The Dodgers dropped their series opener to the Rockies on Friday night 4-1. A series loss to Colorado might have facilitated some kind of significant shakeup for a struggling Dodgers club that had lost six-of-nine going into Saturday. Then Los Angeles' pitching arrived in a big way and carried the club to a series victory that saw them allow only one run in the final two games.
It still isn't perfect for LA, which took two-of-three from the Rockies to give themselves five wins in their last six games and pushed their record up to 38-23. They've continued to struggle hitting with runners in scoring position and from an offensive standpoint it looks like they may need to make a significant move at the trade deadline to add either an outfielder or a shortstop that would allow Mookie Betts to move back to the outfield.
Nevertheless, their pitching staff was terrific in shutting down a not-so-good Rockies club. Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Gavin Stone combined in their starts to pitch 11.0 innings while allowing 11 hits, 1 run and 3 walks with 13 strikeouts.
The bullpen covered the other 7.0 shutout innings, giving up 3 hits, 0 runs and 1 walk with 8 Ks. Daniel Hudson, Blake Treinen and Evan Phillips (fresh off the IL) on Saturday went the final three frames, while Michael Grove, Alex Vesia and Hudson shut things down for four innings Saturday.
Logic says the Dodgers will eventually start scoring runs at the clip they were early in the year. In March they averaged 6.5 runs in six games. In April they plated 5.0 runs per game for the month. From May 1-14 they were scoring 5.6 per game, but in the 17 games since then they've managed just 3.6 runs per game.
Usually that kind of decline over 17 games would mean the type of spiral that moves teams out of first place. For the Dodgers it means going 9-8 and relying more heavily on their pitching staff which appears to be rounding nicely into form. Over that same 17-game stretch where the Dodgers are scoring 3.6 per game, they're allowing just 3.5 per game.
Baseball seasons are too long to win one way, so the Dodgers finding ways to squeeze out wins while their offense scuffles is a pretty significant development. They can't go the rest of the year plating fewer than four runs per game and expect to compete for a championship. That they've found their way back into the win column with some kind of frequency though during this skid is a good sign, and they have their pitching staff to thank.
A version of the Dodgers that hits like they did the first month-and-a-half and pitches like they have the last week or so will be a tough out in October.
