Cory Wade is feeling better, so they scrapped the MRI, and he’ll go straight to Camelback Ranch tomorrow for his rehab. Hiroki Kuroda played catch today, will travel with the team and is expected to throw off a mound soon (I’m guessing Tuesday). And Eric Stults will be pushed back in the rotation to keep the front four on their regular rest, so he won’t pitch until Friday night at Colorado, which will be on seven days’ rest unless he is used out of the bullpen. Torre said Stults would be available today, but ONLY today. … Also, Joe had an explanation for why Matt Kemp had his sunglasses on his cap when he lost that ball in the sun yesterday. He had taken them off because he couldn’t see the ball out of the pitcher’s hand, which is actually important for the seven fielders. After that inning, when he got back to the dugout, Matt immediately switched to the flip-down shades for the rest of the game.

I can’t figure out this lineup. James Loney has been struggling lately (3 for 17 on the homestand), so he drops out of the cleanup spot, but he only drops to fifth, which gives the Dodgers back-to-back lefties with Andre Ethier hitting fourth, and the Rockies do have two lefties in their bullpen. Russell Martin drops to sixth. The oddest part of this is that Ethier is hitting .154 (2 for 13) for his career, albeit with a home run, against Rockies starter Ubaldo Jimenez. Also, Joe said he hopes to get five innings out of James McDonald, but he still considers this is a bullpen day, so he added that it won’t be a horrible failure if J-Mac doesn’t get that far. Sounds like Ramon Troncoso will be the second guy in.

Jill covering the game today so I can have a light day before the road trip.

SS Furcal
2B Hudson
LF Ramirez
RF Ethier
1B Loney
C Martin
CF Kemp
3B Blake
RH McDonald