LOS ANGELES – Between Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium lie some 30 miles of broad freeway, which, in certain hours on certain days, encourages vehicular traffic. Like an eclipse, one must not stare directly into the glare of such a phenomenon. One risks being cast into an unsustainable optimism, that of actually reaching one's destination on time.

The point is, there is no knowing. In L.A., by way of Interstate 5 in any direction, one is 35 minutes early or 35 minutes late. The wind blows through one's hair (or careens across one's pomade) or the day blows through the wind, one or the other, hour after hour, day after day, mile after mile.

Don Mattingly's Dodgers have been just fine without Matt Kemp in the lineup. (Getty Images)Until it doesn't. Which brings us back to the point: There is no knowing.

That, in a somewhat roundabout way, brings us to the current locations of the local ballclubs, the Dodgers being through a quarter of the season the winningest team in baseball and the Angels being among the worst, and ain't that a thing?

And, while it would be somewhat

LOS ANGELES – The thick, black brace is hitched to Carlos Beltran's right knee, which is hitched to Carlos Beltran's game, which is hitched to what the St. Louis Cardinals can be in 2012.

The brace holds, the knee holds and then so do the Cardinals, who've come out of the World Series to lead the National League Central through mid-May in spite of a profound organizational shift or, some might suggest, because of it.

By the grace of Beltran's knee brace, along with a trip back to Rafael Furcal's prime, the Cardinals have carried an offense as potent as any in the league, even without you-know-who. Beltran, at 35, has been the Cardinals' most productive hitter. Furcal, at 34, has been their best player.

Carlos Beltran leads the NL in homers and is hitting .299 through Friday. (AP)

It is a fragile existence. Furcal hasn't played a full season since 2009, Beltran not since 2008. In part, it's why they're here. The other part is this: Furcal is batting .360 and has scored 28 runs, Beltran leads the league with 13 home runs and is second with 32 RBI.

When

Did you know that Victoria's Secret has a line of baseball wear, featuring 17 major-league teams?

It's true.

So, you can shop for a ballgame teddy.

The rankings (records through Wednesday's games):

1. Texas Rangers (24-14; Previous: 2) – Josh Hamilton says he can be happy anywhere in free agency, just as long as – you know – he can still hit against Orioles.

2. Tampa Bay Rays (24-14; Previous: 1) – Rays are so smart they've decided to home school clubbies.

3. Baltimore Orioles (24-14; Previous: 5) – O's wish Rays would stop introducing them as, "Our wingman."

4. Los Angeles Dodgers (24-13; Previous: 4) – Dodgers lead league in sacrifices. Manager now goes by "Donnie Small-ball."

5. Washington Nationals (23-14; Previous: 6) – Bryce Harper unimpressed by Cole Hamels' hazing, believes an authentic old-schooler would have bloodied own face with pitch.

6. Atlanta Braves (23-15; Previous: 7) – In embarrassing moment during Jamie Moyer-Chipper Jones feud, both

ANAHEIM, Calif. – If he hasn't been already, Mickey Hatcher will be forgotten by tomorrow.

It's less the nature of the man than the nature of the job he held for going on 13 years, during which he was routinely hammered for failing to whip up chicken salad from the wheels of a pitching machine and just as routinely ignored when he did.

Albert Pujols hit his second homer of the season on Wednesday. (AP)Believe me, the Seattle Mariners, who gave Chone Figgins $36 million 2½ years ago, think Mickey Hatcher is a genius.

No, the Los Angeles Angels stink, and have stunk for a quarter of a season, and will continue to stink (or not) based on the merits of their ballplayers – from the top of the order to the bottom of their bullpen.

Hatcher's crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time, that being at the pointy end of miserable slumps from a career hitter such as Albert Pujols and a rising pest such as Erick Aybar and a drawn-out mystery such as Vernon Wells, among many others, and his own manager's inability to find a solution to any of

On the day Albert Pujols enjoyed his first three-hit game in a month and the Los Angeles Angels had 12 hits in a win over the Oakland Athletics, the club fired longtime hitting coach Mickey Hatcher.

Mickey Hatcher won World Series championships as both a player and coach. (US Presswire)Those sorts of games had become rare for a club that is expected to challenge the Texas Rangers in the American League West, and instead had bogged down under an offense that ranked second-to-last in the league. The Angels have been shut out eight times, most in the league.

Hatcher was in his 13th season with the Angels, having come into the organization with manager Mike Scioscia. General manager Jerry Dipoto made the announcement, and it is unknown if Scioscia, who frequently defended Hatcher during trying offensive periods, agreed with the decision.

"Sometimes in the sports world a point is reached where perhaps a new voice is needed in order to attain the desired goals and objectives," Dipoto said in a statement. "Unfortunately we feel this is one of those times. Offensively we

LOS ANGELES – The game can be brutal, and the people who band together to play it fragile.

Not to say that Kirk Gibson is fragile. The man's two-day beard could plane a door. His glare once downed a 10-point buck from 30 yards. Through a thicket. And sunglasses.

Kirk Gibson and the Diamondbacks are staring at a huge deficit in the NL West. (US Presswire)Yet, approaching the quarter mark of 2012, Gibson and his Arizona Diamondbacks are strapped for anything resembling the level of play that last season made them surprise champions of the National League West.

What they do have is the promise that Chris Young, Daniel Hudson and, eventually, Stephen Drew will be among them again, along with the memory that they weren't much to look at this time last year, when most onlookers had them pegged to finish a dreadful and deserving last place in the division.

It's a pretty little story, of course, how these Diamondbacks are 15-21, same as those Diamondbacks, who actually fell to 15-22 before they shillelaghed the rest of the division the next four months. So, how come Kirk

LOS ANGELES - For going on a week, Matt Kemp hasn't been exactly right.

It's just a week. Part of a week. A silly thing, really, hardly worth mentioning, and I hate to even bring it up.

But, you know, when a guy spends a month as the most ferocious player in the game (pre-Josh Hamilton), then goes all mortal in the batter's box, even for what amounts to an eye-blink, you ask him about that left hamstring, right?

It was sore enough Sunday in Chicago to limit Kemp to a pinch-hit appearance. It's been sore enough that he starts methodically in center field and generally must glide to a stop. And maybe this is something and maybe it's not, but he's four for his last 18, three of those hits in the same game, hasn't really attacked the ball and, as a result, hasn't really driven it, either.

So, about the hamstring …

"Good," Kemp said Friday night. "It's good."

[Related: Giants' Tim Lincecum still struggling to find his old form]

And that, really, is the point.

He wears a T-shirt that

LOS ANGELES – Tim Lincecum had his fastball Wednesday night, and while life is usually more complicated than that, it doesn't have to be.

Almost nothing cuts through the hardball miasma like the well-placed, steaming fastball. It is the resolution to pitcher-catcher indecision. It is the dragon that stirs, threatening, in a hitter's subconscious. It is the saber in a pitcher's psyche. And, it is what helped drive Lincecum to two Cy Young Awards by the time he was 25.

Tim Lincecum got himself into one more jam than he could handle on Wednesday. (AP)Baseball is simple like that. Until it's not.

And that's where the haze sets in, particularly for a pitcher such as Lincecum, once amazing for a fastball so angry coming from something so wispy. Now, at 27 and going on 1,100 major-league innings, Lincecum still is on the wispy side, only with a generally mellower fastball. By the looks of things, that's left him temporarily stuck between seeking his old fastball and learning to live with the new one.

All of which made the seventh start of his sixth season the more