If you looked at the lineup card before Saturday night's game in Houston, you saw that Matt Kemp was hitting in the third spot, and Clayton Kershaw was on the mound.
Fast forward to the end, and it's no surprise it was another Dodgers' victory.
Kemp crushed his ninth homer, the fastest through 15 games in Dodgers' history, and Kershaw went seven scoreless as the Dodgers cruised by the Astros, 5-1. At 12-3 now, the Dodgers are just continuing to get better and better each night.
The scoring started in the second. James Loney hasn't been helping his cause for being an everyday first baseman with another rough start, but he pulled a long solo shot to make it 1-0. Even with that hit, he's still only hitting .200, but you've got to start somewhere, right?
Kershaw wasn't being threatened too much, but neither was Kyle Weiland through five frames. In the sixth, however, it was Kemp who made Weiland pay. Dee Gordon bunted his way on with one out, then went to third on a bad pickoff attempt. Adam Kennedy popped up for two outs.
So now up came Kemp with two outs and first base open. Should he be pitched to? Well, I wouldn't think so, but with Andre Ethier hitting behind him, Weiland went after him. It was a big mistake, as he launched a two-run bomb to dead center to go up 3-0.
Speaking of Ethier, he added to the cause in the eighth. A rally started with two outs when the bases became loaded on a double by Gordon, and walks to Kennedy and Kemp. Ethier ripped a two-run single into right to push the lead up to 5-0.
Mike MacDougal was called upon to get through the eighth, but his old nemesis the walk got the best of him. A single by Justin Maxwell followed by walks to Jordan Schafer and Jose Altuve got him pulled with one out. Kenley Jansen walked a run in, but put out the fire right after that with two straight outs.
Jamey Wright continued his resurgence by going through the ninth in order to close it out.
After the game, Kershaw admitted he didn't feel like he had much control over his fastball. That's a scary though considering how good he was anyway. He lasted seven innings for three hits, no runs, two walks, and nine strikeouts. He finally got on the board with his first win after three straight no-decisions.
As for Kemp and Ethier, there's just only so many ways you can keep saying how good they are. It seems like every game we have to try and think of something new. They're by far the best 1-2 punch in baseball right now, as four more RBIs gave them 43 on the year. The rest of the team has 24 combined! That's just crazy.
I said this yesterday, but the key to the Dodgers going forward is how the others will step up once these two start to cool off a bit. Saturday was a good start, as Gordon had three hits leading off and Loney homered. We'll see going forward how the supporting cast continues to improve, as the Dodgers can become a more complete team if they do.
A win on Sunday afternoon would give the Dodgers a sweep, which would be their third already. Chad Billingsley has been cool as ice (in a good way) through three starts, so he'll look to keep that up. He has a tough matchup, as the Astros will send their ace, Wandy Rodriguez, to the mound looking to grab a win.
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