I asked Torre last night if he was thinking about a change with Kent because he had stopped benefiting from hitting in front of Manny. He said he didn’t want to announce a change without taking a long look at it. Well, I guess he took a long look at it. Kent is hitting fourth tonight, in front of Loney, the first time he has hit in front of anyone other than Manny since he hit in front of Casey Blake on Aug. 5. Nomar has three hits in his past 30 at-bats. Martin isn’t slumping, but he needs a day off, and the Dodgers don’t have any day games after night games coming up. … By the way, I wrote in today’s paper that Jeff Kent is 5 for 28 since he was given last Thursday off. My mistake. He is 5 for 27. I was counting an 11th inning at-bat on Sunday night at Philly. That was actually Pablo Ozuna, who had entered defensively for Kent in the bottom of the ninth.

Kemp. CF
Ethier. RF
Ramirez. LF
Kent. 2B
Loney. 1B
Blake. 3B
Ardoin. C
Berroa. SS
Kershaw. LHP