They soar, they crash -- they’re your 2012 Dodgers all over again

A guy goes away for a few days to suck down a piña colada or 26, comes back and finds the Dodgers a regular juggernaut.

When I took off for my private island next to David Copperfield’s little retreat in the Bahamas, the Dodgers were in a stretch where they had lost seven of eight, and 19 of 25. I had considered never leaving the hammock.

Now they’ve won five consecutive games, including the first four of their 10-game road trip, are 1½ games back of the surging Giants in the National League West and in position to have some fun during this weekend’s three games in San Francisco.

Ah, baseball. The ebbs and flows, the ups and downs. Teams are never as great as they appear when on an amazing winning streak, and seldom as hold-the-nose awful as they seem when stumbling and losing two-of-three at home against the Padres.

The game keeps teaching the same lesson, though it’s often difficult to embrace when in the throes of a dismal losing stretch.

They play 162 games over six months, and a lot is going to happen during that long of a period, both good and bad. It’s not always easy remaining calm when scuffling, or getting too excited when playing well, but that’s part of the trick to enduring in baseball.

When the Dodgers went to San Francisco for three games last month, they couldn’t score a single run and were swept with embarrassing ease. The same thing could happen this weekend, or the complete reverse.

That’s baseball, that’s why it calls for attention even during the dog days and so often manages surprises. The Dodgers are a few light-years away from being a perfect team, but they’ve shown that when healthy, they are a highly competitive one.

Which should make the final two months nothing if not interesting. Anyway, that’s the way I remember thinking of it from the hammock.

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