Major League record

Brad Penny just tied a Major League record, striking out four batters in an inning to become the fourth Dodger to accomplish the feat. Most recently, it was Darren Dreifort (on May 22, 2003), then Don Drysdale (April 17, 1965 vs. Philadelphia) and Pete Richert (April 12, 1962 vs. CIN in one of the first games ever at Dodger Stadium).

A Martinez informs us that he also struck out four in an inning in junior college and also gave up there runs that inning, like Brad Penny.

Tied for the Wild Card at this minute

Those Phillies certainly don’t see to be going anywhere and neither do the Padres. Then again, neither do the Dodgers. This should be quite a finish. Here’s hoping you’ll make it out here today or tomorrow for the last home games of the regular season.

Here’s today’s lineup, with some notes:

Furcal, SS

Lofton, CF

Nomar, 1B

Kent, 2B

Drew, RF

Betemit, 3B

Anderson, LF

Martin, C

Penny, P

And some notes, since I don’t have time to rack the brain for some crazy thoughts right now.

LEADING OFF – Rafael Furcal has 702 plate appearances this season, the third-most in the National League, behind Jimmy Rollins (714) and Juan Pierre (711). Last night, he became the 25th player in Dodger history to tally 700 plate appearances in a season. With eight games remaining, it’s conceivable that Furcal could surpass Pee Wee Reese for second on the all-time Dodger list (743) but he is unlikely to break Maury Wills’ franchise record of 759 set in 1962.

POSTSEASON TICKETS GO ON SALE MONDAY – Tickets for any potential Division Series or League Championship Series games at Dodger Stadium will go on sale on Monday, Sept. 25 at 10 a.m. A complete press release is available in the Vin Scully press box.

BIRTHDAY BOY – Dodger outfielder Matt Kemp is celebrating his 22nd birthday today. When Kemp was born, Greg Maddux was in his first professional season, pitching for rookie-level Pikeville in the Cubs’ organization, where he went 6-2 with a 2.63 ERA.

PROSPECT WATCH – Baseball America came out with its top prospect rankings in the Gulf Coast and Pioneer Leagues and the Dodgers have the top prospect in both with Clayton Kershaw and Bryan Morris, respectively. They were also the Dodgers’ top two picks in the 2006 First-Year Player Draft while Preston Mattingly, their third first-round pick, is ranked 11th in the Gulf Coast League by the respected publication. Josh Bell, the organization’s Minor League Player of the Month for August, is rated as the second-best prospect in the Pioneer League while right-hander Steven Johnson ranks 15th.

DREW’S CREW – Since his homer drought that lasted from June 1 – July 27, J.D. Drew has hit 10 home runs in 47 games, including four in his last nine games. He leads the team with 19 homers, 92 RBI and 84 walks this season. In his last 26 games, Drew is batting .291 (24-for-82) with seven homers and 20 RBI. Of those seven homers, four have given the Dodgers the lead while one was part of the four consecutive homers in the ninth inning on Monday night, pulling Los Angeles to within two runs of the Padres. Tonight will be Drew’s 140th game of the season, five shy of his career high (145) set in 2004 and he is one RBI shy of tying his career high of 93, set that season with the Braves.

A big game, but aren't they all?

Yes, at this point every game is huge, including tonight’s. We all know how important it is, so there’s no point in me blabbering away. Here’s who’s going to get it done tonight:

Furcal, SS

Lofton, CF

Saenz, 1B

Kent, 2B

Drew, RF

Martin, C

Anderson, LF

Lugo, 3B

Billingsley, P

Yes, Nomar is going to get the day off (at least to start), as Grady’s hoping that Olmedo can continue to mash off the Pirates the way he has all year. And quite obviously, Nomar is not 100 percent health-wise and could use the day, from what Grady has told me.

Not so glory days, lineup

As I was driving into the office this morning, I realized that there was one other time when I saw four consecutive home runs hit in a game. It was the Angels vs. the Tigers, sometime in the 80s and the homers were hit by Mike Groneman, Joe Androtti, Joe Cohen and Ryan Levine. Before you go running to Retrosheet or baseball reference.com to look those guys up, don’t bother. These were the Senior Minor Tigers against the Senior Minor Angels at Northridge Little League and the homers came off of yours truly. By the fourth one, our first baseman was rolling on the ground in laughter and my twin brother was in right field, not sure whether to laugh or cry. I, of course, was crying and begging to be taken out of the game as most teams were lucky to hit four homers over the fence in a year in Little League, let alone four in a row.

While I’ve moved past that game and onto bigger and better things in baseball (some would say), my only role in last night’s game was to make sure that historically, we were covered. From looking up various records with the help of Elias Sports Bureau and STATS, LLC, to keeping a few important items for the Dodger archives from the historic game, it was a busy evening.

Once we got to the clubhouse, I asked the bullpen catcher, Rob Flippo, for a game-used baseball, on which I had the four ninth-inning homer guys sign on each "corner" of the ball. MLB had an authenticator on site, so we dated it, put a hologram on it and will keep it with some of the other great items we’ve collected over the years. The lineup card is heading to the Hall of Fame, as are a few other items from last night’s game following my conversation this morning with Jeff Idelson in Cooperstown.

Among some of the other cool things we’ve grabbed for the archives this season:

Lineup card from the game Maddux tied Steve Carlton on the all-time list

Lineup card from the Dodgers’ 17th win in 18 games

Lineup card and ticket stubs from Maddux’s six no-hit innings in Cincy (first start)

Lineup card from the first-ever French Canadian battery (Gagne and Martin)

Jersey and cap from Nomar’s introductory press conference

The ball that was the Dodgers’ L.A. record 25th hit on 6/19/06

Game ball from Hong-Chih Kuo and Eric Stults’ first Major League wins

Ticket stock from Chad Billingsley’s first big league win

And much more. Hopefully someday soon, all this stuff will be on display for you guys to check out, along with the loads of other incredible historical items we’ve saved over the years.

Here’s today’s lineup:

Furcal, SS

Lofton, CF

Nomar, 1B

Kent, 2B

Drew, RF

Martin, C

Anderson, LF

Betemit, 3B

Kuo, P

Raise your hand if you saw that coming…

Maybe with more time to think and put this all in perspective, I could sum up this game. Probably not, though, so I’ll just throw out a few unbelievable things to think about.

This is a team that hadn’t erased a four-run deficit to win a single time this year. Not once. Only once had they erased a three-run deficit to win. And yet, they erased two four-run deficits in the game, one in the ninth inning.

This is a team that is last in the league in homers and they hit seven on the night. Four in an inning. Four in a row. Three on consecutive. Off the game’s best closer ever.

This was a team in a must-win game. Not a "it’d be nice if we took this game from the Padres." Players before the game were calling it must-win. And falling behind 4-0 isn’t a great way to come out the gate. But in a must-win situation, this team won in arguably the best game anyone here has ever seen. Greg Maddux just told me he’s never seen anything like it. Same with Grady Little, Dave Jauss, Derek Lowe and just about anyone you could talk to downstairs.

Mariano Duncan seemed to fire up the team in the first inning, whether he meant to or not. That almost seems like ancient history – a different game almost – but the papers tomorrow will surely be talking about bulletin board fodder. I’ll let them tell that story.

In the clubhouse, James Loney was giddy. He didn’t want to get dressed and let the night end. He could be in this game 20 years and never see anything close to what we just witnessed.

Don Hartack, our official scorer, just came over to tell me that we had 47 total bases as a team. Marlon Anderson had 13. And his teammates were giving him grief because he didn’t stop at second on his homer to complete the cycle (his fifth hit of the game). And this is a guy we got to pinch-hit for us, but Grady said he liked the idea of putting him in the game tonight. Good idea.

Four homers in a row. Hasn’t happened since 1964. Has only happened four times in Major League history.

Oh, and by the way – this all happened on the largest Monday crowd in Dodger Stadium’s history. The largest attendance for a four-game series in Dodger Stadium history.

Another person just came over to me and told me that this was more exciting than Finley’s homer. Maybe it was. How can you judge something like that? I guess for that game, all 56,000 fans were still here, hanging on every pitch. By the time Nomar did his fist-pumping around the bases, quite a few were in the parking lot or on their way home. That’ll teach them.

And finally, how about Nomar, playing tonight’s game in Gibson-esque fashion with a bad knee, a bad quad, a bad oblique…and a bad first four out of five at-bats. But when it counted most, he hit the biggest homer of the season on a night with no shortage of big homers.

It’s midnight. Time to head home. Another game to play tomorrow that’s just as big as this one.

Lineup

Furcal, SS

Lofton, CF

Nomar, 1B (back in there)

Kent, 2B

Drew, RF (Game 135 ties his second-most)

Martin, C

Anderson, LF

Betemit, 3B

Penny, P

Sold out

OK, forget what I said about bringing the family out to tonight’s game. We’re now sold out. But be sure to watch on TV tonight if you don’t already have your tickets. And maybe you can come on down tomorrow night or any night through the weekend, as tickets are still available for those games.