Scott Kazmir – Audition number one

♦ September 22, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

Back in July,  it would have been hard to imagine that Kazmir would be auditioning for a spot on the postseason roster, but August came and everything changed.

Using Baseball Reference to get the game score and sorting by highest game score to lowest we can see that three of his six worst game scores came in his last three games before hitting the disabled list. We learned that when Kazmir hit the DL he had been pitching hurt for a while because the Dodgers had such few rotation options.

Game Score Date IP H ER SO BB Opp Rslt
76 31-May 6 1 0 7 1 CHC W5-0
76 2-Jul 6 3 0 10 0 COL W6-1
75 5-Apr 6 1 0 5 0 SDP W3-0
73 19-Jul 7 4 1 8 0 WSN W8-4
70 14-May 8.2 5 2 7 1 STL W5-3
70 25-May 6 4 1 12 2 CIN W3-1
59 10-Aug 6 4 2 6 3 PHI L2-6
55 27-Apr 6 7 2 6 1 MIA L0-2
52 3-May 6.2 7 4 9 1 TBR W10-5
51 21-Jun 6 8 2 4 1 WSN W3-2
49 30-Jul 6.2 8 4 7 0 ARI L2-4
47 11-Jun 5 3 3 3 5 SFG L4-5
46 16-Jun 4 5 3 8 2 MIL L6-8
46 24-Jul 5 6 3 3 0 STL W9-6
45 9-May 5.2 6 3 6 4 NYM L2-4
45 5-Jun 5 7 3 5 1 ATL W12-6
43 27-Jun 5 4 4 4 4 PIT W5-4
41 22-Apr 5 6 4 3 1 COL L5-7
41 20-May 5.2 3 5 5 7 SDP L6-7
41 17-Aug 5 8 2 1 3 PHI W7-2
40 5-Aug 5.1 5 4 2 4 BOS L0-9
37 8-Jul 3 6 3 5 3 SDP W10-6
31 16-Apr 4 7 4 3 4 SFG L3-4
28 22-Aug 2.2 6 4 1 3 CIN W18-9
27 10-Apr 4 7 6 4 1 SFG L6-9

Kazmir has been good and bad this year, and most people are remembering the bad because three of them came in his final six starts.

You could blame those bad games on the fact he was pitching hurt when the Dodgers couldn’t afford him to miss a turn and I would not argue with you. The question right now as he gets ready to pitch tonight, is he healthy enough to earn a spot on the postseason roster?

I hope so because a healthy Kazmir might be the best option the Dodgers have to follow Kershaw/Maeda/Hill.

One other note, you will notice that two of his best games this year came against the Cubs and Nationals. His best game of the year came against the Cubs.

Scott Kazmir was outstanding for six scoreless innings, going punch-for-punch with Arrieta. The left-hander struck out seven while only allowing one hit, a walk and a hit batter.

 Kazmir struck out 46 batters in May, joining Clayton Kershaw (65) and Alex Wood (41) as the first Dodgers trio with 40 or more strikeouts in a month since July 1963.

That was the best game pitched against the Cubs by a Dodger this year, and the eighth best by any pitcher.

His game against the Nationals on July 19th was the best game pitched by a LAD against the Nationals and the 11th best overall.

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