John Ely makes his seventh career start tonight, and the first time he has faced an opponent for a second time as the Dodgers host Arizona in the second game of their series at Dodger Stadium. Ely got his first career win on May 11 in Arizona against Dan Haren and the Diamondbacks. Here's a look at the seventh career starts of several young Dodgers, from Fernandomania to ElyMania:
Recent LA Dodgers 7th Career Starts | |||||||||
Name | Date | Opp | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | Dec |
Fernando Valenzuela |
5/8/81 | NYM | 9.0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 11 | W |
Orel Hershiser | 7/24/84 | Atl | 8.1 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 9 | L |
Tim Belcher | 4/28/88 | ChC | 5.1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 | L |
Ramon Martinez | 6/5/89 | Atl | 9.0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | W |
Pedro Astacio | 9/12/92 | SF | 9.0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | W |
Hideo Nomo | 6/2/95 | NYM | 8.0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 6 | W |
Ismael Valdes | 6/6/95 | Mon | 9.0 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 | W |
Chan Ho Park | 5/8/96 | Cin | 6.0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 | L |
Eric Gagne | 4/21/00 | Cin | 4.1 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | ND |
Chad Billingsley | 7/18/06 | Ari | 7.0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | W |
Clayton Kershaw | 6/26/08 | CWS | 4.0 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | L |
Haren has struggled of late. He has the highest home run rate in major league baseball, at 1.95 homers per nine innings. However, an extraordinarily high number of his flyballs -- 18.4% -- have turned into homers, compared to 11.2% for his career. Haren has allowed four home runs in each of last two starts, making him only the fourth pitcher since 1952 to do so:
Giving Up 4+ HR in Consecutive Games | ||
Pitcher | Team | Year |
Pedro Martinez | Bos | 1998 |
Aaron Harang | Cin | 2004 |
Carl Pavano | Cle | 2009 |
Dan Haren | Ari | 2010 |
since 1952 |
Lineups
Diamondbacks | Dodgers | |||
2B | Johnson | SS | Furcal | |
SS | Drew |
CF | Kemp | |
RF | Upton | RF | Ethier | |
1B | LaRoche | LF | Manny | |
CF | Young | 1B | Loney | |
3B | Ryal |
3B | Blake | |
LF | Jackson | C | Martin | |
C | Snyder | 2B | Carroll |
|
P | Haren | P | Ely |
For those outside of Los Angeles, tomorrow's series finale with Arizona will be simulcast on MLB Network, with Vin Scully's call of the game.
Be sure to check out the minor league stats for May, compiled by Coolguy_88888888; both hitting and pitching.
Xeifrank's simulation of today's game is here.
Game Time: 7:10pm
TV: KCAL