Before today’s game, we will option Willy Aybar to Triple-A, activate Izturis and move Mueller to the 60-day DL. It looks like Izzy will play some third base as well as middle infield. Here’s tonight’s lineup.

Furcal, SS

Lofton, CF

Nomar, 1B

Drew, RF

Kent, 2B

Kemp, LF

Martinez, 3B

Martin, C

Penny, P

A quiet day here yesterday at the stadium, so you didn’t miss much. With a dead laptop, I haven’t posted much in a few days but should be back up and running later today. We’ll also be hosting a live web chat with Fernando Valenzuela today at 2 p.m. in both English and Spanish.

Lots of off-day stories focusing on Adrian Beltre (Daily News, L.A. Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Tacoma News) as well as a nice piece on Dave Stewart’s affect on Chad Billingsley and Matt Kemp on dodgers.com and a story about the meshing of veterans and rookies in the L.A. Times.

It will be nice to see Adrian back at Dodger Stadium today, as he was always a hard worker and a good person.

Finally, here’s an interesting note I found yesterday while doing the daily game notes — the last time the Dodgers faced the Mariners, the winning pitcher for Seattle was Aaron Sele, who improved to 10-1. The day before, the Dodgers won on a ninth-inning walk-off shot by none other than….Adrian Beltre.

It’s a funny game…

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. If you’re in LA, you’ve still got time to head over to Dodger Stadium until 1 p.m. and play catch in the outfield.

Happy birthday to Sandy Alomar Jr., who gets a start today to celebrate.

How many of you stayed up through all 17 innings yesterday? Tough way to lose, but those kind of games are always exciting. The bullpen threw more than eight scoreless innings, which is a good sign. In the end, the team that capitalized on their opportunities came out on top, plain and simple.

Thanks for the advice on the laptop…unfortunately, I’ll have to wait until tomorrow in LA to get back on track.

Today’s lineup:

Furcal, SS

Aybar, 3B

Nomar, 1B

Drew, DH

Kemp, CF

Ethier, LF

Cruz, RF

Alomar, C

Martinez, 2B

Sele, P

Laptop went on the fritz last night, so there won’t be much more  besides lineups the next two days. Have to post from the clubhouse computer:

Furcal, SS

Lofton, CF

Nomar, 1B

Drew, DH

Kent, 2B

Kemp, RF

Ethier, LF

Martin, C

Martinez, 3B

Lowe, P

Congratulations to the Solano Elementary School’s Class of 2006, which held its graduation ceremony this morning at the Dodger Stadium Club. There were speeches by both students and faculty members, followed by the presentation of diplomas. After the ceremony, parents and students enjoyed punch and cake and watched a slide-show video of the students’ activities throughout the year.

This is a tradition which began in 1980. Because Solano is part of the Dodgers’ Adopt-A-School program, and located only a few blocks from Dodger Stadium, many members of the Dodger front office visit the school throughout the year, detailing their respective job responsibilities and answering questions about life at the ballpark.

It’s warm up here in Oakland…and the A’s are hot, having won seven in a row. Hoping we can knock them off their streak a bit. The last time the team played here, they faced Barry Zito like they are today and went 15 innings. The Dodgers won on back-to-back bases loaded walks.

We also made a transaction today – we reinstated Navarro from the DL and optioned him to Triple-A, where he’s been rehabbing. As for the lineup:

Furcal, SS

Lofton, CF

Nomar, 1B (now qualified for the batting leaders)

Kent, 2B

Saenz, DH (one of three Dodgers to ever homer as a DH)

Kemp, LF (he’ll be on ESPNews live at 3:40 PT/6:40 ET from our dugout)

Cruz, RF

Martin, C

Martinez, 3B

Tomko, P

There is natural curiosity this morning surrounding Chad Billingsley as the top rookie prospect prepares to make his Major League debut against the Padres in San Diego. In mid-June, the question is whether the right-hander is ready to join the Dodger rotation on a full-time basis. Billingsley, who turns 22 on July 29, was the Dodgers’ first-round selection (24th overall) in the June 2003 First-Year Player Draft.

Since the amateur draft began in 1965, the Dodgers have made a pitcher their top selection on 19 occasions, including left-hander Scott Elbert (2004), currently pitching for the Dodgers’ Single-A Vero Beach affiliate; and recent first-round draft choice Clayton Kershaw.

Billingsley becomes the sixth pitcher from that group to reach the Majors, joining Rick Rhoden (drafted in 1971), Rick Sutcliffe (1974), Bob Welch (1977), Steve Howe (1979) and Darren Dreifort (1993). And Billingsley becomes only the second pitcher to make his debut as a starting pitcher.

The other was Sutcliffe, who pitched five scoreless innings and received a no-decision in a 1-0 victory against the Houston Astros on Sept. 29, 1976. That game marked the managerial debut for Tommy Lasorda, a third-base coach who took over the ballclub when Walter Alston announced his retirement two days earlier after 23 seasons.

While the spotlight was on Lasorda, there was no pressure on Sutcliffe that evening as the second-place Dodgers already were eliminated from the pennant race and trailed Cincinnati by 10 games in the National League West. Sutcliffe returned to the minor leagues in 1977, appeared in two games in 1978 and resurfaced in 1979, winning Rookie of the Year honors with a 17-10 record.

Bring on the kids…the last five players in today’s lineup are all under 24 years old and the average age of them is 22. Scary.

Furcal, SS

Cruz, RF

Nomar, 1B (should qualify for the batting title after today’s game)

Kent, 2B

Kemp, CF (one of just five guys in history with 7 HR in first 18 days in the bigs)

Ethier, LF

Aybar, 3B

Martin, C

Billingsley, P

Also, all draft-day winners should have be contacted by now, so if you have not heard from our office and think you picked the first two selections correctly, please post it here.

Remember the name Danny Muegge? He’s the kid we got with Dioner Navarro and William Juarez in the Shawn Green deal. Tonight, he pitched 7.0 shutout innings and allowed five hits, as Jacksonville won 1-0, their 14th straight win and 22nd in the last 23 games. I told Matt Kemp yesterday that once they finally got rid of the stiffs like him, they started winning again.

For those who can’t get enough baseball from MLBlogs, Dodger Thoughts and the rest of the blogs out there, check out The Daily News’ baseball blog, with updates from Tony Jackson, who covers us for that paper.

Other interesting happenings from the press box tonight – Luis Garcia, my counterpart at the Padres and the guy who preceded me at the Dodgers in 2002, stole A Martinez’s microphone and had him nervously searching the press box for an inning.

Martinez, who does regular radio reports for KFWB 980 and also dutifully handles the Coca Cola Challenge at Dodger Stadium, made a friednly wager with Fernando Valenzuela on tomorrow’s World Cup match. Martinez, a native of Ecuador, will wake up early tomorrow to watch the game, most likely with Jaime Jarrin, who’s also from there. Fernando is probably willing to bet on Costa Rica just to be different.

Walked to the park today in perfect weather…Derek Lowe decided that rather than run around the track inside PETCO Park, he’d run around downtown San Diego, so we exchanged head nods and hand signals while listening to our iPods. Funny how modern communication has changed the way we all interact.

Also stopped by a room in our hotel where a number of our sponsors and dugout club members were checking in for a two-game trip. That’s one of the perks of being tied into the club in that fashion – they took a trip to Vegas earlier this year and I think they’ve got another one later this year.

For the third straight year, you can take your dad to Dodger Stadium this Sunday to celebrate Father’s Day. The annual Father’s Day Catch will be from 10 a.m to 1 p.m. and is free, but it fills up quickly, so come down early and have a catch with your dad on the outfield grass.

Reporting early to the park was Chad Billingsley, who said he slept well last night, given the circumstances, but that his phone started ringing off the hook around 6 a.m. from friends back home who had read the news. Needless to say, he’s pretty psyched about tomorrow’s start and said that Andy LaRoche’s homer last night was a bomb. LaRoche has two taters in two games with the 51s.

Today’s lineup:

Furcal, SS

Lofton, CF

Nomar, 1B (could qualify for the batting title by the end of the night with 5 PA)

Drew, RF

Kent, 2B

Ethier, LF

Aybar, 3B

Martin, C (has an RBI in six straight)

Penny, P