Dee Gordon was the game changer in the 6-2 victory over the San
Francisco Giants on Saturday afternoon. Gordon had three hits, three
stolen bases, and doubled in the bottom of the seventh inning. Matt
Kemp also contributed to the late rally hitting a solo home run
picking up his fifth homer of the season.
“I told myself coming into this series, I had to start driving in some
runs,” Kemp said. “I did that today.
Los Angeles needed this win desperately; they have only beaten the
Giants two out of eight games this season. This win was a confidence
booster for the Dodgers as they have been in a bit of a slump in the
month of May.
“We definitely needed this,” Kemp said. “They have pretty much owned
us, and we need to start playing better baseball.”
The Dodgers are sitting in third place in the NL West and manager Don
Mattingly is not pleased with his teams slow start; so he held a
closed-door team meeting on Thursday before the team kicked off a
four-game series against their rivalry, the San Francisco Giants.
Mattingly chose not to discuss what was said in the meeting but did
say “we were just talking about our club, where we are, and how we get
here.”
Well, it looks like Gordon got the memo because he’s approaching the
plate with attitude. He’s making the lead off spot look effortless
batting .336 the most impressive on the team. Gordon also has 24
stolen bases in only 35 games.
“Dee’s a little beast, man,” said Kemp. “He’s great for the team and
gets us going. He’s a firecracker. He needs to keep stealing bases.”
Gordon is quickly emerging into a player no one could have predicted
him to be. The talent has always been there for Gordon, but he’s
playing out of his mind. He’s the spark plug for the team at the
moment. They feed off of his energy and he’s becoming a very
significant player in the Dodgers lineup.