Not Your Typical
Hollywood Script
The date was
June 22nd. 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 22nd and the All-Star Break
on July 14th, 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.
