Dodgers July review: The Clayton Kershaw & Zack Greinke show

The Dodgers finished strong in July with two straight wins to close out the month, but it was in many ways quite an up-and-down month.

Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke were at their peaks and allowed five total runs in nine combined starts, but the flip side was the Dodgers bullpen that allowed three more runs in July than did the starters, in 80 fewer innings.

The offense was hampered by slumps from Joc Pederson, Yasiel Puig and Howie Kendrick, but weirdly even with a bad month and amid talk of his lack of old standard production numbers Puig still managed to lead the team in RBI. Adrian Gonzalez, Yasmani Grandal and Justin Turner nearly balanced the slumps with strong months of their own, and Jimmy Rollins had his best month of the year.

Dodger Batter of July: This goes to Adrian Gonzalez, who had a power spike with eight home runs and a .650 slugging percentage.

Dodger Pitcher of July: If I were a betting man, I think the National League Pitcher of the Month Award might be split, but for the sake of not riding the fence I will pick Clayton Kershaw as the single winner. He had one fewer start than Greinke but only five fewer innings. Kershaw allowed only one run in the entire month and struck out 45, 11 more punchouts than Greinke.

July record: 14-10
92 runs scored (3.83 per game)
93 runs allowed (3.88 per game)
.495 pythagorean winning percentage (12-12)

2015 record: 58-45
428 runs scored (4.16 per game)
365 runs allowed (3.54 per game)
.572 pythagorean winning percentage (59-44)

Game of the Month: In the final game of the first series after the All-Star break, in a battle of first-place teams, Zack Greinke out-dueled Max Scherzer in a contest of Cy Young candidates. Greinke struck out 11 in eight scoreless innings in a 5-0 Dodgers win over the Nationals on July 19 in Washington D.C.

Pinch Hitting: For the month, Dodger pinch hitters were 6-for-34 with a double and three walks, hitting .176/.237/.206.

Runners in Scoring Position: In July, the Dodgers hit .234/.291/.380 with runners in scoring position in 210 plate appearances, with nine doubles and six home runs.

They had a runner on third base with less than two outs 34 times in July, and got the runner home 16 times, or 47.1 percent (the entire National League scored 336 of 690 times, 48.7 percent).

They had a runner on second base with nobody out 36 times in July, and the runner advanced 23 times, or 63.9 percent (the entire NL advanced the runner 277 of 503 times, 55.1 percent).

Bases loaded: The Dodgers were 3-for-17 with the bases loaded in July, with one walk and two sacrifice flies, hitting .176/.200/.176.

Previous months in review: April | May | June

July weeks in review: July 6 | July 13 | July 20 | July 27

July Stats

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