Is it live or is it Memorex?

The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Diego Padres today at Chavez Ravine to go to 10 and 0 at home to start the 2009 season. They now hold the all time mark for any Dodger team in either New York or Los Angeles for win to start a season and have tied three other teams who also hold that mark: the 1983 Atlanta Braves (ironically helmed by current Dodger skipper Joe Torre), The 1970 Chicago Cubs, and the 1918 New York Giants. The Major League record for consecutive home wins to start a season is 12 held by the Detroit Tigers of 19...something or other. The Dodgers are now three wins away from accomplishing this feat. They must go through Doug Davis and Max "afterburner" Scherzer of the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday and Tuesday respectively, and then whomever the Washington Nationals throw at them on Wednesday night. Trying to push the Dodgers over the threshold will be Eric Stults, who couldn't get out of the second inning in his last start against the Giants in San Francisco, Jeff Weaver on Tuesday night, who hasn't had a Major League start in over a year and half, and finally Clayton "the kid" Kershaw on Wednesday. If the Dodgers accomplish this feat, expectations will most likely be extremely high for them to not only win the west but to go very deep in the playoffs. However, expectations can be daunting: none of those three teams mentioned even made it to the playoffs.

A case can very easily be made that the Dodgers are feasting on sub .500 teams who can't produce runs of any kind. True. But don't forget about the pitching in the NL West. The Dodgers have already seen Jake Peavy twice, Chris Young twice, Barry Zito twice, Randy Johnson, Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Dan Haren, Ubaldo Jimenez and Aaron Cook twice, and some other starters they have never seen before. The accomplishment of ten and 0 is valid, if for no other reason than that.

The Dodgers may have accomplished something even more impressive today. They swept the San Diego Padres for the first time in a four game series in their history, not just at home but on the road. The Padres already accomplished that feat in 1983. Yep, you got it, the same year Joe Torre helmed the Atlanta Braves to that ten and 0 start.

Wow!