Stephen Fife Debuts; “Doc” Halladay Returns

Stephen Fife (0-0, -) vs. Roy Halladay (4-5, 3.98)

Lineup:

Abreu LF

Ellis 2B

Kemp CF

Ethier RF

Kennedy 3B

Loney 1B

Cruz SS

Ellis C

Fife P

The Dodgers are in the midst of a three-game losing streak, and now they must encounter the return of Roy Halladay for good measure. The Dodger offense has been dormant for well over a month now, and the plethora of injuries this season have really started to take their toll on the Dodgers. The most recent Dodger to be stricken is Chad Billingsley, who will not make his start today after experiencing elbow tenderness for the past few starts. Bills was placed on the 15-day DL retroactive to July 8th. His MRIs showed right elbow inflammation, but he was okayed to commence throwing. Hopefully Bills will only miss one start, but with Ted Lilly still disabled it now puts the Dodgers on a more urgent mission to acquire another starting pitcher.

Roy Halladay will make his first start since May 27th after being sidelined with a right lat strain. “Doc” will be on a strict pitch count, and he will most likely only pitch six innings at the most. With Halladay, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard all back for the Phillies, the team looks much different than the one the Dodgers swept in a four-game series in Philadelphia in June. Ryan Howard hit his first homerun of the year last night against Eovaldi after returning from Achilles tendon surgery, and the Phillies are seemingly looking  to seek revenge for that sweep.

Stephen Fife is a 6’3″ 220 pound right-hander born in Boise, Idaho. This season in

Albuquerque, Fife has a record of 7-5 with a 4.53 ERA in 18 games started. He has allowed 114 hits in 97 1/3 innings pitched with 66 strikeouts and 36 walks. His strikeout per nine ratio is 6.1 which has decreased over his time in the minors. Fife was acquired from the Boston Red Sox last year as part of the Trayvon Robinson trade.

There was some ridiculous quote by Don Mattingly stating that he wasn’t going to give up on Juan Uribe.

"“I know it hasn’t been pretty, but to give up on a guy, that is just quitting and that’s not in my DNA. I just don’t think that’s right.”"

Uribe has had one hit in 32 at bats, and he is hitting a putrid .191 with one measly homerun. The thing is, Juan Uribe has been horrific now for 1 1/2 seasons. How long are they going to put up with it? It’s infuriating to watch day in and day out. Like I said on Twitter, if you were totally unproductive at your job for 1 1/2 years or only accomplished 1 out of 32 tasks assigned, you would get fired. Uribe, Loney, and Kennedy are the root of this offensive ineptitude. They are dragging the whole team down. The problem isn’t the pitching. The Dodgers actually are ranked second in the Majors in team ERA (3.30) and opponent batting average (.236). The Nationals are number one in each category. Offense and defense has been downright abysmal while the pitching has really kept the team afloat this last month. But the Dodgers are now beginning to slowly sink in the standings, and they now sit two games back of San Francisco.

Tonight the game will start at 7:10 pm, and it will be televised on KCAL. Come back after the game to vent with us!