Blake DeWitt has been optioned back down to Triple-A Las Vegas to make room for Casey Blake. The Dodgers chose to keep Andy LaRoche on the roster over him.
He was the feel-good story in the first half of the season, as he came out of nowhere to take over the 3rd base job. He had never played above Double-A ball at any point in his career, but was rushed up to the Bigs when both LaRoche and Nomar Garciaparra were hurt. After the Dodgers could not acquire a 3rd baseman, they gave him a shot, and he delivered big time.
His average peaked to .327 on May 17 when he went 2-4 with a home run against the Anaheim Angels. At the end of May, he was hitting .303. The downward slide started soon after that. In his last 40 games, he's hit a mere .200, which obviously was not getting the job done, especially in an offense that struggles to begin with.
It was the right decision to send him down. My guess is that he'll be a September call up once the rosters expand to 40. He was very slick defensively, so that's not the problem. I think Major League pitchers figured him out, and he had a tough time adjusting. Still, to play as well as he did without any prior Big League experience was fantastic. He'll be back.
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