Last week I posted an article about several Dodger players wearing high socks trying to emulate Carl Crawford in hopes of having some of the tremendous success that Crawford is having thus far in the 2013 season possibly rub off on them.

Did it work?

Well, Matt Kemp was wearing high socks a week ago Sunday and went 1 for 2 with an RBI, a run scored, a walk and no strikeouts (no, really), and he was sporting high socks again on Monday night and went 2 for 5 with a run scored and only one strikeout.

Quit fighting it, Matt – stay with the high socks!
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Obviously I wrote that article tongue in cheek and was having a little fun with just a few of the many superstitions in the game of baseball, but enough is enough already.

In Monday night’s game at Dodger Stadium, on Jackie Robinson Day no less, Carl Crawford had yet another multi-hit game – his eighth in the 13 games that the Dodgers have played thus far this season, going 3 for 5 with a run and an RBI to raise his average to .396 – third best in the National League. Meanwhile, the struggling (I need to come up with a new word) Matt Kemp is still hitting below the Mendoza Line at .196.

So, what was the difference this time, you ask?

The difference was obvious, very obvious, in fact. Carl “Two Shoes” Crawford wore two different colored baseball shoes for the entire game, yet no one else did.

The great thing about wearing two different colored shoes is that you have two pair of them. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Although I’m not much into superstitions when it comes to baseball (although you will never hear me utter the words “no-hitter” when one is in progress – unless it is against the Dodgers, of course), I’m beginning to think that the entire Dodger bench should wait until Crawford is finished dressing for the games and then dress exactly like him. I mean, nothing else seems to be working, right?

Of course this is utter silliness, but really now, what could it hurt? Heck, it could even be fun for the anemic Dodger offense – not to mention that it would create a challenge for Crawford to keep coming up with new things.

In all seriousness, it is the Dodgers complete inability to string together consecutive hits that is absolutely killing the team. In Monday night’s game alone, the Dodgers stranded 9 men on base and went 3 for 13 with RISP. In the first and second innings alone they left the bases loaded and runners at second and third respectively. I can assure you that if this continues much longer, the Dodgers will quickly find themselves in third or fourth place in the division and in the difficult position of trying to catch and pass the Giants and Diamondbacks. And while Dodger manager Don Mattingly continues to shove his latest catch phrase “…we get that much traffic, we’ll score a bunch of runs…” down our throats, it’s time to actually start doing it, wouldn’t you say?

In my opinion, Mattingly really should consider batting Crawford third or fourth in the line-up to put his smoking hot bat where it might actually do some good. I certainly understand that Mattingly doesn’t want three consecutive lefties at the plate, but Crawford and Gonzalez don’t seem to be having any difficultly hitting left-handed pitching right now. Even Andre Ethier is hitting ok against lefties, although he is starting to cool off a bit in this department. Perhaps batting Kemp in the 7 or 8 hole for a while might wake his bat up.

The good news is that there isn’t anything wrong with Kemp’s defense.
(Photo credit – Mark J. Terrill)

On the other side of the ball, Dodger pitchers walked 8 Padres batters on Monday night, three of which came around to score; and as we all know, walks kill you. And even though starting pitcher Chad Billingsley coughed up a 3-run home run to opposing pitcher and former Dodger Eric Stults on a pitch that looked as though it was sitting on a tee, the Dodgers managed to scratch their way back to a 3-3 tie before Chad was lifted for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 6th inning. But a complete meltdown by the Dodger bullpen, which gave up 5 of those 8 walks, allowed the Padres to put the game out of reach with an eventual score of 6-3. As DodgerTalk co-host Kevin Kennedy said later, “There is no defense against walks.” That pretty much says it all right there.

So that brings us back to the silliness of Carl Crawford’s two different colored shoes. At this stage of the game, you would think that the Dodgers would be willing to try anything to turn things around because, as the beer commercial says, “It’s only weird if it doesn’t work.”