Dodger Thoughts

Jill Weisleder/LA Dodgers

By Jon Weisman

Dodger Insider is going to be quiet most of the weekend for family events. Hope to return to victory celebrations!

— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) August 15, 2015

Well, that worked. Three games away, three victories in the books. And a nice opportunity to celebrate them, with an off day today and Clayton Kershaw on the mound at Oakland on Tuesday.

Let me take this opportunity to tie a bunch of loose ends together …

• With 13 innings of one-run ball last week (14 baserunners, 14 strikeouts), Zack Greinke managed to reassert control in the National League Cy Young Award race, even as Kershaw threw eight shutout innings of his own.
• Could Greinke, whose adjusted ERA (in an MLB-leading 165 1/3 innings) is the best in baseball since Pedro Martinez in 2000, follow Kershaw as a Most Valuable Player? The award remains Bryce Harper’s to lose, and though the Nationals have slumped terribly, Harper (.415 on-base percentage in August) isn’t to blame. I don’t believe that MVP contention should be tied to a team’s record, but for those voters who do, Greinke’s top competition if the Nationals disappear would probably be San Francisco’s Buster Posey.
• Would most people be surprised to find that the Dodgers are on pace for a record number of home victories? Los Angeles is playing .677 ball at Dodger Stadium, which would yield a 55-26 home record if that plays out over their final 19 games here. That would match the 1980 Dodgers in victories, but that team unfortunately lost home game No. 82, the one-game NL West playoff against the Astros.
• Looking for the next test? The Dodgers’ next two home series will be against NL playoff contenders Chicago (August 28-30) and San Francisco (August 31-September 2). The Dodgers have lost three home series all season, to the Cardinals, Giants and Mets.
• Since sitting out two of the three games against the Angels, Joc Pederson is hitting .167/.447/.400. In 47 plate appearances, he has two singles, a double, two homers, a hit-by-pitch, a sacrifice fly and 15 walks. There are worse things in the world from a No. 8 hitter than that, plus great defensive range.
• Yasiel Puig’s 10th homer of the year Saturday gave the Dodgers eight players with double-digit homers, their most since a team-record nine players in 2004. The Dodgers will need one more homer from Howie Kendrick when he comes off the disabled list to tie the record, but what about breaking it? Four more homers from Kiké Hernandez in the final 44 games of the season no longer seems like crazy talk.
• Carl Crawford’s OBP in August as a Dodger: .353 in 2013, .360 in 2014, .538 in 2015 (27 plate appearances).
• Dad-for-the-second-time Kenley Jansen’s four-out save Sunday was his first of 2015 and eighth of his career. He has never had a longer outing for a save. But in 34 outings of more than one inning in his career, Jansen’s ERA is 0.50 with 23 hits, 18 walks and 80 strikeouts in 54 innings.
• Jansen has entered 29 games with a lead this year, and the Dodgers have won them all. After his only blown save of 2015, when Arizona’s A.J. Pollock hit a ninth-inning solo homer June 10, Kendrick had a walkoff single in the bottom of the ninth.