I’ll apologise in advance to all the Dodger fans who are enjoying LA’s longest win streak of the season – six games to be precise – because the positive article that I’m about to write may just jinx what has been a rare treat for the Dodger community in 2013.
I mean, we’ve won six games in a row. Six games! The longest win streak for the team before this was just three, so the excitement from fans on comment pages is unsurprising, but also a little early considering the team still has a ways to go before it sits pretty atop the extremely mediocre NL West.
It’s funny what a couple of wins will do for perception, but I have to say the team finally looks like it’s playing to win, and playing together. Watching their latest win – a 6-4 victory over the Phillies at Dodger Stadium – I said to myself that, after all the deficits and walk-over defeats, the Dodgers are backing each other and it’s thanks mainly to the emergence of rookie sensation Yasiel Puig and the return and form of Hanley Ramirez.
Puig (66( and Ramirez have made quite the couple in LA.
Puig hit the go-ahead, two-run single yesterday on a tough slider from Justin De Fratus having swung and missed at the first two pitches down and away that he saw. The 22-year-old Cuban defector kept his eye on the ball on the third pitch and squeezed it past shortstop Jimmy Rollins to ignite the passionate crowd.
That’s another thing, the crowd. Dodger Stadium is full to the rafters, and even though the team are now winning it’s also because a Puig at-bat simply cannot be missed.
The other key guy right now, Ramirez, confesses he hasn’t felt this good at the plate since he won the National League batting title back in 2009 and in 23 games this year he’s hitting .375 with a .423 OBP. Everyone will be hoping he is over his injury problems this season after two stints on the DL.
Even Matt Kemp, who in my opinion has received far too much criticism since his shoulder surgery last offseason, was getting plenty of applause after stealing two straight bases which led to him scoring from an A.J. Ellis sacrifice fly last night. It was an important insurance run which fired Kemp up, and after several months LA has an outfield it can be happy with.
Although Carl Crawford has been out injured since June 2nd, Andre Ethier has picked it up recently and with Kemp and Puig beside him, Don Mattingly is relieved to be posting a lineup that looks something like what the ownership group wanted in early April.
Only the Arizona Diamondbacks are above .500 in the West so the division crown is up for grabs if LA wants it. They must keep winning. Now just six games back, every series has to be a Dodgers victory, and it’s a shame that the All Star break is just a few weeks away. Momentum is with LA and they won’t want to halt that for a few fireworks at Citi Field.
Puig already has 7 home runs in his short big league career.
Heck, it doesn’t even look like NL manager Bruce Bochy is going to select Puig for an All Star spot because he has played less than 30 games this season and perhaps others merit it more, which is a shame for everyone, not least television ratings.
As Mattingly said after Puig’s huge collision with the outfield fence last night, “They checked the wall and it’s fine.”
An amusing remark, the skipper is finally happy to be letting his baseball team do the talking.
