It's good to play the Pirates

Make that 14 wins in 16 games after tonight as the Dodgers easily pushed aside the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-2. The Arizona Diamondbacks are in action as I type this, so the lead is at 5 games in the NL West. You know the drill by now: 5.5 if they lose, 4.5 if they win.

There's really not a whole lot to say about the Pirates other than "they suck," so I'm not going to waste my team trying to tell you why. If you actually know a Pirates fan, ask that person. I'm sure you'll get a long lecture of just how dreadful that franchise has become.

This game was put away early in the 2nd inning, as the Dodgers hung a 4 spot on Jeff Karstens. Casey Blake started it off with a solo homer, his 10th as a Dodger and 20th overall. The bases were then loaded with 1 down on singles by Blake DeWitt and Angel Berroa, and from a throwing error by Karstens to put Derek Lowe on (Ok, I admit that was a blown call, so there). 3 straight runs were scored on a sac-fly from Russell Martin, a single by the returning Andre Ethier, and a double by Manny Ramirez.

It was the Casey Blake show from there on out, as he was responsible for the other 2 runs being scored as well. In the 3rd, he again led off with a hit, this time a triple. DeWitt's sac-fly RBI scored him, and it was 5-0. Later on in the 6th, Blake singled home Martin for a 6-1 lead. In all, he was 3-5 with 2 runs and 2 RBI.

Much like Hiroki Kuroda the night before, it was Derek Lowe who pitched very well with the comfy lead. On the night, he went 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K. Between the 2, that's 14 innings and 1 run to start this 4 game set. Chan Ho Park pitched a scoreless 8th. Joe Beimel gave up a run, but got 2 outs, and Jonathan Broxton K'd Andy LaRoche to end the game.

Obviously, these are very winnable games for the Dodgers. The Pirates are playing a lot of young blood, and half of the roster you've probably never even heard of. Hell, I consider myself a huge baseball fan, and I'm still trying to figure out who these people are. With 2 games down, getting 1 more would be considered a great series. But, dropping the next 2 would make wrapping up the West a little tougher than it should be.

With 11 games left in the season, every start is huge. Chad Billingsley will be the man tomorrow on the mound, and he will look for win #16, and possibly lower his ERA to under 3 (currently at 3.02). He'll be opposed by Zach Duke, who used to be really good, but has seemingly fallen off the face of the Earth. Actually, he had 2 great starts in a row recently against the Cubs and Giants, combining for 15 IP and 2 runs. So, who knows which pitcher will show up.