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Coming off Thursday's thrilling comeback win over the Cubs, the Dodgers traveled to San Francisco to play a Giants team they had beaten all six times previously at A, T & T Park this season.  When the Dodgers walked off of the field on Sunday, they had lost two of three games to their hated rivals and had fallen 5.5 games behind the Diamonbacks in the NL West.

YESTERDAY's DIFFERENCE MAKERS

3) Tyler Walker and Brad Hennessey- The Giants' relievers shut the Dodgers out over the final two innings, with Hennessey throwing the ninth to earn his 19th save.

2) Matt Cain- The young Giants' starter allowed only two runs in seven innings, walking only one batter and striking out four.

1) Ray Durham- His eighth inning three run homer turned a 2-1 Dodgers lead into a Giants' 4-2 lead.  The homer was the third in the last four appearances for the suddenly gopher ball-prone Jonathan Broxton.

AROUND THE HORN

Dodger shortstop Rafael Furcal is in the midst of a 6 for 44 slump in which he has no extra-base hits, only three runs, two RBI and one walk (with five strikeouts).

The Dodgers' runs on Sunday came on two solo homers by Jeff Kent, giving Kent 19 on the year.  The two homers in the game came following a spell of 110 at bats in which Kent had only two homers.  

The Giants' comeback effort wasted another solid outing by Dodger starter Brad Penny.  Penny allowed only two runs in seven innings and posted his 11th quality start in 12 appearances following the All-Star break. During that period, his record is 5-3. His only non-quality start during that period came on August 29th when he gave up six runs in five innings pitched against the Washington Nationals.

The Dodgers come home on Tuesday to start the most significant week of their season to date.  Trailing the Diamondbacks by 5 1/2 games in the NL West and the Padres by 2 1/2 in the NL Wildcard race, the Dodgers get to face the Padres for three followed by a three game weekend series v.s. Arizona.  New Dodger Esteban Loaiza starts on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, where he is 2-2 with a 4.02 ERA in eight career starts.   Loaiza has fared well against San Diego's Milton Bradley (1-11), Geoff Blum (1-9) and Mike Cameron (.188 average in 16 at bats) in his career, while not doing so well against Marcus Giles (4-10 with a homer) and Josh Bard (2-3 with a homer).

Loaiza's job will be made that much more difficult by the fact that he drew the short straw.....i.e. he gets to pitch against San Diego's Jake Peavy.  Peavy has been lights out on the road this year, posting an 8-1 record with a 2.09 ERA, 89 strikeouts in 77 2/3 innings pitched and an opponents' batting average of .177.  Russell Martin (2 for 16 with five strikeouts) and Kent (6 for 29 with seven strikeouts) have struggled against the Cy Young hopeful, while Nomar Garciaparra (7 for 21) and Shea Hillenbrand (7 for 19 with a double and two homers) have not.

A key for the relatively power-starved odgers down the stretch will be productivity with runners on base.  So far this year, Matt Kemp has the best batting average (.381) with runners on.  James Loney (.369) and Garciaparra (.330) have also excelled with men on.  On the other end of the spectrum, Olmedo Saenz is hitting only .231 with someone on, and Luis Gonzalez has a .260 batting average in those situations.

DODGER FLASHBACK

The 2007 Dodgers struggled to score runs this weekend in San Francisco but 22 years ago today, the 1985 Dodgers had no such problems in Atlanta.  The Dodgers, who were en route to 95-67 record and a National League West title, swept the Atlanta Braves in a doubleheader on September 10, 1985 by 10-1 and 10-4 scores.

In the opener, leadoff man Mariano Duncan had three hits and five RBI to pace a ten hit Dodger attack.  Winning pitcher Rick Honeycutt starred with both his arm (throwing a complete game five hitter in his only complete game of the year) and at the plate (2-3, two run scored and his only RBI of the season).

The nightcap saw the Dodgers blast three homers, including a game-changing grand slam by Greg Brock during a five run Dodger seventh inning that broke a 4-4 tie.  Len Matuzek and Mike Scioscia also homered for the Dodgers, who got three hits each from Kenny Landreaux and Mike Marshall.  Reliever Dennis Powell threw four effective innings (allowing only one run) to earn the win.

The Dodgers won four of the five games during the teams' series, outscoring the Braves by a 57-26 margin.  On the year, the Dodgers beat the Braves more times (13 in 18 games) than they did any other team.