While I’m not sure he’ll be able to keep it up, what Matt Kemp has done for this team lately has been nothing short of phenomonal. Other then J.D. Drew, I was very skeptical about the Dodgers outfield once Joel Guzman didn’t make the team. But after a sort of revolving dorr outfield, Kemp has definitely earned a shot of starting every day in either center or left field. He’s now hitting .366 and with two homeruns today, he’s brought his season total up to six.
What a game today. Brian Fuentes has been a very underated reliever the past couple of years and heading into today’s game, he had blown only one save, and in that game, the Rockies came back to win it. His luck ran out today though. Saenz and Russ Martin hit back to back doubles with one out and just like that, the game was tied. Then Sandy Alomar singled home Martin and the comeback was complete.
Friday’s win was just as nice. Brad Penny is slowly putting himself into the Cy Young race. He threw 8 1/3 shutout innings and he improved to 7-1. His strikeout numbers aren’t great, but that 2.34 ERA looks really good. Even more importantly, it’s not a “padded” ERA because Penny hasn’t given up an unearned run yet this year.
Nomar Garciaparra didn’t get a hit today so his hitting streak is finished at 13 games. What a season so far though. He’s hitting .358 and he’s driven in 41 runs in 44 games. If the Dodgers end up in the post season, this will be signing that will be looked at as putting the Dodgers over the top, even if Bill Mueller and Rafael Furcal haven’t quite worked out.
The Diamondbacks have lost seven straight and the Dodgers now hold a one game lead in the NL West. The next stop is San Diego and while they’ve struggled a bit of late, they stand a game over .500 and three games back of the Dodgers (I love saying that). Two of three would be awfully nice.
