The Los Angeles Dodgers’ slow start seems to be behind them, as after defeating the San Diego Padres, 13-4, on Wednesday night they have now won four straight and hold an 8-9 record. It’s the same they had through 17 games in 2017 when they went on to win 104 games.
Kenta Maeda, the lone right-hander in the rotation, started the series finale against San Diego. Luckily, the offense provided him with plenty of run support early because Maeda struggled a bit in both the second and third innings.
After that, he settled in though and wound up getting through 5.2 innings. Overall, Maeda gave up eight hits and four runs while striking out 10 and walking two.
Maeda was not all that happy with his performance, explaining that he needs to be better with runners in scoring position, as seen on SportsNet LA:
“I was able to get a lot of strikeouts but I think the more important part is that I gave up a few runs, and that wasn’t a good thing. … I think I ended up throwing a lot of pitches that were hittable when runners were in scoring position, so that’s something I have to fix going forward.”
Maeda walked in a run in the second inning and then gave up a sacrifice fly to the opposing pitcher, Luis Perdomo, to allow the second run to score. He later allowed a two-run double to Carlos Asuaje in the third inning.
The 10 strikeouts were definitely a positive to take away from Maeda’s outing though. It was a second time in three starts he’s notched that many.
Maeda’s strikeout rate has improved drastically this season, as he is averaging 15.1 strikeouts per nine innings which is almost double his career average going into this season. That could be a result of Maeda moving to the bullpen during the postseason in 2017.
He learned from that experience and is now taking a reliever’s mentality into his starts which seems to be doing wonders for his strikeout rate. So far this season, Maeda is 2-1 with a 3.77 ERA, but with an absurdly-good 1.01 FIP.
