There’s a lot going on these days, and it’s not just the five-game winning streak. On top of the usual daily duties of our department, today we had a visit to Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA, as Derek Lowe and James Loney went over there to spend time with some of the kids. Derek’s hosting the bowling event at the end of the month, with some of the proceeds going to Mattel, so if you want a chance to meet him and a bunch of the other players, you can still purchase a spot or a lane here.

I wasn’t at that community event, as we had previously planned to bring Takashi Saito over to a restaurant on Sunset called Saito Sushi. FSN Prime Ticket filmed the whole thing for a segment on their pregame show that will air on Thursday, so be sure to tune in for that. Every time you get one of the players away from the field, his personality is able to come out a lot and that was certainly the case with Sammy. And in case you missed it, the L.A. Times new beat writer, Dylan Hernandez, wrote a great piece on Saito a few days ago. Dylan is fluent in Japanese, Spanish and English and he’s a great new addition to the paper.

As for Saito, he’s really a pretty funny guy. He’s picked up a little English and I’d have to say that the funniest part of the day wasn’t caught on tape. As we were leaving the restaurant, we saw a homeless man in the parking lot and Saito said, "What’s up, brother?" The guy laughed and said, "You’re a VIP." I guess the TV camera gave it away.

Meanwhile, while we were out around town with these players, there was a luncheon in the Dugout Club for the various people who have seats in the Dugout Club and Suites where Grady Little ate his first-ever Dodger dog, believe it or not.

Just another day in the front office…here’s the lineup:

Furcal, SS

Pierre, CF

Loney, 1B

Kent, 2B

Gonzo, LF

Nomar, 3B

Kemp, RF

Lieberthal, C

Hendrickson, P

There was a question about getting personalized jerseys and while I haven’t been able to get an answer yet on the online store, you can call the Top of the Park store at Dodger Stadium and order a Billingsley jersey (or whoever) that way. The number is (323) 224-1334.

Here’s tonight’s lineup:

Furcal, SS

Pierre, CF

Martin, C

Kent, 2B

Loney, 1B

Nomar, 3B

Ethier, LF

Kemp, RF

Penny, P

The team has fared pretty well against lefties thus far (17-8), the best mark in the NL. And a win tonight would put the Dodgers at a season-high 13 games over .500 and would mark the first time they’ve won five in a row this season.

Also, if you’re at home tonight (not at the game), stay tuned on FSN Prime Ticket after the game for "Randy Wolf, Before the Bigs." He grew up locally, as most of you know, so there should be plenty of interesting references to things from the Valley.

Another Valley guy (and another former Philly), Mike Lieberthal, hit his first big league homer on this date in 1994 and it was against the Dodgers. Incredibly, his teammate at the time and the starting third baseman that day was Mariano Duncan.

And phinally, with the Phillies losing their 10,000th game yesterday, it begs the question of how close the Dodgers are. The answer: Not very. The team has lost 8,573 games since 1890 when it joined the National League.

Also, here’s an answer to some of your questions about spam which came from the guy at MLB who runs the blogs:

"Everyone’s comment at MLBlogs is followed by their email address as we are an open community and people can email each other — unlike other typical blog sites where you can’t contact anyone unless you register there. If the person wants his/her email address to be hidden, s/he must be a subscribed MLBlogger, and then can choose to have a first name only show up (it would be clickable to a URL or email address of that person’s choosing).

We can’t do anything about the spam, sorry…and of course that’s making an assumption that it’s coming from MLBlogs exposure, as it’s a Yahoo! account that can be spammed from anywhere. Six Apart is the No. 1 blog software company and this is their Typepad environment that we are using, at least for now.

Also, this is the first such comment I’ve received in 2-plus years of MLBlogs community, so it’s generally not a concern among users…even though I certainly hate spam as much as anyone."

Got a chance to wander down to the stands to visit with my wife and a friend and saw a great T-shirt down there.  The front said "WWLD" and the back said "What Would Lasorda Do?" Pretty funny.

As for what Lasorda is doing today, he is with Don Newcombe and President Bush for a tee-ball game on the White House lawn with youngsters from Los Angeles and Brooklyn. The kids from L.A. usually play at one of the Dodger Dream Fields that was built for them by the Dodgers Dream Foundation and it’s pretty cool to put a piece of two Dodger eras together on the same field, even if it’s a lawn and it’s tee ball.

Unfortunately, Chin-hui Tsao had to go back on the DL with a shoulder issue, but D.J. Houlton is here today after arriving late last night from Las Vegas.

Hoping Tomko can get back on track and finish off the sweep and 11 in a row in SF.

Furcal, SS

Pierre,CF

Martin, C

Kent, 2B

Gonzo, LF

Nomar, 3B

Loney, 1B

Kemp, RF

Tomko, P

"The world’s an imperfect place, sir. Screws fall out all the time."

It’s 10:30 on a Saturday morning, so there’s no better time for a quote from The Breakfast Club. Plus, when I walked into the press box, the Giants’ PR interns were watching the movie, which is what made me think of that line.

Meanwhile, I had breakfast this morning in a diner down the street from our hotel and saw several Dodger fans up here. Also noticed a feint chant last night at AT&T Park of "Let’s Go Dodgers" late in the game. Good to see you all out in full force in the Bay Area, where the team has won nine straight games.

Today’s game is on FOX regionally. Mike Lieberthal will read off the lineups for your entertainment and Rick Honeycutt will be interviewed in game. Here’s the non-Lieberthal version of the lineups:

Furcal, SS

Pierre, CF (three straight multi-hit games and five in last six games)

Martin, C (has reached base in eight straight PA and has five consecutive hits)

Kent, 2B

Gonzo, LF

Loney, 1B (eight hits in last 14 at-bats)

Betemit, 3B

Ethier, RF (five hits and six RBI in his last two games)

Lowe, P

Safe to say, the kids are playing well these days. And speaking of kids at play, tomorrow, President George W. Bush will host a tee ball game on the White House lawn in honor of Jackie Robinson’s 60th anniversary of breaking the color barrier. The game will host teams from the Inner-City Little League of Brooklyn, NY and the Wrigley Little League of Los Angeles, CA, the two home cities of Robinson’s team, the Dodgers.  The Dodgers will be represented by Special Advisor to the Chairman Tommy Lasorda, Director of Community Affairs Don Newcombe and Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, Howard Sunkin. This will be the 17th tee ball game at the White House and it will bring together some of Robinson’s original teammates and other notable baseball icons.

Looking for nine straight by the Bay. Haven’t done that in a long time (since the 1970s).

Here’s the lineup:

Furcal, SS

Pierre, CF

Martin, C

Kent, 2B

Gonzo, LF

Nomar, 1B

Loney, 1B

Ethier, RF

Billingsley, P

Nothing of major significance to report. The team worked out at Dodger Stadium today and is currently en route to San Francisco. Billingsley starts tomorrow with Penny on Saturday and Brett Tomko now starting on Sunday. Derek Lowe moves to Monday and Mark Hendrickson on Tuesday.

Otherwise, it’s a quiet day in Dodgerland. Grady’s third grandchild was born earlier today, so our congratulations go out to him and his family on the birth of Jace Dalton Little.

The actual break starts today for those of us up north and despite the NL’s loss yesterday, it was actually a very good game. I guess that means we’ll have to play Game 7 of the World Series in Anaheim, Boston or Cleveland (one can only hope).

I had the honor after the game to give Russell Martin his All-Star ring and while I wasn’t down on one knee, it was the first time I’ve handed over a ring since I got engaged three years ago. Suffice to say, it was an awkward but funny moment. He really seemed to enjoy himself, as did Saito and Penny. All three of them stayed up here for the week, as did Jaime Jarrin and Stan Conte, and the team will meet up with all of us tomorrow night after working out at Dodger Stadium.

Penny’s got his family in town and I think they headed to Alcatraz today. Saito’s family flew home today to Japan after spending a few days here in San Fran and Russell’s dad was here to enjoy all the festivities.

Now it’s a short break until Friday’s opener, which should be the start of a fun series. If I can think of anything interesting to post tomorrow, I certainly will. If not, my apologies in advance.

It’s been a nice 24 hours since the last post, as the Home Run Derby seemed to keep the masses entertained here and then a bunch of us headed over to the All-Star gala nearby. I’ve run into several former Dodgers over the last few days, including Eric Karros, who is working for FOX and Candy Maldonado, who is part of ESPN Deportes’ crew here. There’s never a shortage of ex-Dodgers around and here in San Francisco, everyone gets booed every time they step into public.

During BP yesterday, Russell got booed mercilessly, which he loved. He also had to hit right after Barry Bonds, which is a pretty tough act to follow. Then this morning, we helped set up the parade down Embarcadero with the players, as Saito and his wife and two daughters were in the same vehicle as Russ. According to Russ, they got booed the entire way down the street, which made me laugh.

Brad Penny was with his parents, brother and his girlfriend and said he got the same "royal" treatment here in San Francisco.

By the time we all got here for batting practice, the gates were open and fans were filling in. Eventually the NL took a team photo and it was cool seeing Saito and Barry Bonds interact despite the language barrier. I think Penny served as the interpreter, but his Japanese is about as good as Barry’s. Saito and Barry even hugged in front of the hostile crowd, which I’m sure got them all riled up.

Overall, it’s a hectic 72 hours for these guys, but I have a feeling that for first-timers like Russ and Saito, they’re really enjoying the experience. And for Penny, who was here last year, he can actually step back a little and enjoy it rather than the sensory overload that comes with the first time at an event like this.

The game starts in about an hour and a half and my spot is in the auxiliary press box.  Brad told me he’s going to pitch the second inning and only go one, so I guess he and Peavy will start out for an inning apiece and then hand it over to the other guys. Hopefully Sammy gets in te game late, though I’d imagine if the NL has a small, it’ll be that guy down the freeway with 500 saves who gets the ball.

I’m here at the Westin St. Francis, which is the hub for most of what’s going on this week at the All-Star Game. We had the press conference a little where they announced the starting pitcher and it’s Jake Peavy. Brad is fine with that, of course, but he was certainly deserving, too.  It seems like Tony LaRussa also wanted Jake to experience the same things Brad did last year, which is fair. They’re both worthy of the honor.

There was also an hour-long media availability for all the other players here so our three guys got to talk to probably 500 media members in a giant room. Just picture a huge ballroom with tables around the outside of it and each player from the NL (32 of them) sitting at each table that’s perched up on a platform with media surrounding them. The two biggest media contingents for the NL were Barry Bonds (shocker!) and Takashi Saito (SHOCKER!). There is a ton of Japanese media here and many of them already cover Ichiro or Okajima, but never get to see Sammy. So today, since the AL and NL are separate, Saito must’ve had 50 reporters around him the entire time. Hard to imagine what that’s like when you usually only have about five or six following you around each day.

After the media availability, the players, families and schmoes like me were upstairs in a private area and Ichiro and Saito got a chance to catch up. I didn’t understand a word they were saying, but it was obvious when they ran into each other the mutual respect they show for one another, which is an incredible thing about the Japanese culture.

Russell also has a lot of media from his home country, Canada. It’s certainly not like Japan, but at least four TV stations and reporters from around the U.S. were catching up with him and Brad. This truly is a global game, that’s for sure.

On a sad note, one reporter actually had a seizure during all of this and while I don’t know him personally, I certainly hope he gets better quickly.

Now it’s off to the ballpark for NL batting practice and other types of media availability. It will be a little weird being in the Giants home clubhouse, which is the NL’s home for this week. It’s a lot bigger than the visitor’s clubhouse and the last time I was in there was the 2002 World Series when I covered the Giants for one season for MLB.com.

Be sure to catch the home run derby tonight and keep checking in at dodgers.com, as there will be plenty of stories that are specific to our players, including Chin-lung Hu, who won the MVP of the Future’s Game yesterday.