Cannot. Catch. A break.

1-0? This team cannot catch a break. Billingsley pitched great.

Billingsley aside, though, the pitching is struggling... which is why the team has now lost 8 of 11 and 10 of 14. This is basically what I was worried about back a few months ago. The Dodgers' offense is, at best, average. For a few weeks there, right when Loney/Kemp came up and Pierre was on his hot streak, everything was clicking. But even after that streak, they have now scored 499 runs -- which puts them right in the same neighborhood as Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Toronto, Minnesota, Houston, and the Cubs. Meanwhile, team ERA -- once fourth-best in baseball -- is now sixth-best and falling. At 3.98, they are just 0.02 ahead of division rival Arizona.

When San Diego and Arizona have as-good-or-better pitching than the Dodgers do and are even worse at scoring than the Dodgers are, it's frustrating to watch the Dodgers refuse to do the things they can to improve the offense. The pitching isn't gonna get any better, folks -- so the other side of the ledger is going to have to pick up the slack.

But yesterday, nothing doing.

Juan didn't have the worst day evah, but it was kind of indicative of how the game went for the Dodgers.

1. Infield single. Stole second (on a pickoff move!). Went to third on error. Stranded. From a man whose game relies on luck, he got an extraordinary amount of it this at-bat... but his teammates couldn't convert him.
2. Grounded to second. #357.
3. Walked.
4. K, looking. #358.

Let's turn it around, team.