The Dodgers are riding a three-game winning streak, including a much-needed 15-9 victory over Philadelphia last night to spark an anemic offense.
The Dodgers are 7 games back, and with Ronald Bellisario returning from the restricted list, I truly believe the Dodgers can gain some ground on the San Diego Padres.
Jay Gibbons showed some signs of life last night, going 3 for 4 with a home run.
The biggest problem since the All-Star break has been the Dodgers offense. Vicente Padilla, Clayton Kershaw, and even Chad Billingsley have pulled together some strong pitching performances, but with no run support.
If the Dodgers want to make any serious run at the Padres, they need to drastically change their approach to hitting. Scoring 1 or 2 runs a game is not enough to hold off high caliber teams such as San Diego and San Francisco.
The Dodgers did do some right by putting Bellisario back on the roster and optioning reliever Ramon Troncoso to Triple-A Albequerque.
As much as I love Troncoso, he is not the same pitcher from last season. The velocity is down, his command has been off, and he is simply giving up too many home runs. Belisario should be great to set-up to Jon Broxton once he gets back to form.
The problem has been the amount of pitching Broxton has done. Along with hitting, bullpen struggles have continued for the Dodgers, and Broxton has carried on the workload pitching more than his usual one inning stint. His velocity and command has been down and when you put in an extra workload, you are in for some trouble.
I am excited to see Belisario back, and once Broxton can be that dominant closer for the Dodgers, they should be in good shape to turn around their post All-Star game slump, and do some real damage in the NL West.
Ethier, Kemp, and Loney all need to step up offensively to give the Dodgers a legitimate shot at winning the NL West, let alone winning the wild card.
If the anemic offense continues, and the Dodgers continue to fail to give their starting pitchers run support, there will be no mid-October baseball.