Friends, countrymen, our long national nightmare has been averted: Aaron Miles, who rejoined the organization on a minor-league contract just over a month ago, has opted to retire after hitting .235/.297/.338 with six errors in 18 games for Albuquerque. Adding Miles for depth made sense when the infield group between the Dodgers & Isotopes was so injury-riddled that I think even Steve Sax & Bill Russell came up lame, yet as Jerry Hairston, Juan Uribe, & Alex Castellanos returned to health and Elian Herrera came out of nowhere to become a viable option, Miles’ return to the majors seemed increasingly unlikely. You know how the saying goes, anyway; if you can’t beat out Adam Kennedy, you can’t play here.

In far more depressing news, Don Mattingly jumped on the official Dodgers Twitter to entertain some questions from fans. That’s how we managed to get to this exchange:

.@mbonino2010 should we take Dee Gordon, T.Gwynn and Elian Herrera and half of their game away? Do you not want to win? #DodgerChat

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 13, 2012

Good… lord. I can’t even respond to that, since I apparently don’t want to win.

Gordon is in the lineup tonight, but Gwynn takes a seat as Herrera makes his fourth start of the season in center field. James Loney sat against righty Jerome Williams last night, but is in against lefty C.J. Wilson tonight, which is more than a little odd. Oh well; at least Kennedy is out.