Dodger Thoughts

The Watch List

1) After Tuesday’s 9-7 victory over Colorado, the Dodgers announced that Clayton Kershaw had done enough this year and would not be pitching today or in the remaining four games of the 2010 season. (Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com has details following his report of the game, which saw Hiroki Kuroda enter the seventh inning with a 6-2 lead but get no decision.)

Kershaw has thrown 20 more innings than he did in 2009’s combined regular season and postseason. He finishes his age-22 year with a 2.91 ERA (133 ERA+), 212 strikeouts in 204 1/3 innings, a career low 3.6 walks per nine innings, an opponents’ OPS of .615 …

2) … and 18 sacrifice bunts.

3) Matt Kemp’s 24th homer in the third inning moved him one ahead of Andre Ethier.

4) James Loney got his 85th RBI on his 10th homer (putting him in the 10-homer, 10-steal club), keeping him five RBI ahead of Ethier, who got his 80th, and Kemp, who drove in 78 and 79.

5) The Dodgers’ rare offensive onslaught – seven extra-base hits, capped by Casey Blake’s second homer of the game in the ninth – helped them survive a bumpy pitching night and fend off Joe Torre’s 1,997th loss. Two victories in his final four games will keep him out of the 2,000 club. (Torre plans to hand the managerial to two players, quite possibly Russell Martin and Brad Ausmus, in two of those games, but will still take the wins or losses on his own ledger.)

6) Rafael Furcal had two triples in five at-bats, each time driving in a run and then scoring, to raise his batting average to .301. Jamey Carroll went 1 for 1 to bump up to .293 and needs four consecutive hits to go over .300. A.J. Ellis (batting .483 this month) went 2 for 3 to reach .287. Ellis can finish at or above .300 by going 2 for 2, 3 for 5 or 4 for 9.

8) Jamey Carroll did not homer.

9) The Dodgers are 9-16 in September, and need to win just one more game in their final four to avoid their worst final month ever.

10) Tuesday was Everybody Gets a Trophy Day, with the bottom six post-All-Star-break teams all winning. The Dodgers are now playing .400 ball in the second half.

The Bottom Standings after tonight’s games:

26-43, .377 Kansas City (won)
26-43, .377 Pittsburgh (won)
26-43, .377 Seattle (won)
28-42, .400 Los Angeles (won)
29-40, .420 Washington (won)
29-39, .426 New York Mets (won)

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• The Dodgers are moving their Single-A minor league team from Inland Empire to Rancho Cucamonga.
• I’ve written fondly in the past about the glory days of Baseball Digest. Bob Hertzel shares his own memories of the magazine at Baseball Prospectus.
• Closing arguments come today in the McCourt trial. Josh Fisher of Dodger Divorce and Bill Shaikin of the Times set the stage.
• Some big off-the-field names leaving the baseball world soon: MLB chief operating officer Bob DuPuy and MLB players union COO Gene Orza.
• After writing about how he became a prospect analyst, John Sickels of Minor League Ball asked readers to name the No. 1 sabermetric question they would like to see answered.
• Ken Arneson has a wonderful piece about the riddle of making sabermetrics palatable to the public.

Christian Petersen/Getty ImagesClayton Kershaw crossed the 200-inning mark and lowered his 2010 ERA to 2.91.

I’ve always been more than a little pumped when Clayton Kershaw takes the mound. But lately, it has gotten to the point where I’m afraid to miss him, because I’m afraid I’ll miss him throw a perfect game.

For the second time in his past three starts, Kershaw had no-hit stuff. Twelve days ago, Kershaw retired the first 10 Giants he faced, on his way to a five-hit shutout. Tonight in Arizona, Kershaw set down the first 11 Diamondbacks, striking out nine and allowing but four hits (and no walks) over eight innings in pitching the Dodgers to a 3-1 victory.

A solid single to right by Kelly Johnson ended Kershaw’s bid for a perfect game tonight. Johnson also singled in the seventh, and aside from John Hester reaching on a Russ Mitchell error, those were the only baserunners the Diamondbacks had until Chris Young’s leadoff single and Tony Abreu’s RBI double in the ninth. Kenley Jansen then replaced Kershaw. who threw 102 pitches. After one out, Jansen walked Stephen Drew to put the tying run on base, but he struck out Adam LaRoche and Ryan Church for a 22-pitch save.

On top of all his other talents, Kershaw has spent much of this season mastering his control. Last year, he walked 4.8 batters per nine innings. This year, he’s at 3.7, and since June 1, 2.8. In the first four innings tonight, nine Kershaw pitches landed out of the strike zone. His pitch count by inning before the ninth: 12, 10, 8, 12, 15, 13, 16, 7.

It was sad to see Kershaw’s bid for a two-hit shutout fray in the final inning, but still, he was mesmerizing. If Dodger fans have one thing to look forward to next season, if they have only one player writing poetry, it’s Clayton Kershaw. What a treasure.

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Two players got their first triples of the season for the Dodgers tonight, and you can decide which is more surprising: Trent Oeltjen or Andre Ethier. Oeltjen drove in A.J. Ellis (1 for 2 with two walks) with his, Ethier scored following his. Reed Johnson added his second homer of the year in the ninth inning, and that was your Dodger onslaught tonight. (Russ Mitchell did get the first inside-the-park hit of his career, a seventh-inning single.)

Kershaw had his 18th sacrifice bunt of the season, putting him one away from Orel Hershiser’s team record for pitchers of 19, set in 1988.

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Mediation on the McCourt case ended with no news of an impending settlement, reports The Associated Press. Comments Josh Fisher at Dodger Divorce: “… a settlement doesn’t have to come now. It probably won’t come now. After this trial comes to a conclusion, Judge Gordon will have 90 days to issue a ruling. You can bet he’ll keep the parties well-informed to his progress, and that they will have ample time to reach a settlement. It’s a hugely important case, one that could potentially create new California law, but the parties are unlikely to let it get that far. There’s just too much to lose.”