Be careful what you wish for? Dodgers finally play winning teams

By Steve Dilbeck

April 23, 2012 12 AM PT

And then on their 17th game, they played against a winning team.

The Dodgers are starting a six-game homestand Monday against the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals, two teams off to strong starts. Which would be the opposite of their first five series, all played against teams looking up at .500.

That has made it somewhat difficult to gauge the merits of the Dodgers’ 12-4 start, but now there’s a more controlled aspect as the Dodgers prepare to play the 10-6 Braves and 12-4 Nationals.

“We feel like we’re a good club, and we’ll find out,” Manager Don Mattingly said.

Good teams have to be able to beat up on the weak, which the Dodgers have done against the San Diego Padres (twice), Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros. They lost two of three games in Milwaukee to the Brewers, who are 7-9.

The Braves lead the National League in runs (91), are second in hits (144) and third in hitting (.264). The Brewers lead the majors in earned-run average (2.34) and are tied with the Dodgers in strikeouts (144).

And the Braves have won 10 of their last 12 games.

“We’re both playing pretty good,” Mattingly said. “We’re both two pretty confident clubs right now. It doesn’t matter who we’ve been playing, who we’ve been beating. You’re winning games, you’re pretty confident.

“So we both go into the series thinking, let’s see what happens.”

For the Dodgers: It’s the last homestand of Frank McCourt

As everyone was saying, why can’t Andre Ethier hit right-handers?

Be careful what you wish for? Dodgers finally play winning teams