Dodgers September review: Corey Seager says hello

Here is a look at the season's final month, which was really more than a month. So while we may refer to this as September, it also includes four days in October, though it's tedious to write September/October over and over again. So keep that in mind that September really means the final month plus four games.

Whatever you call it, this month will be remembered for the time Corey Seager made his major league debut and immediately became the best hitter in the Dodgers' lineup, a month that saw the Dodgers pull away from the competition to win the National League West for an unprecedented third year in a row.

Dodger Batter of September: Welcome aboard, kid. Corey Seager started 25 of 30 games from the moment he was called up, leading the Dodgers for the month in hits, doubles, home runs, runs, RBI, batting average, on-base percentage and OPS, and he was second in walks.

Special mention goes to Justin Ruggiano, who was in the minors with the Mariners in August but after getting acquired by the Dodgers was a lefty masher and hit .290/.350/.618, tied for the team lead in home runs, tied for second in RBI and third in runs, all while 10th with 60 plate appearances.

Dodger Pitcher of September: Clayton Kershaw was dominant down the stretch, with a 1.70 ERA and 65 strikeouts in 6½ starts, including a dominant one-hitter with 13 strikeouts in the division clincher in San Francisco on Sept. 29. He narrowly beat out fellow Cy Young Award candidate Zack Greinke, who had a 1.87 ERA to go with 36 strikeouts, a strong rebound after his worst month of the season in August, when Greinke had a 2.45 ERA.

September record: 19-13
135 runs scored (4.22 per game)
127 runs allowed (3.97 per game)
.528 pythagorean winning percentage (17-15)

2015 record: 92-70
667 runs scored (4.12 per game)
595 runs allowed (3.67 per game)
.552 pythagorean winning percentage (89-73)

Game of the Month: There were several exciting games during the final month, but I'll have to pick the division clincher just because Kershaw was so dominant. He struck out 13 in a one-hit shutout, and retired his final 19 batters faced. The Dodgers' offense came alive, too, with home runs by Kiké Hernandez, Ruggiano and A.J. Ellis in an 8-0 win on Sept. 29.

Pinch Hitting: With expanded rosters there were many more pinch hitting opportunities, with Dodger pinch hitters going 15-for-72 with three doubles, two home runs, a triple and six walks, hitting .208/.278/.361.

Runners in Scoring Position: In September, the Dodgers hit .226/.322/.318 with runners in scoring position in 327 plate appearances, with 14 doubles and three home runs, continuing a second-half downward trend in that situation.

They had a runner on third base with less than two outs 63 times in September, and got the runner home 35 times, or 55.6 percent (the entire National League scored 389 of 884 times, 44 percent).

They had a runner on second base with nobody out 49 times in September, and the runner advanced 26 times, or 55.4 percent (the entire NL advanced the runner 377 of 705 times, 53.5 percent).

Bases loaded: The Dodgers were 6-for-23 with the bases loaded in September, with a double, two grand slams, four sacrifice flies and 22 RBI, hitting .261/.222/.565.

Previous months in review: April | May | June | July | August

September weeks in review: Sept. 7 | Sept. 14 | Sept. 21 | Sept. 28 | Oct. 5

September Stats

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