Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Hanley Ramirez (13) hits a triple in the fourth inning against the Atlanta Braves in Game 3 of the National League divisional series Sunday at Dodger Stadium.
Vincent Bonsignore follows the Los Angeles Dodgers for the Los Angeles Daily News. This article appears in today's edition.
It’s funny how the twists and turns of baseball can sometimes intersect at the oddest places, or how a formerly frowned-upon star can rehabilitate himself on a stage in which a former teacher has a front row seat to observe the transformation.
But with each blast off the extraordinarily hot bat of Hanley Ramirez on Sunday to help inch the Dodgers one step closer to disposing the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series, it’s impossible not to remember his former life under the manager in the opposing dugout.
Or how Fredi Gonzalez once tried to save Ramirez from himself, and how the belated result of that effort may soon mean the end of the Braves’ season.
It seems like a lifetime ago when the petulance of Ramirez ran into the brick wall that is the respect Gonzalez has for doing things correctly on the baseball field.
DEFINING MOMENTS1. Juan Uribe’s two-run home runSituation: Braves up 3-2 with nobody out in eighth with runner at second base for UribeResult: Uribe homered to left field on 2-2 slider from David Carpenter.
Dodgers manager Don Mattingly has been keeping open the possibility of bringing back Game 1 starter Clayton Kershaw for Game 4 on three days’ rest, if the Dodgers were facing elimination.
**BRIAN McCANN On what wasn’t going right with Julio “Early, Carl hit a slider that hung up a little bit more than Julio wanted and put a good swing on it, and I tip my hat to the middle of their order.
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