FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Under normal circumstances, winning 4 of 6 games against the two teams ahead of you in a close divisional race would be a good thing.  But at this point of the season, the Dodgers have an opponent that is bigger and much more unrelenting than either the Diamondbacks or the Padres.  That opponent is the calendar.

While the Dodgers were taking two of three against Arizona, both the Padres and Phillies were running off three game sweeps with the end result being the Dodgers are 2 1/2 games out in the wildcard race with 13 games to play.  The Dodgers have no more games on the schedule with the teams ahead of them (San Diego and Philadelphia), and the odds clearly look stacked against them in their bid to make it to the playoffs in back to back seasons for the first time since 1995 and 1996.

HOME COOKING

The recently completed 4-2 homestand left the Dodgers with a 41-34 record at home this year with six games left to play.  The team will definitely finish below last year's and the division winning 2004 team's home win total of 49 games.  The highest win total at home for a Los Angeles Dodger team came in 1962, 1978 and 1991 when the Dodgers won 54 games.  Oddly, the team made it to the post-season in only one of those seasons, making it to the World Series in 1978 (the 1962 team made it to a three game playoff to decide the National League champion, but lost out to arch-rival San Francisco).  Other 50 plus home win Dodger teams included the 1963, 1965, 1966 and 1977 teams, all of whom made it to the World Series.

ROCKIES ON TAP

Tomorrow's Dodgers-Rockies day/night doubleheader features a match-up of up and coming stars in the opener and a battle of veteran lefties in the nightcap.  The first game has Chad Billingsley taking the mound for the Dodgers. He's 4-0 with a 1.64 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 33 innings pitched over his last five starts.  He's not had success at Coors Field, however, going 0-1 with a 12.86 ERA.  Colorado's Yorvit Torreabla is 3-3 with a homer against Billingsley on his career.  Billingsley takes on Jeff Francis, who is looking for his 16th win of the season. He's 2-0 on the year against the Dodgers with a 2.66 ERA.  Juan Pierre (8 for 17) and Jeff Kent (8-16) have hit Francis well, while Luis Gonzalez (4-22) and Russell Martin (1-6 with three strikeouts) have not.

David Wells hopes to continue his run of solid pitching for Los Angeles in the second game, but he'll be doing it in a stadium where he's 0-1 with a 12.46 ERA in 4 1/3 innings pitched.  Wells has held Matt Holliday in check on his career (1 for 9), but has given up four hits in nine at bats to Todd Helton.  Colorado lefty Mark Redman opposes Wells and looks to improve on his 1-4 record on the year.  One Dodger who is anxiously awaiting Redman's turn on the mound is Nomar Garciaparra.  Nomar has 10 hits, including two doubles and a homer, in 18 lifetime at bats against the Rockies' lefty.

The Dodgers are 6-5 overall against Colorado this year, but only 2-3 at Coors Field.  Last year, the Dodgers had 20 homers against Colorado compared to 17 for the Rockies.  This year, Los Angeles has hit only five in 11 games, with the Rockies hitting nine.  Matt Kemp, Rafael Furcal, Jeff Kent, Russell Martin and Jason Schmidt have homered against the Rockies this year.

Speaking of Kent, most think he's likely to make it to the Hall of Fame.  If he played more games at Coors Field, he'd probably be a first ballot Hall of Famer.  In 270 lifetime at bats at Coors, Kent has hit 30 doubles, 20 homers and has posted a .370 batting average.  His 33 career homers against Colorado is the second highest total against an opponent (he's hit 34 against the Padres).

Rafael Furcal's four steal game in Saturday's Dodgers win over the Diamondbacks marked his career high in steals for a game.  He topped his high of three, which he last had on June 16, 2006 for the Dodgers against Oakland.  Furcal also homered in the Arizona series, breaking a string of 136 at bats without a round tripper.  His last homer prior to Sunday came all the way back on August 9th at Cincinnati.

DODGER FLASHBACK

Think September 17th in LA Dodgers history and you'll probably think of top notch pitching performances.

On this date in 1963, Sandy Koufax threw a complete game, four hit shutout to beat the Cardinals at Sportsman's Park by a 4-0 score. The win was Koufax's 24th in a year he'd finish with a 25-5 record. Big Frank Howard hit a two run homer to help support Koufax's effort.

Thirteen years later, Don Sutton threw 11 innings of shutout ball but didn't get a decision as the Dodgers lost in 12 to Atlanta by a 1-0 score.  The winning run scored on a passed ball on a Charlie Hough knuckeball.

Fernando-mania was in vogue in 1981, and the rookie lefty was marvelous on this date of that season.  He threw a two hit shutout to beat the Braves and chipped in at the plate as well with a RBI hit.

In 1995, Valenzuela's countrymate did Mexico proud yet again. Ismael Valdez shut St. Louis out 8-0 as he allowed only two hits and struck out nine.  Eric Karros and Mike Piazza homered for the Dodgers.

And on this date in 1996, Hideo Nomo did something that seemed impossible and the time and seems incredible even today.  Throwing entirely from the stretch due to wet conditions, Nomo threw the only no-hitter in the history of Coors Field as he blanked Colorado by a 9-0 score.  Nomo struck out eight as he improved his record to 16-10 on the year.