Not the best start to Interleague Play

Interleague Play has started once again, and the Dodgers found themselves visiting the Rangers for the first time in eight years.

I wish that was still an ongoing count, because the Rangers slapped them silly tonight, 6-0. The vaunted trio of Vicente Padilla, Jason Jennings, and Jason Grilli were just way too much to handle. I mean those are some pretty intimidating names right there...

Battling through lightning in the distance and swirling winds, Hiroki Kuroda didn't exactly get the best support from his offense or defense. In the third, some guy name Taylor Teagarden doubled to start things off. Omar Vizquel hit a grounder to James Loney, but he pulled a Buckner, allowing the run to score. It would only get worse from there.

Michael Young's RBI single made it 2-0, and the Rangers would never look back. On the night, Kuroda would last 5 and 1/3 innings, but give up five runs on eight hits. He did have six strikeouts and no walks, so those are good signs. In only his fourth start of the season, he's just working his way back into form. He'll be fine.

As for the offense, I think now is the time we can start talking about missing Manny Ramirez's bat. Well, they've missed it all along, but they were still scoring runs and winning. But after watching the last handful of games, it's obvious that the lack of pop in this lineup is starting to catch up to them. When your leader in home runs is Andre Ethier with 11, that pretty much tells you they just don't have much power. Heck, he's the only one in double figures right now!

The Dodgers did have their chances, however. Padilla would only last five innings while piling up 105 pitches. They'd foul off pitch after pitch, then get out anyway. Their only extra-base hit was a meaningless one from Rafael Furcal in the ninth.

Poor Loney will have better nights than this, but he was really awful. To go with the error, he left five men on base, including four in scoring position and two outs. In the first he had Orlando Hudson on third and Ethier on second, but he flied out. He then flew out with the bases juiced in the third.

The game could've been kept manageable in the sixth, but that Teagarden guy hit a big two-out, two-run double to make it 5-0 off of Guillermo Mota. Way to make a big pitch there, Mota. I guess that's why he's the last guy out of the bullpen.

Hopefully the weekend will be better than this, and they've got their top two pitchers going, Randy Wolf and Chad Billingsley. Wolf has slipped recently, with three bad starts in his last four. The one good one was a one run, seven inning effort against the Cubs. So let's pray that's the Wolf that shows up Saturday.