He sent Kershaw out in the eighth at 84 pitches with a reliever warming up, ready to insert at a moment's notice. This was not a big deal.

Oh, and no offense, but I'm already sick of talking about Kershaw's innings tonight and Torre. The win was great. That is all.

All tonight needs to top it off is a good ol' Ribs and Fashion Show.

I realize this is tepid nerd news, but it has got me oddly excited.

Since resolving to be happy with the team even as losers (which I still contend is not on par with giving up), they've only won. I can deal with that.

I just think that there were so many circumstances in confluence tonight which made it a really bad choice. You've got:

- A big lead
- A young pitcher already into uncharted waters in terms of innings pitched
- Expanded rosters giving you plenty of pitching options

Why push your luck with wasting Kershaw's bullets in a game like that?

And I just wanted to use the word akimbo after being in the LAT Xword, so I shall stand down to avoid belaboring it.

Hopefully good Hiro shows up tomorrow for hopefully my last internet-stand-in game scored.

What I wanted was Kershaw out after 6, and McDonald getting a chance to taste the bigs in a low-pressure situation with a big lead against a lousy team.

I could have lived with Johnson, Stults, or Proctor too.

I was more perplexed at letting Biemiel pitch two innings since Torre been using him as a semi-LOOGY for this year, but that worked out too.

Two cheap runs added to his ERA.

http://www.beloblog.com/Pe_Blogs/prosports/mlb/dodgers/

I was surprised that Torre let Clayton pitch the 8th but these decisions are not made in a vacuum. They knew his pitch count, I'm sure they talked to Russ about his stuff and to Clayton about how he felt. He's not a baby, he's a major league pitcher and the pitch count and how hard he had worked was negligible.

Sucks to see Pierre get hurt when he was finally showing some value by being an excellent speed asset off the bench.

T.J Simers: Are you actually playing Juan Pierre today?

Joe Torre: I am.

T.J Simers: What? What? What possessed you? What moved you? What...what are you thinking?

Joe Torre: Well. Um, I'm just thinking I wanted to get Matt Kemp out of there for a day. He's forcing it a little bit so I just thought I'd put Juan in there.

T.J Simers: He's still better right.

Joe Torre: I understand.

T.J Simers: Anybody else you're thinking about resting the next few days?

Torre: I was hoping you would volunteer.

Furcal is what this team is missing from being a real playoff mover and shaker.
Furcal
Loney
Manny
Kemp
Ethier
Blake
Martin
DeWitt

You look at a pitcher's pitch count on a given start. You look at his innings count to see if he's been pitching over a period of time. The big thing is that this is Torre's first time letting Kershaw go over the innings limit, and he did it when Kershaw had a low pitching count and was cruising for the most part.

Yankees says they're going to put Joba in the bullpen again to start '09.

Wasn't a big fan of the last album, and I think Castaways gets untouched, but I'm also a tad more...eclectic in my music tastes, so I often squash my feelings on this particular forum.

Still, glad to see that the Decemberists were able to dig themself out of the early "Pirates + Neutral Milk Hotel*" typecast they got early on.

* - Also authors of the most moving piece of art, personally, of my life.

Cubs may have lost Carlos Zambrano.

http://tinyurl.com/6x6h3u

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is one of my favorite melodramatic indie rock records ever.

http://rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/player_main.aspx?sport=MLB&id=405

http://rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/player_main.aspx?sport=MLB&id=405

Torre: We talked about it. And his pitch count was so good. And we sort of wanted him to get past the seventh just for a psychological thing. He was anxious to go back out there. And the fact that the second hitter was left handed we were basically going to leave him out there for the two hitters.

More...

Torre: The big part of it was pitch count and the fact that he really didn't have to labor tonight. You know where there were men on every inning. That stuff wasn't the case."

Question: Is he (Kershaw) basically pitching without restrictions?

Torre: To save one inning at this juncture it doesn't really matter.

Torre was asked about the set 170 innings pitched limit.

Torre: It's still something to look at and if it's something we need to address later on we'll do it but right now we're trying to win to get to where we need to go.

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Letting Go
Songs: Ohia - mi sei apparso come un fantasma
Basia Bulat - Oh, My Darling
Vashti Bunyan - Lookaftering
Panda Bear - Young Prayer
Wilco - YHF
The Wrens - Meadowlands
Spiritualized - ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space
Iron & Wine - Creek Drank the Cradle

Various honorable mentions to Explosions in the Sky, Sigur Ros, and Sufjan Stevens songs.

http://tinyurl.com/6jjghh

TODAY'S LAST word comes from Sara Baron-Recalde: "I was an athlete at Berkeley playing field hockey. When I was a sophomore my coach called me to her office. She said this may sound a little weird, but you are getting a scholarship from Jeff Kent. Up until that point in time the only scholarship a field hockey player was getting was for books, but from that point on half of my tuition was paid for by Kent. He paid for others as well. I graduated and have my parents and Jeff Kent to thank for not having to repay any student loans. He gave me a break, maybe you all should give him one."

And tick off Kent -- are you crazy?

(I just graduated from Cal btw. I wish Kent could've helped me out with my tuition; should have taken up women's field hockey.)

(Also, my favorite Neutral Milk Hotel song is "Candy Coated Dreams". Love that song.)

And in fact, it's way better than Nomar
.222/.247/.395

Both in ~90 plate appearances. Hu is unlikely to do better than that, so say hello to our best offensive option at shortstop.

Am I reading Jon's chart correctly that the Dodgers out-OPS'd their opponents by .050 in August yet scored 16 fewer runs? That seems hard to do.

Nice thread overall, excellent late morning coffee read.

And regarding the D's "bad" luck in August; I prefer to look at the good luck side. The Dodgers were really bad the second part of August and still had the fortune to be within relatively easy striking distance of the Snakes. Besides, isn't the hard part of our remaining schedule over, so that the D's have an easier schedule than the Snakes from here out?

I'm still not happy that Torre ran him out there for the 8th inning, but I guess I'm ok with that move if it was for psychological reasons. That's what they pay Joe the big bucks for.

Francisco Rodriguez meet Steve Green. Mr. Green meet Mr. Rodriguez.

http://tinyurl.com/5595rb

Just a lot of garbage.

I'm here! Agree with most everything you said besides resigning Furcal.

It's a nice day for some Syd Barrett, too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBgr3da2yDM&feature=related

Gene Wojciechowski talks about Joe Torre.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=3565316

Jerry Crasnick grades several FA signings from 2007 including Kuroda, and Jones.

Seems Andre Gigante sees things a little bit differently than
Hippie Jeff Kent.

The idea of Kent hitchhiking across country as a longhair in a VW Bus delights me.

Then it takes them four days to hitchhike from there.

82 Wait, no, wasn't Jeff Kent in "Two Lane Blacktop"?

In 1998, Jeff and Dana launched Women Driven, a scholarship program for female athletes at his alma mater, the University of California

http://tinyurl.com/6cqf3x

87 Why does Hu/Rafa sound like a kibbutz in Israel?

He says George Brett was the toughest guy for him to get out.

And that Michigan will win 8 games this year.

http://tinyurl.com/6ge3f8