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Dodgers August In Review: By Far, The Best Month Of The Year

"What are you going to do if you win the True Blue LA August award?" "What are <em>you</em> going to do if you win it?"
"What are you going to do if you win the True Blue LA August award?" "What are you going to do if you win it?"

The Dodgers had their best month in quite some time in August, going 17-11 for their first winning month since June 2010. They got fantastic pitching, which isn't necessarily a new thing, but combined it with a major league offense for once. The Dodgers in August both scored their most runs and allowed their fewest runs of any month this season.

Dodger Batter of AugustRod Barajas went on a power surge in August, and ended up hitting .357/.403/.750 for the month. It is the second straight monthly award given to a catcher, and last month's winner was designated for assignment just over three weeks later. James Loney certainly had a strong case for the award, finding an old case of Gatorade from September 2007 to hit .367/.433/.633 with five home runs, more than he had in the previous four months combined. However, Barajas takes the award because he led the club with six home runs despite collecting just 68 plate appearances.

Honorable mention goes to Matt Kemp, who joined the 30/30 club on August 26 and hit .330/.400/.518 with 23 runs scored and 20 RBI. It was the 53rd month with 20 runs and 20 RBI by a Dodger since the club moved to Los Angeles.

Dodger Pitcher of AugustClayton Kershaw won the National League Pitcher of the Month in July, and continued to roll in August. Kershaw won five of his six starts, and put up a 1.55 ERA with 10 walks and 39 strikeouts.

The entire pitching staff was stellar in August, as 11 of the 13 pitchers had an ERA of 3.77 or better and 10 of the 13 pitchers had FIPs under 4.00.

August Record:  17-11
131 runs scored (4.68 per game)
85 runs allowed (3.04 per game)
.688 pythagorean winning percentage (19-9)

August National League West Standings
Club W-L Pct GB RS RA
Diamondbacks   19-10 .655 --- 120 106
Dodgers 17-11 .607 131 85
Padres 13-15 .464 131 117
Rockies 13-16 .448 6 143 148
Giants 11-18 .379 8 78 104

Season Record:  65-70
524 runs scored (3.88 per game)
520 runs allowed (3.85 per game)
.504 pythagorean winning percentage (68-67)

National League West Standings Through August 31
Club W-L Pct GB RS RA
Diamondbacks 78-59 .569 --- 612
573
Giants 72-65 .526 6 460
483
Dodgers 65-70 .481 12 524
520
Rockies 
64-73 .467 14 626
642
Padres 60-77 .438 18 514
529

Game of the Month: On August 26 against the Rockies at Dodger Stadium, Carlos Gonzalez hit a ball 421 feet into the upper part of the right field pavilion in the first inning for a 1-0 lead. However, that was all Ted Lilly would allow. During the game, Vin Scully announced his return for 2012 on air, then the Dodgers rallied in the seventh inning thanks to some chicanery from Aaron Miles and a two-run single by rookie Justin Sellers. James Loney homered in the midst of his power surge, and Matt Kemp followed with a bomb to center field to join the 30/30 club. All in all, it was a fun night at Dodger Stadium and a 6-1 Dodger win.

Welcome Aboard: Justin Sellers made his major league debut on August 12, and hit his first major league home run on August 14, at home in front of friends and family at Dodger Stadium against the Astros. A.J. Ellis hit his first major league home run on August 24 in St. Louis.

Pinch Hitting:  For the month, Dodger pinch hitters had four singles in 29 at-bats, with seven walks, hitting .143/.314/.143.

Runners in Scoring Position:  In August, the Dodgers hit .291/.376/.423 with runners in scoring position in 273 plate appearances, by far their best month of the season.

They had a runner on third base with less than two outs 57 times (through August 30), and got the runner home 32 times, or 56.1% (the entire NL scored 431 of 878, 49.1%).

They had a runner on second base with nobody out 47 times through August 30, and the runner advanced 29 times, or 61.7% (the entire NL advanced the runner 338 of 629 times, 53.7%).

Upcoming Month: The Dodgers end their season with a lot of traveling, playing 17 of their final 27 games on the road. The Dodgers play the Diamondbacks and Giants six times each, and travel to San Diego for a weekend series with the Padres.

August Weeks in ReviewAugust 8 | August 14 | August 21 | August 28

Previous Months in Review: April | May | June | July

August Stats

Player PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SB/CS BA/OBP/SLG OPS
Barajas 62 56 9 20 4 0 6 19 5 0/0 .357/.403/.750 1.153
Loney 90 79 15 29 6 0 5 15 10 0/0 .367/.433/.633 1.066
Kemp 125 112 23 37 4 1 5 20 13 7/4 .330/.400/.518 .918
Rivera 100 88 12 24 4 1 2 20 9 0/0 .273/.340/.409 .749
Blake 69 58 9 17 4 0 0 7 7 0/1 .293/.358/.362 .720
Sellers 72 63 15 16 5 0 1 9 8 1/0 .254/.333/.381 .714
Miles 104 95 12 23 4 2 2 12 8 1/2 .242/.298/.389 .688
Gwynn 75 70 9 18 0 2 2 3 3 4/1 .257/.284/.400 .684
Ethier 99 87 12 22 4 0 1 8 12 0/0 .253/.343/.333 .677
Carroll 93 83 5 22 1 1 0 2 7 3/0 .265/.322/.301 .623
Starters
889 791 121 228 36 7 24 115 82 16/8 8.288/.352/.442 .795
Ellis 11 9 1 3 0 0 1 2 1 0/0 .333/.455/.667 1.121
Oeltjen 22 17 2 4 0 0 1 2 5 2/0 .235/.409/.412 .821
Navarro 41 35 2 6 2 0 1 4 5 0/0 .171/.268/.314 .583
Gordon 25 25 2 6 0 0 0 1 0 3/0 .240/.240/.240 .480
Velez 15 15 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0/0 .000/.063/.000 .063
Bench
115 101 7 19 2 0 3 10 12 5/0 .188/.278/.297 .575
Pitchers
69 62 3 7 0 0 0 2 2 0/0 .113/.141/.113 .254
Totals
1073 954 131 254 38 7 27 127 96 21/8 .266/.331/.406 .737

 

Pitcher G W-L Sv IP H R ER BB K ERA WHIP FIP*
Kershaw 6 5-1 -- 46.1 34 8 8 10 39 1.55 0.950 2.89
Lilly 6 2-3 -- 38.1 23 10 10 12 31 2.35 0.913 4.10
Kuroda 6 5-1 -- 39.1 37 13 12 10 30 2.75 1.195 3.31
Eovaldi 5 1-2 -- 26.0 22 10 10 12 18 3.46 1.308 3.70
Billingsley 5 1-1 -- 31.0 31 18 13 14 19 3.77 1.452 4.79
Starters 28
14-8 -- 181.0 147 59 53 58 137 2.64 1.133 3.68
Jansen 3 0-0 -- 3.0 0 0 0 2 3 0.00 0.667 3.08
Elbert 12 0-0 1 9.1 8 1 1 1 8 0.96 0.964 2.76
MacDougal 13 1-0 -- 11.2 12 3 2 5 7 1.54 1.457 4.88
Lindblom 7 1-0 -- 7.2 3 2 2 2 8 2.35 0.652 1.78
Guerra 10 0-0 5/6 10.1 7 3 3 3 10 2.61 0.968 2.02
Guerrier 13 1-0 -- 13.1 9 4 4 4 10 2.70 0.975 2.26
Kuo 8 0-1 -- 5.2 4 4 4 2 8 6.35 1.059 3.61
Hawksworth 9 0-2 -- 10.2 12 9 9 2 8 7.59 1.313 3.36
Relievers 28
3-3 6/7 71.2 55
26 25 21 62 3.14 1.060 2.97
Totals 28
17-11 6/7 252.2 202 85 78 79 199 2.78 1.112 3.48
*FIP is estimated