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Dodgers June review: Clayton Kershaw's finest

A signature month by the franchise's signature player helped propel the Dodgers into first place.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

The Dodgers had their second annual June surge, led by Clayton Kershaw at the peak of his greatness. But it was more than just Kershaw, as the entire pitching staff was a source of strength and stability for the Dodgers in an 18-10 month that saw them surge into first place in the National League West.

The team got relatively nothing in June out of May National League Player of the Month a Yasiel Puig and Adrian Gonzalez, two heart of the order hitters, but it didn't matter much because the pitching staff and an improved defense prevented runs like nobody's business.

The Dodgers didn't even need to make a roster move, nor skip a start or shuffle the rotation during the month for the pitching staff.

Dodger Batter of June: Now entrenched in left field, Matt Kemp played every game of the month, and nearly played every inning were it not for an ejection in Cincinnati on June 11. Kemp hit .317/.375/.525 with eight doubles, three home runs and two triples, and drove in 16 runs, one more RBI than he had during the first two months of the season combined.

Honorable mention goes to Justin Turner, who before he ended the month on the disabled list with a strained left hamstring was red hot at the plate. He played 21 of 28 games, started 14, and hit .400/.468/.545.

Dodger Pitcher of June: Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw not only had the best month of his career, he had one of the best months in Dodgers history. The left-hander threw a no-hitter, won all six of his starts, allowed four total runs during the month and had a whopping 61 strikeouts to go with just four walks.

Honorable mention goes to Jamey Wright, who retired 26 of 30 batters faced during the month, and one of the batters to reach base did so by error.

June Record: 18-10
110 runs scored (3.93 per game)
71 runs allowed (2.54 per game)
.690 pythagorean winning percentage (19-9)

June National League West Standings
Club W-L Pct GB RS RA
Dodgers 18-10 .643 --- 110 71
Arizona 12-14 .462 5 110 114
San Francisco
10-16 .385 7 93 116
San Diego 10-17 .370 60 95
Colorado 8-20 .286 10 139 187

2014 Record: 48-37
357 runs scored (4.20 per game)
302 runs allowed (3.55 per game)
.576 pythagorean winning percentage (49-36)

National League West Standings through June 30
Club W-L Pct GB RS RA
Dodgers 48-37 .565 --- 357 302
San Francisco
46-36 .561 ½ 336 308
Colorado 36-47 .434 11 418 436
San Diego 36-47 .434 11 243 301
Arizona 35-49 .417 12½ 334 402

Game of the Month: Another month, another no-hitter. But this one was nearly historical, as Clayton Kershaw struck out 15 and walked none against the Rockies on June 18, the only game ever with 15 strikeouts, no hits and no walks allowed. Only a seventh-inning throwing error by Hanley Ramirez kept it from being a perfect game.

Welcome aboard: Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas made his major league debut on June 6 and ended up starting 14 games during the month. Carlos Triunfel was up in April but didn't play, and made his Dodgers debut on June 15. The infielder hit his first major league home run on June 17. First baseman Clint Robinson made his Dodgers debut on June 27, and got his first major league hit and RBI in the team's 1-0 win on the last day of the month.

Pinch Hitting: For the month, Dodger pinch hitters had 10 hits in 26 at-bats with a double and four walks, hitting .385/.467/.423.

Runners in Scoring Position: In June, the Dodgers hit .300/.379/.449 with runners in scoring position in 272 plate appearances, with 15 doubles, two triples and five home runs.

They had a runner on third base with less than two outs 59 times, and got the runner home 26 times, or 44.1 percent (the entire National League scored 440 of 848 times, 51.9 percent).

They had a runner on second base with nobody out 24 times in June, and the runner advanced 11 times, or 45.8% (the entire NL advanced the runner 323 of 595 times, 54.3 percent).

Upcoming month: The Dodgers have only nine home games in their 24-game July, a month that that will see them play a pair of interleague games in Detroit, and will see them take a nine-game road trip immediately following the All-Star break through St. Louis, Pittsburgh and San Francisco.

June weeks in review: June 2 | June 9 | June 16 | June 23 | June 30

Previous month in review: April | May

June Stats

Player PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SB/CS BA/OBP/SLG OPS
Turner 62 55 9 22 3 1 1 11 6 0/0 .400/.468/.545 1.013
Kemp 112 101 14 32 8 2 3 16 10 0/2 .317/.375/.525 .900
Ramirez 84 68 12 20 4 0 2 14 15 5/2 .294/.417/.441 .858
Gordon 109 99 15 30 4 5 1 11 8 6/5 .303/.358/.475 .833
Ellis 54 43 5 12 1 0 0 3 10 0/0 .279/.426/.302 .728
Puig 115 101 12 25 6 1 0 5 13 2/3 .248/.330/.327 .657
Gonzalez 107 99 13 22 6 0 1 13 6 0/1 .222/.262/.313 .575
Ethier 81 77 7 17 2 1 1 6 2 0/1 .221/.259/.312 .571
Uribe 17 14 1 2 0 0 0 3 2 0/0 .143/.235/.143 .378
Starters 741 657 88 182 34 10 9 82 72 13/14 .277/.350/.400 .750
Van Slyke 52 36 6 11 1 0 2 5 13 0/1 .306/.519/.500 1.019
Triunfel 7 7 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 0/0 .286/.286/.714 1.000
Robinson 4 3 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0/0 .333/.500/.333 .833
Federowicz 13 12 1 3 1 0 1 4 0 0/0 .250/.231/.583 .814
Butera 39 34 2 7 1 0 0 2 4 0/0 .206/.289/.235 .525
Rojas 54 53 4 12 1 0 0 4 1 0/0 .226/.241/.245 .486
Figgins 30 24 1 4 0 0 0 0 5 2/0 .167/.310/.167 .477
Romak 21 19 2 1 1 0 0 3 2 0/0 .053/.143/.105 .248
Arruebarrena 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0/0 -----/-----/----- -----
Bench 220 188 19 41 5 0 4 20 26 2/1 .218/.321/.309 .630
Pitchers 62 53 2 9 3 0 0 3 3 0/0 .170/.214/.226 .441
Totals 1023 898 110 232 42 10 13 105 101 15/15 .258/.336/.371 .707
Pitcher G W-L Sv IP H R ER BB K ERA WHIP FIP*
Kershaw 6 6-0 -- 44 26 4 4 4 61 0.82 0.682 1.21
Beckett 5 2-2 -- 33 24 6 5 7 31 1.36 0.939 3.06
Ryu 5 3-2 -- 31 30 11 11 7 22 3.19 1.194 4.06
Greinke 6 2-3 -- 37⅔ 41 17 16 6 35 3.82 1.248 3.20
Haren 6 3-1 -- 34⅔ 31 16 16 8 19 4.15 1.125 5.63
Starters 28 16-8 -- 180 152 54 52 32 168 2.60 1.020 3.30
Wright 7 1-0 -- 8⅔ 3 0 0 0 4 0.00 0.346 2.20
Wilson 12 1-0 1/1 10⅓ 9 1 1 3 11 0.87 1.161 1.86
Howell 11 0-0 -- 9⅓ 4 1 1 5 9 0.96 0.964 2.80
League 13 0-0 -- 11⅓ 10 2 2 5 6 1.59 1.324 2.86
Jansen 11 0-1 9/10 10⅔ 11 5 5 1 17 4.22 1.125 1.43
Maholm 7 0-0 -- 8 7 4 4 3 8 4.50 1.250 2.25
Perez 8 0-1 -- 6⅔ 7 4 4 5 9 5.40 1.800 7.47
Relievers 28 2-2 10/11 65 51 17 17 22 64 2.35 1.123 2.77
Totals 28 18-10 10/11 245 203 71 69 54 232 2.53 1.048 3.16
*FIP is estimated