The ninth inning of Thursday's San Diego was a microcosm of the four-game series against the San Diego Padres.
Let's take a look inside the series:
The Dodgers went 2-2 against a team that guarantees to be one of the worst in the National League and probably baseball.
The Dodgers went 7-for-38 with runners in scoring position, good for a whopping .184 batting average. As a team the Dodgers ranked 11th in the NL in batting with runners in scoring position last season, so this is a concern.
They left 12 men on base on Thursday, 22 men on in the final two games and left 36 men on base for the entire series.
Russell Martin was nothing short of awful. He was 2-for-16 in the series, he left 17 men on base all by himself in the series, and he left nine potential runs on the base path in Thursday's game alone.
Casey Blake had one hit and struck out seven times in 13 at-bats.
Manny Ramirez was 3-for-14, leaving six men on base, including leaving the potential tying run on third with nobody out in the ninth inning. He drove in just two runs.
The starting pitching logged just 22 of the 34 innings that Dodger pitchers threw in this series. The starters ERA was 3.27, but that doesn't tell the story. They set the bullpen up for failure.
It's hard to be upset at the bullpen, which did not allow a run for the first 11 1/3 innings that it pitched as a unit. Will Ohman gave up a home run to Adrian Gonzalez on a pretty decent pitch. He's just a good hitter. Cory Wade looked bad, but he has a tender shoulder and was good his first two times out. It's hard to blame him for one bad outing.
I was a bit disappointed to see Joe Torre go with Wade instead of Guillermo Mota in relief of Ohman in the eighth inning.
In one final thought, just to wrap it up, the team is supposed to be better with runners in scoring position with Manny in the lineup. Guys like Andre Ethier and Martin are supposed to be better for having him in the lineup. Manny, himself, needs to deliver a little more often as well. The starters have to throw more strikes.
The really bad part was this series was against the Padres which is going to be the worst team in the league, and other than Peavy (which we beat) and Young our Offense should have lit them up...Offense is to blame for the series, with starting pitchers having nothing going into the fifth a close second.
Positives
Furcal and Hudson set the table all series long, and both look like they can score 100 runs IF they can get knocked in.
Bullpen was better than the entire spring, and besides the eight inning in game four they were perfect. Bellasario looks legit...94mph fastball that moves a foot.
Old baseball saying you sweep at home and split on the road...well at least we split...although this shouldnt count since it was the Padres!
Kuroda on DL