Blue Views

*** So I complained in my post for Friday night's recap that I wouldn't be able to watch Saturday afternoon's Dodgers-Giants game because I live in New York, and I'd get the Mets-Cardinals instead. Well, it turned out to be a good thing. The Dodgers got rolled, and the game I saw lasted 20 innings. I can't say it was that enjoyable of a game, but it was one of those games that you just had to keep on waiting for something to happen.

I thought for sure the Mets were going to blow it, especially considering that Francisco Rodriguez couldn't even get the save. I found it funny that the potential last out was hit to Luis Castillo. I remember watching him botch the pop-up from Alex Rodriguez to blow that game last year. Thankfully for him, this time he made the easy play.

*** Congrats to Ubaldo Jimenez for throwing a no-hitter against the Braves. It's not exactly one of the better ones in history considering he walked six guys. But hey, no hits is no hits. All that matters is the bottom line.

*** Right now, Jimenez is 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA. Tim Lincecum is 3-0 with a 0.90 ERA. No surprise that in this early season, the Giants and Rockies are 1-2 in the NL West standings. And that's the difference between those teams and the Dodgers. They have a dominant ace they can turn to, and the Dodgers do not. Clayton Kershaw gets another start today, but he can't get deep into games. Chad Billingsley hits a wall seemingly every game. Hiroki Kuroda and Vicente Padilla are middle-of-the-rotation guys.

*** Currently, the Dodgers have a collective team ERA of 5.69, good for 13th in the NL (out of 16 teams). To put it in perspective, they were first at 3.41 last year and first at 3.68 in 2008. Both years they made the playoffs. I'm not saying they have to be in first again this year if they want to make the postseason, but it's not hard to figure out a correlation between great records those years and a so-so one this year.

*** Then again, maybe the Dodgers just need to get healthy. Think about it - would you rather have Ramon and Russ Ortiz pitching late in games or Hong-Chih Kuo and Ronald Belisario? I thought so.