The National League West race is over. Wrap it up and put a Dodger blue bow on it. Sports Illustrated's Joe Sheehan as much as says so.
In the magazine's "Inside Baseball" segment this week, Sheehan -- sabermetrics guru (or stat geek, for those of you who refuse to play along) and co-founder of Baseball Prospectus -- says the Dodgers "have the look of a team that will once again be playing deep into October."
Then again, just imagine how they'll look once they get their pitching straightened out.
The Dodgers are 15-8 with a 3-1/2-game division lead and undefeated in seven home games after Thursday night's 8-5 victory over San Diego. Those numbers become truly amazing when you consider they've gotten one outing from opening day starter Hiroki Kuroda.
Or that the starting rotation's nine victories break down this way: four by Chad Billingsley, two by fill-in Eric Stults and one each by Kuroda, Randy Wolf and James McDonald. Or that LA has nine quality starts in 23 games: five by Billingsley, three by Wolf and one by winless Clayton Kershaw.
And after watching McDonald's inability to throw a strike in the second inning against the Padres, is it any wonder the Dodgers' latest roster shuffle is meant to address pitching concerns?
They now have a 13-man pitching staff after activating Cory Wade and recalling veteran Jeff Weaver, who was immediately pressed into long relief -- and delivered. The idea, manager Joe Torre said, is to provide some breathing room for a bullpen that has been overextended.
Meanwhile, Kuroda won't even attempt to throw until this weekend, with the hope that his strained left oblique (rib area) will be pain-free by then. Kershaw pitches Friday night against the Padres and has to be glad April is over, after going 0-2 and giving up 17 earned runs in 21 innings.
To this point, it is not the look of a championship pitching staff.
Good thing that the everyday lineup is dependable. The Dodgers' run differential -- the key stat cited by Sheehan in his analysis -- is plus-35 because they've scored 131 runs, third best in baseball behind the Blue Jays and Cardinals.
The everyday eight should be the best in the division, especially with Orlando Hudson as another energizer at the top of the lineup and Manny Ramirez making everyone else better from the No. 3 slot.
"Casey Blake is our eight-hole hitter and he's got five homers and 15 RBI," Matt Kemp said. "So from the top of the mat to the bottom of the mat we're good. We can come back in any game, any situation."
They came from behind twice Thursday night. It's nice if they can. But it's a burden if they have to keep doing so.
So at some point it will have to come down to pitching. It always does.
And unless GM Ned Colletti can be convinced to expedite that Pedro Martinez homecoming before somebody else gets him, the Dodgers will have to struggle with what they've got and hope it gets better.
"You hope somebody can plug a hole," Torre said. "To sit here and say 'Boy, we wish we had Kuroda' doesn't do us any good. We just have to find a way to get through every game."
Even if, for now, it means outscoring people every night.
(Contact Jim Alexander at jalexander(at)PE.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnMust credit The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.
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