The Dodgers in May saw Julio Urias debut, saw Corey Seager tie a franchise record at his position in just his third major league month. The club on offense was led on offense by a pair of rookies, but ultimately May was about Clayton Kershaw, who had arguably the best month of his career.
Kershaw was 5-0 with a 0.92 ERA in six starts during the month, with five total runs allowed, two walks and 65 strikeouts in 49⅔ innings.
Kershaw started 50 different innings in May, and 45 of them were scoreless, with 31 perfect innings.
Kershaw had more shutouts (three) than walks (two) in May, the first Dodgers pitcher with three shutouts in a calendar month since Tim Belcher in September 1989.
Kershaw's 65 strikeouts were the most ever by any MLB pitcher in a month with two or fewer walks.
Those 65 strikeouts matched a personal best for Kershaw in a single month, and the last Dodgers pitcher with more strikeouts in a month was Sandy Koufax, with 79 strikeouts in September/October 1965 (Koufax's one October start was a 13-strikeout performance on Oct. 2 to clinch the pennant on the penultimate day of the season, and it was on two days rest).
May was the fifth month of Kershaw's career with a sub-1.00 ERA in at least four starts.
The 49⅔ innings by Kershaw were his most in any single month, and the most by a Dodger since Hideo Nomo threw 50⅓ innings in June 1995. It marked the third time Kershaw averaged at least eight innings per start in a month (minimum four starts) in his career.
All that added up to a successful month, including outscoring their opponents by a run per game, but also one that saw them fall behind a red-hot Giants team that built a lead in the division, then matched results with the Dodgers over the last 10 days of May.
Dodger Batter of May: Despite placing ninth on the team in plate appearances during May, 27 fewer than seventh place, outfielder Trayce Thompson still finished one off the Dodgers' team lead in home runs (six) and RBI (14) while hitting .270/.352/.603. He narrowly beat out Corey Seager, who hit .301/.352/.540 and also led the team in runs scored (19) and RBI (15) while tying the club record for home runs by a shortstop in a month (h/t Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider).
Dodger Pitcher of May: If the introduction didn't give it away, this award goes to Clayton Kershaw, who has taken his game to another level. Honorable mention goes to Alex Wood, who struck out 35.3 percent of his batters faced during the month, and even though he had a 3.18 ERA in five starts had an 0-2 record. Wood's 41 strikeouts in May were the third-most by a Dodgers pitcher in a month with no wins, since 1913.
May Record: 16-12
124 runs scored (4.43 per game)
96 runs allowed (3.43 per game)
.615 pythagorean winning percentage (17-11)
May National League West Standings | |||||
Club | W-L | Pct | GB | RS | RA |
San Francisco |
21-8 | .724 | --- | 114 | 94 |
Dodgers | 16-12 | .571 | 4½ | 124 | 96 |
Colorado | 13-15 | .464 | 7½ | 137 | 137 |
Arizona | 11-17 | .393 | 9½ | 127 | 141 |
San Diego | 11-18 | .379 | 10 | 99 | 125 |
2016 Record: 28-25
229 runs scored (4.32 per game)
193 runs allowed (3.64 per game)
.578 pythagorean winning percentage (31-22)
National League West Standings through May 31 | |||||
Club | W-L | Pct | GB | RS | RA |
San Francisco |
33-21 | .611 | --- | 238 | 215 |
Dodgers | 28-25 | .528 | 4½ | 229 | 193 |
Colorado | 24-27 | .471 | 7½ | 263 | 272 |
Arizona | 23-31 | .426 | 10 | 247 | 279 |
San Diego | 20-33 | .377 | 12½ | 194 | 248 |
Game of the Month: On May 22 in San Diego, the Dodgers played their longest game in nine years, outlasting the Padres 9-5 in 17 innings at Petco Park. Starting pitcher Ross Stripling pitched the final three innings scoreless for the win, and Howie Kendrick was 4-for-8 with a home run and two doubles, missing out on a cycle only by an unfortunate bounce over the fence in right center field. The game lasted five hours, 47 minutes.
Rookie power: The Dodgers' best two hitters in May were Trayce Thompson and Corey Seager, tops on the team in home runs as well with six and seven, respectively. They made May the first month in Dodgers franchise history to have two rookies with at least five home runs each, per STATS LLC.
Punchout artists: In addition to Kershaw's 65 strikeouts, Scott Kazmir struck out 46 in May and Alex Wood added 41 strikeouts, the first trio of Dodgers to all strikeout 40 in a month since Sandy Koufax (58 strikeouts), Don Drysdale (54) and Johnny Podres (42) did so in July 1963.
Welcome aboard: May saw Julio Urias make his major league debut, a no-decision on May 27 in New York. The month also saw relief pitcher Casey Fien make his Dodgers debut, one day later. Fien pitched in two games in May, and retired all six batters faced.
Pinch Hitting: For the month, Dodger pinch hitters were just 6-for-33 but did have two home runs, hitting .182/.250/.364.
Runners in Scoring Position: In May, the Dodgers hit a putrid .224/.318/.322 with runners in scoring position in 247 plate appearances, with six doubles and four home runs.
They had a runner on third base with less than two outs 63 times in May, and got the runner home 30 times, or 47.6 percent (the entire National League scored 437 of 899 times, 48.6 percent).
They had a runner on second base with nobody out 56 times in May, and the runner advanced 33 times, or 58.9 percent (the entire NL advanced the runner 352 of 654 times, 53.8 percent).
Bases loaded: The Dodgers were 9-for-26 with the bases loaded in May, with two doubles and a grand slam, hitting .346/.353/.538.
The Month ahead: The Dodgers play 15 of their 28 games in June on the road, including the first two games of the month at Wrigley Field, three games in San Francisco and four games in Pittsburgh. The Dodgers host the Nationals but otherwise have a cake home schedule, and June includes seven games against the Brewers, four at home and three in Milwaukee.
May weeks in review: May 8 | May 16 | May 23 | May 30
Previous months in review: April
May Stats
Player | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SB/CS | BA/OBP/SLG | OPS |
Thompson | 71 | 63 | 12 | 17 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 14 | 8 | 1/1 | .270/.352/.603 | .955 |
Seager | 122 | 113 | 19 | 34 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 15 | 8 | 0/1 | .301/.352/.540 | .892 |
Gonzalez | 105 | 93 | 10 | 29 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 11 | 0/0 | .312/.381/.409 | .790 |
Utley | 102 | 89 | 18 | 25 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 11 | 0/2 | .281/.363/.416 | .778 |
Pederson | 98 | 86 | 11 | 18 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 14 | 11 | 1/0 | .209/.296/.465 | .761 |
Kendrick | 99 | 90 | 14 | 25 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 7 | 4/0 | .278/.323/.400 | .723 |
Turner | 106 | 89 | 10 | 20 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 13 | 1/0 | .225/.340/.360 | .700 |
Puig | 100 | 96 | 11 | 22 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 3 | 1/1 | .229/.260/.333 | .593 |
Grandal | 78 | 70 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 0/1 | .114/.192/.271 | .464 |
Starters | 881 | 789 | 110 | 198 | 31 | 1 | 34 | 108 | 79 | 8/6 | .251/.321/.422 | .743 |
Culberson | 7 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1/0 | .333/.429/.333 | .762 |
Ellis | 41 | 34 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0/0 | .206/.341/.265 | .606 |
Crawford | 51 | 48 | 5 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0/1 | .208/.235/.229 | .464 |
Hernandez | 40 | 37 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0/0 | .108/.175/.135 | .310 |
Bench | 139 | 125 | 12 | 23 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 1/1 | .184/.259/.216 | .475 |
Pitchers | 49 | 46 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0/0 | .174/.174/.174 | .348 |
Totals | 1069 | 960 | 124 | 229 | 35 | 1 | 34 | 114 | 92 | 9/7 | .239/.307/.383 | .690 |
:
Pitcher | G | W-L | Sv | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | ERA | WHIP | FIP |
Kershaw | 6 | 5-0 | -- | 49⅔ | 24 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 65 | 0.91 | 0.523 | 0.87 |
Wood | 5 | 0-2 | -- | 28⅓ | 24 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 41 | 3.18 | 1.094 | 2.89 |
Kazmir | 6 | 3-1 | -- | 38⅔ | 26 | 17 | 15 | 16 | 46 | 3.49 | 1.086 | 4.55 |
Bolsinger | 2 | 1-1 | -- | 10 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 4.50 | 1.300 | 5.00 |
Maeda | 5 | 1-2 | -- | 25 | 19 | 14 | 14 | 11 | 23 | 5.04 | 1.200 | 4.38 |
Stripling | 3 | 1-1 | -- | 15⅓ | 16 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 11 | 5.74 | 1.404 | 4.70 |
Urias | 1 | 0-0 | -- | 2⅔ | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 10.13 | 3.375 | 5.35 |
Starters | 28 | 11-7 | -- | 170 | 124 | 66 | 62 | 49 | 197 | 3.28 | 1.018 | 3.22 |
Stripling | 1 | 1-0 | -- | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 | 0.667 | 2.43 |
Fien | 2 | 0-0 | -- | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.00 | 0.000 | (0.90) |
Avilan | 1 | 0-0 | -- | ⅓ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.000 | 3.10 |
Liberatore | 14 | 1-0 | -- | 9⅔ | 10 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 1.86 | 1.448 | 1.55 |
Jansen | 11 | 1-1 | 6/2 | 9⅓ | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 1.93 | 0.536 | 2.56 |
Coleman | 15 | 0-0 | -- | 11⅓ | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 14 | 2.38 | 0.706 | 1.42 |
Howell | 9 | 0-1 | -- | 10 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 2.70 | 1.000 | 4.60 |
Hatcher | 9 | 1-0 | -- | 9⅓ | 10 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 2.89 | 1.607 | 5.24 |
Blanton | 13 | 1-1 | -- | 17⅓ | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 20 | 3.63 | 0.808 | 2.64 |
Tsao | 2 | 0-1 | -- | 1⅔ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5.40 | 2.400 | 8.50 |
Baez | 13 | 0-1 | -- | 10⅔ | 10 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 11 | 5.91 | 1.219 | 4.60 |
Relievers | 28 | 5-5 | 6/2 | 84⅔ | 56 | 30 | 28 | 29 | 88 | 2.98 | 1.004 | 3.14 |
Totals | 28 | 16-12 | 6/2 | 254⅔ | 180 | 96 | 90 | 78 | 285 | 3.18 | 1.013 | 3.19 |