Dodgers Retrospective - Week 4

Week 4 was like two weeks in one. There was the really ugly part of the week where the Dodgers were swept by the Mets in New York before coming home and losing the series opener to the Pirates 2-0 on Thursday.

And then there was the second part of the week ... suddenly: Pitching! Hitting! Winning! The Dodgers suddenly turned it on and took the last three games from the Pirates.

Ultimately, though, the Dodgers still went under .500 on the week. The Dodgers are 4-11 on the road this season. On the bright side, they are 7-3 at home, so there's that.



Hiroki Kuroda - Kuroda had two good starts this week. In the first game of the doubleheader against the Mets, Kuroda surrendered just two runs in 6.0 innings. Then on Sunday, Kuroda went 8.0 strong innings against the Pirates allowing just one run. 14.0 innings, three runs. Kuroda has a 2.08 ERA on the season.



Andre Ethier - Andre went 9-26 this week with three walks, two doubles, and four homeruns.




Clayton Kershaw - Kershaw had one start this week, and like last week, it was pretty solid. 6.2 innings, two runs, and seven strikeouts.

Chad Billingsley - Billingsley had a similar week. In his one start, he went 6.0 innings, gave up two runs as well, though Billingsley only struck out four.



Carlos Monasterios - Monasterios had a start this week, too, the first of his major league career, and though he only went four innings, they were quality (just one run on a solo homerun). Plus, add to that the two innings of scoreless relief he pitched Tuesday, and his final line for the week comes to 6.0 innings, one run.



James Loney - Loney's hitting this week kind of paralleled the performance of the Dodgers in general. Loney during the four losses: 1-14 with four strikeouts. Loney during the three wins: 8-11, three doubles, a walk, and a homer. I know that ultimately makes Loney 9-25 on the week, but I'm giving him two stars for a half good week and a half bad week ... because I can.

The two faces of James Loney this week.

Garret Anderson - Another week, another step closer to a DFA for Anderson. 0-7 with four strikeouts. He's now on a 1-26 tear since April 14th. Now, I know I advocated for putting Anderson on the roster when we signed him in Spring Training and I stand by that because the alternative was Doug Mientkiewicz and it seemed we were destined to have an old guy on the roster. However, Mientkiewicz is gone (somewhere) so we don't need to worry about him, and Xavier Paul has looked pretty good in the last week, so here's to hoping we keep Paul over Anderson when the next roster move comes.

Russell Martin - Martin started the year strong but has since seen his numbers starting to dip. He went 3-24 with a homerun and a couple walks.

Martin scoring on one of his hits this week ... because they don't take pictures of people not getting hits.

Casey Blake - Blake had an even worse week than Martin. 1-20 with a couple walks. Maybe it's time to start letting the beard grow again.



The Dodgers went 3-4 on the week, but it still feels like a win because you start to feel like the momentum has shifted.

Of course, it could just be because we played the Pirates, but I'd like to look on the positive side and say we've turned a corner.

Six games coming up at home this week against the Brewers and the Rockies, two teams that should be good but have gotten off to slow starts.

Is this the week? Is this finally the week we get over .500? A guy can hope, right?