Don Mattingly Chooses To Ignore Dodgers’ Poor Statistic
The Dodgers’ lead is despite their losing two of three games to the Colorado Rockies and being hampered by one statistic that seemingly won’t go away. Prior to Thursday’s come-from-behind win, the Dodgers were just 1-54 this season when trailing after six innings.
They needed some help from the Chicago Cubs, namely a Logan Watkins error that led to five Dodgers run, however only one earned, in the seventh inning. When the Dodgers’ record in losing situations was pointed out to manager Don Mattingly, he turned a blind eye to it, via the OC Register’s Bill Plunkett:
I’m not listening to that. Don’t even do it,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said with a smile when that statistic was pointed out to him post-game. “It’s not working. You’re not going to do that tonight. There’s nine games left. I’m not going to listen. Nope.”
Mattingly added the game wasn’t going particularly well for the Dodgers but at this stage in the season, a win is a win:
We won a game tonight. We came from behind. Honestly, it didn’t look very good early. It ended up good. At this point in the year, it doesn’t matter what happens.
With a pitching rotation that’s dealing with an injury to Hyun-Jin Ryu, and inconsistency from Dan Haren and Roberto Hernandez, the Dodgers figured to be in line for some stability Thursday.
However, Zack Greinke got off to a rough start and allowed two runs in the first inning. Although he labored, Greinke settled in a bit and didn’t allow the Cubs to score again until the fifth, which was his final inning of work.
The Dodgers now send Clayton Kershaw to the mound in Friday’s matinee game with the southpaw looking to become MLB’s first 20-game winner this season.
