Hamstring strain slows Kemp's steals pursuit
Hamstring strain slows Kemp's steals pursuit
Kemp has only two stolen bases with the season roughly 20 percent over. At this point last season, Kemp had nine steals and finished with 40.
He was only 2-for-5 in attempts when he was healthy this year and now he's playing safety first while nursing a left hamstring strain.
Kemp and manager Don Mattingly are in agreement that his bat is too valuable to the lineup to take chances by doing anything "stupid," as Kemp puts it.
Kemp has already had more hitless games in May than he did for all of April and he hasn't homered since last month, but Mattingly said it's not because of the hamstring.
"I don't think it has anything to do with it," he said. "The first day after, he had four hits. Matt's no different than anybody else. He's not going to hit .430. He'll go through periods and I don't think it has anything to do with the hammy.
"Any time Matt struggles, it's going to be, 'What's wrong with Matt?' He's been so good for so long that any time he struggles, he's hurt, what's wrong? He is human."