Anyway, let's take a look at the week.
It started pretty badly. The pitching fell apart and the Astros took the first two games of the series, handing the Dodgers their first series loss of the year.
The Dodgers came back, however, and won the next three games. That winning streak was snapped on Sunday, though, when the Rockies were mean to Dodger pitching, and beat us to avoid their 2nd sweep in just over a week.
The Dodgers went 3-3 on the road trip for the week.
And with that, let's do Round 3 of HOT, COLD, or ROOM TEMPERATURE.
COLD:
- Hong-Chih Kuo - 1-0 (1 game), 1 blown save, 18.00 ERA (2 earned runs in 1.0 innings) - What is going on with Kuo? Or with Torre's usage of him for that matter? Kuo made one appearance this week, which is weird because there was more than a few occasions where he could have been used. And what did Kuo do in his one appearance? He gave up a two-run game tying homerun to Clint Barmes. And then he hit a batter. Uh-oh.
- Clayton Kershaw - 0-2 (2 games), 15.00 ERA (15 earned runs in 9.0 innings), 6 walks, 7 Ks, 3 homeruns, .432 Batting Average Against - Oh Clayton, what's happened to you? After the best performance of your young career, you follow it up with your worst performance. And then you follow that performance, with an even worse performance (though admittedly, three runs were allowed once he was out of the game in the 10-4 loss to Colorado, April 26th). His ERA jumped from 1.50 to 7.29 this week. Plain and simple: he got lit up. I mean, I know it's a lot of pressure to put on a 21-year old in his first full season in the majors, but we need him this year. He's our number three starter. No more of these kinds of starts, please.
ROOM TEMPERATURE:
- Matt Kemp - .182 (4-22), 1 3B, 3 walks, 1 SB, 7 Ks - I was debating with myself whether or not to drop Kemp to "COLD" or not. It's been a pretty bad week for Kemp following a pretty great week. I'll say he's "ROOM TEMPERATURE" just due to the residual heat from last week. His hitting streak got to 14 games this week before being snapped, and then he fell into an almost immediate slump, highlighted with an 0-5 night with three Ks and seven runners left-on-base (a 6-5 win, April 24th in Colorado). Kemp cooled off quick, so maybe there's hope he'll heat up quick as well? Who knows...
- Orlando Hudson - .280 (7-25), 2 2Bs, 4 walks, 2 Ks - Hudson, like Kemp, has cooled down. Now, mind you, .280 ain't bad. It ain't great, but it ain't bad. It's "ROOM TEMPERATURE." Ahhhh, see what I did there? Anyway, point is, Hudson's not raking like he was last week.
HOT:
- James Loney - .375 (9-24), 5 2Bs, 4 walks, 5 RBIs - The resurrection of James Loney! Ok, too dramatic, but Loney's had a nice week. Still waiting on a homerun, a little power would be nice, but if he can keep driving in the runs, I can live with a little lack of power.
- Manny Ramírez - .333 (7-21), 2 HRs, 6 RBIs, 7 Ks - Even with his nasty 0-5 day with 3 Ks (a 6-5 win, April 25th in Colorado), Manny's continued to hit and drive in runs this week, even though he is striking out at a high rate.
- Ramon Troncoso - 0-0, 1 save (2 games), 0.00 ERA (0 runs in 5.2 innings), .052 BAA - What? Troncoso? Yeah Troncoso! Ramon Troncoso has been on this week. Not just on, he's been clutch. He came in in the bottom of the 6th inning in the April 21st game (an 8-5 loss in Houston) with the bases loaded and one out. Not only did he get out of that inning unscathed, he pitched another clean inning in relief. And how did he follow up that performance? He went 4.0 scoreless innings in relief in the 6-5 win on April 25th in Colorado. That's right, he had a one run margin to protect in Coors Field for almost half a game and he dominated the Rockies. He's been a real nice surprise out of the bullpen so far this year.
- Chad Billingsley - 1-0, 0.00 ERA (0 runs in 7.1 innings), 5 Ks - Yeah, Billingsley only had one start this week, but boy was it a good one. He put an end to the two-game losing streak we were on by completely stopping the Astros offense, who had given us trouble the previous two games. And by doing that, he picked up the win and brought his record to 4-0 (a tie for the major league high).
- Jonathan Broxton - 0-0, 2 saves (2 games), 0.00 ERA (2.2 innings), 4 Ks - Ok, so Broxton hasn't had the most amazing week ever. He's been good, but I have to acknowledge how great he's been this year. 1-0, 6-6 in save opportunities, 0.96 ERA, 15 Ks in 9.1 innings. On top of that all, he's picked up a couple of 1.0+ inning saves. He's been very good this year, even better than expected.
Alrighty then. That's actually a lot of "HOT" players for a team that went .500 during the week. Let's hope for a few more wins out of those "HOT" players this week.
I like doing this on Monday, I think I'll stick with it.
Let's see if I make it for next week.
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