Dodgers Diaries

The names on the back of the uniforms don’t even matter. Whether it’s Izturis, Green, LoDuca, Drew, Tomko, Lowe and Penny, or Ethier, Ramirez, Kemp, Martin, Billingsley and Kershaw, the only thing that matters is the names on the front of the jerseys.

The Dodgers can’t beat the Cardinals. Call it the curse off Tom Niedenfuer. Call it the purgatory of having to watch Tony LaRussa inflate his own opinion of his genius. Whatever you call it, I’m believing in it.

The Cardinals beat the Dodgers every which way you could beat them in St. Louis July 27-30. That series started with a gem by Chris Carpenter (sound familiar), followed by a disastrous performance by Chad Billingsley. The third game was a heartbreaking 3-2 loss in 15 innings, after Jonathan Broxton blew Clayton Kershaw’s eight shutout innings. The Dodgers salvaged the final game, but had to go 10 innings to do it because Guillermo Mota couldn’t hold a 3-2 lead.

Monday’s game at Chavez Ravine followed a familiar script, albeit with an unfamiliar starting pitcher. Journeyman knuckleballer Charlie Haeger took the mound as the Dodgers’ sacrificial lamb to Chris Carpenter. How much were you pulling for the kid? Inning after inning, he matched the Cy Young Award winner, putting up five zeroes in six innings, the only blemish on his line a solo homer by Albert Pujols in the fourth inning on a knuckleball that didn’t quite knuckle. Haeger even had a lead going into the seventh inning, courtesy of two manufactured runs by the Dodgers.

But as with all things pre-ordained, the Cardinals struck like lightning — a Rick Ankiel homer with a man on base, again on a non-knuckling knuckleball. The Dodgers got just one man on base the rest of the game and that was that.

If there’s a bright side, it’s Haeger. He threw seven innings and gave up just three runs and six hits to one of the best offenses in baseball. If nothing else, he’s earned himself a spot in the rotation, something the Dodgers desperately need right now with Hiroki Kuroda on the shelf and a big question mark surrounding Chad Billingsley’s health.

We’ll see more about Billingsley tonight, although if he loses, who can say whether it’s really him or the curse of the Cardinals at work. --- John Rosenthal.