Dodgers Notes from Spring Training: Spring Game 33 | Road Game 16

Throughout Spring Training the Dodgers PR department sends out helpful daily notes from Camelback Ranch, and I am happy to pass them along.  See what they've written below.

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LOS ANGELES DODGERS (11-18-3) vs. Seattle Mariners (19-11)
Wednesday, March 27, 2013 – 1:05 p.m. | Peoria Stadium
LHP Clayton Kershaw (2-2, 3.60) vs. RHP Felix Hernandez (0-1, 1.64)
TV: None | Radio: None

(twitter link: @jphoornstra)

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(pic credit: Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2013)

GOING, GOING, BACK, BACK: The Dodgers play their final Cactus League game this afternoon against the Mariners before returning to California for four final exhibition games against Single-A Rancho Cucamonga and the Angels. Today’s contest is the Dodgers third against Seattle this spring (1-1) as Los Angeles attempts to snap its three-game losing streak before departing the Valley of the Sun.

• 10,557 watched the Dodgers wrap up their home slate at Camelback Ranch last night, finishing with an attendance mark of 133,460 in 17 home dates (average 7,851, including the Mexico exhibition). That is the Dodgers’ second-highest home attendance mark in team history behind only the 136,944 that the club drew in 15 home dates in 2009 (average 9,130), which also included a World Baseball Classic exhibition. Los Angeles also established a single-game Cactus League attendance mark with a sellout of 13,721 on Saturday night against the White Sox, giving the club the top three highest attended games in league history.
• Los Angeles ranks second among all National League squads with a .348 on-base percentage and ties for second with 102 walks. Once on base, the Dodgers have been active on the basepaths, leading the NL with 36 steals.
• On the mound, Dodger pitchers have struck out a Major League-best 259 batters.

FINAL TUNEUP: Clayton Kershaw will make his final start of the exhibition season and will next be on the hill on Monday, when the Dodgers open the 2013 season against the Giants at Dodger Stadium. It will be Kershaw’s third consecutive Opening Day start and since his MLB debut in 2008, the 2011 NL Cy Young Award winner’s name has dotted the league leaderboards:

MLB ERA LEADERS, 2008-2012 (min. 100 GS)                   MLB LEADERS, OPP. AVG. 2008-2012 (min. 100 GS)
Clayton Kershaw                    2.79                         Clayton Kershaw                       .215
Roy Halladay                          2.85                         Justin Verlander                         .226
Cliff Lee                                  2.89                         David Price                                .227
Felix Hernandez                      2.92                         Mat Latos                                   .227
Adam Wainwright                   2.99                         Matt Cain                                   .229

• Among MLB starters during the course of his career, Kershaw also ranks 10th in winning percentage (.622, 61-37), places third in strikeouts per 9.0 innings (9.29) and has allowed the second-fewest home runs per 9.0 innings (0.59).
• Today will be Kershaw’s seventh start of the spring after last pitching on Friday against the Reds, allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits in 6.0 innings. Kershaw struck out a spring-high eight batters in that outing and has fanned 28 in 25.0 innings.
• Following Kershaw for the opening series against the Giants will be LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu (April 2) and RHP Josh Beckett (April 3).

(pic credit: Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2013)

ROSTER MOVES: Yesterday, the Dodgers optioned shortstop Dee Gordon to Triple-A Albuquerque and outfielder Yasiel Puig to Double-A Chattanooga. The Dodgers have 36 players remaining in big league camp.

SEEMS LIKE ONLY YESTERDAY: The Dodgers’ ninth-inning rally came up 90 feet short last night as Los Angeles fell, 7-6, to Colorado at Camelback Ranch. Tim Federowicz blasted a three-run homer, his first of the spring, while Andre Ethier stroked his third triple in Cactus League play and scored in his only at-bat. A.J. Ellis went 2-for-3, raising his batting average to .359, and Alfredo Amezaga had two hits, including an RBI double in the ninth.

• Ethier, who is hitting .348 with a .423 on-base percentage, is tied for the National League lead with three triples this spring. Of his 16 hits, 10 have gone for extra bases (six doubles, three triples and a homer).

‘M’ IS FOR MATT: Tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. PST, Matt Kemp will be featured on an episode of PBS’s Sesame Street. The slugger will be appearing on the “Word of the Day” segment with “Abby” the Muppet. Sesame Street, which first aired in 1969, has had a laundry list of esteemed guests that have appeared on the show, including Jackie Robinson, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jackson, to name a few.

HOME SWEET HOME:  The Dodgers will return to Southern California tomorrow for a split-squad exhibition game at The Epicenter against the Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes at 6:05 p.m. and a contest against the Angels in Anaheim for the first game of the three-game exhibition Freeway Series set for 7:05 p.m. at Angel Stadium. The Freeway Series continues Friday with a 7:10 p.m. game at Dodger Stadium and wraps up Saturday with a 6:05 p.m. game in Anaheim.

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