Corey Seager – anatomy of a sixteen game hitting streak
Corey Seager extended his streak to 16 games yesterday, with two singles.
- 71 PA, 27 hits, 14 runs scored, 8 doubles, 1 triple, 2 home runs
- Eight multi-hit games, six times he’s had two hits, one time he’s had three hits, one time he’s had four hits
- Triple slash line of .415 / .465 / .662 with a robust OPS of 1.126
- Tied for longest hitting streak of 2016 with Marcell Ozuna
- Currently the longest active hitting streak in baseball
LAD – by the numbers 07/04/16
Dodgers starters have figured in the winning decision four games in a row, the last time they accomplished that was May 22nd – May 25. That was done by Stripling, Kershaw, Bolsinger, and Kazmir. Only Kazmir is still in the rotation, and Kazmir was once again part of the current quartet to pull if off, Maeda, Norris, Kazmir, and McCarthy.
Brandon McCarthy is still undefeated as a Dodger, picking up his first win of 2016, coming off of his 3 – 0 record in 2015. McCarthy had a game score of 70 yesterday, which matched his best game score of 2015 on April 19th, also against Colorado, also at home.
Corey Seager removed all suspense about his hitting streak when he singled in the 1st inning, extending his hitting streak to sixteen games. Corey is now tied with Marcell Ozuna for the longest hitting streak of 2016. Corey’s hitting streak is the longest active streak.
Trayce Thompson hit his 13th home run, moving past previous ROY Todd Hollandsworth who hit 12 in 1996. Since seeing his OPS drop to .768 on June 27th, he has raised it back to .796.
Adam Liberatore pitched a scoreless sixth inning yesterday and has not allowed a run in his last 21 games (16.0 IP). Adam is two games away from tying the Dodger record for most consecutive scoreless appearances of 23 set by John Candelaria in 1991.
Dodgers are ten games over .500 for the first time in 2016. The sweep of the Rockies was the fifth sweep of the year for the Dodgers, but just the 2nd time the Rockies have been swept.
Howie Kendrick stealthily stealing his way into LAD history
Howie Kendrick has ways to go to break the LAD record of successful steals without being caught, but Howie has at least put himself on the leaderboard. Howie has stolen seven bases this year without being caught. Jamey Carroll once stole 10 bases without being caught.
It is doubtful that Howie can break the record because he would need to steal at least four bases and remain perfect for the whole season. Still, in a year where I’ve been rough on our left fielder, he has managed to do this one thing very well.
| Player | SB | CS | Year | |||
| Jamey Carroll | | | 10 | | | 0 | | | 2011 |
| Matt Kemp | | | 9 | | | 0 | | | 2013 |
| Eric Karros | | | 8 | | | 0 | | | 1996 |
| Greg Brock | | | 8 | | | 0 | | | 1984 |
| Howie Kendrick | | | 7 | | | 0 | | | 2016 |
| Mark Grudzielanek | | | 7 | | | 0 | | | 1998 |
| Bill Russell | | | 7 | | | 0 | | | 1986 |
Dodgers haven’t lost since losing Kershaw to DL
The Dodgers needed a shot in the arm just as much as Clayton Kershaw needed a shot in the back, and they both got just what they needed. Clayton received his epidural and is awaiting confirmation that he can start progressing toward a return. In the meantime, Bud Norris and Brandon McCarthy were added to the rotation just in the nick of time, and the results were spectacular.
The red-hot Dodgers have now won four in a row, and ninth in a row at home as Brandon McCarthy made a successful return to the Dodger rotation.
Craig Minami over at TBLA pulled up an interesting stat today.
Today will mark something that has not happened since 2003 when Darren Dreifort came back from Tommy John surgery to start 10 games for the Dodgers.
Since then, no Dodger starting pitcher who had Tommy John surgery during his major league Dodger career has made his return as a starter. Brandon McCarthy will be the fourth Dodger pitcher to make his return at the major league level: the others are Tommy John, John Tudor and Dreifort.
Given how many pitchers have had Tommy John surgery in the last 42 years, this was quite a surprise to me.
To the surprise of everyone, the Dodger starters held the Rockies scoreless in every game this weekend. Norris / Kazmir / McCarthy threw seventeen innings of scoreless ball. I’m not sure when the last time that happened so I’ll wait for someone to tell me but that seems like a rare occurrence.
The Giants / Mets / Cardinals all won so no ground was won but no ground was lost either.
Corey Seager extended his hitting streak to 16 games, and now it tied with Marcell Ozuna for the longest hitting streak of 2016. It is the current longest active streak.
Trayce Thompson blasted a home run to get the scoring started, and ended up with two hits. Trayce now has multiple hits in three of his last four games.
Yazmani Grandal continues to be an RBI machine, slugging another home run. Grandal now has thirty runs batted in, with only thirty hits. Contrast with Howie Kendrick who has driven in fifteen runs, with fifty-five hits. Multi-run home runs go a long way to salve a .185 batting average. Does this seem fair comparing Grandal to Howie? It is not like Howie is a 2nd baseman anymore, according to Dave Roberts he’s a LF, and left fielders are expected to drive in runs. Especially when the manager has them batting fifth or sixth in the batting order most of the time. So yeah, I think it is fair.
LAD – by the numbers 7/3/16 – home cooking hot
A. J. Ellis has now gone two months without scoring a run, after scoring seven in April, and one on May 1st.
Following their victory over the Rockies last night, the Dodgers have won eight in a row at home. They are now 16 – 3 at home since May 17th.
With the Giants meltdown last night, the Dodgers have moved to within five games of 1st place in the NL West.
The Dodgers are now nine games over .500 for the first time in 2016
The Dodgers wild card lead increased to 1. 5 games over the Mets and 2.5 games over the Cardinals.
Corey Seager extended his hitting streak to fifteen games. That is now the fifth-longest hitting streak in LAD history. Tommy Davis had a 20 game streak in 1960, Bill Sudakis had an 18 game streak in 1969, Andre Ethier and Steve Sax both had 16 game hitting streaks.
Justin Turner collected three hits last night, and since June 4th has a triple slash line of .340/.381/.681. Turner has eight doubles, eight home runs, and twenty-three runs batted in during this run.
Howie Kendrick went 100 plate appearances as a left fielder before driving in a run that was not himself on Friday night. Overall Howie is hitting .310 since June 13th.
In the past five starts for Trayce Thompson starting on June 28th, he has collected two hits, zero hits, two hits, zero hits, two hits. Which sure beats the stretch from June 20th to June 27th where he went zero for nineteen.
Scott Kazmir tied his LAD high game score last night with a 76. His 10 strikeouts were the 2nd time he reached double digits in strikeouts as a LAD.
Corey Seager – Anatomy of a 15 game hitting streak
Corey Seager extended his streak to 15 games last night with another single in four at-bats. With just a single in each of his last two games, the strength of the streak is starting to slow down.
- 66 PA, 25 hits, 14 runs scored, 8 doubles, 1 triple, 2 home runs
- Seven multi-hit games, five times he’s had two hits, one time he’s had three hits, one time he’s had four hits
- In seven of his last nine games he’s had at least one extra-base hit
Corey Seager – Anatomy of a 14 game hitting streak
Corey Seager extended his streak to 14 games last night pushing his batting average over .300, and has now reached the magical .900 OPS mark. We know all streaks are not created equal. Some are simply a bunch of unproductive singles sprinkled in with a double here and there. This streak is not one of those:
- 62 PA, 24 hits, 12 runs scored, 8 doubles, 1 triple, 2 home runs
- Triple stat line of .421 / .468 / .702
- Seven multi-hit games, five times he’s had two hits, one time he’s had three hits, one time he’s had four hits
- In seven of his last eight games he’s had at least one extra-base hit
James Loney settling in with the NY Mets
The long time LAD ex -first baseman has shockingly filled the void of the Lucas Duda injury for the Mets.
James Loney was toiling in AAA for the Padres on May 27th when he was purchased by the NY Mets to replace Lucas Duda who had been placed on the DL. Loney couldn’t even hold a job with Tampa Bay this past spring, but the purchase by the Mets has put new life into his old bat.
James Loney has a triple stat line of .297 / .345 / .495 in 120 plate appearances. That slugging % is the highest it has been since early 2013. One has to assume that will be the peak for Loney, and a long slow (or fast) climb down the triple stat line ladder is in his future. Yet, it has been great to see Loney get some keys hits when it looked like his major league career was done.
Maybe Will Venable can do the same for the Dodgers. They were both released this spring, both hooked up with AAA teams, both were given a second chance.
Corey Seager wins his first NL Rookie of the Month award
Per the press release:
Dodgers rookie shortstop Corey Seager led Major League rookies in hitting (.343, 35-for-102), hits, home runs (8), runs (20), total bases (69), and slugging (.676), while pacing National League rookies with a .409 on-base percentage and eight doubles. The 22-year-old slugger’s 13 RBI were the third-most among NL rookies last month. This is his first career monthly award, and the first for a Dodgers rookie since Alex Guerrero (April 2015).
It all sounded so good until the last sentence.
Bud Norris 3rd best game score for pitcher traded in-season in LAD history
As Bud Norris was shutting down the Rockies last night, my mind wandered back to Brad Penny and his brilliant debut. Paul Depodesta blew up Los Angeles by trading Paul Loduca, the heart and soul of the team in the middle of a pennant race for Penny. Depo knew the team needed another starter if they were going to have a chance against the Cardinals in the postseason and made a calculated gamble that was disliked by most Dodger fans.
It was a brilliant move by Depodesta that looked great after the Brad Penny debut. Penny would put up the greatest game score debut for a pitcher that was traded for during the season. Unfortunately, for Depodesta the trade ultimately backfired when Penny was shut down after only two starts with nerve damage. Penny would make one more start but was unable to pitch in the postseason.
I started researching to see how the Bud Norris debut held up. The criteria was very simple, players traded for during the season and their debut game. I’m using the game score metric for this list.
Very well, actually. Number three on the list. I remember each of these games except the Rick Honeycut and Jim Bunning games.
Carlos Perez would not only have a great debut game, but would go on a roll that Sept tossing two shutouts, and pitching nine innings four games in a row.
There are some solid LAD names on this list, along with some very forgettable ones who were thankfully gone after the season ended. Nolasco, Garland, Correia, and Hernandez in particular.
I was surprised that Brian Bohannon did not make the cut.
I was also surprised at how few trades were made from 1958 – 1980 during the season. Jim Bunning was an exception. The 1969 Dodgers traded for HOF Bunning in August and the future HOF and Senator provided a game score of 63. I had forgotten the Dodgers in 69 were even in the pennant race that late in the year.
| Player | Date | GamsScore |
| Brad Penny | 8/3/2004 | 81 |
| Ricky Honeycut | 8/21/1983 | 76 |
| Bud Norris | 7/1/2016 | 75 |
| Ted Lilly | 8/3/2010 | 74 |
| Greg Maddux | 8/3/2006 | 72 |
| Carlos Perez | 8/1/1998 | 72 |
| Ricky Nolasco | 7/9/2013 | 70 |
| Jon Garland | 9/3/2009 | 64 |
| Kevin Correia | 8/11/2014 | 64 |
| Roberto Hernandez | 8/8/2014 | 63 |
| Jim Bunning | 8/19/1969 | 63 |
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 