Dodgers News: Gonzalez And Grandal On Same Page Regarding Struggles

The Los Angeles Dodgers last season finished 10-9 against the San Francisco Giants, including winning seven of the final nine regular-season meetings. They also took four of seven games from the St. Louis Cardinals, only to get eliminated by them in Game 4 of the 2014 National League Division Series.

The Dodgers won 94 games and repeated as NL West champions, six games ahead of the Giants, who went on to win the World Series. While the Dodgers and Giants will meet 10 more times in 2015, they won’t face the Cardinals again in the regular season. Los Angeles lost to St. Louis five times in seven games over a 10-day stretch in 2015.

While that’s led to plenty of frustration among the fan base, Adrian Gonzalez put little stock in the regular-season wins, via Bill Plunkett of the OC Register:

The last two years we beat them in the regular season and they beat us in the playoffs. Does it mean anything? I hope it means they beat us in the playoffs when we beat them in the regular season. Now they beat us in the regular season and we beat them in the playoffs.”

Yasmani Grandal, new to the being subjected to growing frustration inflicted by the Cardinals, also isn’t hitting the panic button, according to Plunkett:

It just shows you the little things we need to do,” Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal said of the in-season matchup. “Obviously, they’re playing really good baseball right now. That’s why they have the best record in baseball. It’s going to be fun if we play them in October.”

In some aspect, the Dodgers’ struggles against the two elite teams this season can be tied to them not having their full roster. It’s what manager Don Mattingly has alluded to when he recently remarked that he isn’t afraid of the Cardinals and would welcome facing them in the postseason.

The Dodgers recovered from a tough series with the Cardinals to explode for a big win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night. They’re now 5-2 against Arizona this season and face them Tuesday and Wednesday.

After series with the San Diego Padres and Texas Rangers, the Dodgers host the Giants for a three-game set beginning June 19. San Francisco swept the previous three-game series at AT&T Park and Los Angeles hasn’t defeated their rival since April 29.

Don Mattingly Not Scared Of The Cardinals