This weekend might have been the “Moment” for this year’s Dodgers

For me, 2013’s moment was obvious. With the Dodgers down 2-0, Diamondbacks pitcher Ian Kennedy hit Yasiel Puig in the face. Puig brushed it off like a champ and went down to first base.

The next batter, most importantly, was Andre Ethier. Ethier belted a two-run home run to tie the game. The Dodgers would go on to win the game and eventually the division en-route to an NLCS appearance.

Ethier’s homer was an immediate response to a real challenge — something that isn’t always easy to do in a sport where you can have two or three bad MONTHS and still have a decent season — more on Matt Kemp later.

This season, the Dodgers have kind of cruised. They haven’t ever reached their high potential, but have managed to play just well-enough to still be division leaders. On Friday night, they lost to the second-place Giants.

Let me rephrase that — On Friday night, the Dodgers were owned by the Giants. Absolutely crushed. They lost their number-three starter, Hyun-jin Ryu to an injury and were beaten 9-0 to start a three-game series on the road. With two games to play, it was easy to imagine a scenario where the Dodgers would be the second-place team by weekend’s end.

A healthy Hanley Ramirez will be a big key to the Dodgers’ postseason chances. By Keith Allison on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons

The Saturday came. Behind a strong start by Zack Grienke, the Dodgers put-up 17 runs and won 17-0. This is what Dodger fans have thought the offense could be all season. Matt Kemp, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Hanley Ramirez, and Yasiel Puig were all integral parts of back-to back four-run innings. Even Juan Uribe joined the act, belting a late homer against his old team.

The Dodgers let everyone know that, when they are healthy, they can be a scary-good team.

Sunday’s game was the only close one of the series. Unfortunately for the Giants, Clayton Kershaw was what Clayton Kershaw is — the best pitcher of his era. The lefty gave up two earned runs in eight innings of work, raising his ERA to 1.70. He walked one and struck-out nine to earn his 19th win. If he isn’t both the MVP and Cy Young winner this year, something’s wrong.

Matt Kemp is playing pretty well, too.

My suspicion is that Kemp is finally starting to round into form after major shoulder and ankle injuries. The fact that he has 20 home runs this season is a testament to his health and ability to stay flexible with where he is playing defense.

Here’s his 20th. Cue the bubble machine.

In the words of Vin Scully, “Matt is having trouble keeping his feet on the ground.”

The Dodgers have a lot of players with a lot of injury history. If they can manage to get them into the playoffs mostly healthy and able to contribute, then this will be a formidable team. For everything I’ve seen on twitter about Don Mattingly and his in-game decision-making woes, his greatest achievement could be to manage a roster into the playoffs without any of the large contributors being injured.

For the sake of Hanley Ramirez’ ribs, I’m just thankful the Dodgers aren’t playing the Cardinals again this year…