Hiroki Kuroda Can Beat the Pirates With His Eyes Closed
May 11, 2011 at 7:19 pm | Posted in Hiroki Kuroda | 41 Comments
Just another ho-hum outing for Hiroki Kuroda, right? Seven scoreless innings, three hits allowed, and eight strikeouts. That’s the tenth time he’s gone at least seven scoreless in his career, and makes for the sixth time in eight starts this season he’s allowed three or fewer earned runs. He seriously doesn’t get the respect he deserves, and I think that’s in large part because even with tonight’s win, his career record is just 32-33. And people, you know, still care about that for some reason.
Kuroda had to be great in this one, because once again, the Dodger offense provided him with just about no support. Only once in nine innings did the Dodgers manage to get a runner to third base, and that was in a sixth inning that wasn’t nearly as productive as the box score made it look – of the six Dodgers to reach base, only one hit the ball out of the infield. Ivan DeJesus – hitting second, because he’s the second baseman and second basemen hit second, dammit – drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second on an infield single by Andre Ethier. Matt Kemp walked to load the bases with no outs… and Juan Uribe, who went 0-4 and has two singles in his last 24 plate appearances, did his best to kill the rally by grounding into a double play. That scored DeJesus (I had turned off the Dodger feed by that point in favor of the Pittsburgh telecast, though I assume that Steve Lyons praised Uribe for strategically getting the run home), and then Pirate manager Clint Hurdle did us all the favor of intentionally walking Rod Barajas because… well, I don’t really know why. Jerry Sands poked a double down the right field line to score Ethier, and after an intentional walk to Russ Mitchell (again, don’t ask me why), Kuroda finally ended the threat. Sands now has four hits and three walks over his last three games, whereas Rod Barajas is Rod Barajas.
That was that, as the Dodgers had only one runner reach second before the sixth, and just one after. All hail Kuroda.
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Barajas was intentionally walked because he’s a monster against lefties. This season he’s batting .357/.400/.714 against southpaws. That’s a 1.114 OPS boys and girls.
Russ Mitchell was walked because Maholm was struggling and so might as well get the easy out with Kuroda.
Comment by Tony Fernandez— May 11, 2011 #
And over his long career Barajas has almost no LH/RH split. I don’t think this year’s small sample size on that (30 PA vs LHP) is really changing that.
re: Mitchell, he’s a pretty easy out too. Then you could start the next inning with the pitcher up.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— May 11, 2011 #
It would probably be a pinch hitter leading off the next inning though considering how late in the game it is.
And you know the old saying in baseball, what have you done for me lately? Besides, Barajas also had 2 hits in 3 AB against Maholm. I know, small sample size, but the statistics were all for walking to get to Sands.
Comment by Tony Fernandez— May 11, 2011 #
No they weren’t. Sands is a top prospect who profiles as at least a decent hitter. Rod Barajas is…Rod Barajas.
As for Mitchell – I kind of get that move. Kuroda is an absolutely awful hitter. He’s not even an awful hitter with a little pop like Nomo was. Mitchell at least still has some upside with the bat.
Comment by Alireza— May 12, 2011 #
Yeah but doesn’t Barajas have nice numbers against Maholm specifically?
Comment by crushinator— May 12, 2011 #
2 for 3? WAY too small a sample size.
Comment by Alireza— May 12, 2011 #
Sands is also a rookie hitting .212 in the big leagues RIGHT NOW with a 73 OPS+. You might as well test him to see if you can get him to swing at a bad pitch in a big situation.
That being said, given the particular context of having a runner on 3rd and already having 2 outs, I’m not sure I understand the reasoning behind that move.
Comment by Jorge— May 12, 2011 #
We need our pitching to be this good. 3.7 runs per game isn’t going to get the job done without stellar pitching.
Comment by Josh— May 11, 2011 #
We’re averaging 3.7 runs per game? Hot diggity!
Comment by Bip— May 12, 2011 #
Mike, did you hear when Eric Collins stated that Xavier Paul was called up in 2009 to take Manny’s place when he was suspended LOL.
Comment by format— May 11, 2011 #
well he was
Comment by Juan Pierre— May 12, 2011 #
Was anyone else getting annoyed with Steve lyons’ strange obsession with the ducks in left field? He would not shut up about the damn things
Comment by Andy Koufax— May 11, 2011 #
I wasn’t annoyed… In fact it was somewhat enjoyable. You know if you were at the stadium you’d be laughing at the ducks in left field, too. But if you really have that much of an issue with it – lighten up!!
Comment by SFDodgerFan— May 11, 2011 #
Ummm that was more sarcastic musing than actual anger…. But maybe you and Steve Lyons can get together and watch animal planet together
Comment by Andy Koufax— May 11, 2011 #
I totally would. Would you pass that along to steve for me?
Comment by Jeff— May 12, 2011 #
Can someone duct tape that guys mouth already
Comment by DodgersKings323— May 12, 2011 #
I’m surprised that the Dodgers were able to muster a couple run with offensive juggernaut Miles out of the lineup.
Comment by cjw2323— May 11, 2011 #
Everyone is overlooking the performance of Vicente Padilla. This guy unquestionably has all of his internal organs.
Comment by Justin— May 12, 2011 #
Yup, until his first blown save in a few days
Comment by DodgersKings323— May 12, 2011 #
A few spot saves doesn’t usually make headlines unless you’re K’ing 15 per 9 or something. Padilla, by normal standards has been very good but not lights out, which on it’s own doesn’t deserve a whole lot of attention. However, I agree that Padilla is getting overlooked a little, not because he’s been so amazing, but because the rest of the bullpen has been so weak (mentally and physically, as well as performance-wise, apparently) that a reliable bullpen arm is like water in the desert.
Comment by Bip— May 12, 2011 #
The bullpen actually seems like it’s improving lately. Look:
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MacDougal – 2 ER in 12.1 IP on the season, 1.30 WHIP
Padilla – 2 ER in 7 IP on the season, 1.00 WHIP
Hawksworth – 2 ER in 8.1 IP since April 15, 1.21 WHIP on the season
Guerrier – two bad outings, 0 ER in his other 15 G
Jansen – 0 ER and 0.83 WHIP in 5 G since April 19
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I’m not saying the bullpen’s been great, of course. Broxton, Kuo, Cormier, and Troncoso have been downright dreadful. But some of the others have been doing pretty well, either since the start of the season or in the past three weeks or so. And of those four who have struggled, three are not currently on the 25-man, and even Cormier’s starting to come around.
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We’ve been losing a lot of games the past few weeks, but few if any have been the bullpen’s fault. Lack of offense has been killing us, not the bullpen.
Comment by nsxtasy— May 12, 2011 #
Pitching in general hasn’t been stellar this year. We are 22nd in ERA, 23rd in BAA. The gints are hitting .236 as a team and are on pace for 90 wins. Why? Pitching. They lead the Majors with a .218 BAA. Those guys are good. If they ever start hitting….
Comment by Rory— May 12, 2011 #
>> We are 22nd in ERA, 23rd in BAA.
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But most of that is because of problems with the starters and bullpen in the first 2-3 weeks of the season. The past 4 weeks or so have been a big improvement. I’m sure we’re not 22nd in ERA if you could find splits for how we’ve done since mid-April.
Comment by nsxtasy— May 12, 2011 #
To further reinforce the point, TBLA notes that March 31 through April 16, our starters had a collective ERA of 5.06, and April 17 through May 10, 3.17 (and it’s even lower if you include last night’s shutout). So no, the pitching wasn’t stellar at the start of the season, but it has improved dramatically since then.
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http://www.truebluela.com/2011/5/11/2164951/dodgers-quality-starts
Comment by nsxtasy— May 12, 2011 #
That’s what happened last year too. Remember the beginning of last year when we were concerned that our pitching wouldn’t show up to support our nearly best in the bigs offense? Where have those days gone?
Comment by Bip— May 12, 2011 #
Don’t really care if Cormier comes around, since he’ll never see the field in a game that’s closer than about 6 runs.
Comment by Dave— May 12, 2011 #
The bullpen HAD to do better. It was really hard for it to be worse
Comment by Alireza— May 12, 2011 #
I’m sure they would have found a way. ;)
Comment by Jorge— May 12, 2011 #
Yeah, it’s better. We only have two months to look at – in April we were 21st in ERA and 24th in BAA. In May we are 21st in ERA and 11th in BAA.
This staff can be good. But so far? not so much. And with such a pedestrian offense, the pitching needs to be in the top 5. Does anyone believe they will be?
Comment by Rory— May 12, 2011 #
>> Yeah, it’s better. We only have two months to look at – in April we were 21st in ERA and 24th in BAA. In May we are 21st in ERA and 11th in BAA.
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In May we’re 16th in ERA, not 21st. Source: http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/pitching/split/41
Comment by nsxtasy— May 12, 2011 #
Typo. That’s why I said it was better. Thanks for the correction.
Comment by Rory— May 12, 2011 #
Also, our rotation is 9th in ERA since the start of the season, which includes those dreadful first 2-3 weeks.
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As for top 5, the top five in team ERA right now are the Athletics (19-18), Braves (20-18), Phillies (24-12), Padres (15-22), and ‘ants (20-16). So obviously there’s more to success than being in the top five in ERA.
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The problem with the 2011 Dodgers is the same as it was the second half of last year. It isn’t the pitching. It’s the offense.
Comment by nsxtasy— May 12, 2011 #
And how did we solve that problem last year? Oh, that’s right, Scott Podsednik and Ryan Theriot.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— May 12, 2011 #
The same Podsednik that got released yesterday from the Las Vegas 51s (Blue Jays)…
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/05/blue-jays-release-scott-podsednik.html
Comment by Goober— May 12, 2011 #
The sad thing is that they replaced superior offensive players – Manny Ramirez and Blake DeWitt. Hell, it would have probably been better to bring up John Lindsey and move James Loney to LF than play Podsednik
Comment by Alireza— May 12, 2011 #
I hope you’re not seriously referring to the guy who’s the THIRD string second baseman for the Cubs, with a .260 lifetime batting average and who has never hit more than 9 HR in a season, as a “superior offensive player”. :)
Comment by nsxtasy— May 12, 2011 #
And we only got those guys because we were ‘in the pennant race’ This year it looks like we are in the ’75 win race’ so I don’t expect any ‘big’ moves like that this year. Our only hope would be for the pitching to hold out all season, Kemp and Ethier continue to hit .350+, Carroll and Miles bat over .300 and old guys Furcal and Blake finish strong after resting on the DL. Did I forget anything??? Oh yeah Loney hits .385 the rest of the year with 38 doubles and 13 HRs and Barajas gets enough rest to continue on his torrid pace. OK thats everything
Comment by David S— May 12, 2011 #
Well lets hope we’re nowhere in the race come the trade deadline or I’d hate to see what other young guns we lose because of a desperation move by Coletti.
Comment by Jorge— May 12, 2011 #
Alireza was clearly referring to Manny being superior to Pods and DeWitt being superior to The Riot.
Comment by The Dude Abides— May 12, 2011 #
DeWitt isn’t significantly superior to Theriot on offense. They’re both pretty awful by any measure.
Comment by nsxtasy— May 12, 2011 #
Did he say “significantly?” I don’t see that word in his comment. Maybe it was edited out?
Comment by The Dude Abides— May 12, 2011 #