Trending Up, Trending Down: Greinke & Kershaw Shine, Rollins Improving
It was an up-and-down week for the Los Angeles Dodgers as they completed a 10-game road trip by going 5-5 against the Washington Nationals, Atlanta Braves and New York Mets. After taking two of three from the Nationals, the Dodgers suffered a combined four losses to the Braves and Mets.
Despite ending the trip on a down note, there were plenty of great pitching performances out of the All-Star break.
Now let’s take a look at which players had success and those that didn’t during the 10-game stretch.
Trending Down:
Zach Lee: Making his Major League debut against the Mets on Saturday, Lee struggled throughout the entire outing. In 4.2 innings pitched, he allowed 11 hits (including a home run) and issued one walk while striking out three. After one start, his ERA and WHIP for the season sit at 13.50 and 2.57, respectively.
Yasiel Puig: In his last five starts (seven games), Puig reached base just twice in 22 plate appearances (.091 on-base percentage). Despite the low OBP, both of his hits went for home runs. As the week concludes, his batting line for the year diminished to .253/.327/.423.
Carl Crawford: Since being activated off the disabled list, Crawford has yet to find his stride. In nine at-bats (five games), he recorded just one hit and struck out three times. As a result, his slash line for the season dropped to .224/.237/.362.
CONTINUE READING: Jimmy Rollins Among Dodgers On The Rise
I believe that Puig was benched each day after he hit a homer. I wonder if between his injuries and these “rests” if he is just having a hard time getting locked it. I was really skeptical about his being taken out of right field for the ninth inning last night. I don’t think that Granderson would have gotten the double (or even have tried it) if Puig had been there.
Granderson would have certainly not run on Puig in the 9th inning, IF and only IF Puig managed to hustle to the ball and there’s just no way you can be sure he would have hustled to the ball, or even been ready for the play, or even perhaps not had his back to home plate picking his nose when the pitch was thrown! Furthermore, If Puig had perhaps been pulled earlier in the game or perhaps not been in the lineup at all, would the dodgers still have had NO runs at the end of the 8th inning? Puig right now as a part of the lineup and defense is like playing russian roulette with 4 rounds in the cylinder – there’s more down side than up side.