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Dodgers May review: The worst May ever

Inept offense and a bad back end of the bullpen sent the Dodgers to the worst May record in the 130-year history of the franchise.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Clayton Kershaw had his second straight sub-2.00 ERA month, and Hyun-jin Ryu was similarly productive atop the starting rotation, but that couldn't make up for a garbage offense. The Dodgers put up the worst May in their franchise history at 10-17. The previous low mark for May was 11-17, set in 1958, 1995, and 2005.

The offense was essentially Adrian Gonzalez and Scott Van Slyke, with a dash of Nick Punto and A.J. Ellis getting on base. Gonzalez was the only Dodger to drive in at least 10 runs during the month, and one of just three players with more than one home run in May.

Dodger Batter of May: This was a no-brainer, as Adrian Gonzalez hit .314/.351/.535 with five home runs and 22 RBI, numbers nobody came close to matching. Well, except maybe Van Slyke, who slugged .700 in his 14 games.

Honorable mention goes to Juan Uribe, who hit .327/.377/.418 with five doubles.

Dodger Pitcher of May: Despite a 1.97 ERA during May, Clayton Kershaw only won two games, thanks in part to 2.2 runs of support per game for his first five starts and a blown save in his final start. But with 35 strikeouts, at least seven innings in every start and less than a baserunner per inning Kershaw was still at the head of the class.

He just beat out Ryu, who had a stellar month, including a two-hit shutout on Tuesday.

May Record: 10-17
99 runs scored (3.67 per game)
114 runs allowed (4.22 per game)
.436 pythagorean winning percentage (12-15)

May National League West Standings
Club W-L Pct GB RS RA
Arizona 15-12 .556 --- 107 106
San Diego 15-13 .536 ½ 115 119
San Francisco 14-13 .519 1 128 134
Colorado 12-16 .429 120 120
Dodgers 10-17 .370 5 99 114

Season to date Record: 23-30
187 runs scored (3.53 per game)
222 runs allowed (4.19 per game)
.422 pythagorean winning percentage (22-31)

National League West Standings, end of May
Club W-L Pct GB RS RA
Arizona 30-24 .556 --- 222 205
San Francisco 29-25 .537 1 243 245
Colorado 28-27 .509 261 236
San Diego 25-29 .463 5 216 242
Dodgers 23-30 .434 187 222

Game of the Month: I'm tempted to pick the crazy comeback win over the Angels on May 27, as the Dodgers came back from five runs down to win, but on second thought the game the next night was the best. On May 28, also against the Angels, Ryu was masterful on the mound as he allowed just two baserunners in his 3-0 shutout win. He was backed on offense by an unlikely source, as Luis Cruz hit his only extra-base hit of the season to date, a two-run home run to give the Dodgers the lead.

Pinch Hitting: For the month, Dodger pinch hitters had eight hits in 28 at-bats with two doubles, hitting .286/.323/.357.

Runners in Scoring Position: In May, the Dodgers hit .243/.317/.309 with runners in scoring position in 277 plate appearances.

They had a runner on third base with less than two outs 56 times, and got the runner home 25 times, or 44.6% (the entire NL scored 370 of 781 times, 47.4%).

They had a runner on second base with nobody out 42 times in May, and the runner advanced 23 times, or 54.8% (the entire NL advanced the runner 309 of 531 times, 58.2%).

May weeks in review: May 6 | May 12 | May 19 | May 26

Previous months in review: April

May Stats

Player PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SB/CS BA/OBP/SLG OPS
Ramirez 7 6 1 3 1 0 0 0 1 1/0 .500/.571/.667 1.238
Gonzalez 94 86 11 27 4 0 5 22 6 0/0 .314/.351/.535 .886
Ellis, A 82 69 7 19 2 1 1 4 8 0/0 .275/.354/.377 .731
Punto 89 75 10 20 4 0 1 8 11 1/0 .267/.356/.360 .716
Ethier 98 84 6 21 4 1 1 6 11 0/1 .250/.347/.357 .704
Crawford 96 90 12 25 5 1 1 7 5 5/1 .278/.313/.389 .701
Kemp 103 95 11 23 5 0 1 6 6 3/0 .242/.291/.326 .618
Gordon 73 63 6 11 0 1 1 5 8 5/2 .175/.278/.254 .532
Ellis, M 45 40 4 8 2 0 0 4 3 1/0 .200/.273/.250 .523
Starters
687 608 68 157 27 4 11 62 59 16/4 .258/.326/.370 .697
Hernandez 21 17 3 6 1 0 2 3 3 0/0 .353/.429/.765 1.193
Van Slyke 43 40 6 11 5 0 4 9 3 0/0 .275/.326/.700 1.026
Hairston 20 16 1 5 1 0 0 1 2 0/0 .313/.421/.375 .796
Uribe 61 55 7 18 5 0 0 6 5 1/0 .327/.377/.418 .795
Schumaker 64 60 6 18 4 0 0 6 4 1/0 .300/.344/.367 .710
Herrera 3 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0/0 .333/.333/.333 .667
Cruz 32 30 5 5 0 0 1 3 1 0/0 .167/.219/.267 .485
Federowicz 17 17 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0/0 .176/.176/.176 .353
Sellers 5 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0/0 .000/.000/.000 .000
Bench
266 242 28 67 16 0 7 28 18 2/0 .277/.330/.430 .759
Pitchers
56 50 3 12 3 0 0 5 1 0/0 .240/.269/.300 .569
Totals
1009 900 99 236 46 4 18 95 78 18/4 .262/.324/.382 .707
Pitcher G W-L Sv IP H R ER BB K ERA WHIP FIP*
Kershaw 6 2-1 -- 45⅔ 31 11 10 11 35 1.97 0.920 2.55
Ryu 5 3-1 -- 34 26 9 9 12 21 2.38 1.118 3.73
Lilly 2 0-1 -- 11 7 5 4 4 6 3.27 1.000 3.41
Capuano 5 1-3 -- 28⅓ 30 17 15 10 20 4.76 1.412 5.54
Beckett 3 0-2 -- 13 17 12 9 7 16 6.23 1.846 2.52
Greinke 3 1-1 -- 13⅓ 24 12 10 4 7 6.75 2.100 3.97
Magill 3 0-0 -- 11⅓ 14 9 9 11 12 7.15 2.206 5.35
Starters 27
7-9 -- 156 149 75 66 59 117 3.79 1.328 3.73
Howell 10 0-0 -- 12⅔ 8 1 1 4 8 0.71 0.947 2.82
Rodriguez 11 1-1 -- 9⅓ 3 2 2 3 11 1.93 0.643 3.46
Guerrier 11 0-0 -- 11 9 4 3 3 8 2.45 1.091 2.50
Belisario 15 1-2 1 14 20 7 5 4 6 3.21 1.714 3.85
Jansen 14 0-3 1 12⅔ 12 7 7 3 22 4.97 1.184 3.69
Guerra 9 0-0 -- 10⅔ 15 9 8 6 12 6.75 1.969 4.08
League 9 1-2 3 9⅓ 13 9 7 4 6 6.75 1.821 7.32
Relievers 27
3-8 5 79 80
39 33 27 73 3.73 1.343 3.87
Totals 27
10-17 5 236 229 114 99 86 190 3.77 1.333 3.77
*FIP is estimated