Matt Kemp had only one hit on Friday night against the Padres, but he made it count with a solo homer to keep his Triple Crown hopes alive. Combine that with over six fantastic innings from Ted Lilly, and the Dodgers shut down the Padres, 2-0.
The Dodgers are now 79-77, and are two games over the .500 mark for the first time since... April 11! Holy crap! Winning 22 of the last 30 games may be too little too late, but it's sure been refreshing to watch after struggles for most of the season.
Somewhat lost in all of this Kemp hype has been the emergence of young Jerry Sands, who found himself hitting in the cleanup spot thanks to a 10-game hitting streak. He made that 11 as he doubled leading off the second. Trent Oeltjen nearly beat out a bunt, but was still plenty good enough to sacrifice Sands to third with an out. Russ Mitchell started at first, and his RBI groundout made it 1-0.
That score held up all the way until the seventh when Kemp did his work. At this point, he was 0-for-2 with a strikeout and a flyout. He changed all of that with one mighty swing, hitting a 426 foot shot to right center for the 2-0 lead. With Albert Pujols going homerless on the night, Kemp is now tied with him for the NL's lead at 37.
Lilly was barely threatened all night. In the third, he walked Andy Parrino and Cameron "Tiki" Maybin, but got around it. After giving up a leadoff double to Aaron Cunningham and a groundout to Alberto Gonzalez in the seventh, Mike MacDougal relieved to pitch to Kyle Blanks. It worked, as Blanks grounded to third, and Justin Sellers got Cunningham in a rundown. Jeremy Hermida walked, but Maybin K'd to end the inning.
The bullpen took over from there, as the Kenley Jansen-Javy Guerra combination was practically untouchable. Jansen struck out the side in the eighth to improve his ERA since returning from injury in June to a minuscule 0.61. He also has 56 strikeouts in 29 1/3 innings pitched. Filthy, just plain filthy. He's credited a new Mariano Rivera-like cutter for his success.
Guerra got a groundout, popup, and struck out Gonzalez to end the game. He recorded his 20th save in 21 chances, which is awesome considering he made his first appearance on May 15. Also, his ERA went down from 2.27 at the start of September to 2.01 currently.
Unfortunately, for all that went right in this game, there's the story of poor Eugenio Valez. As if his season hasn't been bad enough, he now is tied in the record books for futility at the plate by going hitless in his last 45 at-bats with three other men, including Craig Counsell this season. It's gotten so bad, it's almost uncomfortable watching him flail away.
I feel just awful for the guy. But I honestly do think that Don Mattingly should keep starting him until he gets that hit. I just can't even imagine going hitless for the entire season. There's five games left in the season, which means around 20 at-bats. If that's what it takes to get this poor guy one damn hit, then do it.
Lilly quietly put in another great performance, putting 6 1/3 innings for four hits, no runs, two walks, and seven strikeouts. I saw a great stat on him after the game: in his last 11 starts, he's put together a 2.42 ERA and .174 batting average against, good for tops in the majors. That's awesome, especially considering how hittable he was for much of the start of the season. He's gone 4-1 in his last six starts.
In looking at Kemp's Triple Crown race, Ryan Braun also went 1-for-4 with a homer, which actually lowered his batting average a point to .329. Jose Reyes was rained out against the Phillies, so those two are tied for the lead with .329, and Kemp is at .326. Another RBI by Kemp increased his lead by one to 119.
It's a fun race to keep track of, but here's an interesting fact that people are probably forgetting about: the Dodgers will only play in 161 games this year. They were rained out in Washington on September 7, and they tried to play two the next day, but only got in one. Wouldn't it be crazy if Kemp lost out on the Triple Crown by the smallest of margins, and playing one more game could've made the difference? I'm sure Major League Baseball wouldn't like that scenario to play out.
Nonetheless, Kemp and the Dodgers will look to take full advantage of the five games they have left, as Chad Billingsley takes the mound on Saturday. He'll go against Aaron Harang, who has a 3.29 ERA at home in 16 starts.
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