July 16 -- LA STORY

Their overhyped (even by The News Journal) 10,000th loss mercifully behind them, the Phillies touched down early this morning in L.A., also known as La La Land, Tinseltown and the new home of David and Posh Spice Beckham. Waiting for the Phils, of course, are the NL West-leading Dodgers, who, like Posh, couldn't be hotter. They've won four in a row to surge into first place, and they've done it, in large part, with their bats, scoring 31 runs in the last four games.

But, unlike the Phillies, the Dodgers are backed by solid pitching, even with injuries to Jason Schmidt and longtime Phillies lefty Randy Wolf. All-Star right-hander Brad Penny, who starts tonight, is 10-1 with a 2.39 ERA. The bullpen is solid, with Jonathan Broxton (2.68), Rudy Seanez (2.98) and Joe Beimel (3.69) setting up for virtually unhittable closer Takashi Saito (1.63, 24 saves). The Phillies won't face always-tough Derek Lowe (8-8, 3.05), but they'll get ace-in-waiting Chad Billingsley on Wednesday. When Wolf went down, the Dodgers moved Billingsley in from the bullpen, where he had a 3.09 ERA. In five starts, he's 2-0 with a 3.51 ERA. Not bad.

My point is this: Pitching wins. Always. And while the Phillies have a more potent offense than at any time since their 1980 World Series championship team (and this offense may be even better than that one), they'll be tested this week, first by the Dodgers and then by the Padres, who have the best pitching the majors.

Charlie Manuel, clinging to the notion that the Phillies' offense is good enough to overcome the league's worst pitching, maintained yesterday that, "We can swing the bats with anybody" and said the warm summer weather means, "It's hitting season." But Chase Utley summed it up best last night when he said, "It's not going to be easy."

That's an understatement.

(Full disclosure: I'm regrettably not on this road trip, the only one all season I'm not making. Instead, I'm working on some long-term Phillies projects. In the newspaper business, we call them "enterprise features," and you'll be reading some over the next few weeks in the 50-cent edition. Meanwhile, I'll keep the Blog fresh throughout the week).

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One final (hopefully) word on the infamous 10,000 losses. I've gotten a lot of e-mails (slauber@delawareonline.com) from people wondering how the players have reacted to the ignominious feat of becoming the first pro sports franchise to lose 10,000 games. Most of them thought it was a nuisance, having to answer questions about something they've had very little to do with. Ryan Howard spoke for everyone when he said, "It's over. It's done. Now we don't have to talk about it anymore."

Well, almost. WNST (1570 on your AM dial), the sports-talk radio station in Baltimore, asked me to come on the air at 3:05 p.m. to discuss 10,000 losses and everything else Phillies. Shameless plug, I know, but if you're by a radio, give a listen and let me know how I do.

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Thanks to Rich Quinones from 1290 The Ticket (WWTX) for having me "In The Zone" today. Seems like everyone wants to talk about the Phillies.

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What, no guesses on the trivia question from Sunday's early post? Which three players shared the Phillies' single-season record for leadoff homers that was eclipsed last weekend by Jimmy Rollins? Come on, show us how smart you are.