Dodgers: Starting Pitcher Grades for August

Hill came into August as the reigning NL pitcher of the month. He won the award in July in which he was quietly dominant. However, he had a 4.71 ERA during August to go with 36 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings pitched. Hill, like Maeda, had one dominant outing where he threw an incredible game, but followed up that start was followed up by an outing to forget.

Hill made five starts during the month, and he gave up a home-run in every single one of those games. The long ball was a big problem for him this month. He gave up 7 in his five starts. With all the off-speed pitches he throws it is important for him to keep batters off-balance. Since he doesn’t have the velocity to blow hitters away, he relies on deception. When batters are ambushing him early in the count, he can be prone to giving up bombs.

Rich Hill pitched one of the greatest games of his career this month. He was able to take a no-hitter past the 9^th inning and had a perfect game going through 8 innings. He came in to pitch the 10^th and gave up his only hit which happened to be a home-run to Josh Harrison which cost Hill the no-no, shutout and the game. This once in a lifetime performance boosts his overall grade for the month which was otherwise below average.