Manny Ramirez is getting his timing back quickly in Albuquerque and is supposed to rejoin the Dodgers Friday. In his four rehab games between High-A Inland Empire and AAA Albuquerque, Ramirez is 3-8 with a home run.

In Manny’s first rehab game, I got nervous because he went 0-2 against Manny Parra, a recent demotion in Milwaukee. Seems like everyone is hitting Parra these days, even in the minors.

My fear that Ramirez may need more time to get ready were squashed by a homer on Sunday and being 1-1 as of this writing on Monday. I guess after being off for four weeks, his timing would take a couple of games to get back to speed.

Who loses in LA? I think Juan Pierre may be the odd man out despite his stellar fill-in work as a starter in Manny’s abscence. Andre Ethier is having too good of a year (14 HR’s, 50 RBI) to bench, and Matt Kemp is batting .310, so AB’s may become scarce for Pierre after Thursday night.

Adding Manny’s big stick back into the equation is going to make the Dodgers an offensive juggernaut for the rest of 2009 and well into the playoffs.