If you’re a major league manager your swan song shouldn’t end like this, 80-82 and a hugely disappointing season not because of lack of talent but because of front office turmoil and a lot of bad managing.

When Dodgers fans look back upon the Joe Torre days we won’t see that he finally got us out of the 1st round of the playoffs, the first time since 1988. Nor will we think about leading the National League in wins in 2009 despite a sub-par Manny Ramirez year in which he was suspended for 50 games and was never the same after being hit in the hand later in the season.

No, more than likely we will look back upon this debacle of a season, probably the most frustrating season I’ve ever experienced in my 19 years as a Dodger fan and wonder why we bothered to even hire Joe Torre, was he worth the $13 million that was given him over 3 seasons? It’s hard to tell. Two Championship Series is great but we got utterly humiliated in both series, it wasn’t even a hard fought series, the team went out in spectacular fashion both times and upset a lot of Dodger fans.

This was also Brad Ausmus’ final game as well, age 41, he is retiring after this season. Joe Torre allowed him to start this game and worked 8 innings. In his final at-bat he singled and left for a pinch runner “The first thing I thought was, ‘Please pinch run for me, I hadn’t caught that many innings since Houston”

Also John Lindsey who broke his hand was allowed to come up and pinch hit in the bottom of the seventh. While he was wearing a cast, since he wasn’t in the disabled list, he was able to at least come up to the plate where he received a round of cheers from the stadium and a congratulations from plate umpire Alfonso Marquez who knew Lindsey from the minor leagues.

Joe Torre also brought in Kuo, so that he could log 50 innings and record the lowest ERA in club history with an astounding ERA of 1.20, just over taking Eric Gagne’s previous club record of 1.202, the year in which he went 55-55 in saves and won the NL Cy Young Award.

Matt Kemp hitting 5 home runs in 5 consecutive games is the longest streak of his career and leaves him with a team leading 28 home runs and 89 RBI’s.

The last time Kemp was this hot was back in April when from the 13th through the 16th Kemp hit a home run in 4 straight games as well. While I love the sight of him knockings balls out of the park, I worry that this is his main focus as his average has suffered while his power numbers have soared.

Matt Kemp now has 27 home runs on the season, leading the Dodgers and setting a new career high for him, could this be the start of his 40-40 trek for next season? I sure hope so.

On the other side of home plate, Chad Billingsley was superb again, striking out 9 over 7 innings while surrendering both runs and walking 1. After Bills was taken out, Bellisario finished the 8th and Jansen showed again that he should take over the closer role from Broxton as player-manager Jamey Carroll used Jansen to finish the game striking out all 3 batters he faced on only 15 pitches, 12 of which were strikes.

Unfortunately, GM Ned Colletti and soon to be manager Don Mattingly weren’t as impressed

Don Mattingly, Ned Colletti counting on Jonathan Broxton to be the #Dodgers‘ closer in 2011: http://tinyurl.com/248pwpy

The good news is that it’s not a solid affirmation, the bad news is that they still somehow think he’s got closer material. Although, this could be a ruse by Colletti so that if teams call for Broxton that he gets the max amount he can get because if he says that they will be actively trading him because they’re unhappy and because no one respects Colletti much anymore, there’s a good chance that we wouldn’t get back as much as we could. Then again…I don’t think Colletti is that smart to think of something like that, at least on his own.

Clayton Kershaw has been one of the few bright spots, as we watch him in the 2nd half turn in one masterful game after another, we’re left to wonder if this is the start of something really special. I’ve always been high on the kid, it’s hard to go 8-8 with a 2.79 ERA at the age of 21 and not be considered a great pitcher but if you can believe it, when people would say we need an “Ace” and I’d point them to Kershaw all I heard was “Oh, he’s not ready yet.” When asked what that meant they’d usually say “He’s inconsistent,” “He walks too many batters,” or “He’s just not there yet.”

Since the end of June Kershaw has been wonderful, while his record isn’t all that great, 5-6, his ERA has been an awesome 2.78. Manager Joe Torre on his performance tonight “He was very special. He dominated right from the get-go,” Torre said.

His win-loss record isn’t totally reflective on his he’s pitched, 3 losses he only gave up 2 runs, usually more than enough to get an easy win on most teams and another couple masterful performances of 1 and 2 run games for him turned into no decisions.But as long as he keeps going along like this, we can expect many more wins.

Matt Kemp also extended his streak of consecutive games played to 196 which is the longest in the majors. Kemp didn’t start today but Torre asked him about the streak  “I asked him if it was important for him, and it was,” Torre said of Kemp. “So that was good enough for me.” Kemp was pitch hit for rookie Trent Oeltjen in the 8th and remained in the game for the 9th inning.

After surrendered a single and a run scoring double Kershaw was replaced by Kenly Jansen who after going 1-1 coaxed 2B Kelly Johnson to pop out to short left center field, followed by a full count walk and two straight strikeouts. It was Kenly’s second save of the season and I hope a preview of what’s to come next season. If he continues to pitch like this, I can easily see a rookie of the year for him if he’s eligible next season.

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The Dodger bullpen had it’s work cut out for them last night.  Los Angeles used seven relief pitchers in the battle including last Sunday’s starter Charlie Haeger who pitched a scoreless ninth. But the Diamondbacks (5-3) came out on top after the 11-inning affair went late into the Los Angeles night.

The ‘Backs went ahead for good in the 11th when Chris Young (4-8, two RBI on the series) hit a bases-loaded single off Russ Ortiz (0-1) to bring in Stephen Drew. Second baseman Augie Ojeda added an insurance run plating Adam LaRoche with a sac fly to center, but Arizona really only needed one run to win the ball game.

Chad Billingsley looked great through the first couple innings, but as the Dodgers’ starting pitching goes, he couldn’t make it through the sixth allowing eight hits and six runs in five-and-two-thirds innings. Bills got the no decision, though, and it was an air-tight, seesaw battle the rest of the way. Torre decided to rest relief pitcher Jeff Weaver who had seen action in six of the Dodgers seven games.

The top part of the Dodgers line-up carried most of the weight going 11-19 with five RBI including a two-run home-run by Matt Kemp in the fourth. Kemp, who’s hit home-runs in back-to-back games, went 2-for-4 with three RBI and three runs scored. The Dodger outfield continued to put up big numbers last night; Ethier was 3-for-6 at the plate while Manny went 3-for-3 with a double and two RBI extending his batting average to .385.

Kemp is swinging the hottest bat for the Dodgers right now going 8-for-19 with three home-runs and six RBI in the last four games. Combined, the Dodger trio has posted McDonald’s type numbers in the series: 13-for-27 with four home-runs, 10 RBI and eight runs scored.

Lead-off man Raphael Furcal added three singles to the mix as well, and Russell Martin posted three hits going 3-for-five and improving his average to .389.

Hitting wasn’t really the problem for the L.A.–it was timely hitting. The Dodgers did manage to string together several clutch hits, such as Casey Blake’s game-tying double in the ninth, but they left way too many men on base (23). James Loney led the team with seven runners stranded.

The Dodgers (3-5) split the first two games at home this year. Last season, the Blue won their first 13 at Chavez Ravine to set a modern major league record for consecutive home wins to start a season.

Hiroki Kuroda (1-0) will take the hill tonight against Diamondbacks opening-day starter Dan Haren (1-1), who struggled in his last outing.  Kuroda on the other hand was masterful in his first start coming off an injury-plagued 2009. The right-hander allowed no runs in eight innings and posted seven strikeouts. After last night the Dodgers bullpen could really use another eight-inning effort from Kuroda. The game is scheduled to begin at 10:10 EDT

Notes: Matt Kemp is 8-19 with three home-runs and six RBI in the last four games. Combined the Dodger outfield is 13-27 with four home-runs and 10 RBI. Comedian and The Soup host Joe McHale threw out the first pitch, and former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda and his wife Jo were at the ballpark celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.

Last season the NL West Champion Dodgers relied heavily on their bullpen to give them relief, but after leading the NL in runs allowed in 2009, the Dodger bullpen just can’t seem to put it together this year. What gives?

In seven games the pen has allowed 15 earned runs in just 17 and 1/3 innings (a whopping ERA of 7.79), which is a big part of the reason why the Dodgers are just 3-4. The bullpen collapsed twice on the road against the Florida Marlins last weekend losing both those games in the late innings, and they were flirting with collapse again this afternoon before winning the home opener.

The answer isn’t as easy as one might think. In 2009 the same crew finished second in the major leagues in wins (37), first in bullpen ERA (3.14), WHIP (1.26), opponent batting average (.230) and opponent OPS (.656). For a team who’s starting pitchers averaged just 5.7 innings (worst among playoff teams), the bullpen was absolutely the most important part of the Dodgers’ success.

Only this year, they aren’t succeeding.

Even in today’s 9-5 win over Arizona the bullpen still allowed three runs. When they were up 9-2 and about to wrap it up early, Ramon Ortiz came into the game in the seventh. After retiring the first two batters he faced, things quickly turned ugly when Mark Reynolds hit a two-run home-run over the left field fence. That wasn’t the end of it. Then second baseman Kelly Johnson pulled the game within grand-slam-distance when he hit an RBI single to center.

Jeff Weaver and Ramon Troncoso looked OK, but at no point did either one of them look like they were in complete control. Weaver allowed one run when he came into a sixth-inning jam to relieve starter Clayton Kershaw, and set-up man Troncoso struggled with his control early on, consistently falling behind batters before eventually securing the eighth.

And it doesn’t end there. George Sherill has been the very definition of the bullpen’s misadventures this season retiring only one of the five batters he’s faced and sporting a mind-boggling ERA of 22.50. Neither Ortiz has an ERA of under 5.00 either, and not mention last year’s standout Ronald Belisario who currently isn’t on the roster because he ran into a little trouble getting a visa in the off-season.

If things keep going this way the Dodgers might want to consider bringing in Jose Canseco as their new set-up man.

It’s not all bad, though. Jonathan Broxton continues to be solid out of the Dodger pen, which is something you really need from your closer. Brox has yet to allow a run and has given up only one hit in three appearances including today’s one-two-three ninth against the Diamondbacks. Sweet relief!

I’ll be the first to admit: being a Dodger reliever isn’t the easiest job in the world (even if you do have a visa). Dodger starters seem to have a tough time lasting more than five innings, which means they’re going to get a lot of work. For instance, Jeff Weaver has been called on in every game this season except for one.

But when you are called on out of the pen, we do expect to get some relief. After all, that’s why you get paid the big bucks. If not, it’s going to be a long season. And I really don’t want to see Jose Canseco’s noodle arm anytime soon.

The Sun was shining and balls were flying out of Chavez Ravine as the Dodgers hit four home-runs en route to beating division rival Arizona Diamondbacks (4-3) in today’s home opener, 9-5.

On an afternoon when Matt Kemp was given his 2009 Golden Glove and Silver Slugger awards, the center-fielder drove a full-count pitch over the right center-field wall, part of a three-run sixth inning, and the Dodgers posted 9 runs against the red-hot Diamondbacks to win the first game of the year at Dodger Stadium.

Kemp was just one of the magnificent outfielding trio to hit one out today. Manny Ramirez hit his first and the team’s first of the afternoon in the fourth-inning. Andre Ethier, who also received a Silver Slugger, drove a pitch over the right field porch for his first longball of the year. Ethier (2-for-5, 3 RBI) led the Dodgers with 22 home-runs at Chavez last season, just one shy of a franchise record.

Third baseman Casey Black also got an invitation to the home-run party with a two-run shot of his own in the fourth, just two batters after Manny. Blake continues to swing a hot bat leading the Dodgers with a .389 batting average.

It was good to see Clayton Kershaw open up Dodger Stadium with a win, his first of the year, especially against a hot-hitting Arizona club that racked up 15 runs a couple days ago. The 22-year-old left-hander allowed two runs and three hits in 5 1-3 innings after a no-decision in the Dodgers’ 4-3, 10-inning loss to Pittsburgh last week.

Kershaw has a tendency to lose control in the later innings, but he looked strong in his second start striking out seven and walking five; however, as soon he gave a free pass to the first couple batters he faced in the sixth, Torre didn’t hesitate to go to the bullpen.

The bullpen was another story, or shall I say the same story of the 2010 season.

After a lackluster first week, the Dodgers still can’t get any relief. The bullpen continued to struggle after they led the NL in runs allowed last season. Ramon Ortiz retired the first two batters he faced in the seventh, but then quickly got into trouble giving up three hits and a two-run home-run to Mark Reynolds bringing the score to within four runs.

Set-up man Ramon Troncoso also struggled early on with his control, consistently falling behind in the count, but he managed to fight back and secure the eight inning.

On the sunny side, Jonathan Broxton came on in the ninth and continued to be the lone bright spot in the Dodger bullpen. Broxton quickly mowed down the Diamondbacks one-two-three and helped improve the Dodgers record to 3-4. Brox has only allowed one hit this season and has yet to give up a run.

With the win the Dodgers improved to 28-25 in home openers since 1958 (the year they moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles). This is the third year in a row Los Angeles has opened Dodger Stadium with a win.

The second game of the four-game-series will be tomorrow night at Chavez Ravine with Chad Billingsley (1-0) set to take on Rodrigo Lopez (1-0). The first pitch is scheduled for 10:10 p.m. EST.

Notes: Ethier hit 22 home-runs at Dodger Stadium last season, just one shy of a team record held by Gary Sheffield and Adrian Beltre. Loney hit 2 doubles this afternoon, tying him for second on the team with 3. Long-time sportscaster Vin Scully returned to the hometown booth today for his 61st season as the voice of the Dodgers. Scully injured his head a couple weeks ago falling out of bed. He has the longest current broadcast tenure with a single baseball club in professional sports history.

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres 7-2 on the back of two Manny Ramirez home runs.  In a series thats well known as a pitcher’s park has been beat up by Manny ever since joining the Dodgers.  Ramirez finished with three home runs in the series, and has 14 home runs and 40 runs batted in over 38 games.

The Arizona Diamondbacks continue their losing ways, giving up a 3 1/2 game lead to Los Angeles.  Joe Torre has everyone playing together ever since the addition of Manny.

On Thursday, the Dodgers reactivated Brad Penny from the disabled list.  Penny was 6-9 before going on the DL with shoulder inflammation.  He will initially be used out of the bullpen, making one to two inning appearances.

Sunday they defeated the D’Backs 5-3, Nomar Garciaparra provided the go ahead sacrifice fly in the seventh, and James Looney knocked in three runs as well.

The Dodgers now travel to San Deiego for another set against the Padres.  The Dodgers embark upon a 10 game road trip, where they are just 28-40 on the road.

San Diego heads into the series in last place in the NL West, and almost mathematically eliminated.  They will try to play the role of spoilers to the LA Dodgers during the series.

Game 1

Greg Maddux (7-11, 4.18 ERA) will face Cha Seung Baek (4-10, 5.36 ERA) in game one.  Maddux began the season with San Diego before being traded to LA via waivers.

Game 2

Hiroki Kuroda (8-10) will face of against Wade LeBlanc (0-1) in game two.  LeBlanc will be making his second career start, his first was last week against the Dodgers when he lasted just four innings, giving up five earned runs, eight hits and three walks.

Game 3

Derrek Lowe (12-11) goes against Shawn Estes (2-1) on Wednesday.  LA is off Thursday before heading to Colorado for a three game series against the Rockies.