After a month and a half, Matt Kemp is back!

Finally, the day has arrived. The long national nightmare is over! Matt Kemp is back in the Dodgers’ lineup. And he wasted no time in reintroducing his bat to Chavez Ravine, smoking a standup double in his first at-bat. He continued his streak (can I call it a streak?) with a single into center field. And Andre Ethier is also back! Hooray! He wasn’t nearly as exciting, as Clayton Richards is a left handed pitcher, and Dre isn’t exactly the best at getting hits off those guys, but. Welcome back, Dre!

The game really goes to Mark Ellis for hitting the ever loving life out of the ball. His 2 run home run would carry the Dodgers over the San Diego Padres.

Clayton Kershaw had 1 earned run in 110 pitches through 6 innings. Kershaw wasn’t over the top dominant tonight, and I think that he’s been unfairly judged against his incredible/ridiculous/insane run in the 2nd half in 2011, the 2nd half that won him his Cy Young. No, he’s not playing like he did then, but he’s still doing really, really good, you guys.

The San Francisco Giants are .5 games back, but the Dodgers are still in first place in the NL West.