Rainy days and Thursdays in LA

It rained in Southern California last night, so when they rolled out the tarp (which had to be dusty) and the Dodgers leading 4-2, I went to bed.

What I missed was Carlos Gonzalez jacking a three-run homer off of Yimi Garcia in the ninth as the Rockies took a 5-4 win and snapped an eight-game losing streak against Los Angeles.

Combined with San Diego’s win against Washington, LA’s lead in the NL West shrunk to four games. Still, the Dodgers have been on a tear, putting together a 22-12 record built on a 15-4 record at home.  Away from Chavez Ravine, the Dodgers are struggling at 7-8.

San Diego, two games above .500, figures to stay with the Dodgers all season.  San Francisco, Arizona and Colorado shouldn’t, but you can never count out a team that has three rings in five years.

Clayton Kershaw (1-2, 4.26) takes the hill tonight. He has struggled but not as bad as those numbers indicate.

Kershaw will right the ship and have a decent season, if not another Cy Young season.

Closer Kenley Jansen comes off the DL today but Mattingly won’t rush him into a closing role. He will ease the big righty back into the bullpen rotation, which will make a good pen even better.

On the injury front, Yasiel Puig and Carl Crawford are still healing but frankly the trio of Andre Ethier, Scott Van Slyke and Alex Guerrero has it covered. Take the time to heal guys.

An interesting dynamic is happening at third base where Juan Uribe’s grip on the hot corner is starting to slip. Guerrero and Justin Turner are earning more playing time with their bats and Uribe may soon find himself in pre-injury Ethierville, the odd man out.

Howie Kendrick is solid at second but Jimmy Rollins is looking more and more like a stopgap measure at short until Cory Seager is ready to come up from the minors. Joc Pederson is still earning his stripes in center but his 10 dingers and 21 RBI show he can hit at this level, even handling the leadoff role.

The glue holding it all together is first sacker Adrian Gonzalez, off to another phenomenal year. Gonzo is hitting .367 with 32 RBI and nine dingers. Steady as Swiss watch.

Then there’s Zack Grienke. Greinke is 5-0 with a 1.52 ERA and is currently the ace of the staff. He becomes a free agent at the end of the season and if he continues to pitch like this he will seriously inflate his asking price.

Starting pitching, with Hyun Jin-Ryu still on the DL and Brendan McCarthy out for the season, remains the Dodgers’ biggest hole.  Carlos Frias and Mike Bolsinger are serviceable but expect the wheelers and dealers to go out and get another arm before the trade deadline.