Colorado Rockies at LA Dodgers: 5 positive takeaways despite sweep

#3: KERSHAW DOMINANT, BUT ONLY GOES SIX

Clayton Kershaw only gave up four hits and a walk on Saturday night, but had to be pulled after six innings and a 103-pitch outing. Despite picking up the win to improve to 11-2, Kershaw had his second shortest outing of the year.

In a game at the end of May, Kershaw wasn’t able to get out of the fifth inning, but other than that he has gone at least six innings in every other outing in 2017. Saturday marked only the third time this year that Kershaw only pitched six innings.

This was mostly due to prolonged at-bats by the Rockies. Kershaw only faced 23 batters, meaning he had to throw an average of 4.5 pitches to each batter and 17.2 pitches per inning. For Kershaw, those numbers are a little higher than his usual.

Hopefully when the Rockies face Kershaw again in the future, they will be able to work some more of those long at-bats into better outcomes, but for now, like most of baseball, all the Rockies can do is tip their hat to the impressiveness of Clayton Kershaw.

#4: LEMAHIEU EARNS BACK-TO-BACK TWO HIT GAMES AGAIN

For the ninth time this season, DJ LeMahieu has picked up multiple hits in back-to-back games. On Saturday night, LeMahieu picked up a hard hit double to left field in the first and a sharp single to right later in the game.

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On Sunday, LeMahieu had a pair of singles, one in the third and one in the sixth. On the year, LeMahieu’s batting average has been hovering around .300. Coming into Friday night’s game, it was .303, then it was back to .300 after the game. Saturday’s hits brought it to .303 and Sunday’s hits brought it to .304.

While his average this year is well below last year’s .348, LeMahieu has seen the ball well and had some impressive games, including back-to-back four hit games earlier in the month of June.

#5: OFFENSE COMES ALIVE ON SUNDAY

Although the pitching staff still allowed 12 runs to the Dodgers on Sunday, the hitting staff tried to make up for it, scoring six runs after scoring only one in the first two games combined. Nonetheless, it wasn’t enough and the Rox dropped the last game of the series. The top and middle of the lineup was productive, with the two through six hitters scoring all six runs for the Rox.

Plenty of solid performances were had up and down the lineup. Mark Reynolds went 1-for-2 with a run scored, an RBI, and three walks. Ian Desmond went 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI. LeMahieu picked up two hits and Nolan Arenado scored two runs.

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The Rockies will try to put this series out of their mind as soon as possible. After an off day tomorrow, the Rox continue their west coast trip at San Francisco on Tuesday with a 8:15 p.m. first pitch. The Rockies will send Jeff Hoffman (4-1, 4.29 ERA) to the mound, while the Giants will counter with Matt Cain (3-7, 5.54 ERA) .