Buster Olney Says The Dodgers Are Making A Statement

Which I suppose is a good thing, in Buster's book. Of the seven teams he mentions as rising to the challenge of mid-May doldrums (among other challenges, in the Dodgers' case), the Dodgers are punctuating their statement with a big, Latin/French exclamation point:

The Dodgers. The deeds and words of Manny Ramirez are still creating more news than the sterling play of the guy who is filling in for him. But over the past seven days, Juan Pierre is batting .407, with a .467 on-base percentage and seven runs scored. Then there's the performance of the whole team. Clayton Kershaw almost placed his manager in a happily uncomfortable position by no-hitting the Marlins for the first seven innings, utterly dominating them while running his pitch count over 100. You could see by the look on Joe Torre's face that he wasn't quite sure what to do, until a Cody Ross double in the eighth inning allowed him to yank his talented left-hander.

So despite all the consternation over Ramirez, all of the internal angst, the Dodgers have plowed ahead with Orlando Hudson raking in the No. 3 spot in their lineup, and L.A.'s lead over the Giants has been pumped up to six games.

Torre joked that he could've set aside all the Manny questions with his Kershaw decision if the no-hitter had continued, Kevin Baxter writes. The Dodgers are winning despite the struggles of Rafael Furcal.

The Brewers were the only other NL team to be mentioned in Olney's magnificent seven.