Don Mattingly can see Dodgers’ season slipping away
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Guess Paul Simon didn’t have exactly it right when he sang, ‘The nearer your destination, the more you’re slip sliding away.’
Sometimes it can appear out of reach and continue to slip away. Like the Dodgers’ current situation, which grows darker and more suffocating by the loss. In the month of June. With more than half the season to go.
The Dodgers dropped to 34-44 with their loss to the Angels on Saturday, and things are growing so depressing around this team even Manager Don Mattingly (pictured at right) said he feels the season slipping away.
Did I mention that more than half the season remains?
‘It does feel like it’s kind of getting away from us, from the standpoint of getting farther away from .500,’ Mattingly said. ‘It just makes the road longer, and we are just going to have to play really well for a stretch of time.’
You know, like they haven’t done all year. Like they really aren’t equipped to do.
After Matt Kemp was ejected in the fifth inning, the Dodgers’ lineup featured seven players whose combined number of home runs on the season was zero. And let the rest of the National League West quiver in their presence.
‘You can’t invent it,’ Mattingly said. ‘You put a lineup out there you hope gives you the best chance.
‘I don’t know where to go. That’s where we’re at.’
You dance with the one who brung you, even if it is a bunch of slap hitters. And keep those chins up, kiddies.
‘I don’t think anyone has given up yet,’ said right-hander Hiroki Kuroda. ‘But at the same time, this is my fourth year with this organization, and we’ve never experienced this type of situation, so I really don’t know how to take it.’’
Last year after 38 games, the Dodgers were 43-35. All things still seemed possible, which apparently included finishing 80-82.
At this rate, that season could look golden. Particularly if it keeps slip sliding away.
-- Steve Dilbeck