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After losing three straight at home to the (no longer) last-place Giants this weekend, the Dodgers have now lost 8 of their last 11 games. They played Sunday without Hanley Ramirez, Yasiel Puig Andre Ethier and Carl Crawford due to injuries of varying seriousness, and haven't seen Matt Kemp in weeks. Suddenly their prospects for the postseason don't look so rosy. "The only thought more worrisome than fielding an outfield of Jerry Hairston Jr., Skip Schumaker and Nick Buss for the next week or so is the thought of fielding it in the playoffs," wrote ESPN LA columnist Mark Saxon after Sunday's loss. The Dodgers will get to the playoffs, but the promise of winning enough games to secure home-field advantage may be slipping away. "Quietly, the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals both slipped by the Dodgers for that edge Sunday afternoon," Saxon wrote. The ugly weekend included a historically bad 19-3 loss to the Giants on Saturday. That was the most runs ever scored by an opponent at Dodger Stadium, which opened in 1962.
Kemp may return on Monday.
Also in local sports:
- The UCLA Brauins came from 18 points behind to defeat Nebraska 41-21 on Saturday. The Bruins wore number 36 patches on their jerseys in memory of Nick Pasquale, the teammate who died in an Orange County traffic accident last weekend. USC beat Boston College 35-7.
- Former Angels slugger Vladimir Guerrero formally announced his retirement from baseball. He hasn't actually played for a big league club since 2011. He hit .318 with 449 homers in 16 seasons and is still only 38 years old.
