The Dodgers managed a winning month in August thanks mostly to a productive starting pitching staff, though it got a little dicey with Hyun-jin Ryu on the disabled list and Zack Greinke talking elbow discomfort. But both were strong by the end of the month to stabilize things.
It helped mask an offense hurt by the top of the order. Dee Gordon (23 leadoff starts in 28 August games) had a .273 on-base percentage and a .578 OPS, while Yasiel Puig (22 starts batting second) had the worst month of his career, hitting just .216/.296/.247 with no home runs and four RBI.
Here's a look back at the dog days of August.
Dodger Batter of August: First baseman Adrian Gonzalez had a solid month, hitting .337/.377/.537 with 20 RBI, beating out Justin Turner, who continued his superb season by hitting .386/.469/.500.
Dodger Pitcher of August: Clayton Kershaw likely won't win National League Pitcher of the Month for a third straight month - Madison Bumgarner seems primed to take home August honors - but he was still the best on the team in August, 3-1 with a 1.80 ERA with 44 strikeouts and eight walks while averaging eight innings per start.
August Record: 15-13
107 runs scored (3.82 per game)
108 runs allowed (3.86 per game)
.496 pythagorean winning percentage (14-14)
August National League West Standings | |||||
Club | W-L | Pct | GB | RS | RA |
San Diego |
16-11 | .593 | --- | 102 | 93 |
San Francisco | 16-12 | .571 | ½ | 136 | 96 |
Dodgers | 15-13 | .536 | 1½ | 107 | 108 |
Colorado | 10-18 | .357 | 6½ | 113 | 144 |
Arizona | 9-18 | .333 | 7 |
91 | 120 |
2014 Record: 77-60
562 runs scored (4.10 per game)
503 runs allowed (3.67 per game)
.551 pythagorean winning percentage (75-62)
National League West Standings through August 31 | |||||
Club | W-L | Pct | GB | RS | RA |
Dodgers | 77-60 | .562 | --- | 562 | 503 |
San Francisco |
74-62 | .544 | 2½ | 557 | 496 |
San Diego |
64-71 | .474 | 12 | 442 | 465 |
Arizona | 57-79 | .419 | 19½ | 528 | 626 |
Colorado | 54-82 | .397 | 22½ | 621 | 706 |
Game of the Month: On Aug. 21 the Dodgers got the comeback monkey off their back, with Justin Turner hitting an eighth-inning two-run home run, backing eight strong innings from Clayton Kershaw in a 2-1 win over the Padres. It was the first win all season for the Dodgers when trailing after seven innings.
Pinch Hitting: For the month, Dodger pinch hitters had six singles in 38 at-bats, and five walks, hitting .158/.273/.158.
Runners in Scoring Position: In August, the Dodgers hit .282/.375/.389 with runners in scoring position in 285 plate appearances, with 10 doubles and five home runs.
They had a runner on third base with less than two outs 57 times, and got the runner home 30 times, or 52.6 percent (the entire National League scored 416 of 808 times, 51.5 percent).
They had a runner on second base with nobody out 51 times in August, and the runner advanced 25 times, or 49.0 percent (the entire NL advanced the runner 333 of 607 times, 54.9 percent).
Upcoming month: The Dodgers have 15 home games and 10 road games left, the latter all in one trip from Sep. 12-21. The Dodgers battle the rival Giants six times in the final month of the season.
June weeks in review: Aug. 4 | Aug. 11 | Aug. 18 | Aug. 25 | Aug. 31
Previous month in review: April | May | June | July
August Stats
Player | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SB/CS | BA/OBP/SLG | OPS |
Turner | 81 | 70 | 11 | 27 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 3/1 | .386/.469/.500 | .969 |
Gonzalez | 106 | 95 | 12 | 32 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 20 | 8 | 0/0 | .337/.377/.537 | .914 |
Kemp | 119 | 105 | 14 | 27 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 18 | 11 | 3/0 | .257/.319/.486 | .805 |
Ramirez | 58 | 54 | 5 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 0/0 | .259/.310/.426 | .736 |
Crawford | 89 | 83 | 16 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 8/2 | .313/.360/.361 | .721 |
Uribe | 53 | 52 | 3 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0/0 | .250/.264/.365 | .630 |
Gordon | 110 | 108 | 14 | 28 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 10/3 | .259/.273/.306 | .578 |
Ellis | 83 | 68 | 3 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 0/0 | .176/.305/.250 | .555 |
Puig | 108 | 97 | 11 | 21 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 1/0 | .216/.296/.247 | .544 |
Starters | 807 | 732 | 89 | 200 | 34 | 2 | 15 | 78 | 61 | 25/6 | .273/.331/.387 | .718 |
Van Slyke | 36 | 31 | 4 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 0/0 | .323/.389/.516 | .905 |
Ethier | 47 | 44 | 1 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1/0 | .273/.319/.364 | .683 |
Barney | 22 | 18 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0/0 | .222/.364/.278 | .641 |
Butera | 30 | 28 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0/0 | .179/.233/.357 | .590 |
Rojas | 50 | 45 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0/0 | .178/.245/.200 | .445 |
Arruebarrena | 15 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0/0 | .167/.267/.167 | .433 |
Triunfel | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/0 | .000/.000/.000 | .000 |
Bench | 201 | 179 | 13 | 41 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 18 | 16 | 1/0 | .229/.300/.324 | .624 |
Pitchers | 59 | 52 | 5 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 0/0 | .212/.281/.212 | .492 |
Totals | 1067 | 963 | 107 | 252 | 43 | 3 | 17 | 99 | 81 | 26/6 | .262/.323/.366 | .688 |
:
Pitcher | G | W-L | Sv | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | ERA | WHIP | FIP* |
Kershaw | 5 | 3-1 | -- | 40 | 27 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 44 | 1.80 | 0.875 | 2.17 |
Ryu | 4 | 2-1 | -- | 26⅔ | 21 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 24 | 2.03 | 0.938 | 1.99 |
Greinke | 5 | 1-2 | -- | 33 | 29 | 14 | 11 | 9 | 29 | 3.00 | 1.152 | 4.06 |
Haren | 6 | 3-2 | -- | 33⅔ | 30 | 19 | 13 | 7 | 26 | 3.48 | 1.099 | 3.74 |
Hernandez | 4 | 2-1 | -- | 23 | 20 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 15 | 3.52 | 1.217 | 2.99 |
Correia | 3 | 2-1 | -- | 14 | 19 | 12 | 10 | 2 | 12 | 6.53 | 1.500 | 5.55 |
Beckett | 1 | 0-1 | -- | 4 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 6.75 | 2.250 | 5.62 |
Starters | 28 | 13-9 | -- | 174⅓ | 152 | 73 | 60 | 41 | 156 | 3.10 | 1.107 | 3.26 |
Rodriguez | 1 | 0-0 | -- | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.00 | 0.000 | 1.12 |
Baez | 9 | 0-0 | -- | 12⅔ | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 0.71 | 0.947 | 2.96 |
Jansen | 10 | 1-0 | 7 | 10⅓ | 8 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 19 | 0.87 | 0.968 | 0.02 |
Howell | 12 | 0-0 | -- | 6⅓ | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 1.42 | 1.263 | 3.59 |
Wilson | 11 | 0-0 | -- | 9 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 4.00 | 1.111 | 2.56 |
Perez | 2 | 0-0 | -- | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4.50 | 3.000 | 11.62 |
Maholm | 1 | 0-0 | -- | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4.50 | 1.500 | 4.62 |
Wright | 13 | 1-2 | -- | 14⅓ | 15 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 14 | 5.14 | 1.286 | 2.48 |
Frias | 8 | 0-0 | -- | 14⅓ | 13 | 9 | 9 | 2 | 10 | 5.65 | 1.047 | 3.75 |
League | 11 | 0-1 | -- | 7 | 12 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 6.14 | 2.455 | 4.48 |
Correia | 1 | 0-1 | -- | ⅔ | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 13.50 | 6.000 | 12.12 |
Relievers | 28 | 2-4 | 6/7 | 80⅔ | 74 | 35 | 32 | 30 | 75 | 3.57 | 1.289 | 3.07 |
Totals | 28 | 15-13 | 6/7 | 255 | 226 | 108 | 92 | 71 | 231 | 3.25 | 1.165 | 3.20 |