Week Recap: 08/17/09 - 08/23/09

We're back, for another week recap.

Dodgers started the week splitting two games with the Cardinals, before losing the third game and the series.

They started the next series by taking three straight from the Cubs, before the Cubs won the fourth game, avoiding the sweep.

They went 4-3 during the week, going over .500 in a week for the first time in the last month. All things considered, not a terrible week.

Which brings us to Round 17 of HOT, COLD, or ROOM TEMPERATURE:

COLD:

• Rafael Furcal - .167 (5-30), 2 RBIs, 5 Ks - Furcal's season long slump continues. Which begs the question, how long does a slump go in a season before you just declare the season a waste? Furcal's shown some flashes of brilliance recently, but this week was a regression.

• Manny Ramírez - .200 (5-25), 1 2B, 1 RBI, 3 BBs, 5 Ks - Talk about slumping. Manny's been pretty punchless recently (.240 slg this week) but now he's not even getting the regular base hits.

ROOM TEMPERATURE:

• Casey Blake - .250 (6-24), 2 HRs, 4 RBIs, 6 Ks - Not too many hits this week for Blake, but he did drive in some runs, including two on solo homeruns. It's good to see Blake flashing a little power again after hitting only one homerun in 34 games from June 27th to August 6th. He's hit three since then (obviously two in the last week).

HOT:

• Matt Kemp - .333 (7-21), 2 2Bs, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 5 Ks, 1-2 SBs, .905 OPS - A nice week for Kemp, despite blowing his bobblehead night (0-4).

• George Sherrill - 0-0, 1 SV, 2 HLDs (3 games), 0.00 ERA (3.1 IP), 2 Ks - Sherrill collected his first save as a Dodger this week, but this "HOT" is just to acknowledge that Sherrill has been excellent since arriving in L.A. He's appeared in 11 games so far, going 11.2 scoreless innings while holding opponents to a .195 BAA. He's also picked up six holds over that time, plus the save this week.

• Randy Wolf - 1-0 (1 start), 1.29 ERA (1 ER in 7.0 IP), 5 Ks - Only one start this week for Wolf, but another quality one, holding the Cubs to one hit over seven innings. Good stuff.

• Jonathan Broxton - 0-1, 2 SVs, 1 HLD (5 games), 0.00 ERA (1 unearned run in 5.1 IP), 9 Ks - A nice bounce back week for Broxton, the only black mark being the loss he took against the Cardinals, though that could be attributed as much to Russell Martin as to Broxton. Either way, I guess he doesn't need time off like I suggested last week.

• Charlie Haeger - 1-1 (2 starts), 1.93 ERA (3 ER in 14.0 IP), 9 Ks - Haeger had to face the Cardinals' and Cubs' lineups this week, and came out pretty unscathed. In fact, Haeger was probably only two bad pitches away from shutting down both teams this week. For a guy who was just supposed to come up and eat some innings, he's done a lot more than that for the Dodgers. Whether this keeps up or not is yet to be seen, but for now, I'm just going to enjoy watching that knuckleball dance.

Alright, big time series coming up now. Three games in Colorado. The Rockies play later tonight, and depending on how that goes, they could be either 3 or 4 games behind by the end of the night. Looking at the pitching matchups, they seem to favor us, but with the way the Dodgers have been hitting, who knows?