Dodgers Week 4 In Review: Giving Big Brother Something Fun To Watch

The Dodgers rode a combination of solid starting pitching and an actual major league offense to a stellar week. They won five out of seven games, helping lessen the embarrassment of Major League Baseball announcing they would be overseeing all finances and day-to-day operations of the club.

Maybe MLB's announcement served as a catalyst for the offense, which scored a paltry 3.17 runs per game in their first 18 games of the season. Since Wednesday's announcement, the Dodgers have scored 43 runs in five games, and hit nine home runs, the same number that they had in those first 18 games. Or more likely, maybe MLB's announcement and the offense finally clicking was a coincidence. But for whatever the reason, the Dodgers are playing well, and suddenly find themselves just three games out in the NL West.

Dodger Batter of the Week: Casey Blake takes this award, but it was a close call with two others that could have and probably should have split the award. Blake, the unconventional number two hitter for the Dodgers, got on base all week, and scored a whopping 10 runs. Blake was playing so well, he didn't even get a customary day off.

That Blake played all seven games gave him the edge over Juan Uribe, who was awesome in five games this week. Uribe drove in nine runs, and hit .450/.455/.750. The other player to nearly win the award was Andre Ethier, who hit .393/.469/.643 and extended his hitting streak to 21 games, the longest in MLB this season.

Dodger Pitcher of the Week: The Dodgers got excellent starting pitching all week, with six quality starts in seven games. This award goes to Jon Garland, who gave up one run in a complete game win over the Braves on Wednesday. Collectively, Dodger starters had a 2.61 ERA while averaging just a shade under seven innings per start.

Week 4 Record:  5-2
43 runs scored (6.14 per game)
31 runs allowed (4.43 per game)
.645 pythagorean winning percentage

Season Record:  12-11
95 runs scored (4.13 per game)
109 runs allowed (4.74 per game)
.437 pythagorean winning percentage (10-13)

Extra, Extra, Read All About It: Jerry Sands made quite a splash in his MLB debut this week. He hit a double and had an RBI in each of his first two major league games. Since 1919, the Dodgers have only had five players with an extra-base hits in each of their first two games: Howie Schultz, Bill Sudakis, Bill Russell, Andre Ethier, and Sands.

Shades Of The Garve: Steve Garvey, who has made it known he is interested in buying the Dodgers, started the 1978 season with a 21-game hitting streak, the first 20 games of which were in April. No Dodger had ever had such a hitting streak in April...until Ethier, that is. Ethier's active streak is 21 games, a streak bested only seven times in LA Dodger history, for any point in the season.

Transactions:

• Monday: After hitting five home runs in 10 games in Triple A, Jerry Sands got the call to the big leagues. The Dodgers purchased the contract of Sands, and to make room they designated outfielder Xavier Paul for assignment.
• Thursday: After the game against Atlanta, the Dodgers optioned relief pitcher Ramon Troncoso to Triple A Albuquerque, making room for...
• Friday: Vicente Padilla, who began the season on the disabled list after forearm surgery on February 24, was activated from the DL before the game in Chicago.

Game Results:

• Monday: Dodgers 4, Braves 2
• Tuesday: Braves 10, Dodgers 1
• Wednesday: Dodgers 6, Braves 1
• Thursday: Dodgers 5, Braves 3 (12)
• Friday: Dodgers 12, Cubs 2
• Saturday: Cubs 10, Dodgers 8
• Sunday: Dodgers 7, Cubs 3

Upcoming Week: A day off! After playing for 20 straight days, the maximum allowable per the collective bargaining agreement, the Dodgers get Thursday off. First, they have to end their road trip with three games in Miami, then they head home to host the Padres next weekend.

Previous Weeks In Review: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3

Week 4 Stats