Dodgers Top Rockies for 3rd Straight Victory

Dodgers players and officials have said all along that they are just a 10 game winning streak away from getting right back in the thick of the playoff race. Considering the longest streak the Dodgers have had so far this year is 5 games, a 10 game winning streak seems completely unrealistic.

Well after tonight the Dodgers are about a third of the way to their so-called season saving 10 game winning streak. Rubby De La Rosa gave up just 1 run over 6 solid innings lowering his ERA to 3.49.  Andre Ethier hit a mammoth home-run, and the top of the order, Rafael Furcal and Aaron Miles, got on base 4 times, scored three runs and knocked in three as well.

The Dodgers were cruising heading into the 9th inning with an 8-to-1 lead but Hong-Chih Kuo and Mike MacDougal only managed to register 1 out while allowing 6 base-runners and 4 runs. Not to worry as the suddenly unhittable Javy Guerra entered the game with the bases-loaded and got Troy Tulowitzki to hit into the infield fly rule and Seth Smith to ground out to end the game.

Guerra has now retired 12 straight batters and Matt Guerrier even had an effective outing for a change striking out the side in the 7th inning. Kenley Jansen also extended his scoreless streak to 15 innings, thanks to a fantastic defensive play from Tony Gwynn. Jansen’s 2 strikeouts gave him 100 for his career in just 63 innings pitched. He has struck out %38.2 of the major league batters he has faced. (Thanks to True Blue LA for the stats)

The best news of the night for me was Eugenio Velez went 0-for-3 with a strikeout. He’s now 0-for-10 on the season with 3 strikeouts and further illustrated my case that he has no business being on a Major League roster, particularly the Dodgers.

Finally, True Blue LA had a great piece comparing Rubby De La Rosa’s first 50 innings pitched in the big leagues to the numbers Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw put up over their first 50 innings pitched. And in EVERY category Rubby is off to a better start than the other two, which speaks volumes about the potential for greatness Rubby has.

Full compliments to Eric Stephen for his fine work, I won’t try to summarize it I’ll just let his good writing do all the work for me, enjoy.

"Rubby to date has pitched 50 2/3 innings in the big leagues, and he has done pretty well. Here’s how he stacks up against Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw in their first 50 2/3 innings in the majors:First 50 2/3 MLB InningsPitcherYearAgeHRERHRBBUIBBKERAERA+FIPWHIPBA/OBP/SLGOPSOPS+Billingsley200621-2250262263836283.911165.931.737.269/.398/.409.807108Kershaw20082054242442927414.26984.231.638.280/.372/.389.761103De La Rosa20112246222142320493.73973.431.362.247/.330/.376.706101"