Since the Dodgers are in an American League park today, the designated hitter is in play, and they’ve taken the bonus of not having the pitcher hit — sort of, since Hyun-jin Ryu has shown to be pretty adept at the plate — by taking the weakest hitter in the lineup out of the ninth spot and putting him first. Over the last month, Nick Punto is hitting .207/.270/.244 as that BABIP continues to fall, as we all knew it would… so of course you’d want him setting the table for Yasiel Puig, Adrian Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez, & Andre Ethier.

That is somewhat brushing aside the point that Ramirez is even in the lineup, which is far from a given these days, though I must admit I’m more than a little surprised to see that he is playing short rather than taking advantage of the designated hitter, given how gimpy Ramirez is these days and the fact that he’s not much of a shortstop even when he’s healthy. Rather than have Punto play short, he’s at third with Jerry Hairston playing DH. Any combination that ends without Luis Cruz on the field is fine by me, I suppose.

On the other side, the injury problems aren’t over for the Yankees, who returned first baseman Mark Teixeira to the disabled list and recalled someone named Zoilo Almonte, who is apparently not a 1960s Minnesota Twins shortstop. Kevin Youkilis is probably finished as a Yankee thanks to the back surgery that was announced today, and.. well, I’m pretty sure that their DH, hitting fifth, is literally named “Neal”. By that I mean, they may very well have just grabbed some guy named Neal off the Columbia varsity team and suited him up.

This entire conversation may be academic, anyway, because the weather forecast for the New York area looks pretty atrocious right now and batting practice has already been canceled. I’m not ready to discuss what happens if it gets rained out — I’m headed up to the Bronx tonight to sit behind home plate, by which I mean “seven miles above home plate,” so fingers crossed — but this does seem as good a time as any to point out once again how unbelievably stupid it is to have had off-days on either side of the Pittsburgh series, yet no day off between a mere two-game set in New York and a game in San Diego on Thursday. Because hey, why would you want to have one of the most anticipated interleague series of the year on anything other than a two-game midweek schedule?

Once again, I’m torn between “lineups really don’t matter all that much” and “oh good, A.J. Ellis is hitting eighth and will see fewer at-bats than Skip Schumaker or Mark Ellis or Juan Uribe.” It doesn’t matter. I know it doesn’t matter. Yet… the idea is sure hard to swallow.

Yasiel Puig gets his first start hitting second, as Don Mattingly attempts to solve the eternal problem of “should I hit Puig where no one will drive him in or where he will have no one to drive in?” That’s one of those questions where there’s probably not really a right answer, at least insomuch as giving Schumaker the opportunity to hit most often doesn’t seem like a great idea. Then again, the options are so limited at this point; sure, I’d probably prefer to have seen Alex Castellanos get a shot, but I also can’t say that it’s enough of a difference that I can really get invested in that.

In the meantime, the Dodgers face a pitcher who is apparently named “Brandon Cumpton,” making his debut not only in the majors but in my consciousness.  The 24-year-old righty was a 9th round pick out of Georgia Tech in 2010, and based on unimpressive strikeout numbers in the minors, I’m guessing he gets by through relying heavily on his defense.

That seems to be confirmed by scouting reports from Pirates Prospects, who rated him as Pittsburgh’s #46 prospect…

Cumpton currently has a 3.31 ERA in 65.1 innings with Indianapolis, along with a 6.8 K/9 and a 3.0 BB/9 ratio. He got off to a rough start this year after a return to Altoona, giving up eight earned runs in 9.2 innings over his first two starts. Cumpton was promoted to Indianapolis more out of need than merit, due to the early season injury problems in Pittsburgh taking pitchers from Indianapolis. His first start with the Indians was rough, with four earned runs in 5.1 innings. Since then he’s been outstanding, with a 2.95 ERA in 61 innings over ten starts, along with a 47:19 K/BB ratio. The most impressive thing is that he’s got a 3:1 GO/AO ratio this year in Indianapolis, which will play well with the infield defense in Pittsburgh.

…and Bucs Dugout:

Cumpton obviously isn’t a future star, but he does a reasonable job limiting walks, and he keeps the ball on the ground. His ceiling is probably that of a back-of-the-rotation starter, and the Pirates probably would have preferred to leave him in the minors a while longer, but obviously, they’re running out of choices, and Cumpton’s ground-ball tendencies make him unlikely to be a disaster.

If that sounds exactly like the kind of guy who is probably going to shut the Dodgers down given that they haven’t seen him before, congratulations, you’ve been paying attention. No pressure though, kid, you only have to face Clayton Kershaw in your major league debut. Although when I say “kid”, Cumpton is only about eight months younger than Kershaw kid. Daily reminder that Clayton Kershaw is awesome, I guess.

Starling Marte remains out for Pittsburgh with a strained rib cage and yes, that is Brandon Inge playing right field. As noted by Eric Stephen, Inge is making his fourth start there this season, after not having played the corner since 2004 with Detroit.

What is it with June? In the darkest days of last season, the Dodgers were regularly tossing out lineups with names like Juan Rivera, Bobby Abreu, & Adam Kennedy in the heart of the order. We weren’t supposed to see anything like that ever again.

Except… here we are. Yasiel Puig was in the original lineup before being scratched with a sore right shoulder, a malady which reportedly is directly related to last night’s brawl. When Puig initially came up, I expressed some concern that he might not be ready, using this exact quote as something of a joke:

That should hopefully mean that Puig at least gets to play in a second game, rather than getting arrested after probably using his linebacker frame to knock Jedd Gyorko or Will Venable or whatever poor Padre happened to get in his way clear into the Pacific Ocean in the inevitable bench-clearing brawl.

It wasn’t the Padres, and it wasn’t an arrest — which I was obviously not serious about — yet here we are eight days later, and Puig is out of the lineup because of his involvement in that mess. We haven’t even heard about suspensions, and we aren’t likely to today, but for everyone who claimed that the “heart” shown in the fight is going to turn the season around — just like after the Carlos Quentin mess, right? — here is the first of several real-world consequences to that.

So now that Puig is out along with Matt Kemp & A.J. Ellis & Carl Crawford & Hanley Ramirez, we’re left with Adrian Gonzalez and a whole bunch of guys who are not Adrian Gonzalez. Alex Castellanos gets his first start of the season replacing Puig in right field, while Jerry Hairston becomes the eighth different Dodger to hit cleanup, and Juan Uribe hits fifth. In the absence of Ramirez, now bordering on a decade, the terribly struggling Nick Punto leads off as the BABIP regression we all knew was coming continues to take its toll.

The good news, I suppose, is that Hyun-jin Ryu has been on the mound, and he has been wonderful. But it’s increasingly difficult to look at that lineup and feel a lot differently than we did last year at this time when Elian Herrera was in every day. At least, I suppose, Ellis, Puig, & Ramirez should be back soon, and Kemp hopefully not too long after that. But for now? This one’s on you, Ryu.