Needless to say, it’s been a disappointing first two weeks of the regular season for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The club enters play on Saturday with a 4-8 record and in fourth place in the National League West.
Injuries have plagued the Dodgers, but the bullpen and offense, in particular, have been inconsistent in the early going. Per FanGraphs’ calculations, the Dodgers’ relief corps rank just 20th with 0.2 WAR. And while the bats have heated up lately, Los Angeles places 20th in offensive FanGraphs’ WAR (0.9).
Despite the rough start, Matt Kemp became the latest to say the Dodgers aren’t panicking because they recognize the season is still young, via Spectrum SportsNet LA:
“It’s early, man. We’re not panicking. We’ve got a long ways to go.”
Kenley Jansen, Corey Seager, Chris Taylor and Alex Wood are among those who have dismissed any serious concern over the Dodgers’ slow start.
As they and Kemp have now noted, there is still plenty of baseball left for the Dodgers to quickly reverse their fortune. Last season, the club hovered around .500 for most of April before promoting Cody Bellinger at the end of the month, which drastically revamped their lineup.
Though Los Angeles hasn’t performed well as a group thus far, Kemp has jumped out to a hot start at the plate. In 39 plate appearances over 11 games, he is batting .333/.385/.500 with three doubles, one home run and four RBI.
The 33-year-old suffered a right knee contusion after running into the left field wall in Friday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, but insisted he’s healthy and won’t miss time.
With or without Kemp, the Dodgers will look to notch their first win against the Diamondbacks on Saturday. They’ve dropped 10 consecutive regular-season meetings in a streak that dates back to last season.
