After 18 hits yesterday, we’ll roll the same eight out there tonight, with Brett Tomko on the bump.

Here’s the latest post from Assistant Player Development Director Chris Haydock:

Although most of my time is spend traveling throughout our minor leagues, it was nice to be at Dodger Stadium this past weekend for our sweep of the Reds. Great crowds all weekend, and a very festive Mother’s Day atmosphere at the ballpark.

I would like to send a personal thank you to Jeff Kent- who personally autographed a pink bat for a very special cancer survivor who loves the Dodgers and makes it out to the ballpark often. He is her favorite player, and he gladly signed the bat- which was a huge hit with her and her family. Class act.

The series also gave me a chance to congratulate Andy LaRoche on his big league call-up. Since he was called up while the club was in Atlanta, I didn’t get the chance to see him until this weekend. From the day that these young men first sign a professional contract, they become, in essence, one of our "kids". We get to know them from Day 1, and are witnesses to each trial and tribulation they must go through before they make it to the big leagues.

One of my favorite Andy LaRoche stories occurred in Vero Beach a few Spring Trainings ago. Early in his career, there had been some talk in the off-season of making Andy a catcher. The idea had been thrown around a bit, but never communicated to Andy (since we decided against it). On the day that Andy arrived to Spring Training, he went straight to our minor league equipment room to pick up his uniform. I happened to be in the back of the room at the time helping one of our coaches find some batting practice balls. When the equipment manager accidentally gave Andy a set of catching gear, in addition to his uniform, Andy’s response was simply, "Whatever gets me to the big leagues quickest." There were no complaints, rants or raves. Just an honest answer from an honest kid who wanted to fulfill his dream as soon as possible.

Our scouting department has done a terrific job over the past few years signing not only talented players, but great make-up individuals, as well. As many of you may or may not know, Andy received a $1,000,000 bonus when he signed with us. When presented with the catching equipment, he could have complained, called his agent, etc.- since he had signed originally with us as an infielder. However, he gracefully took the equipment back to his locker, ready, able and willing for any challenge we were going to throw his way. It is this type of approach and desire that has no doubt led to his recent call-up and early success in the big leagues.

We wish Andy a long a successful Major League career with the Dodgers. Now, it is simply up to us as the Dodgers’ Player Development Department to go out and develop another one.

Hope all is well Dodger fans wherever you may be!

A special shout out goes out to my mother and the moms of all the Dodger players, coaches, broadcasters, front office members and fans. If you watch the game today, the pink bats will be evident throughout, with several Dodger players planning to use them.

Andre Ethier wrote his mom a postcard for the world to see today and the L.A. Times checked in on Brett and Donna Tomko a year after she beat breast cancer.

If ever there was a day to be thankful for what we have, this would be it. And for those inclined to donate to the Susan G. Komen Foundation or purchase a pink bat of your own, you can do so at these links.

The lineup is almost the same as the last two days, with one change at the bottom of it.

Furcal, SS

Pierre, CF

Nomar, 1B

Kent, 2B

Gonzo, LF

Martin, C

Betemit, 3B

Ethier, RF

Hendrickson, P

And here are a couple notes on a Sunday morning…

A SALUTE TO MOMS – Today is Mother’s Day and the first 25,000 fans in attendance will receive free lip gloss, compliments of Smashbox Cosmetics. Major League Baseball will be dedicating the day to raising money and awareness for the fight against breast cancer through the Susan G. Komen “For the Cure” Foundation. Numerous Dodgers have agreed to use pink bats to help raise awareness for the disease, including Wilson Betemit, Brady Clark, Andre Ethier, Rafael Furcal, Nomar Garciaparra, Jeff Kent, Mike Lieberthal, Russell Martin, Ramon Martinez, Juan Pierre and Olmedo Saenz.

MANNING THE HOT CORNER – Third baseman Wilson Betemit has struggled to find a groove at the plate this season but it has not affected his defense. Betemit has committed just one error in 26 games at third base, making him one of just six third basemen in Major League Baseball this season with one miscue or less and 25 or more games played at the hot corner.

A TALL ORDER – Mark Hendrickson’s 1.95 ERA is the eighth-best in baseball and the sixth-lowest mark in the NL among all pitchers with 30.0 or more innings pitched. Hendrickson has allowed just five earned runs in four starts this season, his best four-start stretch since June 3-20, 2004 when he also allowed five earned runs in four starts. Incredibly, the best four-start stretch of Hendrickson’s career was his first four big league starts when he permitted just three earned runs in 26.0 innings (1.04) from Sept. 7-25, 2002.

IT’S A LITTLE STUFFY IN HERE – Luis Gonzalez had three hits last night to give him 2,405, tying him with Stuffy McInnins for 101st place all-time. He is 10 hits shy of cracking the Top 100 in baseball history, with the century-spot currently being held down by Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle. Gonzalez also scored three runs to surpass Barry Larkin and put himself in 99th place all-time with 1,331, two behind Lave Cross. Gonzalez legged out his first triple last night since July 23, 2006 and drew his team-leading 19th base on balls.

LONGBALL LORE – Of the Dodgers’ 18 homers this season, eight have come against left-handers and 10 against right-handers despite having more than three times the at-bats against righties (951) than lefties (306).

Safe to say, this is one of the more interesting Juan Pierre features I’ve ever read. It comes from Joe Capozzi, who covers the Marlins for the Palm Beach Post.

And while I’m posting interesting articles, this one is long but very worth the read on a Sunday morning or Saturday evening. It’s about Dr. Mike Marshall, the former Dodger reliever.

New day, same lineup with Penny on the hill instead of Wolf.

Here’s the lineup for today and as you’ll note, there’s not much different from before except that Furcal, Kent and LaRoche are back in the lineup, which is pretty significant:

Furcal, SS

Pierre, CF

Nomar, 1B

Kent, 2B

Gonzalez, LF

Martin, C

Ethier, RF

LaRoche, 3B

Wolf, P

Back at work on Friday morning and figured I’d address the concern that I only see the team through rose-colored glasses. That is, in fact, correct and I’m not ashamed to say so. This blog has never purported to be anything but supportive of the team and it’s safe to say that you will not see me criticizing Grady, Ned, Frank or anyone else on it. That’s not actually what this is intended to do. For the most part, my job and the goal of this blog is to explain why the people in this organization makes the decisions we make on a daily or even hourly basis.

In this instance, it was pretty obvious that when Grady went out to the mound to talk to Derek yesterday, the issue of walking Willingham was brought up and Derek chose to pitch to him for a number of reasons. While a wild pitch would have still brought in the run, his main point was that if the bases are loaded, you have to be perfect and throw a strike for fear of walking the guy. If you have first base open, you can make the pitches you want to make and obviously, he didn’t make the one he wanted to make. Enough said.

Additionally, I don’t believe there’s anyone here that doesn’t think we need to improve the offense – from me to Grady to Ned to the actual players themselves. We just all have different ways we think that can be done. Some of you believe that it involves bringing up younger players to take the place of veterans and others think it’s tinkering with the lineup or changing the approach to hitting. Those are all valid options. But at the end of the day, Grady, Ned and the rest of the baseball operations staff get to make those decisions and their track records have shown that they have been successful far more often than not.

As for yesterday’s story about Nomar, I was certainly not trying to sugarcoat anything – I just saw something really cool in the clubhouse and didn’t feel like logging on at home after a six-hour flight so I put it up before we left Miami.

In any event, we continue to welcome all comments, positive and negative on the blog. I’m not nearly as concerned about the negative posts as some of the other readers seem to be, though I will gladly admit that I’m always going to look at the positive side of things or try to explain why we do the things we do – particularly when the team is in first place by a game and a half.

That was as tough of a loss as we’ve had all year, but I have to tell you, as we get ready to board the plane for Los Angeles, I’m feeling pretty good about this team.

I’ve been either covering baseball or working in PR for the last eight years and I’ve never seen what I just saw after the game. Derek was extremely down, as you can imagine, having given up the home run following an incredible outing. Russell Martin went over to tell him how great he pitched, as did a couple other teammates. But it was clear that he didn’t really want to talk about the loss and you can imagine how hard it is for him to discuss it or reporters to make him discuss it.

Nomar, realizing how tough Derek was taking it, came over to me and told me that he was going to go talk for Derek today and then proceeded to put all the blame on himself and the offense for not getting it done today. In the end, Derek eventually talked to the media because he, too, is a stand-up guy. But I have to say, it’s things like this that make you see how a team can come together over the course of a season.

Despite the loss, the homestand starts tomorrow and the Dodgers are in first place regardless of the rest of the day’s games. In the end, a game like this – plus a gesture like Nomar’s – really can go a long way.

Right now, on the field at Dolphin Stadium, there is something called Weather Day going on for a bunch of local youths. Only in Florida can the weather be significant enough to actually attract several thousands kids to the ballpark. In fact, I’m guessing that today’s attendance will actually be better than the last three nights, which is strange given that it’s during the day and most people are working or at school. But, as I type, there’s a local meteorologist down on the field, leading kids in the wave.

If you’re awake, be sure to watch Brad Penny on ESPN’s First Take today at 11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT. Then he’ll be on Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio at 8:20 a.m. PT/11:20 ET. That should be the end of all the national attention for at least another day or so.

Today’s lineup includes an all-Wilson left side of the infield:

Pierre, CF

Martin, C

Nomar, 1B

Gonzo, LF

Ethier, RF

Betemit, 3B

Valdez, SS

Martinez, 2B

Lowe, P

A little late today, as I stayed downstairs for batting practice to introduce some of the players to our sponsors who made the trip out to Florida for this series. Just one of the many little things that go into the operation of a Major League team.

Furcal, SS

Pierre, CF

Martin, C

Kent, 2B

Saenz, 1B

LaRoche, 3B

Valdez, LF

Clark, RF

Tomko, P