My latest piece for ESPNLosAngeles.com is a reflection on Matt Kemp’s journey from 18-year-old draftee to 27-year-old baseball superhero, noting that overcoming setbacks has been part of his profile from the beginning.
The story of Matt Kemp ‘s evolution from the Los Angeles Dodgers doghouse in 2010 to his place in baseball’s penthouse today has been so well-chronicled, you might be excused for thinking that this was his only bend in the otherwise steady road to the top.
But looking back from what is now Kemp’s 10th professional season and seventh in the majors to the beginning, we can see that his struggle in 2010 was the latest zigzag in a career full of them. …
Read the entire piece here. Also, check out ESPN.com’s Stats & Info blog for some remarkable stats on Kemp’s incredible work on outside pitches this year.
Dee Gordon’s hitting and fielding over the season’s first two weeks is no worse than anyone should have anticipated.
If there were no hope for him, it might be time to replace him. If there were someone obviously better, it might be time to replace him. If he were the sole problem in a lineup that would thrive in his absence, it might be time to replace him.
None of those things are the case. The plan, all along, has been for the Dodgers to enjoy what they can get from Gordon and let him develop. Two weeks into the season, there is no reason to change that plan.
Angel Berroa started 65 games for the 2008 Dodgers. I think we can live with Dee Gordon for now.
Matt Kemp hit his seventh home run, but he’s not stealing the spotlight today. That goes to Jamey Wright and Jerry Hairston Jr.
Wright entered a one-run game in the seventh inning and struck out the first five batters he faced, before essentially turning the game over to Hairston.
The utility infielder, who has made an early case to be this year’s Jamey Carroll, made sensational plays in both the eighth and ninth innings to help the Dodgers hang on to a 4-3 victory at Milwaukee today.
In the eighth, with the tying run at third base, Hairston made a diving stop and from his knees threw out Alex Gonzalez. If a Dodger third baseman makes a better play this year, I’ll be surprised.
The next Brewers batter, Travis Ishikawa, led off the ninth with a bunt that Hairston barehanded to throw Ishikawa out.
Javy Guerra put the demons of Tuesday behind him, striking out the next two batters — giving Dodger relievers seven strikeouts in three innings — for the victory.
Kemp had a single to go with his home run, while Andre Ethier singled and doubled. Both players now sit at 18 RBI.
Juan Rivera had the Dodgers’ other RBI hit, while Matt Treanor had a sacrifice fly to go with a triple.
In his first game since striking out 13, including nine in a row, Aaron Harang went six innings and allowed three runs on nine baserunners with four strikeouts.
Wright has now faced 16 batters this season. They are 0 for 12 with four walks and six strikeouts.
Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun had the game-winning sacrifice fly Wednesday but otherwise went 0 for 11 against Los Angeles in the series.
The Dodgers’ first significant lineup change of the season may be underway, with Juan Uribe headed to see a specialist about his injured left wrist.
Uribe, with a .257 on-base percentage and .265 slugging this season in 36 plate appearances (one walk, one double) has missed two games already on this road trip. The trip to the specialist is “an indication that the club is concerned the injury — incurred during a slide — could be something serious,” writes Ken Gurnick of MLB.com.
I’m not so sure a great many Dodger fans will be crushed by this news. Uribe’s value to the Dodgers has mainly been reduced to his defense at third base.
In the short term, Jerry Hairston Jr., Adam Kennedy and Justin Sellers can all play third base for the Dodgers. If Uribe goes on the disabled list, Josh Fields (.949 OPS at Triple-A Albuquerque) might head to the big club, as could infielder Luis Cruz (.995 OPS).
If the Dodgers wanted to get crazy, they could bring up Double-A third baseman Pedro Baez (.838 OPS at Chattanooga), a once-highly regarded prospect who has been beset by injuries.
Update: Gurnick now writes that Uribe “was examined by the Brewers’ team doctor on Thursday and will not see a specialist in Houston, as was considered.”
So the quest today for the Dodgers is not only to take the last of the three games with Milwaukee, but win the series on run differential!
© Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
We’ll start by going straight to the finish line, which saw what appeared to be the rarest of things: a tailor-made double-play fly ball.
The Dodgers and Brewers were tied in the 10th inning, 2-2, but Milwaukee loaded the bases with one out and defending National League MVP Ryan Braun at the plate. With the Dodgers turning to a five-man infield, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier were left to patrol the outfield by themselves.
But Braun lifted a short fly ball to center field that Kemp had plenty of time not only to catch, but to set up a big throw home that would nail Nyjer Morgan should he try to score from third base.
Kemp originally seemed to have it in mind to have forward momentum as he caught the ball, but he got to the spot too soon, and ended up being flat-footed as he threw a two-bouncer home toward Dodger catcher A.J. Ellis (whose throwing error moments earlier contributed to the Dodgers’ 10th-inning woes). Ellis actually appeared on replay to make the tag on Morgan a hair before he tumbled across home plate, but the Brewer was ruled safe, giving Milwaukee its second consecutive eyelash victory over Los Angeles.
Kemp drove in the Dodgers’ first run with a single (after Mark Ellis tripled) in the first inning, but struck out with two on and two out in the eighth and the score tied. The other Dodger involved in the final play, A.J. Ellis, had the team’s other RBI.
Chris Capuano pitched six innings, allowing two runs on eight baserunners with four strikeouts.
© Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
If it weren’t enough that Andre Ethier’s super April has been overshadowed by Matt Kemp, then how frustrating was it that his latest feat — a two-out, two-run homer off Francisco Rodriguez to give the Dodgers their 4-3 lead Tuesday — fell by the wayside when Javy Guerra couldn’t hold the lead in the bottom of the ninth?
So let us take a moment to celebrate, as Kemp is doing in the photo above, Ethier’s super start. He has a .383 on-base percentage and .738 slugging percentage. He is seventh in the National League in adjusted OPS. Yeah, we’ll take that.
Against left-handed pitchers — the big concern going into 2012 — Ethier is 4 for 13 with a double, triple, two walks and two strikeouts. He has eight RBI in 15 plate appearances. Last year, he had 13 RBI with seven walks and 41 strikeouts in 151 plate appearances against lefties.
Ethier and Kemp, by the way, have the most RBI of any duo in their first 11 games since Bob Meusel and Lou Gehrig of the 1927 Yankees, according to STATS LLC.
Aside from the fundamental desire for the Dodgers to win and not lose, I had two hopes for tonight’s game:
In the bottom of the second inning, it looked like each might take place. In the bottom of the ninth, it looked like neither would.
Instead, Dodger fans were left with a third outcome – a grim-faced, walkoff loss. George Kotteras’ pinch-hit, two-run double off Javy Guerra gave the Milwaukee Brewers a 5-4 victory, the Dodgers’ second loss of the season.
One game after a triple play helped save Guerra’s bacon in the ninth inning against San Diego, no such rescue arrived. He gave up a leadoff single to Corey Hart and stolen base to pinch-runner Carlos Gomez, then walked Mat Gamel. Jonathan Lucroy struck out after failing to bunt, but Brewers manager Ron Roenicke made a fearless move, sending up Kotteras to pinch-hit for Cesar Izturis even though no other shortstop remained on his bench in the event of extra innings.
Guerra got the count to 2-2, but Kotteras launched one to right-center. Andre Ethier chased it down, but the relay home was just a half-second late to nail Gamel with the winning run.
The result spoiled the celebration that was all but set for Andre Ethier, who doubled and scored to tie the game 2-2 in the seventh inning, then hit a dramatic, opposite-field, two-out, two-run homer in the eighth off Francisco Rodriguez to rally Los Angeles from a 3-2 deficit and give the team its only lead.
For Dodger fans, riding that 9-1 season-opening wave, it was the latest in a month of exhilarations.
Kenley Jansen then retired the side in order on two strikeouts in the bottom of the eighth, before Guerra blew the third save of his career in 29 opportunities.
Still, I’ll have to call this a better alternative to the way the game unfolded at the outset. After the Dodgers had wasted a scoring opportunity in the first inning (because of Dee Gordon getting picked off by Brewers starter Yovanni Gallardo), Milwaukee hit for the cycle off Billingsley with its first eight platesmen, good for two quick runs.
However, Billingsley settled down, retiring his last 11 batters and finishing his third straight quality start to begin 2012, allowing five hits and no walks in six innings and 83 pitches. For the year, his ERA is 1.33, and he has allowed 13 hits, one walk and one hit batter in 20 1/3 innings.
It’s the absence of walks in the plural that is perhaps most exciting for Billingsley. Even when he gets in trouble, he has hardly backed down. His weakest moment tonight was throwing two balls to Izturis with a 1-2 count and a runner on third. Izturis then singled on a 3-2 pitch, driving in the Brewers’ second run. But that was the exception. Billingsley had the bad inning that he is (unfairly) notorious for, but he didn’t let it ruin him.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers withstood their own hitless streak – 10 in a row retired after Matt Kemp (1 for 4) doubled in the first to raise his batting average at that moment to .500 – and tied the game. In the fifth, Juan Rivera doubled, went to third on a James Loney single and scored when Rickie Weeks caught Juan Uribe’s pop-up but then dropped the ball before throwing home. In the seventh, Ethier and Loney hit the Dodgers’ fourth and fifth doubles to even the score, 2-2. (Loney, by the way, was thrown out on the basepaths in both innings.)
With two out and Uribe on second via fielder’s choice and wild pitch, A.J. Ellis was walked intentionally to get to Billingsley’s spot in the order. I basically agreed with Don Mattingly’s decision to hit for Billingsley, even though he was on a roll, although I’d feel a lot better about it if the Dodgers’ first hitter off the bench weren’t Adam Kennedy, who popped out.
But after Milwaukee squeezed home a go-ahead run off Matt Guerrier in the bottom of the seventh, the Dodgers came back in the eighth, with Ethier (slugging .738 this year and now the National League RBI leader with 17) once again proving to Kemp that he doesn’t have to carry the offense by himself.
Unfortunately for the Dodgers, the bullpen didn’t deliver tonight, with the Guerr boys, Guerrier and Guerra, retiring only four batters as they allowed three runs.
Having grabbed some rays from baseball’s national spotlight thanks to their 9-1 start, the Dodgers can now expect the following treatment after what’s supposed to be their first test, a three-game series in Milwaukee beginning tonight:
This weekend’s events at Dodger Stadium provided Jayson Stark of ESPN.com nearly an entire column’s worth of material – including a mention of our good friend Bob Timmermann.
* * *
The latest feat of Matt Kemp, hero: He’s the first MLB player ever to win a league Player of the Week award three consecutive times.
Pick the date that Juan Uribe matches Matt Kemp’s current totals of six homers and 16 RBI.
And heck, might as well do the same for James Loney too …
A debate about Sunday’s triple play has been launched by this Dave Cameron column at Fangraphs. You can read the comments there to see it unfold.
Cameron argues that Major League Baseball should step in and order the game to be replayed from the moment umpire Dale Scott appeared to signal a foul ball on Jesus Guzman’s ill-fated bunt. His two main points: The call was different from the typical blown umpire’s call, and its effect on the outcome of the game could have affect this year’s playoff races.
I’m a friend and fan of Cameron’s, but we don’t see eye-to-eye on this at all — and I’d feel the same way if the call had gone the opposite way. (Longtime readers will be familiar with my live-and-let-live approach to on umpire rulings.) It was at best a confusing play, at worst an incorrect one, but in the end, one of those things that we live with every day in baseball.
Here’s my longest statement in the comments:
Even if Scott had been perfect on the play, did you see how fast Ellis picks up the ball and fires to third? The Dodgers certainly get two outs on the play (third and first) if not the out at second as well. Dale Scott did not keep the Padres from having a bases-loaded situation.
That said, the result isn’t the thing that determines my opinion on this. I realize the issue is Dave’s contention that the play should be dead from the moment the arms were waved (assuming that’s even something in the rule book – I’m not sure if it is or isn’t). However, the umpires huddled, discussed the play and made a decision. At that point, it’s in the books unless it’s protested and the protest is upheld.
If the Padres protested the call, I’m not aware of it.
I think the whole pinning the fate of the playoffs on this call is part of what’s off base in this column. Because there are so many bad calls that affect wins and losses, the idea that this one in particular needs to be addressed to save the integrity of the postseason, even given the play’s unusual genesis, is melodrama defined. Dave is basically arguing that the Dodgers have a tainted win, despite the fact that there would probably have been at least two outs on the play had it been called without drama and despite the fact that the Dodgers scored in the bottom of the ninth. He’s making a pretty massive leap. Do you think there won’t be a bad call against the Dodgers this year that costs them a game?
It was an unusual play that might have hurt the Padres, but they had the rest of the game to overcome it, just like the Dodgers did in the season opener when Dee Gordon was incorrectly called out for stealing, and in Game 2 when Ethier was incorrectly called out at home.
… If the umpires had decided to rule foul ball on the field, based on Scott’s arm-waving, I wouldn’t have had a problem with that at all.
But the idea that MLB should step in on this play today, after the umpires had time to discuss it and after the Padres deemed it unworthy of protest – something, with the mid-inning break, they had ample opportunity to do — just doesn’t hold water.
Vin Scully came back to the ballpark Sunday in first-rate storytelling mode. This morning, Sons of Steve Garvey passed along this big Jackie Robinson anecdote.And in the midst of Clayton Kershaw’s sixth-inning struggles Sunday, Scully talked about one of my favorite memories.
“You know when Clayton Kershaw really got my attention?” Scully began. “I don’t know that it’s a big deal that it got my attention – I don’t mean that, but it’s just something that I will forever have in my mind when I hear his name.
“It was an exhibition game, in Vero Beach. … And it was just one of those games, and here was this kid lefthander named Clayton Kershaw. And he had two strikes on a veteran left-hand hitter by the name of Sean Casey. Remember Sean Casey? Good hitter – Cincinnati Reds, later on went on to the American League. Casey came up …
“Kershaw threw maybe the greatest single pitch I’ve ever seen. It was just such a great big overhand curveball at just that moment. I’ve never forgotten it. And every time I’ve come to see Clayton pitch, I’ll always remember Sean Casey — frozen. I mean the players laughed, not really at Casey, but just the inability of anybody to hit that pitch.”
Here’s the audio (clumsily recorded by me) that goes with it: Vin on “Public Enemy No. 1.”
* * *
… As April 16, 1972, came to an end, Hooten had pitched 30.2 IP in his career and only allowed eight hits. Yes, only eight.
It’s actually a bit more extreme than even that implies. In June of 1971, Hooten came up for a cup-of-coffee start and couldn’t get out of the fourth inning. He allowed three runs in 3.2 innings on five walks and three hits. In his next three starts, Hooten tossed three complete games, allowing a total of five hits. Yeah, that’ll get people’s attention.
The second and third starts came in September of 1971. In his second start, Hooten allowed only three hits while striking out 15 batters. That tied the Cubs all-time franchise record for punchouts in a game. Oh, and those three hits allowed? They all came late in the game. Hooten went 6.2 innings with a no-hitter intact.
In his next turn, Hooten pitched a two-hitter for his first career shutout. There was no flirting with a no-hitter, as Bud Harrelson led off the game with a single, but it’s still five hits allowed over two games. Many fine pitchers never did that in their careers.
But the main event was April 16, 1972….
I don’t know anyone who thinks the Dodgers have guaranteed a pennant by starting the season 9-1 against San Diego and Pittsburgh, but alert me when everyone else plays .900 ball against the Padres and Pirates. I think each of those teams will win more than 16 games this year.
It doesn’t mean anything for the future, but it is an achievement to beat the teams you’re supposed to beat. I’ve seen numerous Dodger teams that couldn’t do it. And I’m glad the Dodgers are not the team that you’re supposed to beat right now. Ten days ago, many thought they were.
Six-game road trip beginning Tuesday. Hoping for four wins, will settle for three.
What happens when three old friends in crisis fall into an unexpected love triangle? In The Catch, Maya, Henry and Daniel embark upon an emotional journey that forces them to confront unresolved pain, present-day traumas and powerful desires, leading them to question the very meaning of love and fulfillment. The Catch tells a tale of ordinary people seeking the extraordinary – or, if that’s asking too much, some damn peace of mind.
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