It looks like you are all still staying in the conversation, as there are tons of comments from yesterday. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to read all of them, but I’m sure they can’t be very happy ones with the way last night ended. Safe to say, it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen a player that upset or embarrassed after a game.

But there isn’t much you can really say at this point other than continued to hope that the team gets out of its collective slump before it’s too late. I will say, when I went over to get my morning coffee today, it happens to be at the same place in the offices where the team serves ice cream to the staff when we’re in first place. I had a very strange flashback to 17 days ago when a lot of so-called experts (and plenty of fans) had a great feeling about this team and the club led the NL in wins. It’s amazing how quickly things can change, even though the team is essentially the exact same as it was then.

I know that we dealt Wilson Betemit and that in hindsight, it would have been nice if he was still here with Nomar now hurt, but hindsight is not something that any GM gets when they make a deal. So, we move on…and we are doing so tonight with this lineup:

Furcal, SS

Pierre, CF

Kemp, RF

Kent, 2B

Loney, 1B

Martin, C

Gonzo, LF

Hillenbrand, 3B

Penny, P

I know the Hillenbrand move confused some people yesterday, but there was certainly reasoning behind signing him and then bringing him up. Nomar Garciaparra, who has been dealing with a strained left calf for a while, has finally had to go on the disabled list and knowing that he was hurting, adding a third baseman made the most sense. Of course, no one knew that Nomar would get ejected last night for the first time in his 1,300-game career, but so it goes.

So coming up from Triple-A today will be Eric Hull, who will join the bullpen. And there should be another move coming on Friday when we add a starting pitcher for that night’s game.

There’s not much I can really add about the play on the field these last two weeks. We’re all disappointed that it hasn’t been better and there’s not a person in baseball operations who isn’t spending every waking minute trying to figure out how to fix it.

Here’s today lineup:

Furcal, SS

Pierre, CF

Kemp, RF

Kent, 2B

Loney, 1B

Martin, C

Ethier, LF

Hillenbrand, 3B

Tomko, P

It’s hard to believe that two weeks ago, we began the day tied for first place in the NL West with the exact same team in place.  Since then, the only moves that were made were to acquire Scott Proctor and Mark Sweeney, option D.J. Houlton and Eric Hull, and recall Delwyn Young.

The likelihood of almost everyone going into a slump at the same time is hard to believe, though I know there were some who predicted it. But having watched last year’s turnaround, it obviously shows that anything can happen.

Here’s today’s lineup, back to the one from earlier in the week.

Furcal, SS

Martin, C

Loney, 1B

Kent, 2B

Gonzo, LF

Nomar, 3B

Pierre, CF

Ethier, RF

Billingsley, P

Could use a win today, to say the least (or state the obvious).

Furcal, SS

Pierre, CF (day off for Martin)

Loney, 1B

Kent, 2B

Gonzo, LF

Lieberthal, C

Ethier, RF

Martinez, 3B

Hendrickson, P

My 93-year-old grandmother was going to make the trip over from Kansas City today until we realized that it probably wasn’t the best idea to have her sit in 100 degree weather with insane humidity while watching her beloved Dodgers. So, we’ll have to get a win without her in the park.

Here’s today’s lineup, which will be read on FOX’s regional game by Brett Tomko:

Furcal, SS

Martin, C

Loney, 1B

Gonzo, LF

Nomar, 3B

Ethier, RF

Pierre, CF

Martinez, 2B

Lowe, P

Looks like everyone is chatting away, with over 400 comments. Keep it up…

I have a feeling most ofyou will like this lineup, based on comments over the past few months:

Furcal, SS

Martin, C

Loney, 1B

Kent, 2B

Gonzo, LF

Nomar, 3B

Pierre, CF

Ethier, RF

Penny, P

Mark Sweeney is now here and D.J. Houlton has been optioned back to Triple-A Las Vegas.

Eventually, something will end this skid. It doesn’t make sense that a city could be so hot and a team could be so cold, but that’s baseball, I guess. Maybe the revamped lineup will get it done:

Furcal, SS

Martin, C

Saenz, 1B

Kent, 2B

Kemp, RF

Young, LF

Pierre, CF

Martinez, 3B

Tomko, P

As for the comment about old recorded games, we do have a very extensive archive of video that has games from over the years and I believe it’s currently in the process of being digitized, which takes an incredible amount of time. But that’s a great idea about being able to download them. I’ll look into it and see if that’s possible down the road.

Sitting in the dugout here at Great American Ball Park and expecting it to get even hotter tonight and tomorrow (and throughout the weekend). As we watch the Reds take their team photo out on the field, Matt Kemp, Juan Pierre and I are laughing about Ken Griffey Jr.’s walk-up music. It’s "Soul Glow," from the movie Coming to America. I couldn’t believe it when I heard it last night and I’d bet a huge part of the crowd has no clue what it’s from.

Anyway, the Reds did a really nice job on this ballpark when they built it. Somehow, I had never been here before this trip, so I’m fortunate enough to chalk up another stadium to the list. I think I’m somewhere around 25 now, including all the NL parks (and some defunct ones). I’m sure a bunch of you have done baseball trips. How many have you been to and what’s your favorite?

The team is still trying to snap out of the funk it’s in and obviously, it has to happen soon. No one here is too down on themselves, but everyone realizes what’s at stake. I don’t think we have to win 18 of 19 again, but a nice five- or six-game winning streak would help get us right back in the thick of things.

Here’s the lineup, with a little change:

Pierre, CF

Furcal, SS

Martin, C

Kent, 2B

Ethier, LF

Nomar, 3B

Loney, 1B

Kemp, RF

Billingsley, P

It looks like there was some good chatter yesterday among you all while we were flying here to Cincinnati. Read through most of it this morning and glad to see that a lot of people have not yet started waving the white flag. There were some good posts with some good thought put into them. No doubt, this team is in a funk and needs to turn things around quickly. Hopefully today is the start of that turnaround.

Speaking of chatter, if you’d like to ask questions directly of Ned, he’ll be hosting an online chat today at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. local time here in Cincinnati to try and answer some of your questions and concerns. We had originally scheduled this to come after the trade deadline so that he could talk about whatever trades were or weren’t made, but the timing is pretty good, anyway, given all that’s happening of late.

The lineup will follow later this afternoon. And yes, Clayton Kershaw was promoted to Double-A Jacksonville.

UPDATE: Lineup for today –

Furcal, SS

Pierre, CF

Martin, C

Kent, 2B

Gonzo, LF

Nomar, 3B

Ethier, RF

Loney, 1B

Hendrickson, P

Same lineup as yesterday with different results, hopefully. And for the superstitious types, the Think Blue sign will be back next homestand but it’s safe to say that that isn’t really to blame for the 1-4 homestand.

As for the pessimists among us, here’s something to keep you from jumping. In 1995, the Dodgers were 3.5 games out of first going into Aug. 5 games and still won the West. In 1983, they were actually 6.0 games out going into Aug. 5 and Fernando pitched a complete-game and they went on to win the division. And for those who don’t like to think back that long, last year the team was 2.0 games out on Aug. 5 and 4.0 games out on Aug. 1 and still made the playoffs. Just some food for thought, as I know we all are pretty frustrated these days.

Another amazing thing I though of last night during the game. Russell Martin has hit 10 homers in more in each of his first two big league seasons and Andre Ethier is about to do the same with his next homer. I assumed that either Piazza, Karros, Mondesi, Hollandsworth or anyone in the 80s or 70s might have done that, but believe it or not, you have to go all the way back to Jim Lefebvre in 1965-66 to find a Dodger who has done what Martin has already accomplished this year. There have been about half a dozen guys to hit 10 homers in their rookie year and sophomore year, but all of them had two rookie seasons (they played in the big leagues but did not pass up the rookie qualifications and were rookies again the next season).