straight game, the Dodgers offense looked like it was on life support as they were completely dominated by Cardinals' pitching, 4-0. After sweeping the Reds, they have now dropped both games to the Cards and are in danger of being swept.

Kyle Lohse came in with an ERA of 4.71 and a career ERA of 4.80, but you sure as hell wouldn't know that last night. The Dodgers could only muster 6 hits and 0 walks against him in 6 innings, and were lost when it came to driving in runs in scoring position. Overall, they left 14 men on base, with 7 to end an inning, and 3 of those were left in scoring position with 2 outs. It's the typical problem that plagues a team like this - they don't hit home runs, so they will have plenty of nights like this where they can't string together enough hits to score. That's just the reality of the situation.

Brad Penny's final line won't look good, but all of the damage was done in the 3rd inning. A single by Chris Duncan and doubles by Albert Pujols and Rick Ankiel drove in all of the game's runs. Other than that, he was really good. With the help of a couple double plays, he got the Cards in order in the 6 other innings. It's a step in the right direction.

The same cannot be said about the offense, who once again put up anemic numbers. Wow, they are really hard to watch when they play like that. They literally put me to sleep. Juan Pierre and Andre Ethier did much better in the 1-2 spots (3-4 and 2-4), but nobody could drive them in (big shock, I know). The 3-6 hitters of Russell Martin, Jeff Kent, James Loney, and Matt Kemp were 2-16 with 6 K. Wow. Kent won't play today, and that's a good thing. I've never seem him look so old and unproductive. They need his bat to heat up.

If there's one way to forget about these past 2 games, it would be that Clayton Kershaw will make his long-awaited debut today. Who knows what kind of a pitch count he'll be on, but I would guess he wouldn't go more than 5 innings. We'll see. They've got the Cubs and Mets away this week, so a win today would be nice.