Dodgers Week 6: Corey Seager gets hot, Clayton Kershaw throws shutout

The Dodgers' week was bookended by losses, but they still managed a winning week, and against 2015 playoff teams to boot.

Corey Seager continued his May resurgence with a four-homer week, including two home runs before a national audience on Sunday night, albeit in a loss to the Cardinals.

That loss prevented a Dodgers sweep of St. Louis, after L.A. split four games with the Mets. Sunday ended a 10-game gauntlet against 2015 playoff teams, including last weekend in Toronto. The Dodgers went 6-4 in that stretch, scoring 40 runs while allowing 31.

Clayton Kershaw has never started a season as well as he has this year, and his dominant 2016 included a three-hit shutout of New York on Thursday, with 13 strikeouts. But the real news of that game was that Kershaw walked a batter, giving him four on the season. Against 77 strikeouts.

Dodger Batter of the Week: Four multi-hit games paced the week for Corey Seager, who hit .407 (11-for-27) to go with his four home runs. The 22-year-old Seager is tied for the team lead in home runs on the season (six) with 24-year-old Joc Pederson, and Seager is second on the team in both wOBA (.361) and OPS (.846) to Pederson (.368 wOBA, .859 OPS).

Dodger Pitcher of the Week: With 13 strikeouts against the Mets on Thursday, Clayton Kershaw earned a game score of 93, tied for the fourth-best of his career. Kershaw has two of highest five game scores ever in his last three starts, and on the season leads the majors with 62 innings, averaging an absurd 7.75 per start.

Game of the Week

Thursday: Dodgers 5, Mets 0 Clayton Kershaw's 250th career start was one of his very best. (Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea | USA Today Sports)

Week 6 Record: 4-3
28 runs scored (4.00 per game)
22 runs allowed (3.14 per game)
.609 pythagorean winning percentage

2016 season Record: 20-18
161 runs scored (4.24 per game)
141 runs allowed (3.71 per game)
.560 pythagorean winning percentage (21-17)

Miscellany

In a pinch: With his home run on Tuesday against Hansel Robles in the ninth inning, Trayce Thompson not only lifted the Dodgers over the Mets for a 3-2 victory, but also had the club's first pinch-hit walk-off home run since Scott Van Slyke on Sept. 10, 2013.

High-speed chase: Through Saturday there have only been 76 pitches thrown in 2016 at least 100 mph by seven different pitchers (49 pitches not including Aroldis Chapman), per Baseball Savant, and the Dodgers saw eight of them this week - three by Noah Syndergaard of the Mets on Wednesday, and five by Carlos Martinez of the Cardinals on Saturday. Martinez even reached 101 mph one one of his pitches, something done only 19 times in 2016.

Slumping: Kike Hernandez was 0-for-10 last week and still doesn't have a hit in May. His overall skid is 0-for-23, dating back to April 30 (and 1-for-36, dating back to April 22). Also, after starting the season 8-for-11 with four extra-base hits against left-handed pitchers this season, he is 0-for-22 against southpaws dating back to April 17.

Transactions

Monday: Relief pitcher Casey Fien was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Game Results

• Monday: Mets 4, Dodgers 2
• Tuesday: Dodgers 3, Mets 2
• Wednesday: Mets 4, Dodgers 3
• Thursday: Dodgers 5, Mets 0
• Friday: Dodgers 8, Cardinals 4
• Saturday: Dodgers 5, Cardinals 3
• Sunday: Cardinals 5, Dodgers 2

Upcoming Week

The Dodgers run the George Arias gauntlet, playing a home-and-home interleague set with the Angels, followed by three games in San Diego against the Padres.

Previous weeks in review: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5

Week 6 Stats