Dodgers dolt up NLCS opener, lose in 13 innings

It seemed as though the entire Dodgers organization had a collective synaptic misfiring Friday, when they set their roster for the National League Championship Series quite questionably, then performed questionably in Game 1. It still took the St. Louis Cardinals 13 innings to beat them, 3-2.

St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Carlos Beltran drove in all three of his team's runs and cut down a scoring chance for the Dodgers Friday night (djprybyl/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).


By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The Dodgers were so air-headed Friday that they just about had to lose their National League Championship Series opener to the St. Louis Cardinals, and they did.

The in-game decisions by players and manager alike are sure to be turned over endlessly if the series ends with the Dodgers losing. Upper management didn't cover itself with glory before the game, either. The Dodgers now are down, 1-0, with Game 2 coming up at 1 p.m. PST Saturday in St. Louis.

First, the game. The Dodgers lost, 3-2, in 13 innings. The end came after Dodgers reliever Chris Withrow gave up a single to Daniel Descalso and a walk to Matt Carpenter with one out in the 13th. The Dodgers manager, Don Mattingly, had no choice but to call his closer, Kenley Jansen, with Carlos Beltran coming to the plate.

You hate to use your closer in a tie game on the road, which is why Jansen didn't start the inning. But Withrow couldn't keep the bases clean, so the tying run moved into scoring position and, at that point, the situation is desperate. Jansen is his best guy in the bullpen, and Mattingly's best chance to keep the run from scoring.

Jansen threw strike one, then three straight fastballs too low, running the count to 3-1. At that point, Beltran had a free swing. Jansen threw the next fastball away and about knee high, Beltran took his rip and bolted it into right field to drive in Descalso. Game over.

But the Dodgers lost this game in so many other ways. Players didn't come through enough to get the job done earlier. Dodgers hitters were one-for-10 with runners in scoring position. They didn't knock out Cardinals starter Joe Kelly when they had several chances early.

The keynote was set in the first inning, when the Dodgers put runners at second and third with one out. Adrian Gonzalez and Yasiel Puig struck out to end the inning. The Dodgers scored twice against Kelly in the third, but it amounted to minimal damage. Bases loaded, one out, Puig grounded to the pitcher, who threw home for a force out. Next, Juan Uribe singled through the middle to drive in two runners and move Puig to second base. Andre Ethier then flew out to center field, ending the inning.

The Cardinals came right back in their half of the third after their first two batters, David Freese and Pete Kozma struck out. Kelly somehow singled to left, then Dodgers starter Zack Greinke walked Carpenter. The next man up, Beltran, hit a drive to the center field wall. Ethier, rusty from not playing for a while in the outfield, came close to catching it at the wall, but missed. Two runs scored, tying the game, 2-2.

The game stayed that way until the 13th inning. Though the 10th inning, the Dodgers sent up only two more batters than the minimum. They could get nothing started. Seeing precious few scoring opportunities, Mattingly sent in Dee Gordon to punch run for Gonzalez after a leadoff walk in the eighth. Very interesting decision.

Why would you make it? Because you're not getting people on base, and you have a couple hitters coming up -- Puig and Juan Uribe -- who can give you a jolt. In fact, Uribe has four RBI in the last two games. A double by one of these players drives in a run if Gordon is running, and not if Gonzalez is running.

Why would you not make it? Because you don't want to take Gonzalez and his bat out of the lineup in a game that could be going to extra innings. And because you're probably not trying to steal second base against Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, who threw out 43 percent of attempting base stealers this year. It's a move that says you're trying to take the lead right now so you can close it out with Brian Wilson pitching the eighth and Jansen pitching the ninth.

Mattingly’s explanation was a little disturbing. By the accounts, it went like this: “If we don't use (Gordon) there and the next guy hits a ball in the gap and he doesn't score and we don't score there, we're going to say, 'Why didn't you use Dee?’”

Sounds too much like Mattingly is wary from constant second guessing, and he sought to guard himself from another second guess. The problem is that people watching the game questioned it as a first guess.

Anyway, it didn't work. Puig hit into a force and Uribe hit into an inning ending double play. It was the first of three double plays that would end Dodgers innings. Michael Young, who replaced Gonzalez, hit into both of the others.

Young once was an excellent batsman who tacked up 200 hits in multiple seasons because he hit the ball hard to right field. But he turns 37 next week and he no longer has the bat speed of a .315 hitter. He's more like .275 or .280, which is better than most, but the difference shows up against postseason quality.

Many commentators have complained that having Young bat behind Hanley Ramirez took the bat away from Ramirez, as the Cardinals intentionally walked Ramirez in the 10th and 12th innings with Young on-deck. It's much more sensible to suppose that if you're the Cardinals, you're not letting Ramirez beat you even if Gonzalez is up behind him. The real damage from missing Gonzalez lies in the fact that he's simply a better hitter than Young and, being left-handed, he might have forced some uncomfortable decisions on Cardinals manager Mike Matheny.

With one out in the tenth, Mark Ellis tripled for the Dodgers. One wished at that point for Gordon to be available. But he wasn't, and the Cardinals walked Ramirez so they could pitch to Young. On a 1-0 pitch, Young hit a lazy fly ball to medium right field, with Beltran coming in on the ball to catch it.

Beltran is well known for his arm and Molina is well known for his excellence at blocking the plate. Ellis is not well known for his speed. But Ellis tried to score on the fly ball, with predictable results. He was out by several feet. There was some question of whether Molina actually tagged Ellis, but even Ellis conceded that he was out. When there's a collision at home plate and the catcher hangs onto the ball, he will get that call every time.

Nothing went right for the Dodgers in this one. Their roster setting decisions before the game didn't go right, either. Facing a St. Louis team that batted .238 against left-handed pitching this season, the Dodgers decided to leave lefties Paco Rodriguez and Chris Capuano off the NLCS in favor of right-handers Edinson Volquez and Carlos Marmol.

Mattingly told reporters that management discussed that call for five hours. One has to wonder what goes down in a decision making process that last five hours and lands on removing two lefties from your staff when you're playing a team that doesn't hit them.

But that's how the day went for the Dodgers. Not a very promising start to the NLCS.

Bullpen blows up again: Atlanta 5, Dodgers 2

We might say that no lead is safe for the Dodgers, the way their bullpen is going, except that the Dodgers don't score enough to build big leads. Instead, they blow small leads, as they did in Atlanta for the third straight day Sunday, a 5-2 loss.

Receiving another chance to close out a lead, if only by default, Brandon League couldn't get the Atlanta Braves to hit the ball on the ground Sunday (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Share Alike-Attribution Generic 2.0 license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The game: May 19, Dodgers at Atlanta, National League. The Dodgers entered 17-24, fifth place NL West, seven games behind Arizona. Atlanta entered 24-18, first place NL East, 1 1/2 games ahead of Washington.

The pitchers: Dodgers, Matt Magill, right hander (0-0, 6.92). Atlanta, Mike Minor, left hander (5-2, 2.75).

The result: Atlanta 5, Dodgers 2 (Baseball-reference.com box score).

Summary: The Braves swept out the Dodgers, who blew their third late-inning lead in as many games in Atlanta. But the last two, including Sunday's, were such small leads based on so few runs that it's not reasonable to blame them entirely on the bullpen.

The pitching: Dodgers starter Matt Magill came out getting swings and misses at his four-seam fastball, finishing three strikeouts in the first two innings that way and notching a fourth strikeout during that time frame with his slider. But Atlanta starter Mike Minor matched Magill strikeout for strikeout. Through five innings, both pitchers had eight strikeouts. The difference was that the Dodgers, particularly Carl Crawford, hit some balls hard against Minor, which resulted in their 2-1 lead through five ... The Dodgers bullpen stitched it together in the sixth and seventh innings. In the sixth, lefty J.P. Howell came in with a runner on first and no outs, waited through a rain delay and, right away, had to put up with another runner on base by an error to bring up two on and no outs. But Howell struck out Brian McCann, then got a fly out from Andrelton Simmons. With Saturday's killer, Evan Gattis, coming up as a pinch hitter, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly brought in Ronald Belisario, who threw all sinkers and sliders to force an inning-ending ground ball ... Belisario began the seventh by getting the first two men out, then walking Jordan Schafer. With Jason Heyward, a left-handed hitter, coming up, Mattingly called on lefty Paco Rodriguez, who ruined that strategy by hitting Heyward. So Mattingly called right away on Kenley Jansen, who whiffed Justin Upton by throwing all cutters to end the inning ...

But Jansen began the eighth by allowing a single to Freddie Freeman and a walk to McCann, and the disaster was begun with the Dodgers still up, 2-1 ... Enter Brandon League ... When third baseman Juan Uribe right away booted Simmons' sacrifice, meaning the Dodgers couldn't make an out even when the Braves gave them one, the bases were loaded. Freeman, not a fast runner, was now on third, so the Dodgers might have still choked the inning with a ground ball. In some past failures, League could at least make hitters put the ball on the ground. Not this time ... That was a 94-MPH sinker that pinch hitter Gerald Laird lined to right for a single on the first pitch to knock in the tying run ... That was an 85-MPH splitter that Ramiro Pena hit deep to right for a sacrifice fly to drive in the lead run ... That was an 85-MPH slider that Chris Johnson lined cleanly to left field for another single to knock in another run ... Finally, League got someone to hit the ball on the ground -- because Schafer bunted. That drove home another run, too ...

The hitting: The Dodgers put single runs together with the top of their order in the early innings ... In the first, Carl Crawford led off with a line-drive double to left and moved up on a ground ball to the right side by Mark Ellis, just back from the disabled list. Next, Minor buried a two-strike curve to Matt Kemp in the dirt. Kemp swung and missed for the strikeout, while Braves catcher Brian McCann blocked the pitch. But Adrian Gonzalez followed with a fly ball to center, which knocked in the first run ... In the third, Crawford led off with a walk, took third on Kemp's hard double to left and crossed on another sacrifice fly to left by Gonzalez ... But after the third inning, the Dodgers made 14 straight outs before Andre Ethier walked with two down in the ninth and the Dodgers trailing by then, 5-2.

The base running: The Braves made more outs on the bases than the Dodgers, getting caught stealing twice. Dee Gordon, who makes a big share of the Dodgers' base-running mistakes, began the game on the bench, but entered in a seventh-inning double switch.

The fielding: Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis is letting passed balls by him again -- four this year -- but teams run on him at their peril. In the first inning, Ellis threw out Jason Heyward while Justin Upton swung at strike three to complete an inning-ending double play. In the fourth, Atlanta catcher Brian McCann tried to run on Ellis with Andrelton Simmons batting and two out, but Ellis threw him out ... For the season, Ellis has thrown out 10 of 23 attempting base stealers, 43.5 percent. The league average is 28.6 percent ... Playing shortstop, Nick Punto short-armed his throw for an error in the fifth, allowing Simmons to reach base as the leadoff hitter. The error cost the Dodgers a run, as Atlanta later in the inning hit two two-out singles against Dodger starter Matt Magill to get the run home ... Rain delayed the game with a man on first and one out in the sixth, Dodgers leading, 2-1. After play resumed, the Dodgers were a different team. It began with the very first hitter, when second baseman Mark Ellis botched a grounder, enabling Freddie Freeman to reach and putting runners on first and second ... The killer error came in the bottom of the eighth, runners on first and second, no one out, Dodgers ahead, still 2-1, and Simmons batting. Anyone seeing that game knew Simmons was bunting. But third baseman Juan Uribe came up too fast on the bunt down the third base line and didn't even field it. The error loaded the bases. If Uribe makes the play, they get one out, then the Dodgers can intentionally walk the next batter and maybe get out of it with a double play, except that reliever Brandon League couldn't make anyone hit the ball on the ground. Following Uribe's error came a clean single, a deep sacrifice fly, a clean single and a sacrifice bunt, all of which drove in runs.

Strategic moves: After a loss like this, blaming the manager seems almost obligatory. Surely, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly can't hang it all on his bullpen. In that spirit, but not as a second guess so much as a thought for the future, we'll offer one idea. In the seventh, Dodgers leading, 2-1, Mattingly brought in reliever Kenley Jansen while double-switching with Dee Gordon entering as shortstop to replace Nick Punto. It seemed like an odd choice, considering the following: 1) Punto, we believe, is the team's best defensive third baseman; 2) third baseman Juan Uribe was batting seventh and Punto eighth (The ninth spot was due up for the Dodgers in the eighth. That's where Mattingly slotted Gordon); and 3) with a 2-1 lead, it makes sense to double switch for defense. Thus, it seemed more sensible to put Gordon at short, move Punto from short to third and remove Uribe from the game. As it turned out, Uribe made a crucial error in the eighth to open up a four-run inning by the Braves. The Dodgers only had two more innings to bat at that point, so batting the pitcher seventh instead of eighth would not have been a huge sacrifice. As it turned out, leaving Uribe in to play third base was a huge sacrifice. As it turned out, the seventh spot didn't even bat for the Dodgers in what remained of the game.

What now: The Dodgers fell to 17-25, still fifth in the NL West, seven games behind Arizona. If it's any consolation to the Dodgers, Arizona has the worst first-place record in baseball, 25-19 ... The Braves are 25-18, leading the NL East by 2 1/2 games over Washington ... The Dodgers have a chance to right themselves as they go to Milwaukee for three games. The Brewers are the last-place team in the NL Central at 17-25, same record as the Dodgers ... And the Dodgers will have their three best pitchers going -- Clayton Kershaw, Zack Grienke and Hyun-jin Ryu. We say that as if the Dodgers hadn't just wasted two good starts from Chris Capuano and Matt Magill ... The Milwaukee series starts Monday (5:10 p.m. PDT) with the lefty Kershaw (4-2, 1.40) going against Brewers right hander Yovani Gallardo (3-3, 4.50).

As Kemp goes, so go the Dodgers ... badly

Nearly a half-season of games have come and gone since the Dodgers made the big trade with Boston to add offensive pieces around Matt Kemp. But Kemp hasn't given them much to build around -- just seven homers, 31 RBI and a .248 batting average in those games. 

Dodgers centerfielder Matt Kemp has struggled offensively since the front office added hitters to their lineup (Creative Commons image).


By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

We've realized for quite some time that the Dodgers go as Matt Kemp goes. We're realizing it now more than ever.

Last Aug. 20, the Dodgers stunned the baseball world by taking on $273 million in contracts from the Boston Red Sox. By adding Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, the idea was that the Dodgers would add pieces around Kemp's anticipated production. Before the Red Sox trade, the Dodgers traded to receive Hanley Ramirez from Miami. Thus, the Dodgers added three pieces to Kemp and Andre Ethier, surely enough to create a productive offense in any ball park.

Crawford wasn't available until this season, and Ramirez has all but missed the entire 2013 season, so the group hasn't been together as hoped. But the Dodgers have always had four of those big bats around, and those big bats haven't added up to a big offense.

The Dodgers have played 70 games since the Boston trade – 40 in 2012 and 30 in 2013 – a pretty representative number of games. The Dodgers are 32-38 in those games. The Dodgers have scored a grand total of 250 runs in those games, 3.57 runs per game. They have scored 104 runs in 2013, 14th out of 15 National League teams.

It's commonly understood and not at all surprising that the Dodgers are getting nothing offensively from their shortstops and third basemen, which points to the damage from constant injuries to Ramirez this season. But if we're really looking for a surprising weak link in the Dodgers' surprisingly weak offense, that one is easy.

It's Matt Kemp.

Check out the numbers for Kemp and the Dodgers for the last 40 games of the 2012 season, starting with the Boston trade.

	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Dodgers	1357	146	347	63	4	38	138	99	305	25	9	.256	.314	.392	.706
Kemp	140	19	33	7	0	6	18	9	42	2	1	.236	.289	.414	.704

The Dodgers were 19-21 in those 40 games. Kemp played in 36 of them, during which the Dodgers were 17-19. The Dodgers, as a whole, batted slightly better than Kemp, and they reached base slightly better than Kemp, while Kemp slugged slightly better than the team. But all of these numbers are dismal. And the OPS readings are nearly identical -- .706 for the Dodgers and .704 for Kemp.

So, along comes 2013. A new year. Let's see how different it has been, comparing Kemp with the Dodgers in 2013.

	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Dodgers	996	104	255	41	2	21	98	110	204	16	3	.256	.335	.364	.699
Kemp	114	13	30	6	0	1	13	10	31	4	0	.263	.323	.342	.665

Kemp is in the lineup every day, and the Dodgers are 13-17 in 2013. In all of his 29 starts, he has batted third or fourth. One hates to mess with Kemp, because the talent and dedication are unmistakable. He's not dogging. He's just struggling. But he is absolutely choking this lineup from an RBI position in the batting order.

The Dodgers' No. 1 and No. 2 hitters -- Carl Crawford and Mark Ellis -- have been excellent, so far. Crawford is batting .311, he has a .383 on-base percentage, he has an .878 OPS (144 OPS-plus), and he has scored only 21 runs in 28 games. Ellis has played in 20 games with only 10 runs to show for it, despite a .342 batting average, a .363 on-base percentage and an .815 OPS (127 OPS-plus).

These guys are setting the table and Kemp isn't eating. Here's a helpful set of numbers from baseball-reference.com (and, as always, that's where we get our numbers). Kemp had 13 RBI in his first 122 plate appearances. The average big league player with 122 plate appearances had 13 RBI. But with Crawford and Ellis on base in front of Kemp, the Dodgers' No. 3 hitter had many more opportunities than the average big league player. Kemp came to the plate with 99 runners on base, 49 of them in scoring position. The average player with 122 plate appearances came to the plate with 73 runners on base, 35 in scoring position. But Kemp has the same 13 RBI.

If Kemp drove in runs at the rate of the average hitter, given that he has more run-producing opportunities in his 122 plate appearances, he would be around 20 RBI. If he were hitting the way we expect Matt Kemp to hit, which is at a level well above the average player, he might be approaching 30 RBI and battling for the league RBI lead.

With runners in scoring position, Kemp has six singles in 33 at-bats for batting and slugging averages of .182, driving in 10 runs. With two outs and runners in scoring position, Kemp has two singles in 13 at-bats for three RBI to go with batting and slugging averages of .254. With two outs, Kemp is seven-for-39 with a double and a homer for five RBI, but his batting average is .179 and his slugging average is .282. In the first inning, which is generally the best chance to score, Kemp is five-for-25 with two doubles, three RBI and a long slash line of .200/.231/.280/.511.

Kemp is tearing it up in the fifth through seventh innings against tiring starters and low-shelf relievers. During those innings, he is 17-for-40 (.425) with three doubles, a homer and eight RBI. In all other at-bats, he is hitting .176 (13-for-74) with no homers and five RBI.

Kemp’s troubles create ripple effects going down the lineup. For example, Gonzalez, batting right behind Kemp, is hitting as expected, .337/.398/.500/.898 for a 150 OPS-plus, about what he has done in his best years. In his first 112 plate appearances of 2013, he drove in 20 runs against an average player’s 11 RBI in 112 plate appearances. Gonzalez is driving in the extra runners the Dodgers have on base for him. He came up with 79 runners on (35 in scoring position), compared with the average hitter's 67 base runners (32 in scoring position). There could be a lot more, except that Kemp is ending a lot of innings, forcing too many at-bats for Gonzalez with the bases empty.

Surely the Dodgers didn’t count on Gonzalez, their cleanup hitter, to lead off innings 30 times already. He’s leading off innings in 26.5 percent of his plate appearances. During his career, he has led off 20.2 percent of the time. Throughout his career, Kemp has been a good two-out hitter (.283 batting, .488 slugging, .842) OPS. But he’s not even close to that, and it’s costing Gonzalez RBI opportunities.

We’re only a month into the season and the numbers are small, but the numbers are large enough to point up a large problem for the Dodgers’ offense. This team is designed for Matt Kemp to lead the league in RBI, and the hitters in front of Kemp are performing in such a way that he should lead the league in RBI. That's not happening.

We've figured for a long time that the Dodgers would go as Matt Kemp goes. Now, we're sure of it.

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.

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.