Los Angeles Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers recalled RHP James McDonald from triple-A Albuquerque and sent down RHP Travis Schlichting. 

McDonald was named the Pacific Coast League Player of the Week for Jun. 8-15. During that stretch he went 1-0 and allowed just one run in 14 innings pitched. 

He also struck out 23 hitters over those two starts for the Isotopes. 

For the season in triple-A, McDonald is 1-0 with a 3.26 ERA in six starts. 

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Saturday will mark just the 21^st time in Major League history that brothers will face-off against each other as opposing starting pitchers.

32-year-old Jeff Weaver will start for Los Angeles in place of Eric Milton, who isn’t eligible to come off the DL until Sunday. Jeff’s Dodgers will face his little brother Jered and their cross-town counterparts, the Los Angeles Angels.

The Dodgers’ organization has actually seen brothers face each other twice before.

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I thought time only flies when you are having fun, but apparently that beauty of an adage isn’t entirely true.

As it turns out, time also flies when you don’t care. Seriously.

Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature’s law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.

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It’s no secret that the Los Angeles Dodgers (43-23) hold the majors' best record. They have been in first place in the NL West for 66 consecutive days and have a nine-game lead over the San Francisco Giants.

This weekend will see a renewal of a rivalry in Anaheim, as the first place Dodgers (by eight-and-a-half games as of this writing) take on the surging Angels.

It's been a bit one-sided this year, as the Angels took two-of-three at Dodger Stadium in May.

In fact, the Angels have always played their Chavez Ravine neighbors tough. I remember going to a Dodger-Angel game two years ago today where the Angels walloped the Dodgers 10-4, and it wasn't even that close.

A true Dodgers fan understands the meaning of the upcoming interleague series against the team's cross-town American League rival. These Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim—so called for marketing reasons—are not true rivals in our book. 

The Dodgers and Angels cannot go back in history and recall any turbulent battles between the two teams. Each organization does have its history of great players, though they never met in a meaningful game—let alone the World Series.

You can hear it, even from the Bay Area.

You can hear the trash talk, the snide remarks, the fans' shouts of support for their winning team. You can hear the calls of this year being different, this one meaning more than the ones before... and none of it about the Lakers.

The Freeway Series has split SoCal again.

As the Angels and Dodgers prepare for the second half of the yearly Freeway Series, the Dodgers, as usual, seem to be scrambling to find a way to knock off their persistent AL rivals.

When superstar Manny Ramirez was suspended for 50 games by Major League Baseball for violating the drug policy, pundits and experts stated that the Los Angeles Dodgers would be fine.

As it turned out, they were absolutely right, and then some. 

And it makes this longtime Dodger fan SO glad about the team's performance to date:

Not only have the Dodgers kept the best record in baseball at 37-18 (going into tonight) since Manny's suspension, they have increased their lead in the National League West to 9 1/2 games, and are a threat to run away with that division.

Don Mattingly was named hitting coach in 2007 and took on the task of transforming an impatient Dodger team into a more disciplined offensive ball club.

While there has been a lot of focus, and rightfully so, put on the impact of Manny Ramirez’s arrival last season, Mattingly becoming hitting coach was a major factor that turned things around in Los Angeles.