Dodgers September In Review: Saving The Best For Last

by Eric Stephen on Oct 5, 2009 10:12 PM PDT in Weeks/Months In Review Comment 11 comments

It was champagne wishes and caviar dreams for the Dodgers this month. Hopefully this becomes a habit.

The Dodgers had another solid month, not letting a slide in the final week prevent them from accomplishing their goals. By finishing with a pair of wins, the Dodgers ended up 17-13 for the month, winning the National League West and securing home field advantage in the NL playoffs with the best record in the league.

For the second straight month, the Dodgers wrestled with Pythagoras, posting a winning percentage well under their expected win-loss record based on their runs scored and allowed. In August, they posted a .630 pythagorean win percentage while finishing 14-15. During the September/October period, they were 17-13, despite a .624 expected winning percentage. Over their last two months, the Dodgers had an expected record of 37-22, and an actual record of 31-28.

For the first time all season, the Dodgers didn't get much production from their outfield. Manny was ordinary, if not a tad unlucky, with a .218/.384/.449 line for the month, while Andre Ethier (.729 OPS) and Matt Kemp (.637 OPS) produced well below their seasonal norms.

Dodger Batter of the Month: Rafael Furcal got the job done, hitting .300/.400/.491 with 21 runs scored for the "month." A healthy and productive Furcal at the top of the lineup could do wonders in the playoffs.

Dodger Pitcher of the Month: Clayton Kershaw sat out a lot of the month, nursing a right shoulder injury, but when he pitched he made it count. Kershaw threw 18 innings, had a 1.50 ERA, and struck out 21 batters for the month. In game 161, he threw six superb innings, striking out 10 batters without allowing a run, keeping the Dodgers in the game in what beame their division clinching game.

September Record: 17-13 (.567)
145 runs scored (4.83 per game)
110 runs allowed (3.67 per game)
.624 pythagorean winning percentage (19-11)

September NL West Standings
Club	W-L	Pct	GB	RS	RA
Rockies	20-11	.645	---	150	133
Padres	18-11	.621	1	121	104
Dodgers	17-13	.567	2½	145	110
Giants	16-15	.516	4	127	115
Diamondbacks	10-20	.333	9½	188	156

Overall Record: 95-67 (.586)
780 runs scored (4.81 per game)
611 runs allowed (3.77 per game)
.610 pythagorean winning percentage (99-63)

Final NL West Standings
Club	W-L	Pct	GB	RS	RA
Dodgers	95-67	.586	---	780	611
Rockies	92-70	.568	3	804	715
Giants	88-74	.543	7	657	611
Padres	75-87	.463	20	720	782
Diamondbacks	70-92	.432	25	638	769

Favorite Game of the Month: That would be True Blue LA Night at Dodger Stadium, which also happened to be the division clincher. A great time was had by all. Details here, here, and here.

Previous Monthly Reviews: April | May | June | July | August

September Stats

Player	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SB/CS	BA/OBP/SLG	OPS	wOBA
Blake	47	14	17	1	1	2	9	9	0/0	.362/.474/.553	1.027	.449
Furcal	112	21	37	8	2	2	9	12	6/1	.330/.400/.491	.891	.395
Loney	101	17	32	2	0	4	15	13	0/1	.317/.391/.455	.847	.363
Manny	78	14	17	4	1	4	14	19	0/0	.218/.384/.449	.833	.360
Ethier	104	15	23	7	0	4	19	13	0/1	.221/.325/.404	.729	.320
Hudson	66	4	15	5	2	0	4	13	1/0	.227/.354/.364	.718	.309
Martin	87	11	18	3	0	3	15	13	2/0	.207/.327/.345	.672	.296
Kemp	116	18	26	3	1	4	15	6	6/1	.224/.266/.371	.637	.279
Starters	711	114	185	33	7	23	100	98	15/4	.260/.357/.423	.781
Belliard	73	12	26	7	0	4	16	6	1/0	.356/.405/.616	1.022	.440
Hu	5	2	2	1	0	0	2	0	0/0	.400/.333/.600	.933	.358
DeWitt	17	2	5	2	0	1	3	1	0/0	.294/.316/.588	.904	.369
Ausmus	9	0	3	0	0	0	0	1	0/0	.333/.400/.333	.733	.338
Mientkiewicz	13	0	4	0	0	0	1	1	0/0	.308/.400/.308	.708	.334
Pierre	57	8	13	0	3	0	3	6	7/2	.228/.302/.333	.635	.295
Loretta	19	1	5	2	0	0	3	0	0/1	.263/.250/.368	.618	.234
Thome	17	0	4	0	0	0	3	0	0/0	.235/.235/.235	.471	.210
Ellis	6	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0/0	.167/.167/.167	.333	.149
Castro	15	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	.133/.133/.133	.267	.119
Repko	5	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	1/0	.000/.000/.000	.000	.140
Bench	236	29	65	12	3	5	33	15	9/3	.275/.316/.415	.732
Pitchers	53	2	5	0	0	0	2	3	0/0	.094/.158/.094	.192
Totals	1000	145	255	45	10	28	135	116	24/7	.255/.338/.404	.742	.326

Pitcher	G	W-L	Sv	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	FIP
Kershaw*	3	0-1	--	16.0	11	4	3	7	17	1.69	1.125	2.15
Padilla*	6	3-0	--	32.1	30	13	12	10	32	3.34	1.237	3.68
Garland	6	3-2	--	36.1	37	16	11	9	26	2.72	1.266	3.74
Kuroda	5	3-2	--	29.0	25	16	9	7	24	2.79	1.103	3.92
Billingsley*	5	0-3	--	28.0	25	16	15	13	29	4.82	1.357	4.34
Wolf	5	2-1	--	31.1	23	11	11	9	20	3.16	1.021	4.39
Starters	30	11-9	--	173.0	151	76	61	55	148	3.17	1.191	3.84
Broxton	14	0-1	7	13.2	9	4	3	3	21	1.98	0.878	0.52
Kershaw*	1	0-0	--	2.0	0	0	0	1	4	0.00	0.500	0.66
Weaver	5	0-0	--	7.1	12	4	4	3	9	4.91	2.045	1.52
Mota	4	0-0	--	3.1	4	2	2	1	4	5.40	1.500	1.65
Sherrill	15	1-0	--	12.1	7	1	1	3	11	0.73	0.811	2.10
Padilla*	1	0-0	--	2.0	0	0	0	1	2	0.00	0.500	2.66
Troncoso	12	1-2	1	10.1	12	5	4	8	10	3.48	1.935	2.67
McDonald	9	1-1	--	10.2	11	5	4	5	16	3.38	1.500	2.78
Kuo	11	1-0	--	10.1	7	3	3	3	5	2.61	0.968	3.05
Belisario	16	2-0	--	13.0	10	5	2	6	13	1.38	1.231	3.07
Elbert	10	0-0	--	4.2	4	3	3	4	6	5.79	1.714	3.15
Haeger	3	0-0	--	2.2	1	0	0	1	3	0.00	0.750	3.16
Billingsley*	1	0-0	--	1.2	4	2	2	2	0	10.80	3.600	14.56
Relievers	30	6-4	8	94.0	81	34	28	41	104	2.68	1.298	2.47
Totals	30	17-13	8	267.0	232	110	89	96	252	3.00	1.228	3.36

*The pitching stats of Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, and Vicente Padilla were split into their starting and relieving duties.

Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com and Fangraphs for help with the data.

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Comments

Kershaw

Maybe Kershaws injury will turn out to be a blessing. A little rest at the end of the season can work in his favor. He certainly didn’t seem to be rusty

by David in Florida on Oct 6, 2009 4:47 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I'd have gone with Belliard as hitter of the month

he had many more key hits then Rafy did and that .616 slug% in 78 at bats was fun to watch.

Some very nice pitching in Sept from the rotation. Those numbers from Kuroda will be missed in the playoffs.

by meercatjohn on Oct 6, 2009 8:17 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I think I had a brain fart on that one. Oh well. Belliard can channel his anger into a few playoff bombs :)

by Eric Stephen on Oct 6, 2009 8:35 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

But his groin!

by Tripon on Oct 6, 2009 8:50 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I wonder if that is the lowest batting average in a month for Manny ever. Probably not but .218 is pretty bad for him.

Patience is for those who die waiting for something to happen

by Phil Gurnee on Oct 6, 2009 8:59 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Bob Brenly was on “Mason & Ireland” yesterday, and claimed Manny was purposely letting fat pitches go by trying to bait the Cardinals into throwing more fastballs. I don’t buy it, but it would be awesome if that were true.

by Eric Stephen on Oct 6, 2009 9:06 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

If that were true, his plan would work for about one at-bat. :)

by Tripon on Oct 6, 2009 9:08 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It does seem weird how he went from striking out every PA

to hitting the ball hard almost every at bat in one night.

But probably the more rationale explanation is that he is Manny Ramirez and had a bad night. I think every Dodgers and Red Sox fans fully expects Manny to have a big post season, because we just don’t know that there is any alternative.

by Dodger Dude on Oct 6, 2009 9:14 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I might go with Blake

He got the offense going again after recovering from his days out, but Belliard and Furcal did well, hopefully they keep it going.

I think Pythagoras hates us because we don’t have enough home runs and our pitching staff is too good. Too many good innnings scoring multiple runs making blowouts and very few blowouts against us even when we throw the bottom of the barrel out there (don’t count the Pirates).

What happened to Arizona, you know the team that was “supposed” to win the division? (I kept on scratching my head on that one) It wasn’t even close. What is up with the Padres pitching and is it sustainable?

Having two really great pitching clubs to play against in the division will be tough (but maybe are hitters will get better at hitting tough pitchers) if the Padres keep it up.

by Dodger Dude on Oct 6, 2009 9:11 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs