Matt Kemp is having some kind of season for the Dodgers. He homered Thursday night at Coors Field, his fifth home run in the last six days, but that wasn't all. Kemp also tripled and doubled, leaving him just a single shy of the cycle. The cycle is more of a fun stat than anything else; after all, I'm sure Dodgers fans wanted Kemp to hit another home run in the ninth inning, which would have tied the game, rather than a single to complete the cycle (Kemp struck out).
↵But cycles are fun. Only two L.A. Dodgers have hit for the cycle, Wes Parker in 1970 and Orlando Hudson in 2009, so it is kind a a rare occurrence for the Dodgers. Kemp last night became just the ninth L.A. Dodger to hit a double, triple, and home run in the same game. Also rare for the Dodgers is to have a league leader in home runs. The only L.A. Dodger to lead the league in homers was Adrian Beltre, who blasted 48 home runs in 2004.
↵Kemp currently leads the National League with 18 home runs, trailing only Joey Batista (20) in the majors. Kemp homered in each of the last five games of the 2010 season, so we can use selective endpoints to show that nobody in baseball has more home runs (23) or RBI (65) than Kemp since last September 28. This season, Kemp leads the NL in Baseball-Reference WAR (3.7), and is in the top five in Fangraphs WAR (3.3), OPS (1.026), on-base- percentage (.406), slugging percentage (.620), batting average (.329), RBI (53), and even stolen bases (14). He is .007 batting average points and two RBI away from being the NL Triple Crown leader.
↵Kemp is hitting .500/.576/1.179 (14-for-28) with 13 RBI through the first seven games of the Dodgers' current road trip. It has been a magical season so far for Kemp, who is carrying the Dodgers offense right now.
↵For more news and information on Matt Kemp and the Dodgers, be sure to read the SB Nation blog True Blue LA.