Dodgers April in Review: Glad That's Over

It was not a good opening month for the Dodgers.  For the most part, they got good production from the offense, although it was missing in action over the April's final week.  The pitching and defense were atrocious at times, but it has settled down over the last week.  The end result was a 9-14 April, good for last place in the National League West, and the club's worst opening month since starting 8-15 in 1993.

Dodger Batter of April:  Matt Kemp seemed like a lock for this award a week ago, but after conferring with Ned Colletti Kemp went six for 34 over his last eight games with no runs or RBI, I decided to give this award to Kemp's fellow media guide coverboy, Andre Ethier.  All Ethier did was put up a .999 OPS with six bombs and 19 RBI while battling a foot injury.

Dodger Pitcher of April:  Hiroki Kuroda was the stud of the pitching staff during the first month, throwing three quality starts and averaging six and a half innings per start.  Honorable mention goes to Jonathan Broxton, who has allowed three inherited runners to score, but otherwise has a 0.00 ERA and has retired 26 of the 31 batters he faced, 14 by strikeout.

April Record:  9-14
117 runs scored (5.09 per game)
129 runs allowed (5.61 per game)
.455 pythagorean winning percentage (10-13)

Pinch Hitting:  For the month, Dodger pinch hitters had nine hits in 41 at-bats, with three doubles, two home runs, and three walks, hitting .220/.283/.439.

Runners in Scoring Position:  In April, the Dodgers hit .275/.363/.477 with runners in scoring position in 272 plate appearances.  They had a runner on third base with less than two outs 60 times, and got the runner home 31 times, or 51.7% (the entire NL scored 411 of 780, 52.7%).   They had a runner on second base with nobody out 76 times, and the runner advanced 29 times, or 38.2% (the entire NL advanced 370 of 872 times, 42.4%).

Hello & Goodbye:  The Dodgers had three pitchers make their major league debut last month:  Carlos Monasterios (April 5), Jon Link (April 20), and John Ely (April 28).  They also said goodbye to Russ Ortiz, who elected free agency over a minor league assignment after being designated for assignment.

Upcoming Month:  After playing 15 out of 23 on the road in April, the Dodgers are homebodies for most of May.  The have 15 home games and 11 road games during May, and between now and May 25 the only time they are away from Los Angeles is a short trip to Arizona and San Diego.

April Stats