Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Matt Kemp is back! In theory, anyway. I’m not sure I’ll actually believe it until we see him on the field, and even then I’m not so sure. But, according to the lineups, he’s in there, hitting sixth, starting for the first time since last week in New York. As you know by now, he hasn’t played left since 2006, when he was sharing a lineup with Kenny Lofton and Nomar Garciaparra and probably Duke Snider and Pee Wee Reese or something, too. There was no Twitter, and relatively few people used Facebook. Julio Urias was nine years old. It was a really long time ago, is the joke here.
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Reds
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Dodgers
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5:10pm PT
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Los Angeles, CA
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CF
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Hamilton
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2B
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Gordon
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3B
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Frazier
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CF
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Ethier
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2B
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Phillips
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RF
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Puig
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C
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Mesoraco
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SS
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Ramirez
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RF
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Bruce
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1B
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Gonzalez
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LF
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Ludwick
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LF
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Kemp
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1B
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Pena
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3B
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Turner
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SS
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Cozart
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C
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Butera
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P
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Bailey (R)
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P
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Kershaw (L)
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Really, I’m not that worried about Kemp playing left. He may need a small adjustment period, but he’ll be fine, and I sincerely doubt that we’ve seen the last of him in center for good, because when a lefty starts — the next one being Francisco Liriano on Friday — you imagine Scott Van Slyke is in left, Kemp is in center, and Andre Ethier is on the bench.
Or who knows, maybe Don Mattingly will just screw with us all and put Van Slyke in center with Jamie Romak in left. At this point, I’d put nothing past him, and I’m still not convinced this all ends well.
Anyway, we’ve exhausted far too much effort on all of this, so let’s focus on some good news: the team has won six of eight, they have Clayton Kershaw back on the hill, and after a run of outstanding starts from Josh Beckett, Hyun-jin Ryu, and Zack Greinke, the bullpen is particularly well-rested.
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