Re-capping the Dodgers' last 3 games (Thursday through Saturday) with a focus on our starting pitching — our main pain point as we head toward October.
Welcome to Dodger Blue Dream Daily.
Our recap format, what's going on and my take in five minutes.
I'm Richard Parks iii.
Today, Sunday, we're taking a look back at the last three Dodger games with a focus on our starting kitchen, the Dodgers main pain point as we head down the stretch and look toward October.
It is Sunday, September 22, 2024.
The Dodgers are in first place in the NL west, but their lead is down to three games over the Padres, who come town on Tuesday after we finish up a three game series today at Dodger Stadium against the Rockies.
But let's go back to Thursday, a day you heard all about on our last episode.
Shohei Ohtani 5050 ichiban and something that was completely lost in the spectacular of that historic day.
Jack Flaherty gave us a quality start, allowing three runs and five hits over six innings.
And when I say quality start, that is an official baseball term.
When a pitcher gives up three runs or fewer and goes at least six innings, it's a quality start, a very useful yardstick in terms of starting pitching performance.
And the Dodgers are not getting enough quality starts this year.
The Dodgers rank 20th of the 30 MLB teams in quality starts, so we are in the lower third in that category.
But Jack Flaherty, who we picked up at the trade deadline from the tigers, now has 15 quality starts, the most of any Dodgers starter and good for 23rd overall.
Amongst NL pitchers, it's as many as Pirates rookie pitching sensation Paul Skenes, who is the frontrunner to win Rookie of the Year.
In terms of the rest of the Dodgers staff, it's one more than Tyler Glass now, who is likely missing the rest of the year with an elbow strain.
Gavin Stone has 10 but is also probably done and Yoshinobu Yamamoto has seven.
We're going to need Jack Flaherty to come through with quality starting in the postseason and he's probably going to be our number one or number two guy.
We're also hoping for Yoshi to be one of those top two guys.
And in terms of everybody else, we'll see.