The Dodgers finished off the Marlins today in a blowout 12-5 win with the 4 of the 5 runs allowed coming on a grand slam in the 9th off Mota. You have to love the job Clayton Kershaw did today with what has to have been the best game so far of his young career.

You also have to love the Dodgers bench players by now. Nevermind the fact that Pierre is already off the bench filling in for Manny and swinging the hottest bat in the lineup. You start to feel easier about Torre resting Furcal, Blake, Ethier, and Martin all at once again when you get such potent output by Juan Castro, Mark Loretta, Brad Ausmus and Xavier Paul. These four combined for 6 hits, 5 walks, 5 RBI and 9 runs.

So, that caps a successful 4-2 road trip with the Dodgers taking advantage of a Phillies team that has been struggling to score runs and a Marlins team struggling in too many ways to count. What may be lost to us in the 12 run game but certainly not lost to Torre and Honeycutt is the fact that Guillermo Mota could not get the 3rd out in the 9th. His ERA of 9.00 means there is no time when the Dodgers should feel comfortable bringing Mota in if the lead is not big.

As they near the 40 game mark the Dodgers 26-13 start puts them up there with the 1976 Dodgers, which was 6 years before I was even born.

LA gets back to their own beds late tonight to start a 6 game home stand against the Mets and the Angels tomorrow. I’ll throw together my thoughts on the Mets series later after they (hopefully) finish up a sweep of the Giants and send the Dodgers up to a 7 game lead in the West.