Sunday, May 11, 2014

New And Improved, With More Urgency

It was one game, just the third win in nine games against the Giants this season. And yet, might this be the kind of comeback victory which sparks some life back into a punchless team, amidst a listless season?

LOS ANGELES -- Before Saturday afternoon’s eventual 6-2 win over the San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was asked if there was a sense of urgency to kick things into a higher gear.

After all, the team was just one game above .500 and sitting in third place of a National League West division that they were considered the odds-on favorite to win

"I think there should be a sense of urgency every day, to be honest with you," the skipper said. "I think that good teams are going to come to play every day. I’ve said it probably a thousand times that anything that’s happened behind us right now, there’s just not a damn thing we can do about it.

"To me, you always look at it like today could be the start of us winning 10 in a row. Or today could be the start of us being hot, playing .700 baseball for the next two months.”

There’s obviously a lot of baseball left to be played this season, which is a positive for a team falling behind in the pursuit of its high goals. On the flip side, when you’re scuffling, 100-plus games could just as easily feel like a threat.

And for whatever reason, whether the Australian pilgrimage, bizarre weather delays, four outfielders who have struggled to find an offensive rhythm while platooning, widespread poor defense, injuries or just good, old-fashioned underachievement, the Dodgers haven’t of late resembled a squad pegged as a legit World Series contender.

It may be just early May, but the time has come for the Dodgers to begin the process of proving themselves.

The weirdness that is interleague-play-scheduled-every-weekend now gives us a four-game series against the Giants, with one more to play today. Let's see if this newfound urgency makes this a happy Mother's Day for all those Dodger Moms (and Mums) out there.

4 comments:

Fred's Brim said...

Mums and Bums

Dusty Baker said...

And mother f'ers.

Dusty Baker said...

Didn't I write this in the GT yesterday? How prescient is SoSG?

Steve Sax said...

Dusty, you're as cold as ice. You're willing to sacrifice our love?