Here are some notes from Joe Torre's pregame discussions with the media:
- James Loney is not in the starting lineup today because of the flu. Loney actually went home early during yesterday's game. He is available to pinch hit if needed today. Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw also had bouts with the flu earlier this week.
- Torre noted that Randy Wolf has been great, and that he picked up the slack recently, at a time when the club really needed it. He said Wolf has a great feel for pitching and is very comfortable with and trusts his stuff.
- Hiroki Kuroda will likely travel with the team to Colorado and Cincinnati, and might throw a bullpen session or two on the road trip.
- Torre said that Jonathan Broxton has grown by leaps and bounds this year over last year, most notably in his increased confidence. The Matt Stairs NLCS home run was brought up, and Torre said there comes a point in everybody's career when there is nothing left for them to prove, and Broxton reached that point in the last inning of the NLDS against the Cubs last season.
- Torre also noted that Broxton is a very quiet person by nature, and that he spoke with him again this morning regarding pitching the eighth inning yesterday. Torre said Broxton understood that bringing him in to face the heart of the Cub lineup, even though it was in the eighth and not the ninth inning, was actually a compliment to Broxton.
- The key to Charlie Haeger's success, according to Torre, is the changing speeds of his knuckleball, keeping the hitters off balance. Torre also noted that Haeger was able to get a lot of swinging strikes on high knuckleballs.
- Although nothing is yet official, it appears Vicente Padilla is set to start Thursday in Colorado
Vic "The Brick" Jacobs, clad in a large Dodger poncho, was filming some segment just in front of the Dodger dugout featuring a number of rabbis, and there was much dancing involved (don't ask). As Doug Mientkiewicz was leaving the field after his workout, he quipped, "Where's the dancing bear? Where's the bearded lady? I woke up in the Twilight Zone!" A few moments later, Orlando Hudson emerged from the clubhouse having heard Mientkiewicz and asked, "where is this dancing bear?" to quite a bit of laughter among the press corps.