At least the offense woke up

That's the only positive from this last game against the Detroit Tigers. On a day where the offense did their best to break the slump, Brad Penny was miserable. The Tigers took the win, 12-7.

It was a bit of a different look at the plate, with Blake DeWitt hitting 2nd, James Loney cleanup, and Matt Kemp 7th (Delwyn Young DH'd and hit 8th). For one day at least, it worked. Kemp hit an infield single to score Loney in the 2nd for a 1-0 lead. The 4th brought more runs on an Andre Ethier ground rule double to score Jeff Kent and Loney, and a single by Young for a 4-1 lead.

And then came the bottom of the 4th, and boy did the wheels fall off the bus for Brad Penny.

Saying before the game that he had discomfort in his throwing shoulder but wanted to gut it out anyway, the Tigers just teed off on him. Homers by Miguel Cabrera and Marcus Thames, and back-to-back triples by the 1-2 hitters of Curtis Granderson and Placido Polanco gave the Tigers a 6 spot and a 7-4 edge.

Still, it was a pretty close game... right up until the next inning where the Tigers scored 3 more with lots of help from Angel Berroa's throwing error. So not only is he giving runs to the other team, but he's hitting a blistering .167 since he's come. Yes, Ned Colletti, this guy is really making a difference (for the other team).

I'll give credit to Ethier for at least trying to make it look like a close game, as he homered in the 6th. Juan Pierre hit an RBI groundout to cut it to 10-7. That's as close as it would get for LA, as the Tigers tacked on 2 more to close the game out.

So it pretty much figures - the day the offense comes alive, the pitching and defense is horrible. I've got to believe that there's something physically wrong with Penny. I know he's been atrocious, but you simply can't go from 2 straight All-Star game appearances to looking this bad without something funny going on. A trip to the DL would probably be for the better.

While the offense did much better, Pierre did not. We're slowly but surely seeing the Pierre of old, as his OBP is now at .336 after hovering in the .360 range in May. He hasn't taken a walk since June 6, which is pretty hard to do considering he's a leadoff hitter. Maybe DeWitt should get a crack at that spot. I don't know... just trying to think of something.

Clayton Kershaw will look for his first win of the year today. Maybe he's the guy to stop the red-hot offense of the Tigers. Who knows.