One thing that no one in baseball could have seen coming this past offseason was that Matt Kemp would be back on the Los Angeles Dodgers and eventually starting in left field on Opening Day.
When Kemp was acquired in a salary-motivated trade with the Atlanta Braves, the expectation was the Dodgers would soon move the aging outfielder to another team. Their efforts proved futile, however, and Kemp reported for Spring Training.
Kemp is happy to be back in Los Angeles and is motivated to use an unexpected second opportunity with the Dodgers to bring a World Series to the city where he began his career.
The 33-year-old had a special moment on Tuesday night in the 4-0 victory over the Oakland Athletics, hitting his first home run with the team since 2014.
Naturally, that stirred some emotions for Kemp, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“I think any home run feels good but that one definitely felt good,” said Kemp who has now hit 183 (regular season) home runs as a Dodger, eighth on the franchise’s all-time list.
The Dodgers’ bats had been relatively quiet to start the season. They broke out in some regard Tuesday, clubbing three home runs and 11 hits. Chris Taylor and Corey Seager got the team going early by launching back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the first inning.
Kemp got off to a slow start but his bat has come alive in the past two games, as he’s a combined 4-for-7 with the home run. Overall on the season, Kemp is now hitting .308/.379/.500, which is production that the Dodgers will certainly welcome into their lineup.
