Given that Matt Kemp followed up his National League MVP runner-up season with a blistering start to the 2012 campaign, it's safe to say the Dodgers will have a hard time replacing their All-Star center fielder.
Kemp, hitting .359 with 12 home runs and 28 RBI on the season, was placed on the 15-day disabled list Monday with a strained left hamstring.
For the vast majority of the time Kemp will miss, which the Dodgers hope will be just the minimum 15 days, Tony Gwynn Jr. will patrol center field, as he is the club's best defensive outfielder.
However, on Tuesday night against Arizona, the Dodgers moved All-Star Andre Ethier, normally the right fielder, to center. It was Ethier's first career game in center field, though he did start the 2010 All-Star Game in center for the National League.
Manager Don Mattingly said he would use Ethier for two or three games in center field while Kemp is out, mostly to get right-handed-hitting Scott Van Slyke and Jerry Sands into the lineup, but also to give Gwynn, normally a reserve, some rest.
"(Gwynn's) primarily going to need to be the center fielder. He's too good defensively and brings a lot to the table," Mattingly said. "But I can't go from him not hardly playing to just running him out there every day, and the next thing you know I have no center fielder."
Ethier caught all four balls hit in the air his way in Tuesday's 5-1 loss to the Diamondbacks. He went 1-for-3. Van Slyke, playing right field and batting third in his first big-league start, went 0-for-4.
NOTES, QUOTES
Billingsley makes another early exit
--RHP Chad Billingsley allowed four runs in four-plus innings Tuesday against Arizona, his second consecutive start of just four innings. Billingsley (2-3) has failed to pitch at least five innings in three of his eight starts this season, though his ERA is just 3.83.
--OF Scott Van Slyke made the first start of his major league career Tuesday night against the Diamondbacks, batting third and playing right field. He went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. Van Slyke had gone a combined 2-for-2 in three appearances off the bench in the past week.
--INF/OF Jerry Hairston Jr. will be eligible to come off the disabled list May 22, and manager Don Mattingly said Hairston likely would return from his left hamstring strain within a day or two of then. Hairston likely will play one or two rehab games in the minor leagues before returning to the Dodgers.
"It makes sense to go play one game, at least, because then if he feels a little something and is not sure about it, you don't have to go back two weeks," Mattingly said.
--INF Elian Herrera made his major league debut Tuesday, popping up as a pinch hitter in the fifth inning of the Dodgers' 5-1 loss to the Diamondbacks. Herrera, 27, was called up Monday after batting .358/.381/550 with two homers, 14 RBI and nine steals in 28 games for Class AAA Albuquerque.
--OF Andre Ethier started in center field Tuesday night for the first time in his major league career, excluding a start for the NL in the 2010 All-Star Game. Manager Don Mattingly said OF Tony Gwynn Jr. would get the bulk of the starts in center field in CF Matt Kemp's absence.
--2B Mark Ellis hit his second home run of the season. He is hitting .333 with 10 runs, two doubles, two home runs and seven RBI in May.
BY THE NUMBERS: 4 -- Innings pitched by Chad Billingsley in each of his past two starts.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I can't go from him not hardly playing to just running him out there every day, and the next thing you know I have no center fielder." -- Manager Don Mattingly, on transitioning OF Tony Gwynn Jr. from reserve to starting center fielder.
