Injuries keep Dodgers on run
That guy throwing a tantrum and banging a bat against the Los Angeles Dodgers dugout floor might as well have been manager Don Mattingly instead of star center fielder Matt Kemp.
Mattingly was able to patch his hole in the outfield while Kemp sat out 14 games with a strained left hamstring, and the club managed a 9-5 record during that absence.
Los Angeles’ resiliency will get tested more severely this time, not only because Kemp is expected to miss more than two weeks with a recurrence of the injury but also because the road ahead gets more treacherous.
Road indeed is the operative word, as Los Angeles will play 19 of its next 25 games away from Dodger Stadium, where it has by far the majors’ best home record at 21-9.
The Dodgers, who ended the month Thursday with their first four-game losing streak of the season, begin this challenging stretch today without Kemp, pitcher Ted Lilly and infielders Mark Ellis, Juan Uribe and Justin Sellers, all injured.
“It seems like everything we were doing was working,” Mattingly said. “And lately nothing seems to be working.”
Outfielder Juan Rivera is expected to return soon from a rehab assignment, and the Dodgers also called up Alex Castellanos, a second baseman and outfielder who was hitting .379 with a .476 on-base percentage at Class AAA Albuquerque.
Neither figures to fill the power void left by Kemp, who has hit 12 of the club’s 39 home runs, so the Dodgers will have to rely on their outstanding pitching (3.14 ERA) to protect the major leagues’ best record.
“It’s never easy for the team to deal with when your superstar is out,” ace Clayton Kershaw said. “This is our first tough stretch of the year. We’ll come out of it and be better off for it.”