By Jon Weisman
Tonight, I’ll sail into the waves. Blood is in the water in McCovey Cove. Madison Bumgarner is the shark.
The life-raft for the Dodgers is Clayton Kershaw, with provisions of five more games after that.
Tag: Zack Greinke (Page 3 of 9)
Zack Greinke’s ERA in September is 1.91. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Jon Weisman
While the weekend sweep at Colorado delayed all celebration in Dodgerland, it has set up Zack Greinke to kill two very large birds with one stone-cold toss.
Jon SooHoo/ Los Angeles Dodgers
Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10 p.m.
Chase Utley, 2B
Corey Seager, 3B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Andre Ethier, RF
Yasmani Grandal, C
Scott Van Slyke, LF
Joc Pederson, CF
Jimmy Rollins, SS
Carlos Frias, P
Chase Utley, 2B
Corey Seager, 3B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Andre Ethier, RF
Yasmani Grandal, C
Scott Van Slyke, LF
Joc Pederson, CF
Jimmy Rollins, SS
Carlos Frias, P
By Jon Weisman
The Giants pitched three straight shutouts in May, and the Dodgers’ season was over. That’s what I was told.
The Dodgers lost five straight on the road in Oakland and Houston, and their season was over. That’s what I was told.
There were two no-hitters in nine days, and the Dodgers’ season was over. That’s what I was told.
So my question is, now that the Dodgers have lost four straight and lead the National League West by six games with 12 to play, what are people worried about? I mean, the season’s been over since May. Over and over and over.
Or is it that the season wasn’t over then, or then, or then, and isn’t over now?
Losses and injuries — the latest being Zack Greinke’s sore right calf, forcing him out of tonight’s start — don’t look pretty. There’s certainly a scenario for the season to end sooner than Dodger fans want it to. I get impatience. I get insecurity. Personally, I’m still hoping the division is wrapped up before the Dodgers even set foot again in San Francisco.
But just consider this a friendly reminder not to assume the worst. Because in case you haven’t noticed, this has been a pretty resilient team.
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By Jon Weisman
During the day Monday, Adrian Gonzalez was named the Dodgers’ nominee for the 2015 Roberto Clemente Award, which honors “a player who best represents the game through positive contributions on and off the field, including sportsmanship and community involvement.”
Lately, Gonzalez has needed to display a great deal of sportsmanship alongside athleticism to come away foul balls. First there was the one in Chicago involving a Wrigley Field fan holding a baby. Then came Monday night’s fifth-inning foul ball, which Gonzalez caught despite a Boston-capped fan nearly tearing Gonzalez’s glove off.
Gonzalez not only came away triumphant on that play, he made a nifty defensive stab to record the final out of the Dodgers’ 4-1 victory over the Rockies.
Clayton Kershaw won the award in 2012, and Jimmy Rollins shared the honor with Paul Konerko in 2014.
Here are some other bits and bunts …
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- Chef Dave Pearson, who passed away Saturday, received a tribute Monday before the National Anthem.
- According to Stats LLC (via the Dodgers’ public relations department), the Dodgers’ 35-10 (.778) record in home games decided by three or fewer runs is currently the second-best in MLB history, behind only the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers (35-9, .795).
- Called upon to save Monday’s game with Kenley Jansen requiring a day off, Chris Hatcher did the trick, lowering his ERA to 1.35 since coming off the disabled list August 15. In 13 1/3 innings, he has struck out 16 and allowed 13 baserunners.
- Yasmani Grandal ended his 0-for-36 (with eight walks) slump Monday with two hits, which themselves followed a sacrifice fly.
- Fan voting has begun for the Esurance MLB Awards. Dodger nominees include Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw for Best Major Leaguer and Best Starting Pitcher (Kershaw won both in 2014), and Joc Pederson for Best Rookie. Many more categories will follow between now and when voting ends November 13. (Five different groups of voters — fans, members of the baseball media, club front-office personnel, former MLB players and Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) members — each count for 20 percent of the total.) T
- The Institute for Baseball Studies is presenting, “The Dodgers Come to Los Angeles: Politics and Pennants in Paradise,” featuring Andy McCue and Wes Parker, at 7:00 p.m. September 27 at Villalobos Hall on the campus of Whittier College.
- Justin Turner, nominated for the Marvin Miller Man of the Year Award last week, is now a finalist, representing the National League West. Kershaw won last year.
- I’ve seen some hard foul balls in my time, but I’m amazed this one Monday didn’t do some real damage to someone.
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Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
Dodgers at Diamondbacks, 6:40 p.m.
Justin Ruggiano, LF
Jose Peraza, 2B
Justin Turner, 3B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Scott Van Slyke, RF
Corey Seager, SS
A.J. Ellis, C
Chris Heisey, CF
Alex Wood, P
Justin Ruggiano, LF
Jose Peraza, 2B
Justin Turner, 3B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Scott Van Slyke, RF
Corey Seager, SS
A.J. Ellis, C
Chris Heisey, CF
Alex Wood, P
By Jon Weisman
A quick note before we get to today’s lengthy health recap: Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta lowered his ERA to 1.99 this afternoon. If he and Zack Greinke stay below 2.00, they’ll be the first duo to do so in the same year since Dwight Gooden (1.53) and John Tudor (1.93) in 1985.
If Clayton Kershaw (2.15) joins them, we would have the first sub-2.00 trio since Luis Tiant (1.91), Gaylord Perry (1.92) and Gary Nolan (1.99) in 1972.
Kershaw, who is next scheduled to start Monday against the Rockies, most likely has four starts left in the 2015 regular season. If he pitched a total of 24 1/3 to 28 1/3 innings, he would need to allow no more than two earned runs (0.64 ERA) to get his ERA below 2.00. If he pitched 28 2/3 to 33 innings, he could allow three runs, and if he pitched at least 33 1/3, he could allow four runs.
And now, to the Web (Gem) MD report, via manager Don Mattingly to reporters:
- Jose Peraza, who is playing tonight (batting second) for the first time since tweaking a hamstring September 1, is at 100 percent.
- With Jimmy Rollins still recovering from a finger injury, Corey Seager is making his seventh start since his callup nine days ago. As Eric Stephen of True Blue L.A. noted, Peraza and Seager are the youngest starting double-play combo for the Dodgers since 1947.
- Howie Kendrick had live batting practice and ran the bases. He’s “not there yet but getting closer,” reports Bill Plunkett of the Register.
- Yasiel Puig is still feeling hamstring tightness and has not been able to resume baseball work.
- Kiké Hernandez is feeling good, but still has to get over the hump.
- Yasmani Grandal took live BP today and was hitting home runs, according to Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles.
- Mat Latos’ stiff neck is improved, but his usage as a starter will depend on matchups.
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By Jon Weisman
Jose Peraza isn’t purely a September callup. The 21-year-old second baseman-center fielder, the youngest Dodger position player since Adrian Beltre, had 13 plate appearances in four games for Los Angeles before today’s turn of the calendar.
But we’ll call him a late addition to the Dodgers, and what an addition so far.
The young sparkplug ignited and then all but sealed the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory over Giants ace Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants, moving Los Angeles to a 5 1/2 game lead in the National League West.
“He seemed to play fearless,” Don Mattingly said.
In the third inning, Peraza singled and soon after raced home from second base for the Dodgers’ first run off Bumgarner. And in the eighth inning, shortly after Joc Pederson’s homer off Bumgarner doubled the Dodger lead, Peraza made a spectacular play, backhanding a Brandon Belt grounder with the tying run on second base and glove-flipping to Jimmy Rollins to start an inning-ending double play.
“I was looking to get it over to Jimmy,” said Peraza, who said he practices glove-flips periodically. “Thank God it worked out.”
In doing so, Peraza saved a vintage Zack Greinke outing from the wastebasket. Greinke allowed no runs on two hits over his first seven innings, then gave up three singles for a run in the eighth, setting up the game’s most dramatic moment.
Luis Avilan, relieving Greinke, allowed a long foul ball on his first pitch and needed seven in all to get Belt, but thanks to the double play, retired his 11th batter in a row over the past six games.
Peraza dropped a second-inning pop-up for an error — so much for perfection. But that was soon a distant memory.
“Maybe I do,” said Peraza, about whether he feels the pressure of being thrust into a Giants-Dodgers pennant race in his fifth Major League game, “but it basically comes down to me doing my job, and thank God things turned out well.”
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Jason O. Watson/Getty Images
By Jon Weisman
I’m going to say that Madison Bumgarner has had the Dodgers’ number this year.
In fact, I’m going to say that Bumgarner got that number not here at Dodger Stadium in 2015, but in Kansas City on October 29, 2014, when he completed the postseason of the ages, the postseason so many of us thought Clayton Kershaw would have.
For so long, it was Kershaw who had the Giants’ number. Through 2014, Kershaw had a 1.43 ERA against the Giants in 180 career innings, with 191 strikeouts.
Not this year. The Giants have won all three Bumgarner starts against the Dodgers this season. All three of them against Kershaw. All three of them in the so-called “What’s wrong with Kershaw?” period, the last of them in a game so twisted that it may have hit the reset button for Kershaw’s season.
On April 22, Bumgarner and Kershaw neutralized each other, each allowing two runs in six (Kershaw) or 6 1/3 (Bumgarner) innings. Before opposing pitchers had figured out Alex Guerrero the way they now seem to have, the National League’s April Rookie of the Month hit a two-run, game-tying homer off the Giants lefty. The game came down to the bullpens, with San Francisco walking off against Chris Hatcher and J.P. Howell in the bottom of the ninth.
Six days later came more of a true pitchers’ duel. Buster Posey drove in runs in the first and fourth innings off Kershaw with a single and a homer, but the Dodgers scratched across a run in the bottom of the fourth to close the gap. But there was no scoring after that, with Bumgarner putting out threats in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
Then came May 21, the throw-up (your hands) game, in which Bumgarner was in trouble (seven hits and two walks in six innings) but causing trouble (homering off Kershaw in the third inning). Once again, Bumgarner’s brand of trouble won.
Jill Weisleder/Los Angeles Dodgers
Since that date, in 126 2/3 innings, Kershaw has a 1.28 ERA against all comers.
Tonight, Bumgarner faces Zack Greinke. And if there’s anyone that has anyone’s number, it’s Zack Greinke vs. the Giants. As a Dodger, Greinke has a 1.96 ERA in seven games (46 innings) against San Francisco, and has never lost.
Last September, Greinke faced off against Bumgarner on September 23, in arguably the biggest game of the season, and the Dodgers won. It was a game that all but ensured the Giants would be in the National League wild-card game, on the fringe of the postseason, nearly ending Bumgarner’s October before it began.
Look at Bumgarner now. Look at Greinke now. Somehow, someone’s number is up.
Clayton Kershaw waits out a stadium lighting delay in Wrigley Field on June 22. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Jon Weisman
On is the heat.
With temperatures in the 90s as a greeting, the Dodgers are preparing to host playoff contenders from Chicago and San Francisco over the next six games.
Some would call this the Dodgers’ biggest test of the year to date, though Los Angeles already played the Giants and Cubs in back-to-back series in June. The Dodgers went 3-4, which I would call a bogey, though it’s worth noting Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke pitched in only two of those seven affairs.
Here’s a quick recap of how those games went:
- Giants 9, Dodgers 5 (June 19): Mike Bolsinger allowed a grand slam to Buster Posey in the third inning, while Daniel Coulombe and Josh Ravin combined to give up four more runs in the seventh.
- Giants 6, Dodgers 2 (June 20): Carlos Frias allowed six runs in 5 1/3 innings.
- Dodgers 10, Giants 2 (June 21): Yasmani Grandal hit two of the Dodgers’ four homers in support of Brett Anderson.
- Cubs 4, Dodgers 2 (June 22): The power-outage game, in which Clayton Kershaw allowed a tiebreaking, seventh-inning home run to Matt Szczur.
- Cubs 1, Dodgers 0 (June 23): Zack Greinke pitched six shutout innings, but in his first game in two months, Joel Peralta took the loss in the 10th.
- Dodgers 5, Cubs 2 (June 24): Justin Turner hit a three-run home run, and the bullpen pitched 5 1/3 shutout innings in relief of Bolsinger.
- Dodgers 4, Cubs 0 (June 25): Four more shutout innings from the bullpen after Frias goes five.
It was an unpredictable stretch, to say the least, and you can judge for yourself the good or bad of going 3-4 without getting a victory from Kershaw or Greinke.
In any case, here we are again with the Cubs and Giants, but this time at home, and this time with Kershaw or Greinke pitching half the games.
Kershaw, who pitches tonight and Wednesday, has …
- a 0.90 ERA with 82 strikeouts and seven walks in 70 innings since July 1.
- a 1.29 ERA with 149 strikeouts and 16 walks in 118 2/3 innings since May 26.
- 28 consecutive scoreless innings at home.
And, Kershaw and Greinke currently have two of the top 10 single-season Dodger Stadium ERAs ever.
0.85 Sandy Koufax (1964)
1.08 Orel Hershiser (1985)
1.33 Don Sutton (1971)
1.38 Sandy Koufax (1963)
1.38 Sandy Koufax (1965)
1.39 Don Drysdale (1968)
1.42 Zack Greinke (2015)
1.49 Clayton Kershaw (2015)
1.52 Sandy Koufax (1966)
1.53 Bill Singer (1967)
It’s a scene, man.
After Kershaw pitches tonight, it’s Mat Latos, Alex Wood and Brett Anderson scheduled to go Saturday-Monday, before Greinke and Kershaw finish the homestand off.
Joe Robbins/Getty Images
By Jon Weisman
Zack Greinke gave up five runs in his first inning of August. For the rest of the month, his ERA was 1.36.
Greinke improved those figures with seven shutout innings today at Cincinnati, and the Dodgers needed every one of them, hanging on for a 1-0 victory.
The Dodgers grounded into five double plays, tying a team record, including a franchise record-tying three by Yasmani Grandal — then wasted a bases-loaded, none-out opportunity in the ninth with a strikeout and two foulouts.
Fortunately for Los Angeles, the first GIDP scored a run in the second inning, and it held up, despite the offensive struggles and injuries to Adrian Gonzalez and Yasiel Puig.
Only in the fifth inning did trouble find Greinke: a first-and-third situation with one out and 22 pitches already thrown in the frame. But Greinke was able to use opposing pitcher Anthony DeSciafani and technically-the-leadoff-hitter Skip Schumaker as an escape hatch, striking out both.
Greinke now has a 3.46 ERA in the first inning this year, and a 1.29 ERA after the first inning. Throwing 109 pitches, Greinke struck out nine against six baserunners today. For the year, his ERA is 1.61.
With Kenley Jansen having pitched the first two games of the series, it was up to Chris Hatcher and Jim Johnson to close out the game. And with a shutout inning apiece, they did.
The Dodgers are 4-1 in games decided by a 1-0 score this season.
Brett Anderson, Clayton Kershaw, Brandon McCarthy and A.J. Ellis at Camelback Ranch in February.
Brandon McCarthy made a guest-writing appearance on Buster Olney’s ESPN Insider column today and provided great stuff on Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw. Here’s a small sample:
Kershaw is an extreme perfectionist. He’s fanatical about his routine. It’s set in stone and everything that needs to be done to prepare for his next start will be done on time with maximal effort. Once he’s at the field there is no one easier to find than Clayton. You don’t have to see him to know exactly where he is at any given time, you just have to know his routine.
Finding Greinke however, is like trying to find the wind. He’s found only when he makes himself discoverable. He describes his routine as being based on feel. Some days that means he needs to do eight sets of squats. Other days it means using a foam roller for an hour in a far corner of the weight room while reading a magazine. He disappears for hours at a time. He wanders around carrying a plate of food like he’s at an outdoor cocktail party. He’ll watch video when a certain player happens to be on his mind. A “routine” like this is usually a major red flag about a player. The best players in the game typically are known to live and die by their routine, but nobody knows what Zack needs better than Zack, so his anti-routine is never called into question.
— Jon Weisman
Jill Weisleder/LA Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
Dodger Insider is going to be quiet most of the weekend for family events. Hope to return to victory celebrations!
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) August 15, 2015
Well, that worked. Three games away, three victories in the books. And a nice opportunity to celebrate them, with an off day today and Clayton Kershaw on the mound at Oakland on Tuesday.
Let me take this opportunity to tie a bunch of loose ends together …
- With 13 innings of one-run ball last week (14 baserunners, 14 strikeouts), Zack Greinke managed to reassert control in the National League Cy Young Award race, even as Kershaw threw eight shutout innings of his own.
- Could Greinke, whose adjusted ERA (in an MLB-leading 165 1/3 innings) is the best in baseball since Pedro Martinez in 2000, follow Kershaw as a Most Valuable Player? The award remains Bryce Harper’s to lose, and though the Nationals have slumped terribly, Harper (.415 on-base percentage in August) isn’t to blame. I don’t believe that MVP contention should be tied to a team’s record, but for those voters who do, Greinke’s top competition if the Nationals disappear would probably be San Francisco’s Buster Posey.
- Would most people be surprised to find that the Dodgers are on pace for a record number of home victories? Los Angeles is playing .677 ball at Dodger Stadium, which would yield a 55-26 home record if that plays out over their final 19 games here. That would match the 1980 Dodgers in victories, but that team unfortunately lost home game No. 82, the one-game NL West playoff against the Astros.
- Looking for the next test? The Dodgers’ next two home series will be against NL playoff contenders Chicago (August 28-30) and San Francisco (August 31-September 2). The Dodgers have lost three home series all season, to the Cardinals, Giants and Mets.
- Since sitting out two of the three games against the Angels, Joc Pederson is hitting .167/.447/.400. In 47 plate appearances, he has two singles, a double, two homers, a hit-by-pitch, a sacrifice fly and 15 walks. There are worse things in the world from a No. 8 hitter than that, plus great defensive range.
- Yasiel Puig’s 10th homer of the year Saturday gave the Dodgers eight players with double-digit homers, their most since a team-record nine players in 2004. The Dodgers will need one more homer from Howie Kendrick when he comes off the disabled list to tie the record, but what about breaking it? Four more homers from Kiké Hernandez in the final 44 games of the season no longer seems like crazy talk.
- Carl Crawford’s OBP in August as a Dodger: .353 in 2013, .360 in 2014, .538 in 2015 (27 plate appearances).
- Dad-for-the-second-time Kenley Jansen’s four-out save Sunday was his first of 2015 and eighth of his career. He has never had a longer outing for a save. But in 34 outings of more than one inning in his career, Jansen’s ERA is 0.50 with 23 hits, 18 walks and 80 strikeouts in 54 innings.
- Jansen has entered 29 games with a lead this year, and the Dodgers have won them all. After his only blown save of 2015, when Arizona’s A.J. Pollock hit a ninth-inning solo homer June 10, Kendrick had a walkoff single in the bottom of the ninth.
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By Jon Weisman
How weird was Zack Greinke’s day?
His third-inning home run in the Dodgers’ 10-8 victory at Philadelphia ranked about fifth on the list of today’s most unlikely events.
Earning top billing among Greinke’s exploits were …
- A throwing error on the first batter of the game — Greinke’s third as a Dodger and sixth of his MLB career.
- Five runs allowed to the first five batters — raising Greinke’s 2015 ERA from 1.41 to 1.72.
- A bases-loaded single by Ryan Howard — the first bases-loaded hit Greinke had allowed all season, and only the fourth in three seasons as a Dodger.
- Three runs scored — making Greinke the first Dodger pitcher to score thrice in a game since Claude Osteen in 1970.
And then, there was the final play of the game … but we’ll get to that.
When the Dodgers took a 3-0 lead after two were out in the top of the first inning, you could be excused for thinking the game was all but over. It had been 10 starts since Greinke last allowed three runs in a game, and only on June 2 at Colorado had he exceeded that amount.
But after fielding Cesar Hernandez’s tapper in front of the plate, Greinke threw wildly to first base — and seemed discombobulated through Howard’s two-run single and Dominic Brown’s three-run homer.
Greinke retired the next three batters, then vented some aggression by leading off the second inning with the first of his three hits and six total bases (tying July 8, 2013 for his career best). Greinke would come around to score on an Adrian Gonzalez’s three-run homer that put the Dodgers ahead to stay.
It would be Greinke’s own blast to left field, the fifth homer of his career, that would give the Dodgers’ their seventh run and help ensure he left the game with the lead.
Zack Greinke is the first Dodgers pitcher to go 3-3 or better with a home run since Leo Dickerman in 1923.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 6, 2015
Greinke now has a .231 on-base percentage and .300 slugging percentage this season. San Francisco’s Madison Bumgarner, who has three homers this year, is at .265/.426.
After Brown’s homer, Greinke retired 18 of his remaining 22 batters, with one run scoring. Greinke has allowed 30 runs all season, and 20 percent of them were scored today.
Every Dodger starter had a hit in this game, with Gonzalez, Howie Kendrick, Yasmani Grandal, Andre Ethier and Alberto Callaspo reaching base twice.
J.P. Howell and Juan Nicasio combined for two shutout innings. However, the Phillies scored two runs in the ninth, charged to Joel Peralta, meaning that the Dodger bullpen has allowed runs in seven straight games and 10 of its past 11.
Brown came to the plate as the winning run with one out. He ripped a liner down the line that Gonzalez dived to catch with his body on first base, to double off Howard and end the game.
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Tiffany Billingsley (left) has been quietly going through chemotherapy to beat a rare but aggressive form of cancer called gestational choriocarcinoma. (MLB.com)
Dodgers at Phillies, 10:05 a.m.
Jimmy Rollins, SS
Howie Kendrick, 2B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Yasmani Grandal, C
Andre Ethier, RF
Carl Crawford, LF
Alberto Callaspo, 3B
Joc Pederson, CF
Zack Greinke, P
Jimmy Rollins, SS
Howie Kendrick, 2B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Yasmani Grandal, C
Andre Ethier, RF
Carl Crawford, LF
Alberto Callaspo, 3B
Joc Pederson, CF
Zack Greinke, P
By Jon Weisman
Before the first of three midweek day games this month, followed by August 19 at Oakland and August 27 at Cincinnati, here is some quick news, led by a life-and-death story …
- Tiffany Billingsley, the wife of former Dodger pitcher Chad Billingsley, revealed this week that she had a major cancer scare this year but is now cancer-free, as Todd Zolecki reports in a harrowing piece for MLB.com.
- Jimmy Rollins has a .400 on-base percentage and .650 slugging percentage in his past 11 games, while Howie Kendrick is at .406/.600 in his past seven games.
- Zack Greinke has pitched at least seven innings in six consecutive games. Other than Clayton Kershaw, the last Dodger to do that was Hiroki Kuroda in 2010. (Kershaw pitched at least seven innings in 17 straight games last year.)
- If Greinke goes at least seven innings today without allowing more than two runs, that would be the longest streak of its kind by a Dodger since Tom Candiotti in 1995. The franchise record is 10 games by Don Sutton in 1976.
Angels at Dodgers, 1:05 p.m.
Kershaw CCXXX: Kershawdler on the Roof
Jimmy Rollins, SS
Howie Kendrick, 2B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Scott Van Slyke, LF
Yasiel Puig, RF
Yasmani Grandal, C
Alex Guerrero, 3B
Kiké Hernandez, CF
Clayton Kershaw, P
Kershaw CCXXX: Kershawdler on the Roof
Jimmy Rollins, SS
Howie Kendrick, 2B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Scott Van Slyke, LF
Yasiel Puig, RF
Yasmani Grandal, C
Alex Guerrero, 3B
Kiké Hernandez, CF
Clayton Kershaw, P
By Jon Weisman
If he gets through the first inning of today’s start without allowing a run, Clayton Kershaw will be more than halfway to Orel Hershiser’s record streak of 59 consecutive scoreless innings.
Twice in the past two seasons, we’ve seen the second half of the climb prove unassailable, with Kershaw’s 41-inning streak last summer and Zack Greinke’s 45 2/3-inning runless run that ended Sunday. But Kershaw’s current run of 29 consecutive scoreless innings is worth a look.
During the streak, opponents have a .157 on-base percentage and .168 slugging percentage against Kershaw.
In retrospect, it’s a bit surprising Kershaw’s streak is as long as it is. Against the Phillies on July 8, he was in regular trouble, allowing eight hits, with six of them reaching scoring position.
However, Kershaw enters today having thrown 17 straight innings without a runner getting past second base. Only two opponents have been in scoring position in that time.
From the seventh inning against the Nationals through the sixth inning July 23 against the Mets, Kershaw retired 25 batters in a row.
Perhaps most impressively, Kershaw has struck out 42 batters during the streak without walking any (though he did hit Carlos Ruiz in the second inning July 8). Overall, Kershaw has struck out 45 batters in a row since his last walk, and 56 batters since he last gave up a home run — to Matt Szczur of the Cubs in the seventh inning June 22.
No one has an extra-base hit against Kershaw since Ruiz’s ninth-inning double more than three weeks ago.
The combined July numbers of Kershaw and Greinke were astounding: a 0.63 ERA with 79 strikeouts and eight walks.
Angels at Dodgers, 7:10 p.m.
Jimmy Rollins, SS
Howie Kendrick, 2B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Scott Van Slyke, LF
Yasiel Puig, RF
Yasmani Grandal, C
Alex Guerrero, 3B
Kiké Hernandez, CF
Zack Greinke, P
Jimmy Rollins, SS
Howie Kendrick, 2B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Scott Van Slyke, LF
Yasiel Puig, RF
Yasmani Grandal, C
Alex Guerrero, 3B
Kiké Hernandez, CF
Zack Greinke, P
By Jon Weisman
After delaying his scheduled Wednesday start because of a sore hip, Clayton Kershaw threw a bullpen session Thursday and was pronounced fit.
But with the luxury of having Zack Greinke available on four days’ rest tonight, the Dodgers are giving Kershaw one more day of rest before bringing him back the mound Saturday.
Greinke will be starting for the first time since Sunday, when his 45 2/3-inning scoreless streak ended. The third batter he faces will be Angels star Mike Trout, who himself missed time this week with a sore wrist. The two faced each other July 14 in the first inning of the All-Star Game, when Trout hit a leadoff home run.
Kershaw and Greinke have a chance, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, to become the teammates with the lowest ERA in a calendar month ever. The record is 0.49 by Orel Hershiser and Tim Belcher in (surprise) September 1988. Greinke basically needs to pitch shutout ball, because even if he allows only one run in a complete game, the duo’s ERA would rise to 0.50.
Southern California’s other 23-year-old center fielder, Joc Pederson, is resting tonight, and Don Mattingly said that Pederson might sit out one or two more games this weekend to get him some rest and allow him to regroup mentally from a July in which he has had a .488 OPS. Mattingly made clear that it was not a punitive benching.
