Dodger History – August 15th, 2006 – Dodgers blank Marlins for sixth straight win, and 17th win in 18 games – Fueled by two Dodger rookies

On July 26th the 2006 Dodgers had a 47 – 55 record, were in 5th place, and 7.5 games back of 1st place. They would go on a historic run winning 17 of their next 18 games, culminating with a 4-0 whitewash of the Marlins on August 15th.

The run would come to an end on August 16th but by then the Dodgers had done what they needed to do to climb over four teams into first place with a 3.5 game lead that they would hold until the final weekend of the regular season. Chad Billingsley would win the first game of the run on July 28th, and he would win the last game of the run on August 15th.

Chad made four stats from July 28th – August 15 and won every game. 24 IP, 13 hits allowed, 24 K’s, ERA of 1.13.  It was no wonder that Dodger fans expected Chad to be a mainstay of the rotation for years to come, as Chad had only turned 22 just one day after starting the streak on July 28th.

Offensively the run was fueled by another rookie, Andre Ethier who had a triple stat line of  .338 / .361 / .618 with 10 extra base hits in only sixty eight at bats.  At the end of the run Andre was hitting a robust .343 and Dodgers fans were wondering if he could win the batting title he could simply garner enough at bats.

Eight years later those two rookies are having little to zero effect on the current Dodger world champion aspirations. Chad never pitched this year, and it looks like he never will pitch for the Dodgers again. Andre is a fourth outfielder who has done little this year except earn money. Yet, between 2006 – 2013 these two rookies gave Dodger fans plenty to cheer about.