--RHP Jason Schmidt was bombed for five runs (four earned) in 2 1/3 innings in his rehab start Sunday for Class AAA Las Vegas against Tacoma. He threw 63 pitches. But club officials aren't nearly as concerned with Schmidt's results as they are with his health, and by all accounts, he came through the outing unscathed.
--RHP Chad Billingsley won his ninth game, meaning he will go into the break as the team leader in victories. Billingsley's 3.25 ERA is the best among the team's full-time starters. He also ranks second on the staff with 116 1/3 innings, second only to Derek Lowe's 124. --IF Ivan De Jesus went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk in the All-Star Futures Game. The Puerto Rico native played the entire game at second base for the World Team. De Jesus is batting .307, with a .412 on-base percentage, for Class AA Jacksonville this season.
--C Russell Martin, the Dodgers' lone All-Star, finished the first half as the club's leading hitter at .294, and he also had the Dodgers' highest on-base percentage at .394. Martin drew two more walks to run his team-leading total to 53. No other Dodgers player drew more than 32 walks.
--1B James Loney led the Dodgers for the first half with 102 hits, but only four of those game on the final, seven-game homestand, on which Loney batted .160 (4 for 25). His two-run double in the first inning on Sunday broke a hitless streak of 12 consecutive at-bats. Loney is the only Dodgers player who appeared in all 95 games during the first half, staring 92.
BY THE NUMBERS: 3 -- Hits this season with runners in scoring position for center fielder Andruw Jones, who has had 45 at-bats in such situations. Jones has 10 RBIs for the season, all but assuring that he will fail to drive in at least 90 runs for the first time since 1999, when he drove in 84. Jones is batting just .164 overall, and a strong case can be made that he is baseball's biggest free-agent bust in 2008 after signing a two-year, $36.2 million contract in December.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I kind of had an inkling it was going to happen. That's Joe's man, and I understand that. I have given this organization three years, and I will continue to give it everything I have. I love the Dodgers, and I hope they get to the World Series." -- Dodgers hitting coach Mike Easler, after learning he would be returning to a minor-league coaching job because longtime Joe Torre confidant Don Mattingly will take over as hitting coach following the All-Star break.
