It's Time for Dodger...Offense?

7:10 pm, the start time of the Dodgers' tenth game of the 2010 season, of which I happen to be in attendance. Vicente Padilla takes the mound, two ugly starts behind him, and he's dealing. He deals four innings of no-hit baseball until Mark DeRosa leads off the fifth with a single. The crack of Matt Kemp's bat echoes through Dodger Stadium once again in the first inning as he homers for the fourth straight game. Andre Ethier immediately impersonates him, then delivers a slam of an encore in the second that even Denny's would appreciate. James Loney picks up three more hits as he watches his batting average continue to rise. The Dodgers lead 10-3 going into the bottom of the ninth, on their way to an easy win over the hated rival San Francisco Giants.

But the bullpen didn't get the memo.

Russ Ortiz has no command of his pitches. He can't get anyone out in the ninth. Joe Torre looks extremely annoyed as he walks out to the mound to remove Ortiz, needing only one out to finish the game. He looks even more annoyed as Ramon Troncoso thanks him by surrendering a three-run blast to paper-thin Eugenio Velez. Now its 10-8. Troncoso snaps into focus, as if woken from a dream, and he gets the next batter to hit a comebacker to end the game.

Apparently, Troncoso and his fellow bullpen comrades are all stuck in the same dream. You know, the kind of dream where you can't get anyone out or hold a late-inning lead? Dodger fans are not familiar with this dream. We've had the strongest bullpen in the National League each of the last two years. Now Jonathan Broxton seems to be the only one sleeping peacefully.

Today, Charlie Haeger got in on the act. He might as well be in the bullpen. As of today, the Dodger ERA rests at an abysmal 5.56. That is not Dodger baseball. Meanwhile, their team batting average is tops in the league at .320. That is not Dodger baseball either. If the Phillies didn't exist, the Dodgers would be the top offensive team in baseball. We're not used to having potent offenses in Chavez Ravine. We're used to having anemic ones that scrape by while the pitching dominates.

My friends, this will not be the case over the course of the 2010 season. You can see it in Clayton Kershaw's wildness, or Chad Billingsley's inability to hit his spots, or George Sherill's failure to be reliable. You can see it in Kemp and Ethier's smooth strokes, each of which will produce 30 HR, 100 RBI seasons by October. You can see it in Rafael Furcal's rejuvenation, in Ronnie Belliard's slugging percentage, and in Russell Martin's on-base percentage. This is an offensive team, whether we like it or not.

And I don't like it.

Offensive teams don't win World Series. And why should Dodger fans want anything less after the last two seasons? Don't argue for the Yankees last year being an offensive team. CC and A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettite in the playoffs don't equal an offensive team. Offensive teams don't win World Series. Period. The Dodgers are no different. They might have enough firepower to win the NL West, but that's the peak for this season as far as I'm concerned. If that peak is even reached. At 5-6, prospects of winning the division for a third straight season hardly look promising.

Keep in mind, this pitching staff is essentially the same one that posted the National League's best ERA last year. Differences? Ramon Ortiz: awful. Russ Ortiz: even more awful. Carlos Monasterios: unimpressive. Charlie Haeger can hardly be considered a difference because he made three starts last year. Everything else is the same. There is no excuse for the pitching to be this bad. None. 5.56 is atrocious. It's embarrassing.

Eric Karros said today he thinks the Dodgers will right the ship and get better. I don't share his optimism. Pitching isn't something that can just be fixed on the spot. Guys don't just reverse their fortunes overnight. It takes time. Half a season. Ten games in the division standings. That's unrecoverable in August and September.

I don't blame Ned Colletti for trying to win with the same guys that were so effective a year ago. A frontline starter would have put us in the World Series. That hasn't happened yet, but it may not matter at this point. Those same guys aren't getting it done. We're three games back of the Giants already. Their offense looks much improved, and their pitching has remained consistent. They are the real deal, but I already knew that going in. I just didn't expect offense to be reigning Dodgertown in 2010. I had no reason to. It's not Dodger baseball.