LOS ANGELES -- Don Mattingly is damned if he if he does, damned if he doesn't so far in this National League Division Series.
He stuck with one of his two aces in Game 1 and Clayton Kershaw melted down in the seventh inning to blow a four-run lead. In Game 2 on Saturday night, Mattingly pulled his second-best starter, Zack Greinke, with a reasonable 103-pitch count and nobody on base in the eighth and the bullpen blew a 2-0 lead.
Go figure.
But Matt Kemp kept that storyline from dominating this NLDS by homering in the eighth to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a 3-2 win that evened the series at 1-1 heading to St. Louis.
How it happened: Greinke had three good postseason starts for the Dodgers last season, though the Dodgers lost two of them. This was his finest moment in seven October starts, hands down. Greinke warmed up for the eighth, but Mattingly came out to relieve him when left-handed pinch hitter Oscar Taveras was announced. It didn't take long for everyone to see why Mattingly let Kershaw pitch the seventh the day before: The Dodgers don't have reliable eighth-inning setup men. Taveras singled inside the bag off lefty J.P. Howell, and Matt Carpenter, who had crushed a three-run double in Game 1, hit a two-run home run to tie it. Kemp's blast meant the Dodgers could turn it over to their one reliable reliever, closer Kenley Jansen, who got the job done, striking out two batters in the ninth.
Hits: Kemp is as important to this Dodgers offense right now as Hanley Ramirez was last October. Keeping him healthy could be the key to their postseason. Kemp led the majors with a .606 slugging percentage and 17 home runs after the All-Star break, and he had picked up three hits in Game 1, a postseason high for him. But this was probably the biggest hit of Kemp's life. Though Lance Lynn was able to avoid big innings, the Dodgers kept offensive pressure up all game long. Adrian Gonzalez, the one Dodgers hitter who has been nearly as dangerous as Kemp lately, had an RBI single in the third.
Misses: Yasiel Puig could be excused for being on edge after he was hit by a pitch in Game 1, sparking a benches-emptying scene. What the Dodgers don't want him to do is let his emotions get the better of him and take him out of his game. After Lynn threw a head-high, 95 mph fastball that wasn't particularly inside in the first inning, Puig appeared to have words with catcher Yadier Molina and the umpire. His at-bats the rest of the night were not good. Puig went 0-for-4 with four swinging strikeouts. The Dodgers saw the Cardinals and, in particular, Molina play some head games with Puig last October. They'd like to avoid that subplot this time.
Stat of the game: Carl Crawford went hitless, snapping his postseason hitting streak at 11 games. It was the longest in Dodgers history, one ahead of Bill Russell's mark in 1978.
Up next: The teams have Sunday off to travel to St. Louis, where they play Game 3 on Monday at 6:37 p.m. PT. Hyun-Jin Ryu (14-7, 3.38 ERA) will oppose John Lackey (3-3, 4.30) in that game.
