(My Sportsbook) - The NL wild card race is probably almost as big as the race between Albert Pujols and Barry Bonds for National League MVP. There are nine teams with a legitimate shot at winning the wild card and the Dodgers are smack in the middle.

Despite the poor hitting the Dodgers are only four games behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the wild card lead. The boys in blue just finished a tough four-game set against another wild card team, the Florida Marlins. The Dodgers split the four-game series with both their loses coming by walk off home runs in extra innings.

In the loss Tuesday, reliever Paul Shuey served up the long ball to Ramon Castro, the third string catcher for Florida, in the 13th inning. The Dodgers fell again Wednesday night with another tough defeat, a walk off homer by Mike Mordecai off of reliever Victor Alvarez in the 11th inning.

"The best choice of words," Dodgers manager Jim Tracy told the Los Angeles Times, "would be gut-wrenching."

Both losses were very devastating, but the Dodgers came back in the finale to defeat the Marlins without going into extra innings. Yesterday, the Dodgers brought their ace, Kevin Brown to the mound. Brown only has two wins in his last nine outings, but those losses are not due to his performance, but they are due to the inconsistency of the team's offense.

Brown was not supposed to throw in yesterday's game, but felt he was able to pitch and that is exactly what he did. Brown went seven strong innings, allowing three runs, while striking out seven batters.

"We were in a situation where we had somebody go down, and we had to do something, so I told them I was available," Brown told the Los Angeles Daily News. "They had to make a decision about what was the best fit. I was going to be facing a good team either way."

"I thought Brown was stupendous," Dodger pitching coach Jim Colborn told the Times, "and the fact that he did it on three days' rest adds to it. To come out, give up a three-run home run [to Miguel Cabrera in the second inning], sometimes it's hard to keep your concentration. But he did. He came out tougher after that."

The Dodgers offense is slowly picking up the pace. The team has scored 47 runs so far in the month of August and will have first baseman Fred McGriff off of the DL soon. With his return it could propel the team over 100 runs in a month for the first time this season. If the Dodgers wish to win the wild card, they need to produce more offensively.

WHO'S HOT

Shawn Green is 9-for-21 with four runs and two RBI in his last five games.

Jeromy Burnitz is 4-for-12, with four runs, two home runs and four RBI in his last three games.

WHO'S NOT

Dave Roberts is 0-for-10 with three strike outs in his last two games.

COMING UP

The Dodgers will travel to Chicago to face the Cubs in a three-game set which begins today. After that series Los Angeles will host a three-game set against the Montreal Expos. Both teams are in the wild card race.