Baseball Magic Number

Patton: Things could be worse for Dodgers

ANAHEIM - It could be worse. The Dodgers could be in a six-team division and occupy last place.

Instead, they're fifth in a five-team division. Sorry, Dodgers fans. That's about all we've got from the good news department.

"It's tough," said James Loney, after his team lost again to the Angels, 3-1, Sunday night and fell to a season-worst 11 games under .500.

"Everyone wants to be part of a winning team. We're fighting day in and day out. We've got a lot of the same talent that made playoff runs here, and we've added guys who've been part of winning teams other places."

That is, they used to be good. This year, they are not.

Nothing tangibly positive, team-wise, has been happening. Loney had a good night at the plate, but no one else did. What else is new? His three hits -- two of them doubles -- matched the rest of the lineup.

Pitcher Chad Billingsley threw a three-hitter. He lost.

"One of those days," said Billingsley, whose team has seen way too many of "those days" this year.

He didn't want to address the mood of the clubhouse.

"Just keep playing the game," he said. Period. End of story.

Manager Don Mattingly has been saying for weeks that the goal of the team was to reach .500 by the All-Star game. That magic number went "poof" over the weekend.

New goal? Catch the fourth-place Padres, I guess.

All the Dodgers have done at the 85-game mark is lock up their standing as one of baseball's midseason casualties.

July is trade season and the Dodgers figure to be dumping inventory this time around. By this time next month, it could look a lot like 2012. Young guys in. Old guys out.

Veterans with value, who are facing free agency in the winter, will attract buyers. That means pitcher Hiroki Kuroda, shortstop Rafael Furcal, if he can stay healthy for a couple of weeks, and stellar utility man Jamey Carroll.

By August, the focus could be on guys like Dee Gordon, Rubby De La Rosa, Javy Guerra and Jerry Sands, if the Dodgers decide to push him forward again.

Even before Sunday's loss, Mattingly conceded that his team is getting pretty close to accepting its fate as an also-ran.

"I'm always optimistic, but at some point you have to be realistic about what's going right and what's going wrong," he said.

Of course, jettisoning proven players in favor of mystery kids makes it harder to win.

Boys Baseball Team Recovers: Magic Number is down to One | Beacon ...

It was the low point of the season. The Blue Demons just finished a 10-0 loss to rival team, The Stuyvesant Hitmen, in the second loss of a two game serires.  After a 6-0 start to the season, the Blue Demons, dropped four straight games and were losing hold of the comfortable grasp on the division they have  become so accustomed winning.

Fast forward two weeks,  and no one could have predicted the Blue Demons would have just dropped two in a row to Stuyvesant. Riding a four game winning streak the Blue Demons have worked there way back to the top of the division. Through the past four games, Beacon has outscored opponents 36-10: Including a 16-3 drubbing of Murry Bergtraum. Not all the games have been blowouts however, the most recent game against Louis Brandeis came down to the last inning when pitcher Sam Fox closed out the game with runners on second and third, with Brandeis only down a run.

With a 10-4 record and two games, the Blue Demons need win one more to one game to clinch yet another division title.

Junior Juan Orlando Adorno is pleased with the turnaround and posied to make a playoff run, “We see ourselves as a sleeper in the tournament. It’s all about getting hot at the right time of the season.

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