Good news all around

First, because I have been so diligent these past few weeks in chronicling the control problems of Dodgers minor-league lefty Greg Miller, I must tell you that he seems to have corrected them. In his past two outings for Double-A Jacksonville, he has walked just a run on two hits over three innings. More importantly, he has walked just two batters during that span. Even if he hasn't completely turned the corner, he appears to be in the process of turning it. Good for him. He's a good guy, and I hope we see him in the bigs come September. ... Secondly, the the Dodgers have come out of their slumber, and they have done so in a way that perfectly illustrates the value of working counts early in games, which they sort of did and sort of didn't do against Kazmir (see my earlier post). That they continued to do it into the middle innings is why they managed to erase a three-run deficit in a single inning, scoring three in the sixth after a leadoff triple by James Loney followed by a walk to Matt Kemp. Kazmir either walked or hit a batter in each of his six innings, and by the time Joe Maddon finally felt compelled to go to his very shaky bullpen, Kazmir already had thrown 112 pitches. How shaky is that pen? Jay Witasick started the seventh with the sixth walk to a Dodgers batter (Jeff Kent). Olmedo Saenz followed with a double, and after an intentional pass to Loney, the Dodgers have the bases jammed for the third time in the game with one out. Dodgers 3, D-Rays 3, top 7