What a difference a week makes....On Monday morning the Boys in Blue had lost five straight games and six of their last seven games. Everything was going wrong for the Blue Crew, they couldn't hit, (three runs in three games against San Diego) or pitch (22 runs in three games to Detroit).

Leave it to Cincinnati to give Dodger fans hope. LA mauled the Reds in a three game sweep that ended with a 7-4 victory yesterday. Tonight the Dodgers face the Cleveland Indians in the first game of a nine game home stand, and will once again leave their fans feeling like a child after being told Santa isn't real.

Fans are optimistic because..well LA is in the worst division in baseball (1 team over .500) they're only 4.5 games out, they have a four-time world champion managing the club and it's all you can eat out in right field....

Don't be fooled...the three reasons (Andruw Jones, Jason Schmidt, and Rafael Furcal) a beer rivals the price of a barrel of crude oil are all on the disabled list. The three highest paid players on the club have not contributed the way the Dodgers had hoped. The ace of the staff, Brad Penny has lost the ability to consistently throw strikes while Derek Lowe leads the team with 5 wins. Clayton Kershaw is young, great, but young. He needs time, and if Torre's smart he won't burn him up.

Even better is the powerful Dodger offense, and by powerful I mean like Spelling Bee participant strong.....The motorcycle man, Jeff Kent leads the team with a whopping eight home runs. When the guy leading your team in home runs is also getting AARP letters in the mail, that's not good sign.

For those that think LA can make a few deals at the deadline in order to make a push towards October, what do they have that a team would want? LA won't part ways with its young stars(Martin, Kemp, Loney, Eithier, Billingsley, Kershaw)......I bet there's a huge market for a guy that hits .280 with 0 HRS and  has to hit the cutoff man in order to get the ball to second base from shallow left....and gets paid $8million a year..

Despite all of this overwhelming evidence fans will come in groves to the ravine tonight for the first pitch (3rd inning) and stay till the last out(7th inning) in hopes that their beloved Dodgers can return to the glory days of the late eighties.. After all if a roster comprised of Ronny Turiaf, Vladimir Radmonvic, Chris Mihm, DJ.Mbenga could make it to the NBA Finals, why can't the Dodgers return to the fall classic.