It is far too early to render judgment on Don Mattingly's tenure as Dodgers hitting coach. But in the first six games since Mattingly took over, the Dodgers, a club that averaged 4.1 runs a game before the All-Star break, have averaged six runs a game.
Even if that figure is slightly skewed by the 16 they scored Monday at Colorado, it is worth noting that they scored at least six in three of those games.
One player who has shown a marked improvement under Mattingly, whether by coincidence or not, is Matt Kemp. He has batted .345 (10-for-29) with two homers and four RBIs. Perhaps more important, Kemp, the Dodgers' runaway strikeout leader with 108, has struck out just four times in 32 plate appearances.
On the other hand, Andruw Jones hasn't been much better than he was before. He is hitting .188 (3-for-16) with two RBIs, striking out seven times in 19 plate appearances.
But even as the offense has finally started to wake up, the starting pitching that was so solid for the Dodgers over the first half has suddenly abandoned them. They have yet to get a quality start since the break. And while the Dodgers are 3-3 since the break, their rotation is 0-3 with an 8.77 ERA. And three different starters failed to go four innings, one of them despite having been staked to an 11-run lead. That was Eric Stults, who was sent to the minors the next day.
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The Dodgers are diving into the middle of a lot of trade talks, but skepticism remains steep about whether they'll actually pull anything off. "They're a mess,'' one NL executive says, flatly. Several baseball people say t
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