A heads-up Justin Maxwell stolen base followed by a Pete Orr fly ball to right field in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Nats a 5-4 walk off win against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Nationals Park on Wednesday night. The Nats’ comeback win was sparked by a Ryan Zimmerman three run home run, a shot into the centerfield bullpen off Trolley righthander Chad Billingsley that tied the score at three. Billingsley was into the sixth and pitching a no-hitter until Zimmerman’s blast. It was Zimmerman’s 31st home run and 100th RBI of the season. The Nats went ahead 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth, but couldn’t keep the lead — as a shaky outing by closer Mike MacDougal and two Cristian Guzman throwing errors allowed the Dodgers to tie the game in the top of the 9th.

The Nats looked like they were headed for yet another anemic night at the plate, as Billingsley mastered the Anacostia line up with six innings of no hit baseball. But with runners on first and second in the sixth, the suddenly tiring Billingsley was visited by Dodger pitching coach Rick Honeycutt. On the very next pitch — with Zimmerman at the plate – the Dodger righty threw a ball that hung up-and-in on Zimmerman, and ended up over the fence. In all, Billingsley threw six innings, giving up only one hit. It was a masterful if vain performance by the 12-10 Dodger. Nats fans were pleased to discover that they’re not the only ones frustrated by poor defense. An eighth inning fly ball off the bat of Adam Dunn dropped between confused left fielder Manny Ramirez and centerfielder Matt Kemp, while a sure double play bouncer up the middle was thrown wide at first. The miscues sent the Nats into the top of the ninth with a one run lead and a chance to close out the game.

The Nats were actually lucky in the 9th, despite MacDougal’s keep-em-in-the-game pitching and their two errors: two line shots ended the inning with the bases jammed. The Dodgers were only able to score once in the top of the ninth, leaving the score tied at four. In the bottom of the final frame, Justin Maxwell hit a single past a diving Ronnie Belliard into left, was sacrificed to second by Alberto Gonzalez and then stole third. A surprised Trolley catcher Russell Martin threw wide of the bag at third to put Maxwell 90 feet from home. That brought journeyman Pete Orr to the plate. His long fly ball to right — dropped by the usually sure-handed Andre Ethier — won the game.

There was a time — and not so long ago — that the Los Angeles Dodgers were the best team in the National League, and perhaps the best in baseball. That wasn’t true from the end of July through the first part of September, when the team seemed to struggle to win games and the Redbirds surged. That’s not to say that the Trolleys didn’t win, they did: but hardly at the same rate as in the first four months of the season, when their young pitching staff was the talk of baseball. There were low points, head scratching series that saw the listless Dodgers incapable of mounting their usual barrage of hits, or keeping their starters in games much past the sixth inning: the Trolleys lost three of four to the Redbirds at the end of July, then two of three to the Brewers, then three of four to the Braves. The losses to the Braves were particularly hard to take: they were all at home — and they weren’t even close. It was puzzling. Suddenly, the Trolleys — though sailing along in first place — looked vulnerable. 

Oddly (or perhaps predictably), the struggles of the L.A. Nine seemed to coincide with the return of Manny Ramirez, whose fifty game suspension actually energized the Chavez sluggers, giving new life to replacement Juan Pierre and Joe Torre’s raft of young boppers — particularly Andre Ethier (.283, 31 HRs) and first baseman James Loney (.283, 13 HRs).  Baseball’s community of pundits oohed and ahhed over Manny’s return (noting, and it seemed endlessly), that he remained “the best righthanded hitter in baseball,” but they couldn’t help wondering how the return of Pierre to the L.A. bench would effect Joe Torre’s mix. Good point: for instead of further energizing an already great squad, Manny’s appearance in Dodger Blue seemed to dampen L.A.’s race to the N.L. West title: the streaky Colorado Helton’s gained ground on L.A. and even the light hitting San Francisco McCoveys seemed resurgent.

But over the last two weeks all of that has changed. While the Rockies remain within spitting distance of first place, the Trolleys have reasserted their control over the division — most recently humbling McCovey ace Tim Lincecum. ”This club is playing with a purpose right now,” said manager Joe Torre. “They understand what’s out there and what’s at stake and they can’t expect anyone else to do it for them.” A lot of Dodgers point to the resurgence in the team’s pitching as the reason for the Trolleys’ new lease on the N.L. West — former Phuzzie Randy Wolf (11-6) has been a surprise among the starters (he outdueled Lincecum, and made it look effortless), and always-just-average Hiroki Kuroda has been much more than just average — winning his last two outings to give the Dodgers’ staff a needed lift. But the hero of the Dodgers’ latest resurgence (which comes just in time for the playoffs) isn’t anyone on the field. It’s L.A. General Manager Ned Colletti, who put together a series of trade deadline deals that, in retrospect, look nothing nothing less than brilliant.

Colletti might as well be working with hammers and saws, particularly considering the renovation job he’s done on the L.A. staff. The trade deadline acquisition of Jon Garland has provided a steadying groundball presence for L.A.’s younger pitchers, while beanball retread Vicente Padilla has provided a much-needed up-and-in intimidator for a group of knee shaking younger guys who love the outside half of the strike zone. Perhaps Colletti’s best decision, however, was the acquisition of former Birdland closer George Sherrill (1.70 ERA) who has become a par excellance set-up man and sometime closer who provides a lights out presence for the L.A. 8th. And that’s not all: the haunting of Washington (Juan Rivera, et. al.) continues with a resurgent Ronnie Belliard, who is hitting the skin off the ball in L.A. Then too, Jim Thome seems more than comfortable in his new role as a lefthanded bat off the bench. Who would have thunk it. Here we are in September, and Joe Torre’s first place team is being led by a bunch of gamers with enough mileage on their cleats to populate a retirement home. When we should be talking about Manny, we’re talking about Jon and Vicente and Ronnie — a passle of veterans who owe their playoff dreams to a G.M. who knows a bargain when he sees one. The L.A. Dodger’s might be Joe Torre’s team, but they’re also Ned Colletti’s.

This is the second in a series of guest commentaries by “MH” — our regular guest columnist and erstwhile fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers . . .

Questions continue to surround the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers, but one question in particular seems to haunt “dem bums”: are they really the best team in baseball, or a fluke that’s just waiting to collapse? The Dodgers’ stellar record would certainly seem to suggest they’re the best (if not in all of baseball, then certainly in the NL), but naysayers persist, claiming that the Dodgers are simply fortunate to be in the NL West – an “easy division.” Their suspicions seemed vindicated at the end of July, when the league-leading Dodgers headed east to face central division powerhouse St. Louis – where they won only one game of a four game set. The Trolleys were outscored in the series 22-8 (which included a 10-0 blowout), and their pitching looked simply mortal. The Dodgers were a paper tiger. At least that is what Dodgers skeptics would have you believe.

More than any other factor in the St. Louis series, defense was crucial. Both teams brought tightly wound starters, bullpens and formidable fielders. The Dodgers activated Hong-Chih Kuo from the DL, and he proved his worth on the Dodgers roster – which had recently suffered from the loss of both Corry Wade and Ronald Belisario. The L.A. bullpen seems to have weathered the worst that baseball (and injuries) can offer — and is now set for the final run to the flag. Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, and the Manny Ramirez-Juan Pierre duo combined to form a formidable defensive perimeter in all but the second game in the four-game series. The Cards saw the Dodgers defense and raised it an impressive batting staff – to the extent that game three of the four-game tilt was a fifteen-inning leviathan. There wasn’t much a hurting Dodgers bullpen could do to combat the Cards’ assault.

Crucial to the success of the Dodgers has been its pitching staff, and with the introduction of George Sherrill (a trading deadline addition from the Orioles), and the activation of Kuo, the pitching is likely to get a lot sharper. The emergence of Clayton Kershaw (who is what everyone wants — an overpowering lefty) has been crucial. And for those critics that saw in the Cards’ series an indication of the Dodgers’ raw skill — or lack of it — there is the Dodgers’ uncanny ability to add fresh blood from a pitching heavy farm system. Then too, while the L.A. nine seemed outclassed by the Redbirds in St. Louis, they have gone 4-4 since (which includes a rough road swing), lead the NL West by nearly seven games and remain the most dangerous team in the west. Are the Dodgers the best team in baseball? Maybe not, but they will bring the heat and the bats against any team they face in the regular and post-season. The emergence of superstar-to-be, Andre Ethier, the addition of Sherrill, the continued outstanding infield defensive play and the genius of Dodger manager Joe Torre will make sure of that.

now is the time