Not Your Typical Hollywood Script

Not Your Typical Hollywood Script

The date was June 22^nd. The Los Angeles Dodgers were 30-42, 9.5 games back in the NL West with the worst record in the division. They played in San Diego that night with the seat being hotter than the Maxim 100 issue for Don Mattingly. The Dodgers took on massive payroll at the start of the year and were ready to be a top contender in the National League. It was looking like anything but up until that night when a funny thing happened….they defeated the Padres 6-1 and have not looked back since. Between June 22^nd and the All-Star Break on July 14^th, the Dodgers went 17-5, bringing them to the .500 mark. The few days off didn’t cool them down either because since the All-Star Break they’ve gone 23-3.

This feat is nearly impossible even with a healthy roster but the Dodgers have been ravaged by injuries all season, making this run even more incredible. They’ve barely gotten anything out of Matt Kemp, Hanley Ramirez missed time, and Zack Greinke broke his collarbone. These are not injuries that a team can take lightly, they are three of the highest paid players on the team and guys expected to make major contributions. Greinke and Ramirez came back from their injuries and have done just that, but the biggest reason for the turnaround is none other than Yasiel Puig. Puig came to the Dodgers and has lit a fire under everyone with his all-out fantastic play. He has swung a hot bat, shown to have a laser for an arm, and outhustled everyone by miles. He was the spark plug this team needed to get going. Seeing his play and effort makes teammates raise their game to another level in order to keep up. Puig probably won’t get the MVP Award because he hasn’t played a full season, he’s a rookie, plus he has a showmanship about him that crotchety voters won’t like, but there’s no question that the word valuable applies to him more so than anyone else in the National League.

Another fantastic Dodger is Clayton Kershaw. He is one of the front runners for the Cy Young Award and also has a chance to snag that MVP Award that should go to his teammate. His record is only 11-7 but that is through no fault of his own, that falls on his offense and their lack of run support for him. He has a Major League leading 1.88 ERA, which is almost unheard of, and is basically a guaranteed win every fifth day as long as the offense shows some punch. Coupled with Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu, who has been a major find for the team and you have a capable staff to carry you into the postseason.

The rest of the NL West has collapsed while the rise of the Dodgers has occurred, allowing the Dodgers to most likely walk into the postseason without breaking a sweat down the stretch. The hard part is over for them and they can look forward to a postseason berth and a chance to prove all the prognosticators right when they said at the beginning of the season this was a championship caliber team. The lights will shine brightest in October in Tinseltown so let’s see whether this shooting star continues to streak across the sky or burns out too quickly.