FanHouse NotesFromtheClubhouse

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

Say what you want about GM Ned Colletti, and we've said it all here at FanHouse, but he's done just about everything possible to put the Dodgers in a position to win the NL West this year. When one Hall of Famer -- Manny Ramirez -- wasn't enough, he went out and got another one -- Greg Maddux.

Yet here the Dodgers sit, losers of six straight and eight of their last nine on the eve of a stretch where they will play the Diamondbacks in six of their next nine games

It'd be an understatement to say Los Angeles is at a crossroads.

Just as it was before the Ramirez trade, the offense is at the heart of the Dodgers' problems. Manager Joe Torre insists the now daily struggle to put runs on the board is a result of his team pressing, particularly with runners in scoring position.

"Right now, the only thing we're not doing enough of is breathing," says Torre. "We're putting ourselves in a position to succeed and we just can't get over this hump."

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

The Red Sox don't worry about individual awards. They don't even like to talk about them out of fear that it might distract them from the task at hand, winning a third World Series in five years. That's probably part of the reason why they've been baseball's most successful franchise in the past decade.

If Kevin Youkilis finishes with a bang, they might have to start.

The player once dubbed "a fat third baseman, who couldn't run, throw or field," in Michael Lewis' "Moneyball" is having quite the season. He entered play Thursday with 24 home runs, 88 RBI and a .321 batting average. He ranks in the top 10 in those categories as well as on-base percentage, slugging average, OPS, total bases, doubles, triples and walks.

He might not look like an MVP. He certainly doesn't act like one, grinding hard in every at-bat and taking every out personally in a manner ex-Yankee Paul O'Neill would be proud of, but like it or not, he's a serious contender for the award with under six weeks to go in the season.

"It's been fun to watch," says Dustin Pedroia of Youkilis' season. "He's been the biggest part of our offense."

"He's growing into his power," says Jason Varitek. "He's always been a really good hitter."

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

Before Daisuke Matsuzaka's start Tuesday night in Baltimore, someone asked Terry Francona what he thought of the absurd extra innings rule implemented at this year's Olympics, which allows teams to start each inning from the 11th on with runners on first and second base.

After, the Red Sox manager joked that he had gotten a pretty good idea what the rule was like just by watching Matsuzaka.

The Japanese pitcher ran his record to 15-2 Tuesday, but, just as it's been all season long, the win wasn't very pretty. He lasted just five innings, facing runners on first and second in each of the first three frames and escaping a bases loaded jam in the fourth. He made hitters miss plenty -- striking out six -- but he continued handing out free passes at an alarming rate -- walking six.

"It's kind of a tightrope act sometimes," says Francona. "He has the ability to make pitches. He has power on his fastball."

The problem with a tightrope act like Matsuzaka's season-long one is that when his luck runs out, it could be spectacularly ugly for the Red Sox. Here are the worrisome details:

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

The Red Sox have decided to push back Josh Beckett's next turn in the rotation to Tuesday because the pitcher is feeling some tingling and numbness in his throwing arm.

Manager Terry Francona said the 2007 ALCS and 2003 World Series MVP slept on his throwing arm awkwardly on Saturday night. He started Sunday against the Blue Jays, allowing eight earned runs in 2 1/3 innings in arguably his worst performance in a Red Sox uniform.

Francona indicated that the decision to push Beckett back from Saturday at Toronto to Tuesday at New York was more precautionary than anything else.

"It's not something we're real worried about, we just don't want to do something rash," said Francona. "If we let him pitch just because he's a good pitcher and he will pitch, I just don't think that makes much sense."

The ace's usual side sessions were postponed a few days as a result of the tingling and the team wanted to put him on a normal throwing schedule in between starts.

For Beckett's part, he sounds a little more concerned. "Anytime it's something with your arm ... especially with a pitcher, you think the worst," said the pitcher. But he went on to say that club officials have assured him the numbness isn't anything to worry about long-term.

Beckett has been outperformed, at least on a results basis, by both Jon Lester and Daisuke Matsuzaka, but there's no doubt Boston will need him at his best to secure a playoff spot and succeed should they get to the postseason. So how worried should Red Sox fans be?

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

After blowing another lead in the ninth inning against the Pirates Monday, the Mets appeared to be at their breaking point when they arrived in Washington for a three-game series with the Nationals. Things were so bad manager Jerry Manuel talked about using starting pitchers Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez and John Maine in the ninth during his pre-game meeting with reporters.

Fast forward nine innings and reliever Pedro Feliciano, the savior of the moment after a pitching a perfect ninth to nail down a 4-3 win, was joking with reporters about how "scary" the save situation was for him.

Such is life in a desperate pennant race in the middle of August with three teams battling for just one spot in the postseason. "Sometimes you're flush and sometimes you're bust," as Ray Liotta's character from the movie Blow would say.

Chances are the New York media will paint this win as a watershed moment for the Mets, a moment spurred by the motivational tactics of Manuel and a closed-door bullpen meeting led by veterans Scott Schoeneweis and Duaner Sanchez.

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

With 64 games to go, the ledger is even for the Detroit Tigers. They leave Baltimore at 49-49 -- no small feat considering they were nine games below .500 at the end of May. Still, Jim Leyland's club has a long way to go to live up to the lofty preseason expectations placed upon them.

The Tigers trail the Twins by six games and the White Sox by 6 1/2 in the AL Central, and with the way the Rays, Red Sox and Yankees are playing, the wild card probably isn't an option. Resurrections aren't unheard of in the three-division era. Just look at the Phillies last year or the 2005 Astros, who were 36-41 on July 1, but ended up qualifying for the playoffs.

But those teams had horses and they had a bit of magic too (or mojo or just good fortune, whatever you want to call it). The Phillies had an irrepressible offense led by Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard and won 13 of their final 17 games. The Astros had a formidable three-headed monster in Roger Clemens, Roy Oswalt and Andy Pettitte and they won games 8-6, 12-8 and 7-6 down the stretch when they weren't stifling opposing teams with their pitching.

Unfortunately for Leyland, it doesn't look like this edition of the Tigers has the horses or the spark to mount a comeback.

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

The Tigers have done a nice job of recovering from a wretched start to the season. Expected to be a 1,000-run juggernaut, Detroit stumbled out of the gate, losing its first seven game and going 23-32 over the first two months. Entering play Saturday, the Tigers stand at 48-48. While they aren't expected to drop back below .500 for the rest of the season, the Tigers have a long way to go to catch up with the Twins and White Sox in the AL Central.

Maybe that's why both utilityman Brandon Inge and reliever Fernando Rodney are sporting brand new buzzcuts today. Detroit needs that extra push in the second half. Sure a reliable starting pitcher would go a lot farther in helping the Tigers' chances, but a new hairstyle can't hurt can it?

Who better than manager Jim Leyland, ever the gruff kidder, to comment on the new locks sported by his players?

"There's something wrong with Inge," joked Leyland before Saturday night's game in Baltimore. "He's [expletive] rowing with one oar."

"He has a good time and he plays his ass off," added Leyland in a moment of candor about Inge, who, after losing his starting role this winter, has played all over the place this season and been extremely valuable to Leyland.

As for Rodney, who is holding onto his shorn locks so he can show his mother, Leyland had a few more wisecracks. "If he shaves that [expletive] goatee, he'll look even better," said the Tigers manager. "The [expletive] shampoo will finally get to his head."

Will all this actually help Detroit? Who knows? But for a team that faced high expectations and still has a big hole to climb out of, the Tigers appear to be an awfully loose bunch.

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

From afar, everything appears to be business as usual in Orange County. As of Thursday evening, only two teams in the majors have more wins than the Angels -- the Red Sox and Cubs, and only Chicago has a better winning percentage than Mike Scioscia's bunch.

Look closer, though, and the problems are readily apparent. The Halos have outscored their opponents by a mere 19 runs this season. Going by Bill James' formula for expected wins, the Angels should be 41-38, not 48-31. Oakland, which trailed Los Angeles by 4 1/2 games in the standings on Thursday night, has outscored its opponents by 67 runs.

While the Angels won't be forced to give back their wins by some crazed sabermetrician, their luck is likely to get worse over the remainder of the season, while the A's should get better. That could make things very tight in the AL West coming down the stretch.

Getting consistent production from the lineup has been a real problem for the Angels. L.A. is averaging 4.3 runs per game this season, well below the American League average of 4.6 runs per game. For the Angels' part, they're well aware of the offensive problems they have.

"There are some challenges we have that are very real and right in front of us, particularly when you talk about the offensive side and getting continuity," said Scioscia before Tuesday night's game in Washington.

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

Let's get the obvious out of the way first: the Nationals are not a good baseball team. We knew that would be the case coming into the season. What seems clear after another devastating day for the club, is that they're also a pretty unlucky bunch.

Ryan Zimmerman is already out for most of the rest of the season with a tear in his labrum. Before Tuesday night's game against the Angels, Washington announced that first baseman Nick Johnson will miss the rest of 2008 with a wrist injury. Then pitcher Shawn Hill was torched for eight runs (six earned) by the Halos in three innings. Hill, looked physically broken down and has pitched with forearm pain all season. It was decided immediately after the game he would go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. for a re-evaluation of his arm, an ominous decision considering his lengthy history of arm trouble.

If you're keeping score at home, the Nats have lost the cornerstone in their grand franchise rebuilding effort (Zimmerman), the player who led the team in VORP in 2006, the last time he was healthy for a full season (Johnson) and they might lose the pitcher who led all Washington starters in VORP last year (Hill). They already have the second fewest wins in the majors, and things are probably going to get worse. You almost have to feel bad for them.

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

Just when you think Manny Ramirez can't do something any more bizarre then, oh I don't know, relieving himself in the Green Monster or cutting off a throw from Johnny Damon in left field, he goes and proves everyone wrong. The Red Sox fell to Baltimore today, wrapping up an ugly 4-6 road trip, but it was Ramirez who provided the unforgettable memory, and it had nothing to do with his ongoing chase for 500 home runs.

Ramirez went back on a sharp line drive by Kevin Millar in the third inning and made a running catch in the gap. Then the fun began. In full stride, Ramirez leaped against the left field wall, high-fived a fan in the stands and then twirled and fired the ball back to Dustin Pedroia, who relayed the ball to first to double off Aubrey Huff. Too hard to follow? Watch the video evidence here.

I caught up with Ramirez after the game to ask him about his catch. "I just got a bad jump, but I never give up and I got there," he said of the grab. When another reporter pressed him on the high five Ramirez explained "it's something that came out."

Ever the showman, Manny joked (or at least I think he was joking) about the play. "It was fun. I love it. I think, you know, that's how you get your All-Star vote. I'm pretty sure that guy's gonna vote for me," said Ramirez. "It's one at a time, you know. Get your votes one at a time."