And Here Comes The Weighty Expectations

I suppose, when you're 7.5 games up on the second-place team in the division, and playing .667 ball, that high expectations are going to come. But it was still shocking to see the 2012 Dodgers compared with historic days of yore:

The true Dodgers fan has these words committed to memory: "In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened."

Those were the words Vin Scully used to describe Kirk Gibson's home run in the 1988 World Series. Gibson was hobbled, Orel Hershiser was blessed, and the Dodgers were champions.

The Dodgers might not have remained at the top of their game, but Scully has. Oh, he might miss a name now and then, but keep listening and you're bound to hear one of those impromptu lines that only Scully can deliver.

And so it was on Tuesday, when the Dodgers erased a five-run deficit in the seventh inning, and when Ivan De Jesus doubled his career total of runs batted in as he doubled home the tying and winning runs in the ninth.

"This wonder team has now won six in a row, and we're using unusual names," Scully said.

Fans rushed to share that line on Twitter. The Dodgers' public relations staff used "Wonder Team" to headline its media notes Wednesday.

When emergency minor league fill-ins — De Jesus, Elian Herrera, Scott Van Slyke — emerge as sudden stars, why not?

Is this 2012 team ready for the growing wave of expectations? Here we go!