Dodgers take Mets again

A night after pounding New York 9-4, the Dodgers posted a 4-3 win in the Big Apple tonight as Hyun-Jin Ryu came off the disabled list with a win and Adrian Gonzalez, Yasiel Puig and Hanley Ramirez hit solo homers to pace Los Angeles.

The Dodgers remain four games back of San Francisco but picked up a game on second place Colorado with the win.

 

Kenley Jansen got the save in the ninth but not before giving up a triple and a run.

Chone Figgins had a late-inning double and scored when the Mets botched a double play ball to provide the insurance run for the Dodgers.

With Ryu and ace Clayton Kershaw back in the rotation, the Dodgers are poised to make a run at San Francisco and Colorado. Kershaw’s shelling in his last outing could be a cause for worry but Ryu looked strong in his return tonight at Citi Field.

Ryu scattered nine hits over six innings and struck out nine Mets. He surrendered a two-run homer but other than that kept New York at bay.

Zack Grienke (7-1, 2.03 ERA) takes the bump tomorrow as the Dodgers seek a three-game sweep.

Los Angeles starts a three-game against the Phillies on Friday before coming home next week to face the Reds and Pirates.

Kershaw puts Dodgers in the win column

Dodger ace Clayton Kershaw returned to the mound last night after six weeks on the DL and pitched seven innings of shutout ball in an 8-3 win over the Nationals.

Coupled with San Francisco’s 2-1 loss at Pittsburgh, the Dodgers moved to 2.5 games behind the Giants in the NL West and a game back of the Colorado Rockies, 12-1 winners over Texas.

Kershaw scattered nine hits over the seven innings and struck out nine in the win. The Los Angeles southpaw improved his record to 2-0 on the season with a miniscule 0.66 ERA.

Hanley Ramirez went yard to center field and Drew Butera socked a three-run dinger to pace the Dodgers. Chris Perez pitched in the eighth inning and was tagged for three runs on three hits. Carl Crawford and Ramirez led the Dodgers with three hits apiece and Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier continued to heat up with a pair of hits each.

Dee Gordon continued to lead the Dodgers in hitting at .344 with a pair of hits, including a triple.

Yasiel Puig sat out, still recovering from his collision with the right field fence in Miami earlier in the week.

The Dodgers send Dan Haren (4-0, .239 ERA) to the mound today against Steven Strasburg (2-2, .360 ERA) in search of a series win.

The Dodgers return to Chavez Ravine tomorrow to kick off a key four-game series with the Giants, who have won both series against the Dodgers this season.

Mattingly: “We are better than this”

A year ago, Dodger skipper Don Mattingly and his ball club were stumbling out of the gates at 13-19 and were in the midst of an eight-game losing streak.

In one of the great turnarounds in recent memory, the Dodgers rebounded from that awful start and won the division.

But this season Mattingly and the Dodgers face a tougher opponent – high expectations.

Ownership opened the checkbook and the Dodgers roster has everyone calling for the Dodgers to go deep in the playoffs.

But the reality has not matched those expectations.

The Dodgers are 18-15 after a 4-0 loss to Washington in a rain-delayed game yesterday and find themselves 3.5 games behind the red-hot Giants, who have won eight in row and 1.5 games behind the Rockies.

"We're in the pack. We're OK. We know we're better than this,” says Mattingly.

"I can't sit here and say it's totally disappointing but can't really sit here and say we're happy," Mattingly says of the team's performance. "In general, our defense has let us down more than anything. And inconsistent offense has led to a few more losses."

And then there is the bullpen.

The Dodgers pen has a middle-of-the-pack .374 ERA but has allowed 23 ninth-inning runs, seven more than any other pen in the National League.

The Dodgers need a lift from the return of Clayton Kershaw, who takes the bump against the Nationals today.

Kershaw’s return expected to give LA a boost

Two and a half games out of first place, the Dodgers are expected to get a jolt of pitching medicine this week when Clayton Kershaw returns from the DL to start against the Washington Nationals.

The Nationals will see Zack Greinke (5-0) today and the reigning Cy Young winner the next game. Not since the days of Koufax and Drysdale have the Dodgers had such a strong 1-2 punch in the starting rotation.

Hyun-Jin Ryu is on the DL with shoulder pain and is in Los Angeles for medical evaluation. Dan Haren, Josh Beckett and Paul Maholm round out the rotation though Mattingly has been using rookies to fill the gaps.

The Dodgers lost a 5-4 thriller to Miami yesterday as the Marlins took two-of-three. The Dodgers managed three runs on five hits against Miami ace Jose Fernandez and Steven Fife kept the Dodgers in the game with six innings of work. Jamey Wright took the loss, giving up a ninth inning double to Jeff Baker for the winning run.

Puig collided with the right field wall and was hit by the ball on the walk-off hit. The Dodgers say he is day-to-day.

San Francisco leads the division and has won series at home and in Chavez Ravine. Angel Pagan (.327) and Michael Morse (.302) have been the early leaders for the Giants on offense.

The Rockies, with their potent hitting attack, have emerged as serious threats as well. The Rockies are hitting a sizzling .298 as a team, tops in the major leagues. Troy Tulowitzki (.400), Charlie Blackmon (.359) and former Twins star Justin Morneau (.336) are enjoying the friendly confines of Coors Field.

Conventional wisdom will tell you Colorado does not have the pitching to sustain a season-long run for the pennant but the Rockies bats are pretty convincing.

The Dodgers are hitting .254 as a team, 11^th best in the major leagues.

Dee Gordon (.353), Juan Uribe (.325), Yasiel Puig (.309) and Adrian Gonzalez (.292) are off to hot starts. Hanley Ramirez (.254), Andre Ethier (.239), Matt Kemp (.231) and Carl Crawford (.200) have been slow out of the gate.

Ramirez, Kemp, Ethier and Crawford should warm up and when they do the Dodgers’ offense could be scary for opposing pitchers.

After the Washington series, the Dodgers return home for a four-game set with the Giants that will determine the early leader in the division.

Crawford hits game-winner in 11th

Carl Crawford hit a two-run, pinch-hit homer to the upper deck at Marlins Park tonight to pace the Dodgers to a wild 9-7 win over Miami.

The Dodgers led 7-2 at one point but a shaky bullpen allowed the Marlins to storm back into the game and tie it with a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth.

 

Chris Perez walked in the tying run in the ninth after Brian Wilson gave up a three-run homer in the seventh.

Brandon League pitched the 10^th and 11^th innings on a night that Don Mattingly decided to rest the oft-used Kenley Jansen.

Yasiel Puig had a three-run homer, Matt Kemp went three-for-five and Dee Gordon racked up five hits on six trips, scored twice and stole three bases against the Marlins.

Gordon, who leads the team with a .357 average, is proving the Dodgers faith in him was not misguided. Now in his fourth year, Gordon had struggled to crack the lineup as a shortstop and was on a revolving door between the parent club and the minors the past few seasons.

Gordon is making a strong case to not only be the starting second baseman, but to key the Dodgers offense as the leadoff hitter. His three steals give him 19 for the season.

Josh Beckett: You can’t go home

In 2003, Josh Beckett won a World Series with then Florida Marlins, posting a 9-8 record.

Beckett returned to Miami today where he gave up four runs in a 6-3 loss to Miami in the series opener in South Florida.

On April 5, 1993 the Marlins played their inaugural game against the Dodgers in Joe Robbie Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins.

The Marlins first game ever was against the Dodgers and the new franchise posted a 6-3 win in front of 42,334.

We lived in Homestead, about 25 miles out of Miami, and drove up to the county line for the game. My son Gabriel was three months old and remained home with his mother.My daughter Hannah, who was seven, made the trip. I remember the excitement of major league baseball coming to South Florida and adopted the Marlins as my second-favorite team behind the Dodgers.

It was beautiful day in South Florida. I remember the military flyover and a boy’s choir that sang the national anthem.

Four years later the Marlins would win the World Series and repeat the feat again in 2003.

The Marlins now play in Marlins Park, opened in 2012. Built for baseball, Marlins Park seats 37,000, has a retractable roof and is air-conditioned.

NL West shaping up to be a dogfight

Dan Haren improved his record to 4-0 today in the first game of a doubleheader at Minnesota as the Dodgers pounded out 15 hits enroute to a 9-4 rout.

Coupled with last night’s 6-4 win over the Twins, the Dodgers have moved a game back of the Giants in the NL West.

After the first month of the season it appears the race is going to be an intense one. San Francisco and Colorado have both come out of the gates strong with all three teams bunched in the standings with only a game or two separating the three.

Zack Greinke improved his record to 5-0 last night and the Dodgers received more good news when Clayton Kershaw completed his second rehab start in the minors and is expected to rejoin the parent club on Monday.

Kershaw rejoins a pitching staff that includes Greinke, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Haren, Josh Beckett and Paul Maholm. The Dodgers have a strong rotation but it’s the bullpen that has kept Don Mattingly scratching his head.

Closer Kenley Jansen and setup man Brian Wilson have been shaky at times and middle relievers Brandon League, J.P. Howell Chris Perez and Chris Withrow have been inconsistent. The Dodgers recalled Paco Rodriguez up from minors yesterday and he promptly gave up three runs in the ninth inning.

In today’s first game of the doubleheader Yasiel Puig and Juan Uribe each had four hits to pace the Dodger attack.

Puig, along with Matt Kemp, Carl Crawford, Andre Ethier and Scott Van Slyke have been platooning in the outfield. Baseball analysts say the platoon system won’t work and prevents players from getting into a hitting rhythm.

On the other hand, Mattingly can play the matchups every time he fills out his lineup card and usually sits Ethier and Crawford against lefties.

Dee Gordon (.326), Puig (.308), Adrian Gonzalez (.320) and Juan Uribe (.327) are all off to good starts and Van Slyke (.281), Kemp (.224) and Ethier (.241) have started to warm up.