On a day when Jason Schmidt  finally made it to a major league mound, it was the offense that was the story of the game as the Dodgers prevailed 13 - 7.  Xavier Paul had three hits in his first three at bats to trigger the offense, but it was the light hitting middle infielders for the Dodgers who socked it to the Texas Rangers. DeWitt, Hu, Castro, and Luna combined to  go 8 for 13, with two home runs (Castro/Luna), 5 runs batted in, and 6 runs scored.

Three pitchers went today who are in the battle for the 5th spot in the rotation.  Jason Schmidt almost finished his two innings unscatched, but big time catching prospect Tyle Teagarden touched him for a three run jack with two out. Claudio Vargas did nothing to augment his cause as he gave up three home runs ( Andruw Jones, Boggs, and Blalock).  Eric Milton tried to worm his way back into the hunt with three solid innings of work but Joe Torre told Tony Jackson that it was Schmidt's job to lose. Which may not be that hard to do considering it is Jason Schmidt.

With our left handed relief pitchers getting batted around like a drum (Leach, Garate, Elbert, Randolf) Erick Threets was the only one to go today and he got the only two hitters he faced. Not sure if Beimel is on speed dial but the all time Dodger lefty setup man might be an upgrade.

Victor Garate stayed in camp in an ill fated attempt to win a job on the major league roster instead of pitching for Venezuela. Based on the box score yesterday he would have been welcome on Venezuela pitching staff. 

Use this link to keep track of the Dodger spring training stats.