2010 Los Angeles Dodgers season

Prior to the start of Game 1 of the 2009 National League Championship Series, the Dodgers announced that the team's owner and chairman Frank McCourt and his wife Jamie had separated.

[10] Later on November 5, several Dodgers filed for free agency: starting pitchers Randy Wolf and Eric Milton and infielders Orlando Hudson, Ronnie Belliard and Doug Mientkiewicz.

[11] The exodus continued on November 6, when five more Dodgers filed for free agency: catcher Brad Ausmus, pinch hitter Jim Thome and pitchers Vicente Padilla, Guillermo Mota and Jeff Weaver.

[18] On December 15, the Dodgers traded reserve outfielder Juan Pierre to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for minor league pitchers Jon Link and John Ely.

[29] Early in the spring, the Dodgers signed veteran outfielder Garret Anderson to a minor league contract and brought him in to compete for a bench role.

[33] The Dodgers, led by manager Joe Torre, took a squad of players to Taiwan for a series of three exhibition games against an all-star team from the Chinese Professional Baseball League during the spring.

[44] After dropping the second game of the season on a walk-off hit by Ronny Cedeño in the 10th inning,[45] the Dodgers rebounded and avoided being swept by posting a 10–2 rout in the series finale.

[49] The team concluded its opening road trip on April 11, Charlie Haeger struck out 12 batters in six innings but the bullpen again faltered and the Dodgers fell 6–5 to the Marlins.

[59] In the series finale, the Dodgers got nine hits and belted two homers (including a pinch-hit two run shot by Garret Anderson) but two costly errors and two blown leads by the bullpen late in the game were too much to overcome, as they lost 8–5 to the Reds.

[62] Chad Billingsley rebounded to turn in his first quality start of the season on April 25, allowing just one earned run in six innings, but the Dodger offense was shut down by Nationals pitching and the team lost 1–0.

Andre Ethier hit a three-run home run, rookie Carlos Monasterios started his first game in the Majors and Ramón Ortiz picked up his first win since 2007.

[72] Rookie John Ely allowed only one run in 62⁄3 innings in the series finale and Andre Ethier hit a walk-off grand slam as the Dodgers avoided the sweep with a 7–3 victory.

[104] Manny Ramirez's RBI double in the bottom of the eighth in the second game provided the only offense of the night in a 1–0 victory that pulled the Dodgers into sole possession of first place for the first time all season.

[110] In the following game, Clayton Kershaw pitched 71⁄3 solid innings and Andre Ethier hit his first home run since coming off the disabled list as the Dodgers won 6–2.

[116] The next day, a couple of base running blunders by Kemp and Russell Martin cost the Dodgers a chance to tie the game in the ninth and they dropped their sixth straight, losing to the Angels 2–1.

Clayton Kershaw pitched eight scoreless innings and rookie Kenley Jansen, who made his Major League debut just the night before, picked up his first career save.

[149] In an effort to bolster the sagging offensive production, the Dodgers on July 28 acquired outfielder Scott Podsednik from the Kansas City Royals for two minor leaguers.

To reinforce the starting rotation, the Dodgers on July 31 acquired starter Ted Lilly from the Chicago Cubs, along with infielder Ryan Theriot, in exchange for Blake DeWitt and two minor-league pitchers (Brett Wallach and Kyle Smit).

[154] The Dodgers also added to the bullpen by acquiring closer Octavio Dotel from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for James McDonald and minor league outfielder Andrew Lambo.

The Dodgers dropped their fifth straight game, being swept by the Giants 2–0 despite a solid pitching performance from Clayton Kershaw, who returned from suspension to allow two runs in seven innings.

However, a poor outing from Ronald Belisario in the eighth cut the lead to 9–6 and then Jonathan Broxton was unable to retire a batter in the ninth as the Phillies stormed back for a 10–9 walk-off victory.

[170] In the series finale, the Dodgers wasted another gem from Chad Billingsley as the bullpen blew another lead, allowing three runs in the ninth inning to fall 4–3 as Melky Cabrera hit a two-run bases-loaded walk-off single off Octavio Dotel.

[172] In the second game, the Dodgers dropped the contest 3–2 in ten innings as reliever Octavio Dotel threw three wild pitches that led to the go-ahead run scoring.

[177] In an effort to bolster their catching corps, depleted by Russell Martin's season-ending injury, the Dodgers acquired Rod Barajas off waivers from the New York Mets on August 22.

[184] With the team six games back in the Wild Card race after the series against the Rockies, the Dodgers allowed Manny Ramirez to be claimed off waivers by the Chicago White Sox.

The only positive for the Dodgers in the game was that September callup Russ Mitchell recorded his first career hit, a home run to left field off of Giants starter Jonathan Sánchez in the 5th inning.

[204] The Dodgers then proceeded to be blown out 12–2 as Troy Tulowitzki slugged two homers and Melvin Mora hit a grand slam, while John Ely was roughed up in the loss.

[206] The Dodgers two-year stay as National League Western Division champions came to an end on September 21 when they were officially eliminated from post-season contention when the Giants beat the Cubs.

Clayton Kershaw took a two-hit shutout into the ninth inning before leaving the game and Kenley Jansen picked up his second career save in the Dodgers' 3–1 victory in the opener.

Ted Lilly halted a personal four-game losing streak by allowing one run in eight innings as the Dodgers beat the Rockies 3–1, preventing Ubaldo Jiménez from picking up his 20th win.