--LHP Clayton Kershaw was optioned to Double-A Jacksonville before the game to make room for Kuroda. Kershaw, the organization's top pitching prospect, had been promoted from Jacksonville to the majors on May 24. Since then, he had gone 0-2 with a 4.42 ERA in eight mostly impressive starts, but he had admittedly struggled at times with his command.
--2B Jeff Kent had two RBI doubles, giving him 499 in his career as a second baseman. That places Kent first on the all-time doubles list by a second baseman since 1974. He also has 48 career doubles at Minute Maid Park, seventh most by any player in the ballpark's history. --OF Matt Kemp batted leadoff for the second consecutive game. In those two games, he is 2-for-9, but both hits have gone for extra bases (a double and a triple), and he also has two walks, one of which was intentional, a stolen base, a run scored and an RBI. Kemp became just the second player other than Juan Pierre or Rafael Furcal to bat leadoff for the Dodgers this season after Jason Repko went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts in his one game there on Monday.
--RHP Brad Penny felt fine the day after pitching a simulated game. That puts Penny on track to come off the 15-day disabled list and start on Saturday at San Francisco. With Kershaw's demotion, manager Joe Torre scrapped his plan to go with a six-man rotation through the All-Star break, meaning the Dodgers will go with Penny, Eric Stults, Hiroki Kuroda, Chad Billingsley and Derek Lowe.
--OF Andre Ethier fell a triple short of the cycle, the second Dodgers player to do that in two games after Russell Martin also singled, doubled and homered on Tuesday night. All three hits came off right-handers Runelvys Hernandez and Dave Borkowski, and Ethier is hitting .307 against righties this season. He is batting just .167 against left-handed pitchers.
BY THE NUMBERS: 5 -- Times in the modern history of baseball that a team has been no-hit in a game but still won, a result that means the game doesn't go on the books as a no-hitter. The Angels' Jered Weaver and Jose Arredondo combined to no-hit the Dodgers for eight innings on Saturday night, but the Dodgers won 1-0 on an unearned run after Matt Kemp reached on an error, stole second, took third on another error and scored on a sacrifice fly.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "In reality, it's a catch between patience and being aggressive. There is that fine line. There is a time to be patient and a time to be aggressive when you're an offensive player. There is a time to be patient when you're coaching, too. There is a time to be aggressive and take some action, because you can't wait too long." -- Dodgers second baseman Jeff Kent, on the inability of the club's young players to adapt to a more patient approach to hitting.
