The Dodgers placed Brian Jordan on the disabled list with a strained lower back on Saturday. Jordan began having difficulties with his back in mid-August. Doctors originally were concerned that he had a bulging disc, but after tests and a regimen of anti-inflammatory drugs, they believe the injury was only a strain from which Jordan has now almost fully recovered. Due to his inactivity after August 16th, Jordan is eligible to return to the team August 31st and the Dodgers may activate him at that time. Consequently, although he's at risk for further difficulties as he had problems with his back earlier this season both this May and in past years, LA should be without his production much longer. LA promoted Jolbert Cabrera to fill Jordan's roster spot.

Kevin Brown rejoined the team August 15th and has worked out of the bullpen since that time. The Dodgers want Brown back in the rotation, but they are afraid of rushing his return as the team also wants him available for any playoff games. LA continues to hold onto the NL Wild Card, though the Diamondback have almost clinched the division at 9 games up.

Brown filled the roster spot of Giovanni Carrara, who the Dodgers placed on the DL with a strained right forearm. Carrara somehow managed to maintain a 3.62 ERA while in the majors, but he's allowed 63 H and 13 HR in 69.2 IP with a 38:23 K:BB. He'll likely return in September to the detriment of the bullpen.

Following Sunday's game in which the Dodgers' bullpen was forced to pitch 8 innings because starter Kazuhisa Ishii lasted only one, LA demoted Kevin Beirne in order to call up a fresh arm for the pen in Guillermo Mota. The Dodgers promoted Beirne to fill the roster spot of Victor Alvarez. Alvarez was only up for four days after filling the roster spot of the traded Terry Mulholland. Beirne returned to starting in the minors this season after the Blue Jays attempted to move him to relief in 2001. He appears to have corrected the control problems that previously limited his usefulness in the past, though at the cost of some prior dominance. If the Dodgers recall the 28-year-old in September, he should be a capable reliever but not particularly impressive.

LA was glad of the extra arm in the bullpen when yesterday's game went into extra innings. The Dodgers were actually set to win after a sub-par outing from Curt Schilling. However, Eric Gagne came in for the save with one out in the eighth, sat down Luis Gonzalez and Erubiel Durazo on strikeouts, returned in the ninth, struck out Matt Williams, then allowed a single to Steve Finley and struck out Mark Grace before allowing a double to David Dellucci, scoring Finley and tying the game.

We tend to flip through ballgames in the evening and particularly enjoy tuning into west coast games when we're up later. Last night as we were commenting that it had been a slow news day, we switched back to the LA/Arizona game to find Alex Cora lying motionless on the ground with the announcers describing a horrible collision between Cora and Tony Womack as Cora tried to steal second in the bottom of the ninth. Surprisingly, we didn't see one replay of the event though reportedly the game had already been delayed several minutes. An ambulance was on the field and Cora was put on a stretcher and driven to the hospital. I think ESPN may have avoided showing repeated replays, fearing he was extremely seriously injured.

The game resumed after a 15-minute delay, though the players all seemed distracted by the event. Fortunately, in the tenth or eleventh inning, the broadcasters announced that Cora had suffered a concussion but that he would otherwise be all right.

I later saw a highlight of the incident, and Cora, sliding headfirst into second, barreled into Womack, who was moving to catch ball thrown from home. Cora's head caught Womack on the knee, catapulting the shortstop over him while he continued to move forward, lying unconscious when his momentum stopped.

Unfortunately, LA simply couldn't match Arizona's pitching, whose entire pen was rested because Randy Johnson had thrown a complete game on Sunday. The Dodgers brought in Mota yesterday in the 10th and then left him out there through three innings for 80 pitches. We were hardly surprised when he began to fall apart in the 12th. Jesse Orosco and Paul Quantrill were used in the 7th and early 8th innings. Paul Shuey and Kevin Brown were unavailable after respectively pitching 2 and 4 innings on Sunday. Although Ishii should have been able to pitch after throwing only an inning the day before, the Dodgers hesitated to utilize that option, lost the game, and endangered Mota's arm.

At the moment, the Dodgers plan to use their upcoming off-day in the schedule to skip Ishii's next turn in the rotation. However, he won't be available for use out of the bullpen. They're still planning on having him remain in the rotation after his skipped start and have not identified a time for Kevin Brown to re-enter the rotation. The Dodgers will need to straighten out their pitching staff and avoid further injuries if they want to hold onto their playoff spot.