Dodgers lose playoff hopes, but only for this year

The Dodgers began the year on top of baseball and have declined, by levels, to where they now are entirely shut out of the playoffs after their 4-3 loss to San Francisco Tuesday night. So, they now turn to what this year really was about, anyway, which is next year.

Dodgers President Stan Kasten has more work to do with this club. (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

Seeing the pitching probables for Tuesday's games, the Dodgers certainly were to be eliminated from playoff contention before their own game against San Francisco was finished.

Over in St. Louis, where the Cardinals needed a win against Cincinnati to clinch the final NL playoff spot and close out the Dodgers, the outcome seemed all but pre-ordained. The St. Louis pitcher, Chris Carpenter, entered the game 14-4 with a 2.48 ERA in his career against the Reds. The Cincinnati pitcher, Mat Latos, had allowed 17 earned runs in 15 innings this year against the Cardinals.

Somehow, the Reds beat St. Louis, 3-1.

So, it was left to the Dodgers to eliminate themselves, which they did with a 4-3 loss to the Giants.

The game went badly for the Dodgers, appropriately enough for a club that began the year well and ended it badly. The Dodgers have descended from the best record in baseball six weeks into the season and dropped level by level to best record in the NL to NL West leader to first wild card leader to second wild card leader to leader of nothing. So, they're done.

Dodgers starting pitcher Chris Capuano allowed five hits and two runs in three innings, giving up long home runs to Buster Posey and Joaquin Arias. All of that damage occurred in a span of ten batters -- from Posey's homer to lead off the second to Posey's single leading off the fourth, giving the Giants a 2-1 lead.

With Posey's second hit, Los Angeles manager Don Mattingly replaced Capuano with Jamey Wright, the 37-year-old right hander who frequently shows us the difference between greatness and ordinariness in the major leagues. Wright still throws a lively array of pitches, but he doesn't always control them well and, when he doesn't have it working, he's walking people, then compensating and giving up line drives.

Wright couldn't stop the Giants, either. His manager didn't help. In the fifth, with Arias at first and two out, Wright threw a wild pick-off, moving Arias to second. Mattingly reacted by issuing an intentional walk to Angel Pagan and pitching to Marco Scutaro.

A lot of us thought the Giants were in big trouble when Melky Cabrera went to the brig for excessive testosterone about two months ago. Not long before then, though, the Giants picked up Scutaro in a deadline deal with Colorado. A decent enough offensive middle infielder through his nine-year career, Scutaro has become Rogers Hornsby since joining the Giants, hitting .363 in his 240 at-bats, scoring 39 runs, driving in 44 and running an .861 OPS, which becomes a 146 OPS-plus considering San Francisco's spacious park. In short, Scutaro has been about as good as Cabrera had been.

Scutaro doubled to right field against Wright, driving in two runs and giving the Giants a 4-1 lead. The Dodgers spent the rest of the game digging back.

They received a break in the seventh inning, when left hander Barry Zito first-pitch plunked Andre Ethier, who entered the game batting .216 against left handers. Giants manager Bruce Bochy surmised that it was time to change pitchers, and maybe be it was, but the pitcher he brought in, Guillermo Moto, immediately gave up a 3-2 homer to A.J. Ellis, bringing the Dodgers within 4-3.

With no outs as the pitcher's spot came up right off an electrifying home run, the Dodgers were loaded. Then they fired blanks.

First, pinch hitter Nick Punto struck out looking. Then, Mark Ellis hit a 2-2 pitch and found a gap in left-center field. Ellis told reporters that it seemed to him that Giants center fielder Angel Pagan took a bad angle on the ball. Pagan may have gotten a bad angle, but he reached the ball at about the same time that Ellis reached second, and Ellis kept it moving to third base.

Ellis took an aggressive chance. You hate to make any out at third, but it's better to make the second out that way than the first or third. If Ellis could reach third, he could tie the game on a fly ball.

But Pagan made a clean throw to his cut-off man, Arias, who made another clean throw to third. Ellis was out by a mile. Two out. The next hitter, Shane Victorino, tripled down the right field line and the Dodgers, along with their fans, were saying "What if?" Meanwhile, the Giants brought in George Kontos to pitch to Matt Kemp. The inning, and the threat, ended with Kemp’s checked swing strike three.

The ninth inning began with another Ethier victory against a left hander, his single to center field against Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt. In came Sergio Romo and up came A.J. Ellis. Two innings earlier, Ellis homered to tighten the game. But this time, Ellis couldn’t even get a bunt down and struck out on three pitches. Next, pinch hitter Bobby Abreu flied out. Two down.

One out from losing their season, the Dodgers replaced Ethier with pinch runner Dee Gordon. On a 2-0 pitch to Mark Ellis, Gordon stole second, and now their tying run could score on a single. But Ellis lined out to center field, bringing it all to an end.

Back when they lived in Brooklyn, a Dodgers season would end like this, or much worse, and the fans could be counted upon to say, “Wait ‘til next year.” This year, in Los Angeles, the fans have been waiting for next year since last week.

Then the Dodgers won six in a row before Tuesday night, and, for a moment, this year was back in play. Now, this year is over for the Dodgers. Next year? We’re waiting.

Rookies take two paths to Angels win

Two Angels rookies were on display Monday night in the opener of their Freeway Series with the Dodgers. Mike Trout made all the plays that turned a 3-2 Angels win. But pitcher Garrett Richards, making his fifth major league start, equally won this game by handling failure.

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

It would be wrong to say that Mike Trout became some kind of a star or presence in town Monday night, because that's what he does all the time. Then again, when the Angels are playing the Dodgers, every big league fan in town is watching.

Unless the Kings are winning their first Stanley Cup in 45 years of history Monday night.

It's safe to say there was more celebrating than ball viewing happening as Trout changed a game that no one else could budge, a 3-2 Angels win against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Trout played a central role in every Angels run, which would be the one that put them on the board, the one that tied the game and the one that won the game.

For those still watching as a four-hour game wound down at the end of a long Monday night, Trout was dessert, an exquisite individual performance topping off a great team championship. Two for four, a homer, two stolen bases, a walk and two RBI. Trout set the table for Albert Pujols to be a hero in the ninth inning, waiting out Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen for an eight-pitch walk with one out, then immediately stealing second base. With red-hot Torii Hunter and Pujols coming up, the Angels had two good chances to get him in.

Jansen struck out Hunter, but Pujols broke his bat on a high 3-1 fastball and dropped a floater into left field, driving in the speedy Trout. Angels reliever Ernesto Frieri closed out the Dodgers in the ninth.

To the extent that one believes baseball is based in failure, Monday night's game made a good deal of sense. The game obviously did not turn on scoring and lead changes so much as chances denied. One never knew how some scoring chance would end, be it a double play, a pick-off or a base runner being hit by a batted ball. Both starting pitchers -- Dodger veteran lefty Chris Capuano and Angels rookie right hander Garrett Richards -- struggled all night. But each was able to find a strikeout pitch or a ground ball when necessary and they turned over a 2-2 game to the bullpens.

The Dodgers were only one-for-11 batting with runners in scoring position. The Angels were only one-for-10 likewise when Pujols batted in the ninth. This futile game would have remained tied in more ways than one if Pujols didn't deliver. Later, Pujols told a TV interviewer that he felt thankful he didn't hit a long fly ball. Albert's a little bit lucky these days. Two for 11. Angels win.

Trout, in command of the game, is quite an electric and impressive rookie, now batting .354 with a .977 OPS. In his way, Richards, the Angels rookie pitcher, was equally impressive in failure.

Making his fifth big league start, Richards couldn't even throw his fastball for strikes, he made a throwing error to open up a two-run first inning for the Dodgers, and he got himself picked off right before Trout homered in the fourth, costing the Angels a run. He had absolutely nothing working. But he held himself together, and he held the game together, too. He made good pitches when he absolutely had to take down National League RBI leader Andre Ethier and veteran producer Bobby Abreu (Dodgers manager Don Mattingly praised the “demeanor” of Abreu’s at bats in Tuesday’s LA Times). When it was time for Richards to go after five innings and 102 pitchers, the game still was in reach for the Angels.

Capuano has been around for eight years and he’s been fighting games like this for his whole career. You know your starting pitcher just isn’t going to have it about one-third of the time. When he doesn’t have it, what does he have? A little bit of luck, maybe, but is that all? Capuano and Richards both displayed it Monday night. For whatever reasons, the hitters failed equally.

Richards owned the Seattle Mariners last week in his first major league start of the year, striking out eight, giving up four hits and walking two in seven innings. Angels won, 6-1. This time, Richards couldn’t throw his fastballs for consistent strikes. According to these findings, he threw strikes with only 33 of 65 fastballs. He was always behind. The bases were always littered. Bottom line, the Dodgers didn’t score after the first inning.

The pitching matchup for Tuesday night isn't exactly about glamour, but it tells us a lot about why these two teams are in very hot contention. The Angels' Jerome Williams (6-3, 4.02) and the Dodgers' Aaron Harang (5-3, 3.95) both are No. 5 starters, and they're both well better than what a lot of clubs have at No. 5.

It isn't box office enough to distract fans from the Kings. But the Kings already have finished their work. Now, the Dodgers and Angels will continue about theirs.

Dodgers scoring output as predictable as the lineup

The Dodgers played three in Colorado over the weekend, and the team's offensive performance played out exactly as it has for the last three weeks. The best production came with left-handed hitters stacked against right-handed pitchers. So, why would the Dodgers deviate from a successful approach?

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

We find ourselves on the edge of a Dodgers-Giants kind of thing again, though not the kind on which the glory of this rivalry was built.

Instead, we see two flagging teams, both beset by injury, just hoping their pitchers can miss enough bats to minimize the beatings. The Dodgers have been losing their games and the Giants have been winning theirs, but the general blueprint is the same. However, because the Dodgers have been losing their games and the Giants have been winning theirs, the Giants now are within three games of the Dodgers for the NL West lead.

The Dodgers lost two of three in Colorado during the weekend, extending their losing streak to five games, then ending it there, then losing again. The details are dreary enough, but the predictability of the results makes this losing special. You can tell if the Dodgers are going to score by reading the lineup card.

Suppose you visited our lush offices last Friday and made the following proposition: "The Dodgers are in Colorado this weekend for three games. In one game, they will face a left-handed starting pitcher. In another, they will stack four or five left-handed hitters against a right-handed starter. In the remaining game, the Dodgers will break up their left-handed hitters against a right-handed starter. How will the Dodgers fare in these games?"

Our reply would have gone something like this: "We cannot predict wins and losses. In general, the Dodgers pitch it and catch it well enough to win every game. However, based on recent trends and results, which is the best we can go on with an ever-fluctuating situation like a baseball team, the offense is easy to predict. The Dodgers will produce next to nothing offensively against the left hander, they will score six runs when they stack the left-handed hitters against the right hander, and they will produce next to nothing offensively when they break up the left-handed hitters against the right-handed starter."

That prediction would have come true. That's incredible. Why would we predict that? Because that's exactly what's been going on with this club for three weeks.

The Dodgers lost the Friday night game, 13-3, against left-handed starter Josh Outman, filling in for released left hander Jamie Moyer.  The Dodgers lined up a mighty arsenal of right-handed hitters, starting with Jerry Hairston in the clean-up position, followed, in order, by Scott Van Slyke, Alex Castellanos and Matt Treanor. Guess what? They actually did some damage -- five for 12 with all three runs and RBI, along with a double, a triple and a stolen base. Of course, they did it all against right-handed relievers.

For the middle game against right hander Juan Nicasio, the Dodgers featured their core-and-shell type of lineup so often described by now within this journal. Same guys -- Bobby Abreu, Andre Ethier, Adam Kennedy, James Loney and A.J. Ellis, three through seven. The main component is that the first four are left-handed hitters.

The Dodgers scored six runs, because that's what this core has produced every time it has gone out there since Matt Kemp first went on the disabled list. The Dodgers won, 6-2. The core went seven for 20 with two runs and four RBI, along with four walks, two doubles and a homer. The core hitters were three for six with a double and a homer against Matt Reynolds, the first left-handed reliever of the game.

Closing out the series on Sunday, the Dodgers faced Colorado right hander Alex White with the lineup splitting the left-handed hitters, replacing Kennedy in the order with Hairston. The whole lineup generated three hits in a 3-2 loss.

We say, again, go with the hot hand. The Dodgers can maintain their stack of left-handed hitters and get Hairston into the lineup by moving Tony Gwynn down to No. 5 and putting Hairston in the lead-off position. We don't think Adam Kennedy is some kind of magic ingredient making that lineup tick. We think that when you don't have a dominant right-handed hitter around, a stack of left-handed hitters who are better is the best attack on a right-handed starter.

At some point, we're starting to think, it wears on the pitcher. Look again at Loney, the last of four straight left handed hitters in that middle game. He went two for five with a double. As the last of four straight left-handed hitters since Kemp first went out, in each case batting right behind Kennedy, Loney is hitting .387 (12 for 31). And the Dodgers have won all seven of those games. Every game the Dodgers have lost to a right-handed starter since Kemp went out, the Dodgers broke up the left-handed hitters.

You might say that the sample sizes here aren't large enough for making predictions of the sort we suggested above. But we don't get large sample sizes for making these predictions. The baseball club is always changing. Players are injured, people get called up, trades are made and your combinations of available players are rarely the same from week to week. How would the stacked lineup of these players fare in the long run? There is no long run. So, just ride it while it's hot because it's there and nothing else is.

The Giants were 25-23, 7 1/2 games behind the Dodgers on May 28, when they went home to Pac Bell Park for seven games against two weak hitting clubs, the Chicago Cubs and Arizona Diamondbacks. The Giants won five of the six games played through Sunday, outscoring their foes, 16-11. The Giants took two of the wins by one run and the other three by two runs.

For doing just that much, the Giants closed their deficit to three games behind the Dodgers. Which shows how precarious and stable is the Dodgers' lead, all at the same time. It also makes the Dodgers’ reticence about using a successful lineup all the more puzzling.

Kemp's return comes not a moment too soon

The Dodgers held up pretty well during Matt Kemp's stay on the disabled list, going 9-5. But they have flagged a bit lately, losing three of their last five, and right-handed starting pitchers now have shut them down twice in four days after a makeshift lineup of left-handed veteran hitters forged seven straight wins against right handers. Kemp is due back in the lineup Tuesday night.

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The Dodgers survived Matt Kemp's stay on the disabled list with a 9-5 record. Barring some kind of unplanned event, Kemp will be back in the lineup Tuesday night against Milwaukee for his first appearance since going on the DL with a hamstring strain on May 14. Let no one believe the Dodgers weren't damaged by Kemp's absence.

After all, the Dodgers were 23-11 before Kemp went on the DL, so 9-5 isn't as good. As 9-5 signals, though, Kemp's absence also has been a period with heartening developments for the Dodgers, so we should also let no one believe the club wasn't enriched by the experience.

The experience includes a raft of key players -- Mark Ellis, Juan Uribe, Juan Rivera, Jerry Hairston and Kemp -- who have been on the disabled list during the last two weeks. The experience also includes Dodgers manager Don Mattingly fighting at once with two problems -- the leadoff position in the batting order and the struggles of a talented young player -- in the person of Dee Gordon.

As a result of the experience, we met a number of players we wouldn't have otherwise seen -- Ivan DeJesus, Elian Herrera, Jerry Sands (again) and Scott Van Slyke. We've seen them flop and we've seen them come up big -- often enough, the latter.

In particular, Herrera is the kind of piece a manager has to love, provided he can kick in offensively. Herrera figures as something of a poor man's Hairston for his ability to take a glove to a lot of positions. But he's also a bit younger than Hairston (27 to 36), he is a switch hitter and his speed can make a difference. In today's baseball, with 12-man pitching staffs shortening benches, your team needs a strong, balanced everyday lineup and versatile players with offensive tools on the bench.

We should add that old war horses like Bobby Abreu, Tony Gwynn and Adam Kennedy have kept the Dodgers from taking on water, now and then dialing up the old bat speed to produce key hits in the last couple weeks. All three have been staples in a left-handed batting order that has led the Dodgers to a 7-2 record against right-handed starting pitchers during Kemp's absence.

Against left-handed starters, not so good -- the Dodgers are just 2-3 against lefties with Kemp on the DL. They were 9-6 with him. That's where Kemp's return will really lift the Dodgers, because he destroys left handers. He leads the NL with a .486 batting average against lefties.

We probably didn't see as much as we'd like from the likes of Sands and Van Slyke, but, in their defense, they shouldn't have been up here. It was only due to a spate of injuries to the players mentioned above that the Dodgers had to dig as deep as Sands and Van Slyke for right-handed batting. Once the DL clears up, the Dodgers will decide that Sands and Van Slyke need regular playing time, and they will be headed back to Albuquerque.

All together, we would have to say this has been a very pleasant little crisis. The Dodgers were able to deal with the big majority of it as home, which always makes it easier. A lot of players have made contributions, which means a lot of players have buy-in with what the club is doing. And the Dodgers, now 32-16, still expanded their lead in the National League West to 6 1/2 games.

The Dodgers lost a tough one Tuesday night, 3-2 to the Milwaukee Brewers at Dodgers Stadium. For the second time in four days, a right-handed starter really shut down the lineup that had been so good against lefties since Kemp was disabled. Shaun Marcum held the Dodgers to one run on six hits in seven innings.

After the game, Mattingly likened Marcum to "a right-handed (Chris) Capuano." Marcum really picked on the shell of the Los Angeles batting order (No. 8 through No. 2), notching a combined eight strikeouts against Gordon, Gwynn and Herrera. Three days earlier, Houston right hander Lucas Harrell held the Dodgers to a run on five hits in 7 1/3 innings. Those are the Dodgers two losses against right-handed starters since Kemp went on the DL. Before then, Mattingly’s makeshift lineup of old men forged a 7-0 record against righties.

Now that it appears as if right handers are catching up with the Dodgers hitters, it would appear that now is a good time for Matt Kemp to return. And he shall.

Minus Kemp, Dodgers not down vs. right handers

With Matt Kemp joining the Dodgers' disabled list, the club looked to be in trouble. But manager Don Mattingly has pieced together a productive lineup against right-handed pitching, and the Dodgers only figure to see three troublesome lefties in a 14-game stretch.

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

With four players from the Dodgers opening day lineup sitting on the disabled list, Don Mattingly has resorted to managing. Heck, he's the only guy still around who isn't hurt. He has to do something.

Mattingly is left with a cast of old guys, rookies and veteran role players, almost none of whom profiles as an everyday performer at this moment. Thus, an everyday lineup with this group is out of the question. Mattingly has two names that will be in the lineup every day until some other players return -- Andre Ethier and A.J. Ellis. Let's just say it: barring further injury. Everything else is up for grabs.

But the Dodgers keep winning, anyway. They’re up to 28-13 now, the best record in the game, coming off nine wins in their last 11 home games. Just looking at the Dodgers active roster at the moment, it’s hard to see any buttons for Mattingly to push, but he keeps finding a few and they keep opening up the scoreboard.

The most obvious way to view Mattingly's task is to consider two different kinds of adversary -- left-handed pitchers and right-handed pitchers. When last we checked on the Dodgers, their temporary lineups against left handers shaped up as a problem. In the Dodgers’ last four games, though, their lineup against right-handed starters has been a fascinating development -- and productive, too, cranking out at least six runs in each game.

The lineup against right handers might be divided into two parts. Off the top of our head, we'll call them the core and the shell. The core of the lineup has been constant through the last four games, all of them wins against opposing right-handed starters. It starts with Bobby Abreu batting third in left field, followed, in order, by Andre Ethier in right, Adam Kennedy at third base, James Loney at first and A.J. Ellis catching.

After batting Ellis fifth to break up his left-handed hitters earlier in the week against Arizona right hander Ian Kennedy, Mattingly has moved Ellis to seventh, which lines up four lefties -- Abreu through Loney -- all in a row. The effect on right-handed starters has been startling.

The hitters in the core are 29 for 78 (.372) with 18 runs and 14 RBI in the last four games, through May 20. The Dodgers had 20 offensive innings in which the core hitters were at least half of the hitters who batted. In those 20 innings, the Dodgers scored 14 times for 25 runs.

With that core of veteran left-handed hitters, one coming right after another, the Dodgers are scoring more and at least as consistently as they scored with Matt Kemp in the lineup. Remember, though, this is only against right-handed starting pitchers. Which raises the obvious objection to Mattingly's core; to wit, doesn't he play into the hands of the opposing manager by lining up his left-handed hitters that way? Now, the other side can shut down your core in the seventh with one left-handed reliever, then that core has to deal with the closer in the ninth. One response for Mattingly might be to march up right-handed hitters against the lefty reliever.

But Mattingly doesn't take the bait. By bringing up right-handed pinch hitting that early, he would cook his bench and leave himself without left-handed hitting after the other guys run out of left-handed pitching. If the other side has a good left-handed closer, you might look at it differently. Otherwise,  Mattingly is keeping his left-handed core together, at least through the seventh inning. And that core has responded by scoring against those left-handed relievers. The left-handed hitters in that core are five for nine against lefties in the last four games. In those games, the core has come up for three innings against left handers and the Dodgers scored every time for a total of six runs.

Mattingly will replace Abreu defensively late in games and he'll rest a top guy or two for a couple innings if the Dodgers are winning big. But he likes to leave the left handers in there against a wave of left-handed relief. The hitters have made that the correct decision. Except when Mattingly decides otherwise, and that becomes a correct decision, too.

The Dodgers trailed St. Louis, 5-2, as they batted in the bottom of the seventh Sunday night at Dodger Stadium. The inning began at the top of the order with Tony Gwynn flying out and Elian Herrera singling against Victor Marte. With the four left-handed hitters due up, the Cardinals brought in their left hander, Mark Rzepczynski. True to form, Mattingly stuck with his lefties, who touched up the same guy for a run two nights earlier. This time, Abreu singled Herrera to second, then Ethier struck out.

In the last four days, to this point, Mattingly had not one time taken down a left-handed hitter from that core in favor of a right-handed bat against the first left-handed reliever of the game. The left-handed hitters were validating that approach. But now, all of a sudden, Mattingly changed course, taking down Kennedy for Scott Van Slyke. Kennedy was five for his last 10, including a hit and a walk in his last two ups against left handers. Van Slyke had appeared in five of the last six games without a hit to show for it. Zero for six. So, just to see what happens? Van Slyke hit his first big league homer, a game-winning three-run bomb for a 6-5 Dodgers win.

The shell of the order is the bottom two spots and the top two spots in the lineup. As the lineup begins linear and ends cyclical, the top and the bottom of the order become a shell that surrounds the core. This shell is rather delicate. To this section, Mattingly has deferred all his new problems. The guys in the core are all there to make themselves comfortable and hit. All the mixing and matching takes place in the shell.

Two of the positions to be covered in the shell are injury replacements for Matt Kemp and Mark Ellis. Another position in here is the pitcher, which means you're probably going to give up an out for a base. Next up is leadoff, which has normally meant Dee Gordon. But after you've spent a bunt to put a runner in scoring position with one or two out, you want somebody up there who might drive the ball. So many problems.

In the last four games, Mattingly has used two different shells, the difference coming about after the injury to Mark Ellis. The second shell included Herrera, excluded Gordon and put Gwynn at the top of the order. Justin Sellars at shortstop batted eight in the second arrangement. The first shell no longer is optional because of the injury to Ellis, so we are left with the second.

The newer operation went nine for 32, scoring five runs and driving in three in two games Saturday and Sunday nights against the Cardinals. The hitters within this second shell took at least half of the at-bats in five different innings and the Dodgers scored in only one of them, a four-run seventh on Saturday that ran through eight hitters. There was another inning in which Herrera singled with one out and scored after singles by Abreu and Ethier. That's a core inning.

Looking at the Dodgers batting order as this shell and core, Herrera becomes a transitional figure between them in the two hole. As 27-year-old rookie with eight years in the minor leagues, he's suitable as the last hitter in the shell. As a switch hitter with speed batting in front of the left-handed core, he has a chance to trigger some offense. Herrera's minor league numbers say he's been a pretty reliable .360 on-base guy for the last five years, and he's been stealing about 35-40 bags per year at a 75 percent success rate.

Just as Herrera could be a suitable transitional hitter between the shell and the core at the top of the lineup, A.J. Ellis is the right fit for putting the core with the shell at the bottom. Batting seventh, Ellis can lead off for the shell and put a man on, as his on-base percentage is third across the NL at .446. Or, he can clean up for the core and get a man in, driving in eight runs in as many games since moving up from No. 8.

Flaws and all, you might say the Dodgers' temporary order against right handers is a well-enough wrought urn. The Dodgers seem to have that much of it solved while the big guys are away. They haven't lost to a right hander since Kemp went on the DL. But left handers are another story, and it could be a grim story, but the Dodgers might luck through it.

Mattingly has mentioned that the Dodgers weren't great against left handers even before the injuries. It's true that the Dodgers weren't as good against lefties as against righties. But they were 9-6 in games started by left handers before Kemp's injury. Kemp leads the National League with a .486 batting average against left handers. They were doing fine.

Since Kemp's injury, Mattingly has tried two different lineups against lefties. The Dodgers lost both games, scoring a total of three runs. The first of those lineups, which scored only one run, was discussed in an earlier piece. The next time out against a left hander, Mattingly benched Loney and Gordon, along with the two Ellises. His right-handed hitters that night were Herrera, Jerry Sands, Sellers and Matt Treanor. The Padres won, 4-2, behind Clayton Richard.

So, the Dodgers do have a problem against left-handed starters. However, they also have a lot going for them. In addition to being able to fight through these injuries largely at home, they have stumbled upon a stretch of the season during which they're likely to see only three lefties in a stretch of 14 games, just when we've figured out that left-handed pitchers are going to a problem.

The Dodgers will face Patrick Corbin and Joe Saunders during the next three days in Arizona. Then, they catch a break when Houston comes to Dodger Stadium this weekend, because the Astros are using lefties Wandy Rodriguez and J.A. Happ this week against the Cubs (who are 1-6 against left-handed starters). The Dodgers will miss them. Then, Milwaukee comes to town with only one left-handed starter, old friend Randy Wolf.

Left-handers take about 30 percent of the starts in the National League, so facing only three in a 14-game span during Kemp's injury might end up being worth a couple for the Dodgers. Timing is everything.

How much more time before Kemp returns? The Dodgers are shooting for May 29, the day he is eligible to come off the DL.

Pujols debut marks just the start for Angels

Despite frequent predictions of imminent glory, the real payout from the Angels' acquisition of Albert Pujols should come some time after 2012.

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in LA

The Angels aren't the Angels anymore. They are Albert Pujols and whatever the Angels can put around him. It's a proven approach. The St. Louis Cardinals won two world championships that way.

How the Angels build around Pujols will be their story for this and the next several seasons. The Angels take on big contracts every year. The whole promise of Pujols is that he is a different kind of contract, a different kind of player, an anchor who can hold a team through rough waters. But he is not a one-man team and the team he joins now is two years removed from its last finish less than ten games down in the American League West.

The Angels start their season at home Friday night against the Kansas City Royals. Pujols will bat third and play first base. He will be the best player on the field. But he's not, yet, the definitive centerpiece of his team. He is a solution in the midst of a problem. Right now, he's a huge contract added to the Angels' stack of contracts, some of which are among the worst in the game. When you realize the Angels are on the hook to Vernon Wells for $21 million in each of the next three years, that $240 million over ten years for Pujols doesn't sound like such a desperate overbid.

According to Cot's Contracts, the Angels are paying Pujols only $12 million in 2012 -- less than they are paying Wells, Torii Hunter ($18 million), Jered Weaver ($14 million) and Dan Haren ($12.75 million). Close behind is Ervin Santana ($11.2 million).

After 2012, contracts for Hunter, Bobby Abreu ($9 million in 2012), Erick Aybar ($5.08 million) and Maicer Izturis ($3.8 million) expire. The Angels will have 2013 options for Haren ($15.5 million), Santana ($13 million) and Chris Iannetta ($5 million). They also will have arbitration decisions to make about Kendrys Morales, Jerome Williams, Alberto Callaspo and Hisanori Takahashi.

If the Angels pick up all of those 2013 contract options, they would end this season with around $450 million in salary exposure for future years ending in 2021, the last year of the Pujols deal. That's about $50 million per year for the next nine years. Their new television contract with Fox, reportedly $3 billion over 20 years, pays $150 million per year, $100 million per year more than their old deal. They can cover it.

For all their big contracts right now, in other words, the Angels have incredible flexibility for the future seasons of their contact with Pujols. If the Angels play their cards right, this 2012 club won't be close to their best club in the next ten years. Once the Angels shed their contractual commitments to decaying veterans and replace them with live players, they will take off.

The task of building these clubs nominally goes to General Manager Jerry DiPoto, hired last October, six weeks before the club signed Pujols. With the Angels, though, who calls the shots is as interesting as the shots that are called. Owner Arte Moreno is a big-picture, strong-willed sort who has been influential in recent free agent signings. Manager Mike Scioscia also is known as a strong voice in player personnel moves.

That process has only just begun. Fans should not be surprised if the Angels can't overtake the Texas Rangers this year. They still have a distance to cover. The Angels who Pujols joins have less punch than the Cardinals he left behind.

The Angels who Pujols joins are a solid ten games inferior to the Rangers, as demonstrated by two consecutive seasons ending exactly that way. So, that ten-game difference isn't some random fluxuation of statistical probability. It's the difference between the Rangers and Angels when Pujols signed.

Pre-Pujols, the Angels had one, and only one, strong feature -- the starting rotation front three of Weaver, Haren and Santana. The bullpen was shaky, and still is. Around the regular lineup, the Angels had one, and only one, position -- second base with Howie Kendrick -- for which they did not need an upgrade to average major league productivity for a regular at that position. Pujols brings them up to two.

It's true that the Angels signed C.J. Wilson off the Rangers, improving themselves while weakening their nemesis. We'll see if the Rangers made up for it on their end by going to Japan for Yu Darvish. And don't be too surprised, by the way, if Wilson ends up closing games for the Angels, because a chance remains that they will need someone to do it, and Wilson has done it well.

The Rangers aren't going away quietly. They are an angry, hungry group after two straight pennants without a world championship to show for it. They came within one out of winning it all last year. They've got the ethos to get it done, starting at the very top with the great Nolan Ryan, and they have assembled a much better club for doing it. They’re a serious operation. They're not packing it in over a good offseason for the Angels. They have money, too.

The Angels have just begun to build a true challenger by signing Pujols. They've got intriguing young talents like Mark Trumbo and Mike Trout, and aging pieces like Hunter, Wells and Abreu are starting to fall away.

Pujols will put a jolt into this staggering offense this year. But he doesn't have enough help.  We all remember that he one-manned the Cardinals to gold in 2006, but that was an 82-win team in a weak division prevailing by guile. The more formidable Cardinals of the Pujols years included one or two additional top-notch producers. The Angels don't have that. They won three straight divisions, 2007-2009, basing their offense on expensive veteran star outfielders whose decline we have since witnessed with our own eyes. Only when that team crumbles away and we see a new team built around Pujols will we see the Angels with whom he makes his true mark.

The 2012 season will be a year of transition in Anaheim. It might even be victorious. But for that to happen, Pujols will not be enough and the Angels still probably don’t have enough to go with him. They still need some players reversing the aging process, or some other players accelerating the maturation process. That’s this year. Next year and beyond, they’re going to need new players to go with Pujols.