Comparing The Bison & The Penguin

Thanks to their amazing offense, the Dodgers somehow managed to tie and nearly take the lead in a game last night that they had no business winning.  Matt Kemp's three-run home run in the top of the eighth inning looked like a pop fly off the bat, but the ball just kept carrying into the right field seats.  Four of Kemp's six home runs this year have been hit to right or right center, and he is as locked in at the plate as he as ever been before.

Kemp is tied for the major league lead in runs scored (15) and runs batted in (18), and is tied for the National League lead in home runs, with six.  Those numbers, eye-popping as they are, look even more impressive when you realize the Dodgers have only played 13 games.

The gold standard for hot starts by a Dodger has always been Ron Cey, who came out of the gate on fire in 1977.  The Penguin set club records with nine home runs and 29 RBI in April, and that was only in 20 games!  Here is how The Bison stacks up with The Penguin through the first 13 games of the season:

As hard as it is to imagine, Cey got even hotter over his final week of April, hitting .455/.613/1.182 with five home runs and 12 RBI over the next seven games.  Cey did all of his work in April 1977 while batting cleanup, while Kemp has moved around a bit:

The Dodgers have 10 games remaining in April, but no matter what happens from this point forward, Matt Kemp has had quite a month.

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Ronald Belisario will be activated today, reports Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times.  Jon Link, fresh after a solid two scoreless innings in his major league debut, was optioned back to Albuquerque.