Los Angeles Dodgers: Top starting staffs in LAD history
By Jamaal Artis
1981 Los Angeles Dodgers (Shortened Season, 110 Games)
Starter Wins: 46
Starter ERA: 3.01
The Los Angeles Dodgers won their first World Series title since 1965 in a weird season that was interrupted by a players’ strike midseason. This season was known by most fans as “FernandoMania,” thanks to the Dodgers 20-year-old rookie Fernando Valenzuela.
Valenzuela marked his debut as a starter with a 2-0 shutout of the Houston Astros and then took off from there, leading the league in starts (25), complete games (11), shutouts (8), innings (192.1), and strikeouts (180) on the way to winning the NL Rookie of the Year and NL Cy Young Awards.
The Dodgers were more than just one starter in ’81, with veterans Burt Hooton and Jerry Reuss rounding out the staff, and young fireballer Bob Welch also contributing. Valenzuela (2.48), Hooton (2.28), and Reuss (2.30) all had ERAs below 3.00.
The team’s main trio was so strong they accounted for nine of the Dodgers’ 10 postseason wins and went the distance four times en route to the World Series title.