clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Dodgers Week 3: A winning road trip

The Dodgers are 8-5 on the road this season, after a 4-8 road start in 2015 en route to a 37-44 away mark.

The 10-hit club convened for a quick postgame meeting on Sunday.
The 10-hit club convened for a quick postgame meeting on Sunday.
Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

The number four figured prominently for the Dodgers again last week, with four straight series wins giving them four wins in six games on the week — taking two out of three games on the road against both the Braves and Rockies.

That gave the Dodgers four wins for a third straight week, a 12-7 record and a 102-win pace, and a 2½-game lead in the National League West.

Dodger Batter of the Week: The top of the order fueled the fire this week for the Dodgers, and Adrian Gonzalez was there to clean things up with a 10-hit week, hitting two home runs while driving in seven. Gonzalez was also one of four Dodgers with at least five walks during the week, putting up a 1.231 OPS.

Honorable mention goes to Chase Utley, who hit .345 with four extra-base hits, scored the winning run Wednesday and drove in the winning run Sunday; and to Joc Pederson, who homered and had a .480 on-base percentage.

Dodger Pitcher of the Week: In his first start at Coors Field, Kenta Maeda kept his tremendous start going, pitching scoreless ball into the seventh inning his his third scoreless start in four MLB outings to date.

Honorable mention goes to Clayton Kershaw, who powered through eight innings with 10 strikeouts on Thursday, and to Kenley Jansen, who saved four games and struck out five, but also walked a batter, which disqualified him.*

*Not really, but it was his first walk of the season.

Week 3 Record: 4-2
29 runs scored (4.83 per game)
30 runs allowed (5.00 per game)
.484 pythagorean winning percentage

2016 season Record: 12-7
94 runs scored (4.95 per game)
71 runs allowed (3.74 per game)
.626 pythagorean winning percentage (12-7)

Miscellany

Maeda mania: Kenta Maeda has had a better start than anyone could have possibly imagined to date. He has faced all four National League West opponents once in his four starts, and has allowed only a single run in total. Maeda is one of just three pitchers since 1900 to pitch at least 25 innings in his first four major league starts — he has 25⅓ — while allowing one run or fewer, per the Elias Sports Bureau.

The others are Fernando Valenzuela, who allowed one run in 36 frames in his first four starts in 1981 for the Dodgers, and George McQuillan, who gave up a single run in 33 innings in his first four starts for the 1907 Phillies.

Saving the day: Kenley Jansen on Saturday recorded his eighth save of the season, and the 150th his career. Jansen is just the 40th pitcher ever to record 150 saves with one team (more on that on Tuesday), and after another save on Sunday he stands just 10 behind Eric Gagne for the all-time Dodgers save record.

Jansen ranks seventh on the active save leaders list, and his 88.8-percent success rate ranks third among active pitchers, trailing only Craig Kimbrel (90.6 percent) and Aroldis Chapman (89.0 percent), with a minimum of 100 save attempts.

Third time is a charm: The Dodgers have won five of their six series to date this season, including winning the rubber game of a tied series in each of the last four efforts. Factor in the season-opening sweep of the Padres and their Apr. 9 win in San Francisco, the Dodgers are 6-0 in the third game of a series in 2016.

Relief heavy: With two extra-inning games in Atlanta and a weekend in the hitters haven in Denver, the Dodgers bullpen threw 22 innings during the week, an average of 3.67 innings per game, compared to 2.74 innings per game in the first two weeks of the season.

But the larger workload was spread out a little more, with the Dodgers carrying eight relievers all week, and nine total relievers pitching in at least one game.

Transactions

Thursday: Relief pitcher Louis Coleman as placed on the bereavement list after the death of his grandfather, and reliever Luis Avilan was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Saturday:  Relief pitcher Yimi Garcia was placed on the 15-day disabled list with right biceps soreness. Zach Lee was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Game Results

Upcoming Week

The Dodgers run the Quilvio Veras gauntlet, coming home to play the Marlins for four games then the Padres for three.

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
25
vs. Mia
7:10pm
26
vs. Mia
7:10pm
27
vs. Mia
7:10pm
28
vs. Mia
7:10pm
29
vs. SD
7:10pm
30
vs. SD
6:10pm
1
vs. SD
1:10pm
Stripling v.
(L) Chen
Kershaw v.
(R) Koehler
Kazmir v.
(R) Cosart
Maeda v.
(R) Fernandez
Wood v.
(R) Vargas
Stripling v.
(R) Rea
Kershaw v.
(L) Pomeranz
SNLA SNLA SNLA SNLA SNLA SNLA SNLA

Previous weeks in review: Week 1 | Week 2

Week 3 Stats

Player PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SB/CS BA/OBP/SLG OPS
Gonzalez 28 23 2 10 0 0 2 7 5 0/0 .435/.536/.696 1.231
Pederson 25 19 5 6 0 0 1 3 6 0/1 .316/.480/.474 .954
Utley 30 29 5 10 3 1 0 2 1 1/0 .345/.367/.517 .884
Seager 30 25 6 6 1 1 1 6 5 1/0 .240/.367/.480 .847
Grandal 21 16 1 4 2 0 0 2 5 0/0 .250/.429/.375 .804
Turner 16 13 1 3 1 0 0 1 3 0/1 .231/.375/.308 .683
Puig 24 23 0 4 2 0 0 2 1 1/0 .174/.208/.261 .469
Kendrick 21 21 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0/0 .143/.143/.143 .286

Ellis 8 8 2 3 0 0 1 3 0 0/0 .375/.375/.750 1.125
Hernandez 14 10 1 1 0 0 0 0 4 1/0 .100/.357/.100 .457
Thompson 14 13 1 2 1 0 0 1 1 0/0 .154/.214/.231 .445
Culberson 5 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0/0 .000/.000/.000 .000

Pitchers 13 10 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0/0 .100/.100/.100 .200
Totals 249 215 29 53 10
2 5 28 31 4/2 .247/.341/.381 .723
Pitcher G W-L Sv IP H R ER BB K ERA WHIP FIP*
Maeda 1 1-0 -- 6⅓ 3 0 0 1 8 0.00 0.632 1.09
Kershaw 1 0-0 -- 8 10 1 1 1 10 1.13 1.375 1.02
Stripling 1 0-0 -- 3⅔ 6 3 2 2 4 4.91 2.182 1.78
Kazmir 1 0-0 -- 5 6 4 4 1 3 7.20 1.400 7.74
Wood 2 0-1 -- 9 13 11 8 6 6 8.00 2.111 4.47
Starters 6 1-1 -- 32 38 19 15 11 31 4.22 1.531 3.14
Jansen 3 0-0 4 4 1 0 0 1 5 0.00 0.500 1.39
Blanton 4 2-0 -- 3 1 0 0 1 1 0.00 0.667 3.47
Baez 3 0-0 -- 3 1 0 0 1 3 0.00 0.667 2.14
Liberatore 4 0-0 -- 2⅔ 1 0 0 1 4 0.00 0.750 1.26
Howell 2 0-0 -- 2⅓ 1 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.429 3.14
Garcia 3 0-0 -- 2⅔ 3 1 1 1 0 3.38 1.500 4.27
Hatcher 4 1-1 -- 3⅓ 4 5 5 2 1 13.50 1.800 4.34
Coleman 1 0-0 -- 1 2 1 0 1 27.00 3.000 (2.86)
Avilan 3 0-0 -- 3 3 3 2 1 40.50 7.500 4.64
Lee Did not pitch --- --- ---
Relievers 6 3-1 4 22 16 11 10 9 16 4.09 1.136 2.78
Totals 6 4-2 4 54 54 30 25 20 47 4.17 1.370 2.99
*FIP is estimated