1) Andy Ashby certainly pitched the best first inning the Dodgers - if not the major leagues - have seen all season. In fact, after only eight pitches, Ashby had retired three batters and had Barry Bonds down 0-2 in the top of the second. And then, it just spiraled out.

2) Tried the new burrito being offered this year. It was transcendently bad. Fortunately, I got a dog to back it up.

3) Jolbert Cabrera blasted a home run in the second inning, but kept his modesty. He raced around those bases.

4) I could see on the left-field fence scoreboard that the Angels were down early, 6-1. I never doubted that the Angels could come back. Meanwhile, as the Dodgers fell behind in front of me ... different story.

5) There are holes in the roof above us in the Loge Level - that roof actually being the bottom of the Club Level. I've looked up at them for years; never known why they were there. Anyway, inside those holes are birds' nests. During the game, birds come and go in and out of them as they please. Paging Hitchcock.

6) I was prepared to research whether runners had trouble stealing on Damian Moss, because Dave Roberts twice led off innings and didn't run on him. But then, finally, Roberts went and stole second.

7) The pitch tracker beneath the left-field scoreboard spells fastball as "FAST BALL." With a space. Guys - it's not 1895.

8) In a sixth-inning double-switch, the Dodgers removed Brian Jordan and left in Fred McGriff, indicating that they were giving up on the game right then.

9) My wife thinks the Dodgers should add fresh hot cookies and candy bars to the menu. I have no objections.

10) Okay, I admit it - still having issues. Ron Coomer hit a long fly ball to right field in his second at-bat, and I rooted for it to stay in the park. Not to worry - it did.

11) With no fresh hot cookies or candy bars to purchase, my wife went up and got some cotton candy. Now, some people are nauseated by cotton candy. I don't happen to be one of them. But this cotton candy was nothing less than defective. It tasted like burnt Diet Coke. Something seriously went wrong with it. I actually told my wife she had to return it - and I never do things like that. It was, unbelievably, worse than the burrito.

12) Guillermo Mota looks great on the mound. Clearly, the Piazza incident has done little to stunt his development. But when he almost hit Andres Gallaraga with a pitch, I wondered how the opposition is going to react the first time Mota hits a batter - however unintentional. I hope people cut him some slack.

13) A guy and a gal stood in aisle 112 for the better part of an inning, hitting on each other like this was a pickup scene - but no one complained about them blocking the view. Guess they were more interesting. The girl looked sort of hot, and sort of drunk. Fair enough.

14) Moss didn't even look that good on the mound, but the Dodgers barely touched him. They just don't hit very many line drives. Everyone needs glasses.

15) Is this Adrian Beltre's future? Raul Mondesi has found himself - with the Yankees. He's got 20 hits, five home runs, six doubles and seven walks in 16 games. His OPS is 1.088. The Yankees, by the way, have outhomered their opponents, 33-4!

16) Dodger starters went the entire week without hitting a home run. Reserves Cabrera and Todd Hundley were the only ones to do it.

17) Beltre was double-switched out of the game in the middle of the fifth inning, and frankly, the situation and his downcast look led me to believe for the first time that the Dodgers may be ready to, at a minimum, send him to Las Vegas.

18) Arizona is breathing down our necks for fourth place now. However, Curt Schilling had an appendectomy, of all things. I remember a few years ago, Brady Anderson was diagnosed with appendecitis. He declined to have surgery, which stunned me - because I thought that at the time that appendecitis was fatally toxic if not treated. Frankly, what happened with Beltre didn't dissuade me of that. But I never heard of Anderson having anything done, or running into any problems about it.

19) A 7-11 record isn't the end of the world - but the Dodgers really just looked like an inferior team all the way around Saturday night. My thoughts did turn to 2004, and the thought of unloading some of our few marketable players for the future. I guess I have to keep in mind that right now, almost everyone but our spectacular bullpen is performing so below their capabilities, that the Dodgers aren't dead yet. But they looked like my C-league softball team from a few years back. We were bad.

20) Angels win, 7-6. There you go. L.A. needs a rally animal.

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