The Blue Crew

Living in Anaheim and being an Angels fan, it is natural that Dodgers fans look at the Angels as their rival team to beat. Especially since the Angels changed their name to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim under Arte Moreno.

"You're not an LA team!"

Growing up I watched both squads but took more of a liking to the Angels since I went to more of their games and they were close to my hometown in Placentia.

I do not hate the Dodgers, only when Dodgers fans start talking crap on how the Angels are horrible or how they do not belong in the same breath as the Blue Crew.

Well unfortunately for Dodger fan, it looks like they have lost their gas in the chase for the NL West and NL wild-card chase.
Yes, they have had injuries throughout the year, most notably to their pitching staff, but so has every MLB club in the majors.

Today they dropped both games of their doubleheader to the Colorado Rockies to put them four games out of the NL wild-card and 5 1/2 out of the NL West.

But Dodger fan do not be too hard on yourself. San Diego and Arizona both have had great years in a tough division.
The year may have been a lot different if they had Matt Kemp and James Loney starting all year long to provide much needed bats in their lineup.

Loney, who is batting .325, has 13 RBIs in his last 11 games, while Kemp is batting .340 in 87 games this year.

So what went wrong? Like I said, injuries to their starting rotation is probably the first reason to look at, but you can also look at their lack of offensive production when it counted most.

Losing Jason Schmidt to season-ending surgery in June definitely was a big hit to the rotation. And finding a reliable fifth starter proved to be a tough task to overcome before opting to obtain Esteban Loaiza and David Wells to finalize their pitching staff late into the season.

Keep you head up Dodgers fans, the near future looks bright with emerging stars of Andre Ethier, Loney, Kemp, and young pitcher Chad Billingsley.

Plus, you have another LA team that is sure to make the playoffs this year.