--LHP Clayton Kershaw was summoned to a meeting with manager Joe Torre and pitching coach Rick Honeycutt before the game after he walked four batters and hit another in five-plus innings Tuesday night. Torre told reporters the meeting was about the need for Kershaw to avoid trying to be too perfect. Overall, Kershaw has a strikeout-to-walk ratio of almost two-to-one, striking out 39 while walking just 20 in 38 innings.
--LF Juan Pierre continued to sizzle in the absence of Manny Ramirez, going 2-for-4 with a single and another double and reaching base three times Wednesday, although he neither scored nor drove in a run. Pierre has hit safely in each of the six games since Ramirez's 50-game suspension was announced, and he has multiple hits in four of them. Overall for the six games, Pierre is batting .480 (12-for-25) with five doubles, five runs and four RBIs, and he is batting .465 (20-for-43) in the 11 games he has started this season. --3B Casey Blake said he meant no disrespect to San Francisco closer Brian Wilson when he mocked Wilson's customary crossing of his arms over his chest after nailing down the Giants' 13-inning win over the Dodgers on Sunday. Wilson, who says the gesture is a tribute to his late father, was visibly upset at Blake's mimicking of the gesture in the Dodgers dugout, which was caught by TV cameras. Although Blake didn't apologize, he did express remorse and admitted that he probably shouldn't have made the gesture.
--LHP Clayton Kershaw lost Tuesday for the third time in four decisions and the third time in seven starts this season. In his three losses, Kershaw has an ERA of 12.21 (19 earned runs in 14 innings). In his four other starts, he has an ERA of 1.13 (three earned runs in 24 innings).
BY THE NUMBERS: 18 -- Games out of the Dodgers' first 33 in which they scored at least one run in the first inning. They were 15-3 in those games.
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." -- LHP Eric Stults, who lost his mother to cancer over the winter, after pitching his second career complete-game shutout, a four-hitter, on May 9 against San Francisco.
