Jones hears only cheers but so little has changed

He now has 33 more strikeouts than hits, GM Ned Colletti, who has apparently gone into hiding, probably curled up in a ball and wailing somewhere.

Holy Colletti, did I mention the Dodgers just shut down Jason Schmidt again with a sore arm?

Third inning, Nomar Garciaparra hits a 416-foot home run and then Jones strikes out. This keeps up and Pentland will be roving the minors again.

What a disaster. The Dodgers need every win to advance to the playoffs, and Torre says Jason Johnson will start Tuesday's game. Jason who?

"He's pitched for several major league teams," Torre said.

That means he has bounced around because he's no good, and the Dodgers are going to pitch someone knowing he's no good with a division title up for grabs.

Did I mention that bounce-around Johnson just entered the game, the first batter hitting a triple off of him?

Fresh-start time, bottom of the fifth and the Dodgers replace Jones with Delwyn Young. Flu-like symptoms, the Dodgers announce, and I presume it's Jones who feels sick to his stomach, not the Dodgers.

Things are looking up, though, on a pace to strike out five times again, Jones makes sure it doesn't happen.

TALKED AT length to Garciaparra before the game, which explains his two home runs, doubling his total for the season. He said he still has a lot to offer the Dodgers, and then went out and proved it.

TALKED TO Matt Kemp at length, and he said he still has a lot to learn and that he really does want to get better.

I'm getting this queasy feeling, though, the Dodgers are thinking about trading Kemp. It's the wrong move, so that makes it more likely they will do it.

By the way, Kemp just hit a home run to tie the score.

ARIZONA IS so bad, the Dodgers went into extra innings with a chance to win. I'm off vacation, but that doesn't mean working overtime.

TRIED TO watch the All-Star game at an Outback Steakhouse bar in Brea. Obviously I took it hard when no Dodgers were voted in as starters. I asked the manager to turn up the sound, but she said "corporate doesn't allow it." Across the bar, on the front of their bar computer, the screen saver read: "No rules. Just right."

I NOTICED Gary Matthews, who has been pouting since the arrival of Torii Hunter, is no longer playing much. Maybe he really didn't use the HGH he ordered.

I READ and heard all the stuff being written and said about the Clippers, Brand, Dunleavy, Falk and Sterling while away -- amazed at the high level of ignorance.

Brand, as classy an athlete as L.A. has known and for a long period of time, overnight became a jerk, while everyone took what the Clippers had to say as gospel.

Just goes to show you the people who made it sound as if they knew Brand all those years never really did, quick to challenge his character as if they really had any idea what they were writing or talking about.

Brand was the best the Clippers had, and instead of knocking on his door and paying him like the best they had, they tried to negotiate. Just business, of course, the Clippers eventually getting a lesson in business.

THANKS TO all those who e-mailed to let me know Salma Hayek is available once again, the news, though, coming on the same day the wife celebrated yet another birthday -- as if I needed a reminder she's still my old lady.

--

T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.