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Y E S T E R D A Y…

Angels 10, Dodgers 2: The boys from the OC trounced the boys from Chavez Ravine with a massive offensive display. Mike Napoli led the way with two homers and five RBI’s. Jered Weaver wasn’t necessarily efficient over his 5.1 innings (100 pitches), but limited the Dodgers to two runs and five hits, striking out seven. Meanwhile, Derek Lowe, pitching on three days rest, struggled, giving up 10 hits and seven runs over five innings. The Angels took two of three in this weekend’s series, sent the Dodgers to their 7th defeat in 10 games.

Galaxy 5, FC Dallas 1:  Seriously, five goals in one game?  Four in one 15 minute stretch?  Da-yum, that’s some serious offense.  But it wasn’t Landon Donovan or that Beckham fellow that led the way on Sunday (though they certainly didn’t slack), but Edson Buddle, who logged the hat trick.  With the win, the Galaxy returned to the .500 mark, at 3-3-2.

T O D A Y…

Dodgers vs. Cincinnati (7:10 p.m., PST): Coming off a brutal loss Sunday, the Dodgers get the hottest team in baseball. and will head right into the path of the hottest team in baseball on Monday. The Reds have won seven straight, and handed Cleveland’s uberhot Cliff Lee his first loss of the year on Sunday. On the positive side, Brad Penny, who has won his last seven decisions against the Reds, is scheduled to start for LA.

N E W S W O R T H Y…

• Ira Newble has opened many eyes to the human tragedy in Darfur.
• As the Lakers head to the semi’s, Andrew Bynum heads to the operating room for arthroscopic surgery.
  
• Gary Bennett’s throwing problems are a growing problem for the Dodgers.
• Frankie Rodriguez says he wasn’t worried about his (relatively) slow start to the season.
• USC, through the good times and the bad, produce pros. How do they play at the next level?
• Joe Torre likes the combination of Chan Ho Park and Hong-Chih Kuo out of the fifth starter spot.

C O L U M N S…

• The Dodgers have a few problems, but as Helene Elliott of the Times points out, their biggest could be at the top of the rotation, where Derek Lowe (see above) and Brad Penny aren’t serving as the high end, 1-2 punch the Blue were expecting. If they can’t get those guys turned around, it could be a long season for Joe Torre’s bunch.
• The Angels have a lot of money on the payroll. A lot of rich, rich dudes. Torii Hunter. Vlad Guerrero. But the best bargain of all could be Mike Napoli, who despite sharing catching duties with Jeff Mathis is only one long ball off the lead in the AL, writes Randy Youngman of the OC Register.
• SportsHubLA Column of the Day: TJ Simers of the Times might be pretty brutal on players, but he makes a solid point when he points out that Andruw Jones is making serious money for a seriously disturbing lack of production. Simers thinks Jones is more into feeding his face then feeding his slugging percentage. But here’s the thing- nobody questions that Jones is in a slump. We get that. No doubt he should be working harder to lose weight. But T.J. seems to be mixing up correlation and causation when it comes to Jones’s eating habits and his batting average. That he’s too heavy isn’t necessarily the reason he’s not playing well.

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