Mark J. Rebilas-USA Today Sports
With high expectations come the lowest of lows. Winning somehow doesn’t feel good enough, but losing seems to be the end of the world. Such is the magnified season of the 2013 Los Angeles Dodgers.
Losing their opening series at home wasn’t so bad, once you consider that the Dodgers weren’t really blown out and they were playing the defending world champions.
Having lost one of their top starting pitchers in high-priced free agent signee Zack Greinke to a senseless injury caused in brawl was a definite downer, but there seems to be something else deeper than that that is troubling the blue crew.
There is a chance it has something to do with Matt Kemp. The slugger doesn’t seem happy. Not with a contract issue or anything internal on the team, but perhaps with himself. The normally upbeat Kemp seems to be shouldering the weight of his team’s pressurized start to the season.
He is no doubt struggling at the plate. He has always had a lot of strikeouts to go with his power hitting numbers, but that’s normal for a hitter like Kemp. This year, it seems to be really bothering him.
New Dodgers Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford are off to great starts. Gonzo is hitting over .400 and has sent a couple of balls over the fence. Crawford is healthy, getting on base and scoring runs for the Dodgers. A.J. Ellis, Andre Ethier, even Clayton Kershaw have home runs for L.A.
Kemp has none. He only has three RBIs and hitting .174.
Chances are the former all-star will get it going. He needs to stop pressing. It will come. The main thing he needs to do is to put on a happy face — as whimsical as that may sound. It could only help the Dodgers alleviate some of that crushing pressure and bring cool to the Dodger clubhouse.
Kenny Bristow is a Los Angeles Dodgers writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @kennybristow, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google
