Dodgers Looney for Loney!!!

Tony Abreu certainly picked a fine time to hit his first big league homer. The Los Angeles Dodger rookie hit a 1-1 change up from Arizona Diamondbacks reliever Doug Slaten into the left field seats to give the Dodgers a 6-5 lead in the top of the 10th inning. Jonathan Broxton picked up the win in relief while Takeshi Saito closed things out in the bottom of the 10th for his 21st save. Neither starter was very effective... Both the Dodgers' Chad Billingsley and the Diamondbacks' Edgar Gonzalez gave up five runs in their four innings of work. Rookie James Loney continued to swing a hot bat for the Dodgers, slugging his 3rd homer of the year and going 3-for-5. Loney is now hitting .471 in his 34 at bats since his call up on June 12th. If you're looking for a nice sleeper in your fantasy leagues who could do some damage in the second half, look no further. The Dodgers gave Nomar Garciaparra a start at third base last night and may move him there to make room for Loney and his bat. You may recall a game Loney had in Colorado last year where he hit three homers and drove in ten runs! One more thing... though he only has a little more than 100 plate appearances in his career - yes, it's a small sample - his .654 career slugging percentage ranks second all-time to Babe Ruth's .690. No, I don't think he will be able to keep up this pace, but it shows just how good the kid has been so far.

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Another day, another friend moving on... Actually, this one I had known about for a while, but I had to keep "mum" on it. My friend Linda is leaving my place of employment to go do some missionary work. Linda is a very kind and generous person with a very bubbly spirit... Although she only worked with my employer a little more than a year and a half, she made a lot of friends in her short time there. She will be living in Chile for three months, serving the community and doing the Lord's work. The area she's going to is in the "inner city" and it's quite dangerous. It takes a truly special heart to serve in such a place. I hope and pray that she will be safe in Chile'. She will be missed.

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