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The Resurrection of Matt Kemp Cannot Resurrect the Dodgers
Down went Hanley. Down went Andre. Down went Puig. Okay, Puig came back for a pinch-hitting spot to end the game yesterday, but his return to the lineup batting clean up is not the news. No.
Matt Kemp has been reinstated from the disabled list. MATT KEMP!
From all of the traveling media horde following the Dodgers, it sounded like Don Mattingly was waffling on whether to activate Kemp. Kemp apparently had troubles breaking around the bases. If he only had to run straight, he would be in the lineup. Fortunately I have no such problem.
With the Dodgers magic number being four, all they have to do is win twice in this four-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks to clinch the NL West. Things didn't look good as Paul Goldschmidt hit a two-run homer off of Ryu Hyun-Jin in the first inning.
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As Vin Scully reminded viewers, with all of the injuries, "these aren't the Dodgers that went 53-17. These are the Dodgers of May."
So it was a familiar sight for Dodger fans when the team finally got to D-Backs starter Trevor Cahill in the sixth inning. Cahill had retired 13 straight since walking Yasiel Puig in the first inning.
Ryu led off the inning with a walk breaking that streak, Nick Punto doubled and Mark Ellis walked to set up what has become a position of futility. I predicted a double play of a fly ball by Adrian Gonzalez to left with Ryu getting cut down at the plate trying to score and a swinging strike by Puig to keep the Dodgers scoreless.
Gonzalez did hit a fly ball to left field, but Ryu stayed in place to leave the bases loaded. Puig walked on five pitches to finally put the Dodgers on the scoreboard. Josh Collmenter replaced Cahill, and A.J. Ellis struck out swinging and Skip Schumaker hit a broken bat grounder to second to end the inning.
And I'm not even going to get into that ninth inning with managing decisions of bunting and misuse of pinch hitters predictably ending in futility. I swear. Watching Dodger games is like a very bad case of deja vu.
And thus, Ryu was the hard-luck loser of the game. The only other hit he gave up after the Goldschmidt homer was a two-out single to Aaron Hill in the seventh inning. But he went eight innings needing only 100 pitches to be tagged for the 2-1 loss.
That makes it four straight losses for the Dodgers, and they can't wait until the full complement of their stable is back healthy. It's a whole new blue, I guess.
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