It pains me every time I look in the sports section of the newspaper and look at the NL West standings. There are the Dodgers alone in first place (currently 34-15). Being from San Diego, I am a die-hard Padre fan, and am excited to see them in 2nd place. But in the NL West, 2nd place is great, but it currently means you are 9 games out of first place. 9 games! To put this in perspective, the Houston Astros are currently in last place (18-27) in their division in the NL Central, and they are 9 games out of first place! The Padres are playing decent baseball at 24-23, but currently that only warrants a 9 game gap between first and second place. Simply put, the Dodgers are just on fire now.

Currently at 19 games over .500, the Dodgers hold the best record in all of major league baseball with a 34-15 record. Winners of four straight and eight out of their last ten games, the Dodgers have been doing the majority of this without superstar Manny Ramirez. Ramirez tested positive for a banned substance earlier this season, and has received a 50 game suspension because of it. But that hasn’t stopped the Dodgers. Since Ramirez’s departure, the Dodgers are 13-7, and continue to hold onto first place in the NL West. The Dodgers are getting production from all over the place, which includes their offense and defense. Juan Pierre, the outfield replacement for Manny Ramirez, is currently hitting a ridiculous .407 for the Blue Crew. 24-year old Matt Kemp is also stepping it up for his club, hitting .295 with 4 bombs, 28 RBI’s and 11 SB’s. The third outfielder, Andre Ethier, is also on fire. He currently has a paltry .253 average, but has 30 RBI’s to go along with it. The pitching staff for the team is excellent as well. Randy Wolf (ahem, former Padre), is currently 3-1 with an absurd 2.84 ERA to go along with 57 strikeouts. Wolf recently came off of a 7 inning, 1 ER winning performance against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Thursday. And to think the Dodgers will be getting Manny Ramirez back in July!

Last week, the author had written an article on how hot the Toronto Blue Jays were doing in major league baseball. What has happened since then? The Jays have lost nine games in a row and have dipped to third place in the AL East. Maybe I gave them too much credit. Or maybe I just cursed them by praising the team so much. Being an avid Padre fan, I can only hope the same thing will happen with the Dodgers.

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