Hiroki Kuroda returned to the Dodgers rotation on Monday after missing nearly 2 months with an oblique strain. He had not pitched since his start on Opening Day. It was a welcome sight to Joe Torre and the rest of the Dodgers brass who had been forced to give starts to Eric Stults and Jeff Weaver among others in Kuroda's absence. Kuroda pitched well going 5 IP and striking out 6. He allowed just 2 earned runs but got no run support from the offense and ended up taking the loss in a 3-2 game. It was still a very encouraging night for a rotation that has been in an almost constant state of flux after Kuroda got hurt and projected 5th starter, James McDonald crashed and burned and was sent back to AAA.
Kuroda's return, along with the emergence of Eric Milton as the 5th starter, has the Dodgers rotation suddenly looking like a strength. Chad Bilingsley, Randy Wolf and Kuroda form a strong trio at the top of the rotation and allow youngster Clayton Kershaw to slide down to the 4 spot and take an extra day off here and there to protect his young arm. It also takes some pressure off him knowing that there are 3 proven commodities ahead of him. Milton rounds out the rotation and brings a veteran addition to what was an extremely young pitching staff on Opening Day.
The bullpen is also starting to round into shape with Ronald Belisario and Ramon Troncoso emerging as effective setup men and Jeff Weaver bringing an ability to eat innings and keep the Dodgers in games to the long man role. The only glaring weakness is the lack of an effective loogy. Will Ohman was signed for the role but battled injuries and is currently on the DL and youngster Brent Leach has been mostly ineffective. Eric Stults figured to get a shot in this role when Kuroda returned but he too was sent to the DL with an injury to the thumb on his pitching hand.
All in all though the pitching staff is looking better than it has since the start of the season and will hopefully be able to pick up the offense on occasion as it did last night in a 1-0 victory over Arizona.
After taking 2 of 3 from Arizona the Dodgers lead in the NL west currently stands at 9.5 games. Far and away the largest lead of any 1st place team in baseball. They look to improve on that in a rematch of the NLCS with the Phillies that starts tonight.
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