Weekend Notes and Quotes...
The Dodgers opened up their almost do-or-die Wild Card chase series with the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday night, fielding just four players from the team's opening day lineup: Mark Ellis, A.J. Ellis, Matt Kemp and Andre Either. Gone or benched are Juan Uribe, James Loney, Juan Rivera and Dee Gordon, all replaced by Andre Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez, Shane Victorino and Luis Cruz.
Clayton Kershaw was the Dodgers' opening day pitcher, and on the mound Thursday night was Josh Beckett, who was recently acquired from the Boston Red Sox.
Both the Dodgers and the Cardinals came into the game losing six out of their last seven games.
Dodgers announcers have all but abandoned talking about the club's slim chances of catching the San Francisco Giants, who had a comfortable seven-game lead in the National League West going into Thursday's schedule All the concentration is on the Cardinals, who were minus two important players--Lance Bergman and Rafael Furcal, both injured.
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The 7:30 p.m. start for the UCLA-Houston football game Saturday night at the Rose bowl will put a lot of pressure on TV and newspaper deadlines. With a high offensive show expected from both teams, the game doesn't figure to end until well after 11:30 p.m., well-past 11 o'clock news broadcasts and sports section off-the-floor times.
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USC, coming off a less-than-impressive performance against Syracuse, heads for Palo Alto to play Stanford in the Pacific 12 opener for both teams. The No. 2 Trojans will be looking for some payback for their loss last year to the Cardinal in triple overtime. Stanford, like USC, is 2-0 with wins over San Jose State and Duke.
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