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Dodgers August in review: Treading water

MLB: Arizona Diamondbacks at Los Angeles Dodgers Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports

After spending a majority of days in July in first place, the Dodgers in August tasted a lot of third place in the National League West, ending the month in second place, one game back of Arizona. The Dodgers in August were tied or alone in first place for eight days, though not since August 11.

Dodgers starting pitching had their best month of the season with a 2.53 ERA to lead the majors, but the bullpen had its worst month (4.62 ERA). Kenley Jansen suffered through a terrible month, including a health scare in Denver, but recovered to save the final game of the month, snapping a career-worst string of four consecutive outings scored upon.

“He might not say how big it was but to go up there and get a save, and to see the ball coming out with the characteristics we’re used to, It was big for Kenley,” manager Dave Roberts said.

The offense averaged just a tick under five runs per game in August, but the problem was that 41.7% of their runs were scored in their four biggest games, while averaging just 3.35 runs in the 23 other games.

The result was a month just one game over .500, barely treading water in both the National League West and NL wild card races.

Batter of August

Justin Turner was on fire, walloping 11 doubles and six home runs, hitting .402/.491/.722 with 20 RBI, including two 5-RBI games during the month. Turner led the majors in August in both batting average and on-base percentage.

Pitcher of August

Walker Buehler was magnificent, turning in his best month in the majors with a 1.53 ERA in five starts, and struck out 35, one off the team lead. Buehler’s best start of the month was seven scoreless innings against a red-hot Cardinals team on Aug. 22.

Right behind Buehler was Clayton Kershaw, who posted a 2.06 ERA and averaged seven innings per start for the month.

August NL West standings

Team W L Pct GB RS RA Rdiff
Team W L Pct GB RS RA Rdiff
Diamondbacks 14 12 0.538 ---- 103 84 +19
Dodgers 14 13 0.519 ½ 132 97 +35
Rockies 14 14 0.500 1 114 134 -20
Giants 13 14 0.481 93 104 -11
Padres 12 15 0.444 119 124 -5

Record: 14-13
132 runs scored (4.89 per game)
97 runs allowed (3.59 per game)
.637 pythagorean winning percentage (17-10)

Standings through August 31

Team W L Pct GB RS RA Rdiff
Team W L Pct GB RS RA Rdiff
Diamondbacks 74 61 0.548 ---- 595 510 +85
Dodgers 73 62 0.541 1 638 512 +126
Rockies 72 62 0.537 624 645 -21
Giants 68 68 0.500 534 573 -39
Padres 54 83 0.394 21 524 649 -125

Record: 73-62
638 runs scored (4.73 per game)
512 runs allowed (3.79 per game)
.599 pythagorean winning percentage (81-54)

The Dodgers also end the month 2½ games back of Milwaukee for the second wild card spot, and a half-game ahead of Colorado and Philadelphia.

Game of the month

The Dodgers had wins of 21-5, 12-1 and two 11-1 victories in August, plus they won another game one pitch after a 20-minute power delay at Dodger Stadium. But for me the game of the month was the series opener on Aug. 9 at Coors Field, when both the Dodgers and Rockies feasted off each other’s bullpen. A four-run seventh inning give Colorado a lead, but LA hit five home runs off Rockies relievers to pull out an 8-5 victory.

Situational stats

Pinch hitting: Dodgers pinch hitters for in August were 9-for-32 with two doubles, four home runs and six walks, hitting .281/.385/.719. Max Muncy hit two of the three pinch home runs during the month, including joining Joc Pederson for two pinch homers in one inning on Aug. 9, for the first time by a Dodgers team since 1982.

Runners in scoring position: The Dodgers for the month with RISP hit .245/.325/.415. They ranked ninth in MLB in August with 270 plate appearances in those situations.

Bases loaded: The Dodgers in August were 3-for-20 (.150) with one home run (by Cody Bellinger) with a walk and a hit by pitch with the bases loaded, driving in 10 runs.

August months in review: July 30-Aug. 5 | Aug. 6-12 | Aug. 13-19 | Aug. 20-26

The month ahead

The Dodgers play 27 games over the final 30 days of the regular season, and 16 of those are away from home. That includes the second-longest road trip of the season, a 10-game trek through Colorado, Cincinnati and St. Louis. Los Angeles plays five games against the Diamondbacks in the final month, and six games against Colorado in a divisional-heavy September schedule.

Stats

August batting

Player AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO HBP SH SF PA BA OBP SLG OPS BABIP Player
Player AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO HBP SH SF PA BA OBP SLG OPS BABIP Player
Turner 97 22 39 11 1 6 20 1 0 11 15 6 0 0 114 0.402 0.491 0.722 1.213 0.434 Turner
Hernandez 54 9 19 6 0 2 8 1 0 7 8 0 2 2 65 0.352 0.413 0.574 0.987 0.370 Hernandez
Bellinger 93 13 33 4 1 4 19 5 0 10 22 0 0 1 104 0.355 0.413 0.548 0.962 0.426 Bellinger
Machado 109 16 29 5 0 7 18 4 1 7 24 2 0 1 119 0.266 0.319 0.505 0.824 0.278 Machado
Dozier 97 12 22 6 0 4 15 3 0 19 19 0 0 1 117 0.227 0.350 0.412 0.763 0.240 Dozier
Puig 77 8 20 2 1 3 9 6 1 3 19 1 0 0 81 0.260 0.296 0.429 0.725 0.309 Puig
Grandal 74 13 12 2 0 5 7 1 0 15 27 0 0 0 89 0.162 0.303 0.392 0.695 0.167 Grandal
Taylor 81 7 15 5 0 2 4 5 1 9 33 1 0 1 92 0.185 0.272 0.321 0.593 0.277 Taylor
Kemp 70 6 15 2 0 1 5 0 0 8 20 0 0 1 79 0.214 0.291 0.286 0.577 0.280 Kemp
Starters 752 106 204 43 3 34 105 26 3 89 187 10 2 7 860 0.271 0.353 0.472 0.825 0.316 Starters
Barnes 21 3 3 1 0 0 1 1 1 7 12 0 1 0 29 0.143 0.357 0.190 0.548 0.333 Barnes
Pederson 63 11 11 1 0 5 9 0 0 6 13 0 0 1 70 0.175 0.243 0.429 0.671 0.130 Pederson
Muncy 58 10 15 4 0 6 11 1 0 7 26 1 0 0 66 0.259 0.348 0.638 0.986 0.346 Muncy
Bench 142 24 29 6 0 11 21 2 1 20 51 1 1 1 165 0.204 0.305 0.479 0.784 0.222 Bench
Pitchers 41 2 8 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 17 0 2 0 43 0.195 0.195 0.220 0.415 0.333 Pitchers
Offense 935 132 241 50 3 45 128 28 4 109 255 11 5 8 1068 0.258 0.340 0.462 0.802 0.305 Offense

August pitching

Pitcher G GS W L Sv IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP ERA WHIP FIP Pitcher
Pitcher G GS W L Sv IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP ERA WHIP FIP Pitcher
Stripling 1 1 0 0 6.0 4 1 1 0 2 0 2 0 1.50 1.000 3.53 Stripling
Buehler 5 5 2 0 29.3 18 5 5 3 11 0 35 2 1.53 0.989 3.47 Buehler
Wood 4 4 1 1 22.0 18 6 5 1 8 1 19 3 2.05 1.182 3.43 Wood
Kershaw 5 5 2 0 35.0 26 9 8 2 3 0 33 0 2.06 0.829 2.31 Kershaw
Ryu 4 4 1 1 22.7 22 7 6 3 2 1 23 0 2.38 1.059 3.02 Ryu
Hill 6 6 2 1 34.3 25 14 12 4 11 0 36 3 3.15 1.049 3.84 Hill
Maeda 2 2 0 1 10.7 12 8 8 2 5 1 11 0 6.75 1.594 4.70 Maeda
Starters 27 27 8 4 0 160.0 125 50 45 15 42 3 159 8 2.53 1.044 3.31 Starters
Venditte 2 0 0 2.0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0.00 0.500 0.20 Venditte
Floro 14 2 1 14.0 7 1 1 0 5 2 15 1 0.64 0.857 1.91 Floro
Chargois 9 0 2 6.7 6 3 2 1 3 1 5 1 2.70 1.350 5.00 Chargois
Baez 11 1 0 12.7 6 4 4 1 3 0 15 0 2.84 0.711 2.57 Baez
Ferguson 9 3 1 10.3 12 4 4 1 2 0 13 0 3.48 1.355 2.52 Ferguson
Maeda 4 0 1 1 5.0 5 2 2 0 2 0 7 0 3.60 1.400 1.60 Maeda
Hudson 3 0 0 4.3 2 2 2 1 0 0 4 3 4.15 0.462 6.43 Hudson
Alexander 12 0 1 1 11.3 11 8 7 1 5 2 8 1 5.56 1.412 3.99 Alexander
Jansen 8 0 2 3 8.0 12 7 7 4 2 0 10 0 7.88 1.750 7.95 Jansen
Rosscup 4 0 1 5.7 7 5 5 3 0 0 9 0 7.94 1.235 6.91 Rosscup
Garcia 2 0 0 2.0 3 2 2 1 0 0 1 0 9.00 1.500 8.70 Garcia
Goeddel 2 0 0 2.3 2 3 3 1 1 0 3 0 11.57 1.286 7.49 Goeddel
Axford 3 0 0 3.3 4 6 6 0 2 0 4 1 16.20 1.800 3.50 Axford
Relievers 83 0 6 9 5 87.7 78 47 45 14 25 5 97 7 4.62 1.175 3.99 Relievers
Totals 110 27 14 13 5 247.7 203 97 90 29 67 8 256 15 3.27 1.090 3.55 Totals