Dodgers Matt Kemp Return: “It’s not going to be September.”

Dodgers NewsLos Angeles Dodgers Matt Kemp took batting practice before yesterday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals and reported afterwards that things went well and he was progressing towards a return to the Dodgers line-up sooner rather than later.

“[It’s] a start, it’s better than where I was,” Jim Peltz of the Los Angeles Times quotes Kemp. “Felt good to get back out there and hit a little bit. Felt like a real baseball player.

Kemp came off the DL for one game after nursing his sore shoulder back to health and injured his ankle on July 21. Earlier reports has speculated Kemp would not be back until September., but after his batting practice Kemp said “it might be a week, two weeks, but it’s not going to be September.”

Kemp did conceded however that running is the problem. “I’m not really ready to run yet,” Kemp said. “My body is the one that’s going to tell me when I’m ready.”

He’s appeared in 62 games this season and was batting .263 with five home runs and 27 runs batted in. The Dodgers lead the National League West by five games over the Arizona Diamondbacks and start a weekend series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday.