If Saturday night’s game against the Houston Astros wasn’t proof enough for Dodger manager Don Mattingly that left-handed hitting Andre Ethier absolutely needs to bat in the clean-up spot behind Matt Kemp every game instead of being platooned with Juan Rivera in the number 4 and number 5 holes because of pitching match-up, then Donny Baseball needs to find another line of work. This experiment is over and the results are indisputable.

What began with a torrid spring training for the Dodger right fielder (especially against lefties), has clearly carried over into the regular season… and then some; and while Andre was pretty much expected to hit well against right-handed pitching, no one and I mean NO ONE ever expected him to be among the MLB’s best hitters against left-handed pitchers.

With two outs in the 8th inning and runners at first and second and Matt Kemp at the plate, Astros reliever Rhiner Cruz elected to unintentionally intentionally walk MLB home run and RBI leader Matt Kemp to load the bases and take his chances with MLB runner-up RBI leader Andre Ethier. Ethier was batting clean-up because the Astros had started right-hander Kyle Weiland. Thus far through the 2012 campaign, when the opposing team started a lefty, Mattingly would bat the right-handed hitting Juan Rivera behind Kemp instead of the much better hitting Ethier. Well sure enough, Ethier made the Astros pay for pitching around Kemp by lacing a sharp single to right scoring two runs.

This is exactly the type of protection that Matt Kemp needs in the line-up. Though Rivera is third on the team in both average and RBIs, he has yet to hit a home run this season and offers little protection for Kemp batting in the number three hole.

This experiment is over, Don – Do the right thing.

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Do you think that Astros pitcher Kyle Weiland wishes that he had this pitch back?