Dodgers 2023 season in thirds: The first 54 games

Sunday morning against the Rays was the Dodgers’ 54th game of the season, which means 2023 is now one-third complete, at least for the regular season anyway.

With 32 wins, the Dodgers are on pace for 96 wins. This is the fifth straight year the Dodgers have won at least 32 of their first 54 games.

The Dodgers’ run differential of +50 is their lowest since 2018, but still ranks fifth in MLB at the moment. That’s buoyed by an offense that leads the National League in runs scored (5.52 per game), trailing only the Rangers and Rays among MLB teams.

With 298 runs scored, the Dodgers are tied with the 2006 team for sixth-most through 54 games since moving to Los Angeles in 1958.

Let’s now look at individual statistics for specific groups of players.

The absence of Will Smith for 13 games on the concussion injured list is really felt here, with Austin Barnes in the worst hitting slump of his career. When healthy, Smith started 29 of 41 games behind the plate, plus another four times at designated hitter.

For position players, the starts are broken up into three categories: infield, outfield, and designated hitter. For example, Mookie Betts started 14 games in the infield, 36 games in the outfield, and never at DH, so his starts are displayed as 14-36-0.

Freddie Freeman leads the majors in doubles (22), extra-base hits (32), and times on base (102).

Max Muncy’s 17 home runs are the most by a Dodger in any third of a season since Cody Bellinger hit 19 home runs in the first 54 games of 2019.

Dodgers pitching has been subpar on the whole through the first third of the season, partially due to five starting pitchers missing time on the injured list, and that doesn’t even count Walker Buehler.

As a pitching staff, LA’s 4.50 ERA ranks 22nd in MLB, and their adjusted 106 ERA- (over 100 is below average) is tied for 23rd. The Dodgers’ 248 runs allowed through the first 54 games are their most since 2005, and the sixth-highest since moving to LA.

Clayton Kershaw’s 62⅓ innings and 75 strikeouts are his most in any third of a season since the first 54 games of 2021 (70⅓ innings). In the previous five years, he pitched more innings in any Dodgers third of a season two other times — the final third of 2018 (72 innings), and the middle third of 2019 (65).

Dodgers relievers have pitched the eighth-most innings (202) in the majors this season, their 186 relief appearances tied for fifth most.

I’m only counting blown saves when a pitcher was used with a reasonable chance to close out the game. The Dodgers had two of those blown saves — Brusdar Graterol on May 3 and Evan Phillips on May 15, both in the ninth inning. The team also technically had three other blown saves, with leads blown in the seventh or eighth inning, by pitchers who were not going to close out the game.

Through the first 54 games of the season, the Dodgers played 19 times against the National League West (12-7), and six interleague games (3-3). Over the next 54 games, which runs through August 4, the Dodgers are scheduled to play 28 games against American League teams and only seven games against their own division.