It’s Been a While, Dodgers
NBA and Stanley Cup Playoffs. Life in general. Things have taken my attention away from the Dodgers. Of course, since I’m not at every home game like I have been over the past several years, it’s easy to see how this can happen.
But after the Kings won the Cup on Friday and the Spur won another ring last night, it’s time to see what the hell has been going on with the Dodgers.
Sure, thanks to Twitter I have seen people complain about the Dodgers’ mediocrity. I did predict the Giants to win the division before the season started, so the fact that the Dodgers are a tick over .500 comes as no surprise.
The Dodgers started the day trailing the Giants by 6 1/2 games and hold on to the final NL Wild Card spot by a half-game over the Miami Marlins and Washington Nationals. And with the 6-1 win over the Colorado Rockies and the Giants idle, that deficit was cut to six games.
One of my long-held gripes about the Dodgers was their penchant for leaving runners on base. Six runs on 15 hits is probably not ideal. Sure they left 11 runners on base, but they went 5-for-15 (.333) with runners in scoring position. Hell, that’s nearly perfect considering what I have seen from this team over the recent years.
Dee Gordon caught my eye. I’ve heard that he’s improved, and he proved it to me in this game. He went 4-for-4, a walk and a what-would-be-an-inside-the-park-homer in the third inning which ended up being a triple with an error given to left fielder Charlie Blackmon. Add three singles and two runs scored, and he was the straw that stirred the Dodgers’ drink tonight.
Yasiel Puig had three hits while A.J. Ellis and Matt Kemp had two-hits each as they backed up a good performance by Hyun-Jin Ryu.
Ryu went six innings only giving up a solo homer to catcher Wilin Rosario in the fourth inning on a 0-2 pitch. Ryu even had to cover his face in embarrassment for giving up an 0-2 homer. But his six strikeouts and three hits allowed should have atoned for that.
The bullpen cemented the win with Brandon League, JP Howell, Brian Wilson and Jamey Wright locking up the win for the Dodgers. The only blemish was Josh Rutledge’s single given up by League in the seventh inning.
I’m not going to be in the business of saying the Dodgers can’t make up the six-game deficit they currently have in the division. I witnessed first hand what the Dodgers did last year, and we all saw the Kings stare the impossible in the eye.
If the Dodgers can continue to do what they did tonight, I’m not counting them out of anything. But the question is consistency, and I guess we’ll see if they can do that.