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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 AprilMatt 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 AprilHiroki 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)

April NL West Standings
Club W-L Pct GB RS RA
Padres 15-8 .652 --- 106 77
Giants  
13-9 .591 101 65
Diamondbacks 11-12 .478 4 134 138
Rockies 11-12 .478 4 121 95
Dodgers 9-14 .391 6 117 129

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

Player PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SB/CS BA/OBP/SLG OPS wOBA
Manny
52
41
7
17
4
0
2
12
9
0/0
.415/.500/.659
1.159
.485
Ethier
86
76
12
25
2
0
6
19
10
0/0
.329/.407/.592
.999
.429
Kemp
108
97
20
27
5
0
7
20
8
3/5
.278/.333/.546
.880
.356
Blake
85
76
6
21
6
1
3
15
5
0/1
.276/.333/.500
.833
.354
Furcal
91
81
16
25
5
2
0
6
9
8/1
.309/.378/.420
.798
.369
Martin
85
71
11
19
2
0
2
5
11
1/0
.268/.369/.380
.749
.335
Loney
101
97
14
30
6
0
1
10
4
4/1
.309/.337/.402
.739
.333
DeWitt
68
57
5
15
2
0
0
5
11
0/0
.263/.382/.298
.681
.318
Starters
676
596
91
179
32
3
21
92
67
16/8
.300/.371/.470
.841

Belliard
43
38
8
11
3
1
1
6
4
0/0
.289/.349/.500
.849
.365
Ausmus
4
4
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0/0
.250/.250/.500
.750
.317
Johnson
41
39
5
11
2
2
0
3
1
1/1
.282/.300/.436
.736
.312
Ellis
15
11
0
3
1
0
0
4
2
0/0
.273/.357/.364
.721
.320
Carroll
44
35
7
8
1
0
0
0
9
1/0
.229/.386/.257
.644
.304
Paul
15
15
3
3
2
0
0
0
0
1/0
.200/.200/.333
.533
.245
Anderson
44
41
2
5
1
0
1
4
2
0/0
.122/.159/.220
.379
.169
Bench
206
183
25
42
11
3
2
17
18
3/1
.230/.294/.355
.649

Pitchers
38
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
5
0/0
.026/.140/.026
.166

Totals
933
817
117
222
43
6
23
109
90
19/9
.272/.343/.424
.767
.336

 

Pitcher G W-L Sv IP H R ER BB K ERA WHIP FIP*
Kuroda
4
2-1
--
26.2
27
12
7
6
22
2.36
1.238
3.35
Kershaw
5
1-1
--
29.1
23
10
10
22
33
3.07
1.534
4.09
Billingsley
5
2-1
--
26.0
30
17
14
12
23
4.85
1.615
3.47
Padilla
4
1-1
--
21.2
26
18
17
6
23
7.06
1.477
5.18
Ely
1
0-1
--
6.0
6
5
5
3
4
7.50
1.500
3.37
Haeger
4
0-3
--
18.1
20
20
16
15
19
7.85
1.909
5.87
Starters 23
6-8 -- 128.0 132 82 69 64 124 4.85 1.531 4.22
Broxton
9
1-0
1/2
8.2
4
0
0
1
14
0.00
0.577
0.32
Haeger
1
0-0
0/1
1.0
1
0
0
1
1
0.00
2.000
4.20
Monasterios
7
1-0
--
10.2
10
2
2
3
6
1.69
1.219
4.42
Troncoso
15
1-1
--
13.0
10
6
5
5
7
3.46
1.154
4.28
Weaver
9
0-1
--
5.1
5
3
3
3
1
5.06
1.500
5.83
Belisario
5
0-0
--
6.0
7
4
4
1
2
6.00
1.333
2.53
Ra.Ortiz
10
0-1
--
12.2
11
10
9
8
7
6.39
1.500
6.04
Sherrill
13
0-1
--
8.1
9
7
6
10
5
6.48
2.280
6.80
Link
3
0-0
--
2.1
4
5
2
3
1
7.71
3.000
6.20
Ru.Ortiz
6
0-1
--
7.0
10
8
8
5
6
10.29
2.143
3.20
Kuo
3
0-1
--
1.2
2
2
2
1
2
10.80
1.800
2.60
Relievers 23
3-6 1/3 76.2 73 47 41 41 52 4.81 1.487 4.31
Totals 23
9-14 1/3 204.2 205 129 110 105 176 4.84 1.515 4.25
*FIP is estimated