--OF Xavier Paul got his first major league hit, a pinch-hit single with two outs in the eighth inning on Sunday. It came in his second big-league plate appearance, and Paul was thrown out trying to steal second on the next pitch. Paul was recalled from Class AAA Albuquerque for the first time Thursday, when it was announced that Manny Ramirez would be serving a 50-game suspension for using a banned substance.
--RHP Hiroki Kuroda threw off a mound for the first time in a couple of weeks on Sunday. Kuroda, who has been on the 15-day disabled list since April 10 with a mildly strained left hamstring, is tentatively scheduled to throw at least a couple more bullpens on this week's trip to Philadelphia and Florida. If all continues to go well, he presumably could be ready to begin a minor-league rehabilitation assignment when the team returns home next week. --LHP Eric Stults continued this weekend to make sure the Dodgers don't miss the injured Hiroki Kuroda all that much. Stults pitched his second career shutout on Saturday against San Francisco, a four-hitter in which he didn't walk a batter. Stults now has as many victories this season (four) as he had in his entire, three-year career in the majors coming in.
BY THE NUMBERS: 18 -- Games out of 33 the Dodgers have played this season, in which they have scored at least one run in the first inning. The Dodgers have scored a total of 26 first-inning runs this season, and they are 15-3 in games in which they have scored a first-inning run. Through Sunday, they had scored in the first inning of three of the four games they had played since No. 3 hitter Manny Ramirez's 50-game suspension.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Now that it's over, I can think about it and be like, you know what, this is something special. Hopefully this will get us back on the winning track and I can go celebrate Mother's Day with my wife and give my dad a call and tell him I love him." -- Dodgers LHP Eric Stults, who lost his mother to cancer over the winter, after pitching his second career complete-game shutout, a four-hitter, on Saturday against San Francisco.
