“Ba de ya — Say do you remember
Ba de ya — Dancin in September
Ba de ya — never was a cloudy day”
~Earth Wind and Fire
(Photo Credit: Ron Cervenka/ThinkBlueLA)
If the first four days are any indication, September should be one heck of a month for the Dodgers. Clayton Kershaw is back. Yasiel Puig is back. Jose De Leon was called up, and is as good as advertised. Rich Hill, now that the blister is healed, is pitching very well. The Dodgers have increased their lead over the Giants to three games.
Kershaw is back — By the time Kershaw takes the mound in Miami on Friday, it will have been 65 days since the last time he pitched, in Pittsburgh. But who’s counting? The Dodgers did a phenomenal job without him, going from eight games back to three games ahead of the Giants for the lead in the NL West. Now they are poised to widen that lead even more, behind the strength of their ace. This is my favorite quote from Kershaw about his DL stint:
It wasn’t as awful as it could have been, but I agree Clayton, never get hurt again.
Puig is back — After being banished to Triple-A Oklahoma City, Puig was called up on Friday. Yasiel has said and done all the right things so far. And he has already started sparking the offense. In Sunday’s game, the Dodgers were down 2-0. According to José De Leon, Puig told him that he would hit a home run. And he did, a three run shot.
And in even better news, Josh Reddick seems to have finally turned the corner in the offense department. In his last seven games, Reddick has a .364/.391/.500 slash line. He hit his first home run with the Dodgers on Saturday. And this nugget from Dodgers Insider:
A platoon of Puig and Reddick (even though Roberts denies there is one) could be the best thing going.
De León debut was not too shabby — De León struck out nine, second most in Dodgers history in a major league debut. He did not issue a walk in six innings. He is the first Dodger to combine those stats in his debut.
Even though he allowed four runs, he earned his first win. And easily the best part of his debut was Vin Scully narrating De León’s parents’ reactions.
Hill was worth the wait — It took awhile, but once Hill finally took the mound for the Dodgers, he has pitched exceptionally well. In his two games so far, he has a 0.00 ERA with a .143 batting average against, and has only allowed two walks. Kershaw and Hill together in the rotation is getting me pretty excited.
As I stated in a previous post, it is really getting hard not to get too excited about the rest of the season. How can you not be excited when Kershaw is finally back and the Dodgers are increasing their lead? But I will keep myself tempered, because so many hiccups have happened this season for a smooth month. But here’s to all us Dodger fans dancin’ at the end of September and very few cloudy days.
(Photo Credit: Ron Cervenka/ThinkBlueLA)