Looking Ahead To Tuesday

With the All-Star Game coming up on Tuesday, here's a look at the National League starting pitchers on the team and their last start before the break:

Kershaw is technically the only one of the eight pitchers who would be on normal rest to start Tuesday, but in reality the starting pitcher just throws two innings anyway so that's not much of a concern. My guess is that, barring injury, Halladay gets the start for the National League, and if it's not him then Jair Jurrjens and his 12 wins and MLB-best 1.87 ERA are hard to ignore.

Hamels and Lincecum, by starting on Sunday, will be ineligible for the All-Star Game and will need to be replaced.

Tonight's Game

The Dodgers finish their "first half" with a three-game series with the Padres, a team the Dodgers haven't seen since May 1. Chad Billingsley and Mat Latos face off in the opener.

Notes

• A.J. Ellis is catching Billingsley for the fourth straight start tonight, by design. Billingsley was struggling in his first three June starts, allowing 17 runs in 14 2/3 innings, with eight walks and nine strikeouts. In his three starts since, with Ellis behind the plate, Billingsley has allowed four runs in 19 1/3 innings, with six walks and 16 strikeouts. Manager Don Mattingly called Billingsley and Ellis "a good combo," but in general doesn't like the concept of personal catchers. "I don't like doing that at all, honestly. I don't want to get caught in that trap," said Mattingly.
• Andre Ethier was playing wiffle ball with his kids when he got the call today informing him that he made the All-Star team. It took a while for the Dodgers to get a hold of Ethier, so Dodgers director of team travel Scott Akasaki (now on Twitter, by the way) sent a text message to Ethier's wife, with better results. "I kept pushing ignore because we were in the middle of an intense game," Ethier joked.
  
• After the All-Star break, the Dodgers will have some pitchers throwing at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, then will hold a full team workout in Arizona on Thursday.
• Mattingly hasn't yet decided on the post-break starting rotation order, but he is leaning toward starting with Kershaw, then Hiroki Kuroda.
• Steve Garvey, who has been very public about his desire to buy the Dodgers in recent weeks, has been fired by the Dodgers, per Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports. Garvey had been in the club's marketing and community relations department for 15 years. Among Garvey's responsibilities were to make "numerous appearances on behalf of the team in the community and in conjunction with the club's corporate sponsors." Fellow former Dodgers Ron Cey and Lou Johnson also work with the Dodgers in that capacity. On Blogger Night Tuesday night, Cey expressed particularly disappointment in Garvey's public pleas for ownership, calling them unethical since Garvey was still getting paid by the team.
  

Game Time: 7:10 p.m.

TV: Prime Ticket

MLB Gameday