At the start of the season, Joe Torre found himself with a whole new team, including new guys Andruw Jones and Japanese pitcher Hiroki Kuroda. To add to his troubles, Don Mattingly was unable to perform his hitting coach duties, and third-basemen Nomar Garciaparra and Andy LaRoche were out with injuries, leaving the only third-base candidate to be rookie Blake DeWitt. DeWitt stepped up early, including when Nomar went down again with a calf injury. However, the team suffered a serious blow when star player Rafael Furcal was injured in the midst of the best start of his career. Many substitutions were used, including rookies Chin-Lung Hu and Luis Maza, but could not duplicate Furcal's offense. Staff ace Brad Penny and slugger Jones began to underperform, leading to trips to the DL for both. Despite the problems with the roster, as well as their record, the Dodgers were only behind first-place Arizona by one game at the All-Star break. To bolster a lineup of mostly young guys, Ned Colleti made trades for shortstop Angel Berroa, third-baseman Casey Blake, and on July 31, 2008 the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired outfielder Manny Ramirez from the Boston Red Sox for third baseman Andy LaRoche and pitcher Bryan Morris. The new season saw progress in the teams prospects, including a call-up for phenom Clayton Kershaw, as well as a comeback for veteran pitchers, most notably Chan Ho Park, Hong-Chih Kuo, and Jason Johnson. Chad Billingsley quickly grew to be the team's ace, including getting his first career shutout and being the first pitcher to get double-digit wins.