Matt Kemp had cooled off now. The frustration of the night, of his season, now tempered by a Dodgers’ victory.

It had not been that way earlier Saturday, when a struggling and frustrated Kemp reacted angrily in the seventh after Manager Don Mattingly took him out of a one-run game in a double-switch.

Kemp appeared to yell at Mattingly as he headed off the field, flipping his glove at the dugout wall and barking a little more before momentarily disappearing into the clubhouse.

“Man, I was just frustrated,” Kemp said. “It had been a bad day for me. I really didn’t do much to help the team win. It is what it is. It’s over now.”

Kemp denied he was yelling directly at Mattingly.

“I was just shouting,” he said.

Kemp had struck out twice with runners in scoring position Saturday, including the final at-bat in the sixth on a ball almost in the dirt. Each time the crowd booed the player who came in second in the National League MVP in 2011.

Give the Dodgers a moment for it to soak in, to refresh memories. It has been awhile.

The Dodgers lost a lead, rallied to regain it and then even built upon it a tad. All around a little Matt Kemp drama.

After losing a 3-1 lead almost solely provided by Adrian Gonzalez, the Dodgers came back on a double by Mark Ellis to down the Cardinals, 5-3, before a Dodger Stadium crowd of 49,368.

On a day when Ted Lilly gave the Dodgers five strong innings and a frustrated Kemp became irate when lifted in a double switch in the seventh inning, the Dodgers found a way to grasp a much-needed victory.

Lilly had retired 14 consecutive batters when he walked Allen Craig with one out in the sixth inning. Ronald Belisario allowed that runner to score as well as one more when he gave up three hits in the inning and the Cardinals tied the score.

But the Dodgers took back the lead with an unearned run in the bottom of the inning after St. Louis second baseman Matt Carpenter dropped a Carl Crawford grounder....

When the Dodgers broke camp, Nick Punto didn’t figure to play all that much. He was a 35-year-old utility player on a team with fellow utility players Jerry Hairston Jr. and Skip Schumaker.

Yet Punto is playing so well and so hard that, coupled with injuries, he has become a regular in the Dodgers’ lineup. He has appeared in all but one of their last 27 games, started in all but four.

And he’s playing all over the infield. While starting 12 times at second base, 15 at third base and seven at shortstop, he’s hit a team-high .323. He’s hustled, he’s played smart, he’s provided a spark.

“I want to keep Nick healthy, but he’s playing so good and has given us so much energy, he’s really been hard to take out of the lineup,” said Manager Don Mattingly. “When you’re making the lineup out, it’s hard to say, 'Don’t play Punto tonight.'"

So Punto is back in the lineup Saturday, this time at third and...

Get blanked, 7-0, and manage only three hits like the Dodgers did on Friday night, and maybe you think Manager Don Mattingly’s team was completely devoid of his desired true grit.

Not so. It was there in plain sight in the sixth inning when catcher A.J. Ellis took a hard hit from Cardinals outfielder Jon Jay in a bruising home-plate collision.

Ellis lay flat on his back for several scary minutes, but after counting body parts with team trainers, he stood up and remained in the game.

“We were just taking inventory,” Ellis said. “Asking questions and working our way through the extremities. The only thing I really felt, and I still feel it now, is from watching the replay his knee made contact with my forearm. I have a pretty good bruise in my right forearm.

“But other than that, just normal stiffness from a postgame. I got checked out by the doc and I’m all good.”

The Dodgers had best hope so. Visions of having to start Ramon Hernandez at...

Seems it was a bad night for grit and fight.

Certainly Friday didn’t offer much for left-hander Chris Capuano, or for Dodgers news, unless you count another loss. Suppose you have to.

The Dodgers went ever so meekly against the Cardinals and right-hander Lance Lynn, managing only three hits in a 7-0 loss before a Dodger Stadium crowd of 45,134.

Before the game there were plenty of news conferences and holding of hands, but no actual developments. Manager Don Mattingly remained unscathed, right fielder Andre Ethier returned to the lineup and team President Stan Kasten reaffirmed his commitment to the manager.

All that was left for the Dodgers was to go out, play hard and validate Mattingly’s call to toughness with a victory over the Cardinals.

Alas, the Cardinals entered Chavez Ravine with the best record in baseball and then went out and played like it. The Dodgers, of course, entered as the last-place team in the National League West and played like that (read: with no...

A frustrated Matt Kemp was out early Friday to take extra batting practice. Apparently, he did not believe he had solved the mystery of his swing.

At the end of the batting practice he did his best Bo Jackson impression, breaking his bat over his thigh. Then he walked to the dugout and threw the two pieces into a plastic trash can with vengeance.

Later at his clubhouse cubicle, he was composed but unwilling to discuss his frustration with batting practice.

“I was just working on some things,” Kemp said. “I’m good.”

Not real good on the season, though. He has only two home runs and a .356 slugging percentage in his first 45 games of the season. He’s struck out 50 times in 174 at-bats.

And during the last homestand, Kemp told The Times’ T.J. Simers he could not fully extend his swing and was uncertain if it was physical or mental.

Kemp had major off-season shoulder surgery, but has otherwise continually maintained that his shoulder was fine....

All calm now? Everybody’s exhaled, visualized tranquil waters, got all comfy in their half-lotus position?

Seems the media-inspired frenzy over Don Mattingly’s future as the Dodgers manager has abated for the moment. Anyway, let’s hope.

After a well-timed off-day that did not include his firing, the Dodgers return to play Friday, which at this point could almost serve as a pleasant diversion.

Andre Ethier will also likely return to the lineup, and much to the chagrin of some, Mattingly to the bench, where if nothing else he seems slightly more their leader than a week ago.

Of course, in the interim there was that nasty sweep in Atlanta that begot rampant media speculation that the end was near, at least for Mattingly. And speculation was all it was, not one report even attempting to name a Dodgers source as its inspiration.

So perhaps the Dodgers return more focused than at any time this season, which would be the good news. The bad would be, they return to face the...

Somewhere down on Don Mattingly’s list of problems – six starters already on the disabled list, bullpen meltdown, inability to drive in runs and (oh, yeah) job security – there is this:

Roster dead weight.

It didn’t have the makings of a strong bench when the season began, most of the team resources going into the lineup and rotation, but it’s even more feeble than expected.

Everyone understood it would have no power. General  Manager Ned Colletti loves those scrappy, versatile types, which would explain a roster that was set up to have Nick Punto, Skip Schumaker, Juan Uribe and Jerry Hairston Jr. as its primary backups.

Except that with injured shortstop Hanley Ramirez missing most of the season so far and Luis Cruz proving worthless offensively, bench guys and players who were supposed to be in the minors are having to start.

Neither Dee Gordon (.167) nor Justin Sellers (.191) have hit a lick trying to replace Ramirez. Gordon is currently in an 0-for-22...

Now Wednesday was an interesting little day, no?

Yet oddly, the one guy who came out of the brouhaha looking the best was Andre Ethier.

That would be the often volatile Ethier, the player who’s been known to smash helmets after strikeouts, snap at reporters, flip the bird to photographers and just generally be handicapped by his own emotions.

Not Wednesday, though. Not this year, really.

Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly called out his team for lack of mental toughness before Wednesday’s game, and specifically Ethier, whom he benched against a right-handed starter.

Asked about the benching, Mattingly said he wanted to field a lineup “that’s going to fight and compete the whole day.”

Mattingly’s one mistake Wednesday was he addressed Ethier individually with reporters before the game without first letting his concerns be known directly to the outfielder.

Yet after the game, when presented with Mattingly’s comments, Ethier responded just as you would...

It has been a tough season so far for Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly. His team is underperforming, his contract runs out at the end of the season, and upper management hasn't exactly given him a lot of glowing endorsements publicly.

But should he be fired? Is he the reason the Dodgers are off to such a bad start?

Mattingly, after all, can't bat for these guys. It's the players who aren't hitting in clutch situations.

Mattingly can't pitch for these guys. He's not the one blowing save after save (I'm looking at you, Brandon League).

And Mattingly isn't a doctor. It's not his fault that seemingly half the team has been on the disabled list this season.

On the other hand, in the dugout, Mattingly shows all the emotion of a concrete wall. Umpire botches a play? Mattingly might go out and discuss it, but you rarely seem him get mad about anything. Some fans see that as a liability, thinking that you have to show emotion to raise the level of play in your players.

Either way, it's a good...

MILWAUKEE – Don Mattingly will be managing the Dodgers on Friday when they open a three-game series at home against the St. Louis Cardinals, according to two people familiar with the team’s plans.

Before the last-place Dodgers’ 9-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday, Mattingly made comments critical of his players, in particular Andre Ethier, inciting rampant media speculation that he could be managing his last game.

Mattingly said he wasn’t worried that he could be fired on the Dodgers’ day off on Thursday.

“Do I feel worried?” Mattingly said. “No, not really. Should I be?”

He laughed.

By questioning his team’s mental strength, Mattingly departed from his long-standing practice of defending his players.

His most pointed comments were directed at Ethier, whom he benched in favor of Scott Van Slyke. Asked why Ethier wasn’t in the lineup for the third time in six days, Mattingly explained that he wanted to...