Los Angeles Dodgers (45-56 / 4th in the NL West / 13.5 GB)
Last Series vs. Rockies: June 9-12, 2011 (Split 2-2 at Coors Field)
This series was yet another one of the series in the Rockies' downfall after their screaming April. I mean, it was in June, and downfall began in May, and the Rockies had already lost another series to the Dodgers before that, and the Rockies were already spiraling, but this series was a Big Deal!
BIG. DEAL.
Game 1 was taken by the Rockies 9-7. The Rockies' 9 runs came on 11 hits, the Dodgers' 7 on 12 hits. Dee Gordon had 2 hits, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier had 3 apiece, and even Clayton Kershaw had 2 hits, scoring on both times on, eventually. Seriously though, Kershaw is batting .267 on the 2011 season. That's pretty decent for a pitcher. Carlos Gonzalez had 3 hits of his own, Nelson and Tulo dropped in a pair of hits. Great thing for the Rockies is that they posted 6 runs on Kershaw over his 6 innings, while Nicasio only succumbed to 4 over his 5 innings. Downside: Matt Reynolds was tagged for 3 runs in his inning of work. Upside: Scott Elbert allowed 2 and Josh Lindblom another in their innings.
Game 2 was the closest thing to a pitching duel out of this whole series, with the Rockies winning 6-5. Actually, it was a 6-0 game going into the 9th, where Matt Belisle and Huston Street combined to allow 5 runs (4 to Belisle, 1ER, 1 to Street). This was that game that wouldn't end, with the Nelson-to-Wigginton E5 that led to one of the more tense postgame interviews of the season between Marc Stout and Chris Nelson.
Game 3 was another bloodbath, with the Dodgers winning 11-7. 4 different Dodgers players had multi hit games, including 4 hits from Jamey Carroll and 4 from Aaron Miles. Yes, really. On the other side of the diamond, every Rockies batter reached base except for Jason Hammel and Johnny Herrera, and every Rockies batter had a hit excepting Hammel, Herrera, and Chris Iannetta. Ted Lilly actually pitched pretty well, allowing only 1 run in his 5 innings of work, but the bullpen allowed 6 runs to give the Rockies a fighting chance. Hammel wasn't much worse, going 5 and allowing 3 (2ER). Matt Reynolds' poor stretch continued, allowing another run. Clayton Mortensen allowed another 3 (1ER - it wasn't a good game for the defense), but the real goat was Matt Lindstrom, who let 4 Dodgers cross home plate on 4 hits.
Game 4, 3 hits apiece from Carroll, Loney, Uribe, and Barajas. I mean, hell, even Rubby De La Rosa had a hit. Cargo, Tulo, Smith, and Morales all had multi hit games. Ubaldo had one of "those" starts, allowing 2 earned runs over 5.1 innings - but 7 Dodgers crossed the plate.
Latest Series Results: W 2-1 vs. Washington; L 1-2 vs. San Francisco
Hey, so do you know who's awesome?
Maybe you didn't notice, but Matt Kemp is having a downright awesome season. He leads the majors in rWAR (Rally WAR, available on Baseball Reference) and is somewhere near the top at 4.7 fWAR (Fangraphs WAR). There's some difference there where the defensive metrics line up, but either way you slice it, Matt Kemp is having a downright awesome season. Which is pretty much the only awesome thing going on in Los Angeles.
I may have mentioned Kershaw's seemingly adept handling of the bat, but he's pretty good throwing the ball as well. Kershaw's 167 punchouts lead the majors. His 2.62 xFIP is 2nd in the majors to Roy Halladay's 2.55, and his 10.32 K/9 is 2nd in the majors to Brandon Morrow.
Clayton Kershaw is really, really good. I secretly wish those "Kershaw for Johan Santana" rumors from back when had been somewhat true. Well, with our luck, Santana would've gone on in Minnesota form and Kershaw would've washed out of the Mets' system. But wait, maybe the Rockies could've landed him for Franklin Morales or something like that.
While we're dreaming, I'd like a pony.
Monday through Wednesday: 3-game series at Dodger Stadium featuring the Frank McCourt Parking Lots
Expected Pitching Matchups
Monday, July 25, 2011 @ 8:10 PM MT
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 @ 7:40 PM MT
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 @ 8:10 PM MT
Expected Lineup
| Name | Position | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | HR | R | RBI | SB | WAR |
| Rafael Furcal | SS | .176 | .240 | .218 | .213 | 29 | 1 | 11 | 10 | 3 | -0.5 |
| Aaron Miles | 2B | .307 | .328 | .370 | .310 | 95 | 1 | 25 | 23 | 3 | 1.1 |
| Andre Ethier | RF | .300 | .371 | .443 | .354 | 125 | 9 | 46 | 44 | 0 | 2.5 |
| Matt Kemp | CF | .308 | .388 | .575 | .419 | 170 | 24 | 60 | 73 | 27 | 4.7 |
| Juan Rivera | LF | .296 | .345 | .481 | .362 | 131 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0.2 |
| James Loney | 1B | .263 | .308 | .336 | .285 | 78 | 4 | 25 | 32 | 3 | 0 |
| Juan Uribe | 3B | .204 | .264 | .293 | .252 | 56 | 4 | 21 | 28 | 2 | 0.3 |
| Rod Barajas | C | .210 | .257 | .364 | .269 | 67 | 8 | 16 | 21 | 0 | 0.1 |
Bench
| Name | Position | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | HR | R | RBI | SB | WAR |
| Jamey Carroll | 2B | .285 | .357 | .353 | .321 | 103 | 0 | 36 | 8 | 5 | 1.5 |
| Dioner Navarro | C | .206 | .273 | .325 | .260 | 61 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 0 | 0.1 |
| Trent Oeltjen | OF | .250 | .370 | .417 | .350 | 123 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 0.3 |
| Eugenio Velez | OF | .000 | .000 | .000 | .037 | -92 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -0.1 |
Closer