Los Angeles Dodgers: The month of August by the numbers

The MLB season is heading into its final month and the Los Angeles Dodgers had a better August than some fans might realize.

The Los Angeles Dodgers won at a .607 clip in the month of August but they finished off the month with a whimper, losing five of their last seven games, including three straight against the Arizona Diamondbacks, who started their series 21 games back.

Alas, that’s baseball, where a few bad games can turn into a narrative on a whole season. The Dodgers mini-slump conjured up memories of the 2017 season, where the Dodgers went from an outside chance of winning 117 games to losing 17 of 18 games going into September.

Remember: that Dodgers team righted the ship making it all the way to the seventh game of the World Series.

This year’s version has 30 days in September to turn things around as they again search for a World Series title in October. Before we turn the page to fall, let’s look back at August — by the numbers.

51

The Dodgers brought their bats to August and turned into the Blue Bombers, hitting 51 home runs, the highest total for a month in 2019. Over the last 28 days the biggest bombers were a veteran and a rookie.

Justin Turner turned into a white-hot hitter in August hitting .341 while pacing the team with nine home runs. Not far behind was rookie sensation catcher Will Smith, who hit seven home runs, including his first career multi-home run game in Miami against the Marlins.

The power surge left the Dodgers just one home run away from breaking the franchise record for home runs set last year (235…they broke the mark in their first game in September hitting four home runs.)

1-3/7.48

August was by far the worst month by starting pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu and it may have knocked him out of the CY Young award race. After his first start of the month, Ryu was 12-2 with a 1.45 ERA and looked to have locked up the award… but then the bottom fell out.

Over his next three starts, Ryu went 0-3, giving up 18 runs over 14 2/3 innings, raising his ERA to 2.35. Almost a whole run in just three starts. Whether its fatigue or a lack of concentration, the Dodgers need Ryu to regain his mojo as fast as possible as they push towards the playoffs.

3 of 5

Three of five, that’s how many blown saves Kenley Jansen had during the month of August. No situation with Jansen on the mound seemed easy as he gave up a run in four of his nine appearances for the month. Dodgers fans have been howling all over the internet asking for the Dodgers’ greatest closer to lose his job.

The three blown saves pushed his season total to seven, the most in a season for Jansen since 2012, which was his first year in the closing role. Jansen will have September to right the ship before the playoffs. Barring an improvement, it remains to be seen if he can be the Dodgers closer in October.