Hiroki Kuroda has once again proven to be one of the best pitchers in the league nobody is talking about.
Kuroda went over seven innings scoreless, and Matt Kemp hit a two-run homer to give the Dodgers a win over the Brewers, 3-0. The win splits the short two-game series.
As fantastic as Kuroda was, he actually ran into a bit of trouble in the first. With one out, Corey Hart hit a sharp single to left. Ryan Braun then took a walk to set it up for the dangerous Prince Fielder. The Prince, however, bounced into a forceout for two down. Casey McGehee got a hold of one to deep center, but Kemp tracked it down to end it.
Kemp made more noise in the bottom of the first. Andre Ethier took a walk with two outs. Kemp then lifted a Randy Wolf pitch out to right for the 2-0 lead. It was Kemp's eighth shot of the season, and first since May 10.
With Kuroda dealing, the Dodgers tacked on another run in the eighth. Juan Uribe singled leading off against Mike McClendon. Two outs later, Jerry Sands hit an RBI double, making it 3-0. It was good to see Sands come through considering he's only hitting .212 in the month of May.
Vicente Padilla got the night off to rest his sore forearm, so Don Mattingly had a choice in whom to give the ball to in the ninth. Kenley Jansen came on to get the final out in the eighth, but he didn't get the chance to stay on. Instead, it was Matt Guerrier who got the call, and he responded with a perfect ninth for his first save.
The story of the night was obviously Kuroda, who wouldn't let any baserunners do a thing. He finished with 7 2/3 innings, six hits, no runs, two walks, and seven strikeouts. The win makes his record 5-3 with a 2.80 ERA and 1.18 WHIP. Plus, he now has gone 14 2/3 innings without allowing a run, dating back to his last start in beating the Pirates. He also has 15 strikeouts over that span.
Once again, Kuroda has stepped up and carried the Dodgers on his back at a time when the offense is struggling mightily. Yes, Kemp's homer gave him an early lead, but that was it until later in the game. So it's not like he was pitching with a big cushion. The margin of error was still low, and he was fantastic nonetheless.
With exception of Ted Lilly, who has yet to find his groove, the starting staff can in no way be blamed for this team's misfortunes. Clayton Kershaw's ERA is 2.47, Kuroda 2.80, Chad Billingsley 3.36, and Jon Garland 3.55. When your worst starter is Lilly, that's a pretty good sign that the rest of the staff has stepped up.
The fear, of course, is what if a starter or two goes through a slump. Then what? That's a scary thought considering the offense is 26th in the majors in runs scored. I'm not saying the staff will start to slump, because they have so much talent. If anything, they might get better if Lilly figures things out.
The bottom line is that the guys with the sticks need to perform under the pressure like the starting rotation continually does. This game was pretty good since they scored early for the lead, but three runs a night won't bring you many wins. In order to get a winning streak going, the offense needs at least a couple more guys to get hot.
With the Brewers here and gone, the Giants are now in for two. Wednesday night's game will be great as Clayton Kershaw battles Matt Cain. This is one of those games where the team that scores first has a great shot at winning since it won't happen often.
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