--1B James Loney went 1-for-4 Thursday, leaving him with a .409 on-base percentage that is largely the result of his averaging one walk every 7.3 plate appearances after walking just once every 14.5 plate appearances last year. Loney denied that he is taking a more patient approach at the plate this season, instead saying that he simply is having more success with the patient approach he has always tried to have. Dodgers manager Joe Torre credited Loney's willingness to try to hit the ball up the middle instead of trying to pull everything.
--RHP Ramon Troncoso has made exactly one appearance and pitched 3 2/3 innings through the Dodgers' first 10 games. But manager Joe Torre said he feels no urgency to get Troncoso into a game just to get him work. Torre said his concern with doing that would be that he might need Troncoso in long relief the next day. --INF Tony Abreu, a highly regarded prospect, has run into injury trouble yet again. Abreu suffered a high right ankle sprain sliding into second base in a minor league spring training game a couple of weeks ago. He spent a week on crutches and is expected to miss between three and six weeks.
BY THE NUMBERS: 23 1/3 -- Innings pitched by the Dodgers' bullpen on the club's season-opening, seven-game trip to San Diego and Arizona, a stretch during which not one Dodgers starter survived past the sixth inning until Randy Wolf went seven-plus on Sunday. The primary culprit was early-inning pitch counts and walks, especially by the young trio of Chad Billingsley, Clayton Kershaw and James McDonald at the back end. They combined to walk 11 batters in 13 1/3 innings.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Our offense was always going to come around. It just took a little while. We still have a long way to go. Mr. (Joe) Torre has seen this type of thing before, because he has been around this game a long time, since before I was born. Since before my parents were born, in fact, because my parents are only 49 and 51." -- 2B Orlando Hudson after the team's struggling lineup finally broke out for 11 runs on Saturday night at Arizona.
