This was the Dodgers’ No. 4 starter?
On a spectacular night of pitching, Ricky Nolasco absolutely stifled the Boston Red Sox, 2-0, pitching the Dodgers to their second consecutive shutout and a 10 1/2 game lead in the National League West, their biggest margin since 1977.
Nolasco matched Clayton Kershaw’s Thursday performance and then some, pitching eight shutout innings on 101 pitches, allowing two hits and no walks (hitting one batter) while striking out six.
With Carl Crawford (2 for 3 with two steals) on second base, two outs and a 1-2 count, fellow ex-Bostoner Hanley Ramirez hit a towering two-run home run to center field off John Lackey in the bottom of the fifth. Lackey allowed no hits to the remaining seven Dodger starters.
In the top of the next inning, Juan Uribe got Nolasco out of his biggest jam, fielding a grounder with runners on first and second and throwing from one knee to second base to start an inning-ending double play. Nolasco followed that with three perfect innings to finish his night, and then Kenley Jansen came on to retire the side in order to wrap up the team’s 46th victory in their past 56 games. The Dodgers are 29-5 since the All-Star break.
The game hadn’t passed the two-hour mark when the ninth inning began and finished at 2:07, the Dodgers’ fastest since July 9, 2008. Los Angeles has allowed one run in its past 30 innings.
The team ERA of the Dodgers in 34 games since the All-Star break: 2.12. The team ERA of the Dodgers in 22 games in August: 1.86.
After going seven innings in his first Dodger start July 9, Nolasco didn’t make it out of the sixth inning in his next five. But he now has three consecutive quality starts, and in his Dodger career has a 2.53 ERA over 53 1/3 innings in nine outings with Los Angeles.
With Atlanta losing, the Dodgers moved to within a game of the best record in the major leagues.
ASW1
THAT’S how it’s done Red Sox – welcome to National League ball.
JHT
Juggernaut
btimmer
Fastest Dodger game by time since 2008. They played FOUR games that year in 2:07 or less. Derek Lowe was responsible for a lot of that.
Bob_Hendley
Did the fans leave before they arrived?
KT
Still Streaking!!!!
KT
Run differential for the Dodgers:
266-154 since 6/22
105 – 72 6/22 – ASB
161 – 82 second half
18 shutouts most in the majors
btimmer
And the Dodgers had one huge loss to the Phillies in this stretch.
KT
16-1 the day after I attended Sandy Koufax bobble head night
Bob_in_Vegas
But the streak started when you attended the game and got the autographs, right?
KT
Their 1st 6 game winning streak started down in SD 6/22 and ended in LA 6/27 at the game mentioned above
KT
Dodgers are in 2nd place in the MLB standings.
1 games behind the Barves….very obtainable…Go BLUE!!!!
pic.twitter.com/R0s1kaupQq
Bob_in_Vegas
Couldn’t believe it was over — checked in to see if LA had added to Hanley’s blast, only to see KT’s wrapup in the previous thread.
The Dodger pitchers must be fans of Irving Berlin, particularly “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better.”
KT
current standings:
http://i.imgur.com/e6lqM9H.jpg
foul tip
Tight fight for 3rd.
KT
Bucs hold onto their 1 game NL Central lead
SaMoDodger
Attention Bill Plaschke. Please remind me how Hanley Ramirez is going to kill the Dodgers with his terrible defense.
KT
Los Angeles Dodgers @Dodgers9m
RECAP: @RNolasco47 fans 6, @HanleyRamirez goes deep as #Dodgers blank Red Sox, 2-0: http://atmlb.com/1aARDCd pic.twitter.com/8NxbGStzql
KT
Matt Kemp @TheRealMattKemp5m
Standing O for my bro @RNolasco47 for pitching a great game! @HanleyRamirez I see u bro! #HowBoutDemDodgers
Bob_in_Vegas
With Matt’s talent and the way this last injury occurred, it’s gotta be tough to be watching all this from the bench. For the team’s and his sake, I hope he makes it back and is able to contribute as he has in the past.
ASW1
Surprised the cameras haven’t caught him chewing his bat in the dugout.
SaMoDodger
So glad it was weaselface who made the last out.
WinnipegDave
Getting close to some “most wins in a month” records. Twice in Brooklyn they won 25 games (July 1947 and August 1953). In LA, they won 22 games twice (Sept/Oct 1965 and Sept/Oct 1991). However, on both of those occasions the Dodgers won 20 games in Sept and 2 in Oct. There may have been a month (or months) when the Dodgers won 21 games but I didn’t check for that.
They have no chance of tying or breaking the MLB record for wins in a month. That was set by the 4th place finishing NY Giants of 1916 who went 29-5 in Sept (and only Sept) that year.
btimmer
The 1916 Giants went 1-3 in October. All the games were in Brooklyn. Some thought that the Giants were tanking the games to give the Dodgers the pennant since former Giants coach Wilbert Robinson managed the Dodgers then. This was right after the Giants had a 26-game winning streak snapped.
Jon Weisman
Update above:
The team ERA of the Dodgers in 34 games since the All-Star break: 2.12. The team ERA of the Dodgers in 22 games in August: 1.86.
johnniebbaker
ricky represents! i.e. baby!
Spence
Best game score of Nolasco’s career? Got to be one of his best performances ever given the lineup he was facing.
btimmer
Bill Shaikin is reporting that Mark Walter is interested in buying the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune. http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/dodgers/la-sp-0824-dodgers-la-times-20130824,0,1612895.story
Jack Dawkins
Does this mean the return of Simers? Every blogger in town needs that.
WinnipegDave
Did anyone catch what Steiner and Monday said about Nolasco joining a group of fairly talented pitchers, being the only ones to accomplish ________ since 2008? The list had C.C. and Greinke, and 2 or 3 other pitchers on it. They may have been talking about number of wins, but I’m not sure.
Bob_Hendley
Since he just reached double digits in wins maybe it’s that.
WinnipegDave
Oh yes, you are correct. I just came across the same trivia in the ESPN report. Nolasco joins Greinke, Verlander and Sabathia as the only pitchers to have 10 or more wins each year since 2008.
KT
From MSTI: koufaxmachine 7 hours ago
http://i.imgur.com/oTpjY6b.jpg
Jon Weisman
NPUT