Since July 17, no starting pitching staff in baseball has been better than the Dodgers’ starting five. The Dodgers have the lowest ERA by starters in the big leagues since that point at 2.48. They’re almost a half-run better than the Oakland A’s at 2.83. And at different times during that stretch, each Dodger pitcher had his stellar moment.

 

The best of the bunch has been Chad Billingsley, who over six starts during the last month has a 1.34 ERA. Ted Lilly is close. The Dodgers acquired the left-hander at the trade deadline from the Chicago Cubs on Aug. 1 and in three starts for the Dodgers, he went 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA. Hiroki Kuroda has been close as well, with a 2.60 ERA.

 

Vicente Padilla had a run of four games where he had a 1.04 ERA, highlighted by a shutout of San Diego on Aug. 4. Take out one rough outing by Clayton Kershaw, and he has also given up and averagea of less than two runs per game.

 

Billingsley, Lilly, Kuroda, Padilla and Kershaw have held opposing teams to two runs or less in 20 of the 26 games they started after July 17. Those five pitchers have gone at least six innings in those 26 starts 22 times with Kershaw, Billingsley and Lilly going at least six innings in all their starts since July 17.

 

To top it off, two Dodgers in the bullpen have also been stingy. Through his first 12 games since July 17, Hong-Chih Kuo had a 0.71 ERA and Kenley Jansen hadn’t allowed an earned run in his first eight games.