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Josh Rawitch has announced the Dodgers starters for the first three games of the playoffs.  It’ll be Lowe in Game 1, Billingsley in Game 2 and Kuroda starting Game 3 at home.

Also, there’s a free playoff rally taking place tonight out at Dodger Stadium.  The rally starts at 6 p.m. and there’s free parking and $2 Dodger Dogs,plus other discounted food items.  The players will be making an appearance at 8:00 p.m., so it should be a great event to bring the kids out to.

BTW, if you’re not familiar with Inside the Dodgers, it’s a great resource for true Dodger fans, with lots of great insights from our pal Josh.  The fans commenting on the site can be a bit much at times, but the blog is great and I’m sure the content will be fantastic as we head into the playoffs.

Now this is cool: Joe Torre is taking the last game of the season off and handing the managerial reins to his veteran players. Nomar will be the skipper, Mark Sweeney will be the bench coast and Eric Stults will be the pitching coach. I heard an interview with Nomar on the pregame show, and he said he was going to ask Manny to serve as the hitting coach.

Good luck to the guys today, and have some fun out there!

Yup, those rumors are back, Dodger fans!

The 39-year-old Ng has had her job for seven seasons and was a top adviser to New York Yankees’ GM Brian Cashman before that. She was believed to be the final candidate beaten out by Ned Colletti when Los Angeles selected a new GM in 2005, and the Dodgers say she is the first woman to ever interview for a GM job.

She may be getting a second interview soon.

“It’s time for some fresh thinking,” Armstrong said at the end of his 23rd season with the team — what he called his worst and most “miserable” one.

The full story can be found here at the four letter network. The New York Times also had a good piece on how the Dodgers may have blown it when they hired Colletti over Ng. Now nearly three years later, it certainly makes you wonder…

Here’s John Donovan’s take from Sports Illustrated, which is worth a read. The Dodgers are a study of opposites. On one hand, they lead the league in ERA and runs allowed per game, but on the other hand, they’re by far the worst of the playoff teams in runs scored per game. Check out the link to learn more.

It’s easy to discount the Dodgers, considering the division they represent. The NL West has been, for most of the year, just about what everyone thinks it is. It has some good pitching. The hitting is (mostly) lame. It is decidedly average, on its best days. Only one team in the division — here’s looking at you, Blue — is better than .500. And the way the Diamondbacks (79-79) are playing, it looks as if that one plus-.500 team is all we’re going to get out of the West.

There’s an argument building out there, though, that the Dodgers are better than many might think, that the addition of slugger Manny Ramirez has transformed this team into a good-pitch, no-hit bunch to a good-pitch, Mannyball-powered machine. And, without much doubt, the Dodgers have improved since getting Ramirez in a deadline day trade with the Red Sox. L.A. was 54-54 when Manny strolled into town. Almost two months later the Dodgers are eight games over .500 now, at 83-75.

Regardless of what SI or anyone says, all of us at Dodgerfan are psyched that we’re going to the playoffs, baby!!!

Congratulations to the Dodgers, who clinched the NL West title after Arizona lost to St Louis today.

Unfortunately, the Dodgers will be sporting the worst win-loss record amongst the NL division winners (even if they win out their last four games) which means they will be starting out on the road. According to the Dodgers Web site, this will be the lowest total number of wins the Dodgers have recorded while also finishing first in their division since 1900!