1:20pm CT. Mark Prior v. Livan Hernandez. Game preview.

We are now 2 1/2 years into the 4-year Dusty Baker Experiment and if there is one thing that's clear its that Baker likes to tinker with success even though the end results are almost uniformly poor.

For instance, when LaTroy Hawkins was signed in the 2003 offseason, he was one of the very best "set up men" in all of MLB. However, he had a spell as a closer that was pretty bad. You would think that Baker would have heeded the lessons of Hawkins' history and keep Hawkins where he was really good at. After all, there were other relief pitchers who could have been tried out in the closer spot. Better yet, he could have gotten rid of the overly specialized postings of relievers to spots in the first place.

However, in 2 consecutive years, Baker had Hawkins try to close out games with the result that Hawkins became the target of fan wrath and also that Hawkins eventually came to lose his confidence. Now, it appears that barring a miracle, Hawkins' MLB career is over for all practical purposes.