Major League Baseball wrapped a postseason advertisement around the front page of The Times this week. “OCTOBER STARTS TODAY,” the headline screamed.
Beneath those enormous letters, Shohei Ohtani smiled. Who else?
And so dozens of reporters crammed into a cramped room within Dodger Stadium on Friday afternoon, on the eve of the National League Division Series between the Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves, waiting for Ohtani to answer a few versions of “How are you?”
It’s not just about attracting casual fans to watch the icon whose face adorns everything from airplanes to skin care products. For the Dodgers and their fans, it’s about whether their most famous player can be a game-changer in October.
The Dodgers could have shut him down as a pitcher rather than let him continue to try to pitch through knee and biceps injuries. They didn’t, and that backfired.
The Dodgers could have shut him down as a hitter, not for the season but for a stint on the injured list. They didn’t. They gave him just a few days off, and that backfired.
Then the Dodgers did put him on the injured list, but activated him for the final five games of the regular season rather than give him extended rest for the playoffs, limiting his activity to controlled workouts.
That might backfire, or it might not, and the repercussions of the former could represent a significant hurdle in their quest for a third consecutive World Series championship. Giving Ohtani time off during the regular season would have carried no penalty; the Dodgers would have won the NL West with or without him.
If the Dodgers decide Ohtani needs a few days off now, they would face this unpleasant dilemma: play one man short, or put him on the injured list. Under MLB rules, a player put on the injured list during a postseason series must sit out the next series. So, if Ohtani starts wincing at the end of his swings during the NLDS, a stint on the injured list would mean he could not play again until the World Series — if the Dodgers get there.
Shohei Ohtani speaks during a news conference at Dodger Stadium on Friday.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
Ohtani has not hit a home run since Aug. 18. Since then, he is batting .157, and he has struck out in 41% of his at-bats. In those final five games, he hit the ball hard in the first two, then hit ground balls in the final three. In the on-deck circle, he did not always take a swing.
In batting practice Friday, he hit lots of home runs.
The general sense of how Ohtani is feeling now: good enough.
Ohtani said he feels “really good” as compared to before he went on the injured list, but acknowledged he isn’t sure what he might need to do to address the injuries over the winter.
“As of now, it’s something I’m just going to have to manage,” he said through interpreter Will Ireton.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts offered this medical update: “Shohei’s not 100%, but he’s going to be in the lineup.”
Same for Freddie Freeman, who has not homered in a month. The difference, Roberts said, is how encouraged the manager was by Freeman’s workouts this week.
“With Shohei, I’m not so sure,” Roberts said. “I know that once the lights turn on, the postseason starts, the focus will be heightened. I expect good things. I really do. We just haven’t seen it enough to really — for me to forecast it.”
Ohtani plays when he says he can. After he tore up his left shoulder in Game 2 of the 2024 World Series, he had trainers tape the shoulder in place and took 11 at-bats over the final three games of the series. He had one hit, a single.
“I do pride myself on playing every day,” Ohtani said. “I do see it as an obligation as a professional to be on the field every single day.”
Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, acknowledged recently that communication with Ohtani has been “awesome” but “fully sharing exactly how he’s feeling, maybe not as awesome.”
Said Friedman: “He’s not always the best reporter of how he feels. Freddie’s the same way. Clayton Kershaw. I’ve been around a lot of these guys that feel like their job is to be out there to help the team however they can, and sometimes will downplay some things that are bothering them. But again, it’s because he wants to help the team win.”
The Dodgers are talented enough that Ohtani not hitting well would not damage their chances as much as, say, Sale not pitching well for the Braves. In the NLDS and the first three games of the NLCS last October, Ohtani hit .103 with no home runs and struck out in 48% of his at-bats.
In the NLCS clincher, he hit three home runs (and struck out 10 batters). The Dodgers could trade a few bad days from Ohtani for that one really good day.
In that MLB advertisement, the one that featured Ohtani, the league acknowledged that its screaming headline was not exactly accurate. The explanation also fits the Dodgers’ hopes of Ohtani starring in October.
The ad, after all, appeared on Sept. 29.
October starts today?
“Logic and reason would tell you otherwise,” the ad read. “But October isn’t about being reasonable.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. A good Tommy Lasorda quote: “You have got to love what you’re doing. No matter what it is. Whatever you undertake in life, if you don’t love it, and you don’t enjoy it, you are making a big mistake. You have got to love what you are doing. You have to appreciate what you are getting, and you have to do it to the best of your ability.”
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It’s that time of year
The Dodgers will face the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS starting Saturday, with Game 1 set to start at 1 p.m. Pacific, with the temperature forecast to be around 100 degrees. So, bring a sweater. People have complained that the 1 p.m. start is unfair because it will be too hot, but unless it is going to be 75 degrees on the Braves side of the field, it will be even. Personally, I would have put Padres-Brewers at 1 p.m. and Dodgers-Braves at 5:30 p.m., but no sense crying over spilled milk (Editor’s note: How many clichés can this guy work into one paragraph?)
The Dodgers faced the Braves six times during the season and lost five.
May 8 at Dodgers 3, Atlanta 1 Emmet Sheehan and five relievers combined to outpitch Braves ace Chris Sale. Freddie Freeman homered.
May 9 Atlanta 7, at Dodgers 2 Blake Snell gave up five runs in three innings and the Braves got 12 hits overall, 11 of them singles. Snell went back on the IL after the game, staying there for three months. Spencer Strider started for the Braves. He is currently on the IL.
May 10 Atlanta 7, at Dodgers 2 Justin Wrobleski took one for the team, giving up all seven Braves runs in 8 2/3 innings. Bryce Elder started for the Braves, going 5 2/3 innings. Drake Baldwin and Matt Olson homered for Atlanta.
Aug. 25 at Atlanta 4, Dodgers 3 Tyler Glasnow gave up three runs in five innings and Tanner Scott gave up the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth. Bryce Elder got the start for the Braves, giving up three runs in six innings. The teams combined for 19 hits, but only two extra-base hits.
Aug. 26 at Atlanta 6, Dodgers 5 Roki Sasaki gave up four runs in 3 1/3 innings, but Tanner Scott got the loss when he gave up a walk-off single to Ha-Seong Kim in the bottom of the ninth. AJ Smith-Shawyer started for the Braves, giving up three runs in five innings. Matt Olson and Sean Murphy homered for Atlanta, Tommy Edman for the Dodgers.
Aug. 27 at Atlanta 1, Dodgers 0 The only run came in the first inning by Drake Baldwin, Atlanta’s leadoff hitter. Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched 6 1/3 innings, giving up the lone run and four hits while striking out eight. Chris Sale pitched a shutout, giving up five hits and striking out 11.
Dodgers against the Braves this season
Batting Hunter Feduccia, 3 for 5, 2 RBIs Mookie Betts, .333/.429/.417, 14 plate appearances, 1 double, 1 RBIs Teoscar Hernández, .333/.467/.333, 15 PA’s Ben Rortvedt, 1 for 3 Andy Pages, .300/.364/.600, 11 PA’s, 1 homer, 2 RBIs Tommy Edman, .273/.429/.636, 14 PA’s, 1 double, 1 homer, 3 RBIs Alex Call, .273/.429/.364, 14 PA’s, 1 double, 1 RBI Santiago Espinal, 1 for 5 Shohei Ohtani, .192/.192/.308, 26 PA’s, 1 double, 1 triple, 1 RBI Freddie Freeman, .174/.240/.348, 25 PA’s, 1 double, 1 homer, 1 RBI Will Smith, 1 for 7 Kyle Tucker, .133/.278/.200, 18 PA’s, 1 double, 1 RBI Alek Thomas, 1 for 8, 1 RBI Miguel Rojas, 1 for 8 Max Muncy, .118/.211/.294, 19 PA’s, 1 homer, 2 RBIs Hyeseong Kim, 0 for 6 Kiké Hernández, 0 for 3 Alex Freeland, 0 for 7 Dalton Rushing, 0 for 5 Team, .196/.281/.299, 6 doubles, 1 triple, 4 homers, 2.5 runs per game
Inherited runners who scored% Atlanta, 20.9%, 36 of 172 (1st) League average, 71 of 226, 31.4% Dodgers, 35.8%, 69 of 174 (23rd)
The two teams are pretty evenly matched.
So who’s going to win?
The last NL team to win the World Series before the Dodgers? The Braves in 2021. They were led by some guy named Freeman.
If the Dodgers go into one of their team-wide funks, they could get swept. But here’s guessing they won’t do that in the postseason. It will be a tough series, but I’m going with…… Prediction: Dodgers in 5.
Poll results
We asked, “Which two of these four players would you pick to be on the postseason roster?”
After 18,543 votes:
Josue DePaula, 94.3% Alex Call, 64.6% Hyeseong Kim, 35.1% Dalton Rushing, 6%
Up next
Saturday: Atlanta at Dodgers, 1 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020 Sunday: Atlanta at Dodgers, 5 p.m., FS1, AM 570, KTNQ 1020 Tuesday: Dodgers at Atlanta, 3 p.m., FS1, AM 570, KTNQ 1020 *Wednesday: Dodgers at Atlanta, 3 p.m., FS1, AM 570, KTNQ 1020 *Friday: Atlanta at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Freddie Freeman hits a walk-off home run in the 18th inning to win Game 3 of the 2025 World Series. Watch and listen here.
Until next time …
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. A good Tommy Lasorda quote: “There are three types of people in the world. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen and those who wonder, ‘What happened?’ ”
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Some random questions
While we await the winner of the Braves-Phillies series, it’s time to get a different viewpoint. I reached out to Times columnists Mirjam Swanson and Bill Plaschke to get their answers to a few Dodgers questions.
Q. Which team is the one the Dodgers would rather avoid playing in the NL playoffs?
Swanson: The San Diego Padres, actually. Weird stuff happens with rivalries. Weird stuff has happened against the Padres. Add a rivalry to the high-stakes NLCS? Guaranteed weirdness.
So the Padres concern me more than the Brewers, a talented group headlined by ace Jacob Misiorowski that nonetheless does itself in with its poor-little-us talk. The Padres have swagger — and substance — and they just finished the season on a heater, going 41-18 to close the season.
I still like the Dodgers in that series, and then against whomever comes out of the American League too.
It’s the NLDS that’s of most concern — less for who the opponent will be and more for the fact that it’s a best-of-five series. That squeezes the already small sample size of a playoff series and makes it so there’s less room for error and more room for baseball to happen.
Plaschke: The one team the Dodgers should avoid playing is the Philadelphia Phillies. They have all those left-handed starters who can shut down the best Dodger hitters. They only lost the NLDS to the Dodgers last year because one of their relief pitchers lost his mind. They have a veteran lineup that is long overdue. Play them at your peril.
Q. Does Josue De Paula find a space on the postseason roster, and what do they do with him next year, with the positions he plays seemingly taken?
Swanson: Yes, absolutely, JDP will be on the roster in the postseason. For his incredible energy. For his incredible bat. Both much-needed.
Next year? Are they going to play professional baseball next year?
OK, let’s hope they do play ball. And as long as they do, I can see the Dodgers giving De Paula run in the outfield — so long as he puts in the work in the offseason (however long that is) to train and study and make himself a playable outfielder.
His hitting is so elite, he needs only to be a competent fielder to justify his regular presence in the lineup. He’s a great young athlete and if he understands and tackles the assignment with the gusto that he approaches hitting, I don’t see what could hold him back.
Plaschke: De Paula has to be on the roster this October and in a position to take some high-leverage at-bats. I think he’s potentially good enough that you trade Teo and put him in left.
Q. How would you rank the bullpen in terms of trust (top three)?
Swanson: Roki Sasaki and Edgardo Henriquez are both coming back from injuries and basically jumping right into the postseason fire so … fingers crossed. But let’s assume Sasaki’s blister is a thing of the past, as it appears to be, and that Henriquez’s back isn’t aching, I’ll pick them and make a call for Evan Phillips, who looks great and looks like he’s feeling great; I just saw him hit 100 mph for the first time this season, striking out the San Diego Padres’ Jackson Merrill looking in the Dodgers’ loss Thursday.
Plaschke: In the bullpen I trust, in order, Roki Sasaki, Alex Vesia, and Evan Phillips. I don’t trust Tanner Scott. Would you?
Q. The Dodgers won last year despite not getting a first-round bye. So was it really important for them to get the bye this year?
Swanson: Yes! This team is “old.” They know it, everyone knows it — and they know they’ll benefit from getting off their feet for a few days. To them, it’s a reward for a job well done. As a thankful Freddie Freeman chuckled Thursday night: “Rest for all of us is always nice. We’ve been grinding since February, getting ready for the season. Then you go through a 162-game schedule. It’s a lot. So we played really good baseball for six straight months and we get rewarded for that. So we’ll take it in, rest up and get ourselves ready to go for Saturday.”
Plaschke: The bye is hugely important. This is the oldest team in baseball. This is the most exhausted team in baseball. They desperately need those five days off.
Q. Finally, predictions. Who wins the World Series this year?
Swanson: The club that won the past two World Series.
Plaschke: Milwaukee wins the World Series. Nobody beats the Miz.
Who makes the roster?
We will predict the postseason roster after we know who the Dodgers are playing, but, it appears the final two spots among position players could come down to Josue De Paula, Alex Call, Dalton Rushing and Hyeseong Kim. Which two would you choose to make the team?
Every year around this time, this newsletter mentionsMakenna Martin, who holds an online bracket (much like the NCAA bracket) where people can fill out their choices for the best-looking Dodger. She added a charitable aspect to it, raising money for a charity for women who are the victim of domestic violence.
Martin, now a college graduate, has continued the bracket, and this year is using it to raise money for “Peace Over Violence,” another charity that helps victims of domestic abuse. You do not have to donate to take part in the bracket challenge. Whether you donate or not, it’s a lot of fun to do. There’s also a raffle to raise funds, with a lot of Dodgers prizes to win. A tip of the cap to Martin and to all young people who try to make the world just a little bit better.
Freddie Freeman hits a walk-off grand slam to win Game 1 of the 2024 World Series. Watch and listen here.
Until next time …
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. I was reading my Bible, and baseball was mentioned almost immediately. “In the big inning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
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The postseason awaits
There are still three games left in the season, but let’s jump ahead and talk about the postseason a bit. We will have more in the run-up to the NLDS next week. The good news is the Dodgers have clinched a first-round bye and will open the postseason on Saturday, Oct. 3. The NLDS is best-of-five on a 2-2-1 format, so the Dodgers will host Games 1 and 2, and if necessary, Game 5.
Who will they play? The winner of the series between the No. 3 seed (Atlanta) and the No. 6 seed, which has yet to be determined. There are four teams vying for the three wild-card spots.
Should the Dodgers fear any one team more than the others this postseason? Let’s see how they have fared against all the other potential postseason teams. In fact, let’s see how all the postseason teams have fared against each other.
Dodgers vs. Arizona, 6-7 (-5 run differential) vs. Atlanta, 1-5 (-11) vs. Chicago, 2-4 (+2) vs. Milwaukee, 3-4 (+2) vs. Philadelphia. 4-2 (+11) vs. San Diego, 8-5 (+19) Total, 23-27, (+18)
Arizona vs. Dodgers, 7-5 (+5) vs. Atlanta, 4-3 (-8) vs. Chicago, 2-4 (-11) vs. Milwaukee, 2-4 (-22) vs. Philadelphia. 3-3 (-5) vs. San Diego, 5-5 (+5) Total, 18-19, (+25)
Atlanta vs. Dodgers, 5-1 (+11) vs. Arizona, 3-4 (+8) vs. Chicago, 3-3 (-1) vs. Milwaukee, 3-3 (-5) vs. Philadelphia. 9-4 (+23) vs. San Diego, 3-4 (-7) Total, 26-19 (+29)
Chicago vs. Dodgers, 4-2 (-2) vs. Arizona, 4-2 (+11) vs. Atlanta, 3-3 (+1) vs. Milwaukee, 4-9 (-9) vs. Philadelphia. 6-1 (+22) vs. San Diego, 5-1 (+27) Total, 26-18, (+50)
Milwaukee vs. Dodgers, 4-3 (-2) vs. Arizona, 4-2 (+22) vs. Atlanta, 3-3 (+5) vs. Chicago, 9-4 (+9) vs. Philadelphia, 4-2 (+14) vs. San Diego, 2-4 (-5) Total, 25-18, (+43)
Philadelphia vs. Dodgers, 2-4 (-11) vs. Arizona, 3-3 (+5) vs. Atlanta, 4-9 (-23) vs. Chicago, 1-6 (-22) vs. Milwaukee, 2-4 (-14) vs. San Diego, 6-0 (+11) Total, 18-26, (-54)
San Diego vs. Dodgers, 5-8 (-19) vs. Arizona, 5-5 (-5) vs. Atlanta, 4-3 (+7) vs. Chicago, 1-5 (-27) vs. Milwaukee, 4-2 (+5) vs. Philadelphia, 0-6 (-11) Total, 19-29, (-50)
This serves as a basic guideline for you. We would really have to dig deep to find hidden meanings here, since a lot depends on who started for each team. Philadelphia started the season poorly, fired their manager, named Don Mattingly manager and turned things around. So, when did these teams face the Phillies? I could do that for every team, but I can just hear people closing the newsletter and deleting it if I get too far into the weeds. Just as an example, San Diego is 0-6 against the Phillies, but were outscored by only 11 runs, while the Dodgers have losing records against Chicago and Milwaukee, but outscored both teams. And every Dodger fan from that era can tell you that the Mets were 10-1 against the Dodgers in the regular season in 1988, but lost to them in the playoffs.
But, stuff like this is fun. And remember when stats were sometimes just for fun, and not every stat had to look at launch angles and elevation rates?
The postseason roster?
The final position player spot on the postseason roster will be very interesting. Does it go to Josue De Paula, who hit .323/.500/.581 with three doubles, one triple, one homer and seven RBIs in 42 plate appearances. He also walked an impressive 11 times while striking out only five times.
He is back in the minors now, but the Dodgers can bring him back for the postseason, as long as he is replacing an injured player, such as Dalton Rushing. They would need to petition the Commissioner’s Office to allow it, but that kind of petition has never been denied in the past.
Of course, De Paula is blocked at DH, left field and right field now that Kyle Tucker and Teoscar Hernández are hitting better. But he did seem to bring a shot of energy to the team, as if he reminded them “Hey, this is supposed to be fun.”
Does the final spot go to Rushing? I don’t see how, because he can’t play in the field right now because of his elbow injury.
Does it go to Hyeseong Kim? His name was brought up this week by Dave Roberts, because Kim brings speed, versatility and good defense. He could be this season’s Justin Dean, appearing in almost every game and never hitting.
And the bullpen? If you have Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell in the rotation, that means Roki Sasaki goes to the bullpen. Does Justin Wrobleski get a bullpen spot? What about Emmet Sheehan, who has pitched great in his return (one earned run in 17 innings, giving up six hits and walking three while striking out 24)? Do you need all three of them in the bullpen in anticipation of the inevitable injury to Snell and Glasnow? We’ll know more about Snell when he starts Saturday.
Can Yamamoto pitch in every postseason game?
A lot of questions, no answers yet.
Forgotten Dodger: Willie Crawford
Willie Crawford, 17, who hit .444 for Fremont High, signs a $100,000 deal with the Dodgers in 1964 as Al Campanis watches.
(Associated Press)
We won’t go quite as far back in time for this one as the previous ones.
Willie Crawford is one of those guys who was good at a lot of things but not great at anything, and those types of players tend to be overlooked. But you need players like that every year in order to win.
Crawford first played for L.A. as a 17-year-old in 1964 and had his best season in 1973, when he hit .295/.396/.453 with 14 homers and 66 RBIs. He was solid defensively, playing more shallow than most right fielders to cut down on bloop singles and relying on his speed to catch any balls hit over him.
“He was big and powerful, and he could hit a ball as far as anybody. Boy, was he something,” Tommy Lasorda once said of Crawford, who the Dodgers signed out of Fremont High. Crawford was signed out of high school for $100,000, and the rules at the time said if you signed for at least that much, you had to stay on the major league roster for a season, which hampered his development. In 1965, the 19-year-old Crawford got a World Series ring for being on the Dodgers roster, but he batted only 27 times in the regular season. He had a pinch-hit single in Game 1 of that series.
In his first four seasons as a Dodger, he played in 72 games.
He was a productive player for many years and retired after the 1977 season. Crawford died of kidney disease at age 57 in 2004. You can read more about him here.
The postseason race
Here are the postseason seedings as of Thursday’s games. The three division winners get the top three seeds, followed by the three teams with the best records. The top two division winners get a first-round bye. Milwaukee and the Dodgers have clinched division titles and first-round byes.
Mikwaukee has clinched the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage throughout the postseason. The Dodgers have clinched the No. 2 seed and the Braves the No. 3 seed.
The Padres and Cubs have clinched wild-card spots. If the season ended today, Atlanta would host Philadelphia in one best-of-three wild-card round, with the winner taking on the Dodgers. The Padres would host the Cubs in the other wild-card round, with the winner playing Milwaukee.
In their final three games of the season, the Padres host the Diamondbacks, Philadelphia hosts Tampa Bay and Chicago plays at Boston.
Five of the six teams in the AL have been decided, with Tampa Bay and Cleveland clinching the top two seedings and the first-round bye. The third seed will be the AL West champion, either Texas or Houston (no relation), who are both 79-80. The Astros have the tiebreaker advantage. The three wild-card teams are the Yankees, Boston and the Chicago White Sox, in that order.
The Cat Man is back
Reports of the demise of Tony Gonsolin were greatly exaggerated. He’s back in the majors.
Gonsolin was an All-Star with the Dodgers in 2022, finishing the season 16-1 with a 2.14 ERA. He was having a mediocre 2023 before he was shut down and had Tommy John surgery. After missing the 2024 season, he came back in 2025, made seven starts and had internal brace surgery on his elbow. The Dodgers let him go. He was busy rehabbing his arm for the last year, and finally the Kansas City Royals decided to give him a chance. They sent him to the minors in August, and called him up to the majors this week.
He came in for a relief appearance on Tuesday and, after pitching two scoreless innings, gave up five runs and four hits, with two walks, ending the outing on a sour note.
“Essentially, I’m trying out for next year,” Gonsolin told reporters before the game. “It has been a while since I’ve thrown before this many fans. Just looking forward to the excitement and the adrenaline.”
These names seem familiar
This will be the final time this feature runs this season. It will be back next season. How many names will have joined it then? How notable players who were with the Dodgers the last few seasons are doing with their new teams (through Wednesday). Click on the player’s name to be taken to their full stats page:
Anthony Banda, Twins: 2-0, 4.46 ERA, 2 saves, 34.1 IP, 31 hits, 15 walks, 33 K’s, 95 ERA+, out for the season
Friday: Dodgers (*Tarik Skubal, 11-7, 2.85 ERA [4-2, 2.95 ERA with Dodgers]) at San Francisco (Yunior Marte, 0-1, 4.66 ERA), 7:15 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Saturday: Dodgers (*Blake Snell, 4-1, 1.86 ERA) at San Francisco (*Matt Wilkinson, 1-3, 3.65 ERA), 7:15 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Sunday: Dodgers (TBD) at San Francisco (TBD), 12:05 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Shohei Ohtani’s swing was a little out in front of a slider delivered by Padres left-hander Robbie Ray. But Ohtani held back his hands long enough to extend them to the pitch and shoot it through the right side of the infield.
It wasn’t flashy. But considering it was his first at-bat in more than two weeks, in a tough matchup no less, it was a promising sign.
“It’s been a while since he’s played in a game, but it just felt like he wasn’t sped up at all,” manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 5-1 loss to the Padres. “And I think he came out of it pretty well.”
The good news quickly dried up for the Dodgers after that, as they missed a chance to clinch a first-round bye with a win. But Ohtani’s return was still significant, and the success of his end-of-season tune-up will have playoff implications.
Ohtani did not address reporters Wednesday and has only done so once in the last five weeks, despite multiple requests.
The Dodgers activated Ohtani, who went one-for-four Wednesday, from the 15-day IL before the game and optioned rookie Josue De Paula to Triple A. De Paula is still under consideration for the National League Division Series roster as a bat off the bench.
“This was the original thought, that once Shohei gets back, we’re going to send him out,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We had a runway to give him, which we gave him and he performed more than admirably. This also, as far as the timing, just gives us an opportunity to potentially have him back for the postseason. He’s a part of the conversation, and he’s earned that, and that’s what I told him last night.”
De Paula joined triple-A Oklahoma City for Game 2 of the PCL Championship on Wednesday. And Ohtani slid into the Dodgers lineup, hitting second in the batting order for the first time this season, with Mookie Betts leading off against the Padres southpaw.
“I know Shohei, Mookie, they’re always on board with whatever I decide to do,” Roberts said. “I think it just makes it tougher to navigate versus left. There’s a Mookie tax [to get to Ohtani]. If you want to get to Freddie [Freeman], there’s a Will Smith tax. I like that. And versus a right-hander, I like kind of flipping those two for the same reasons.”
Ohtani, welcomed back in his first at-bat by a partial standing ovation, walked in his second plate appearance. And with two out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth inning, he appeared to have walked again.
Then Padres catcher Ethan Salas tapped the top of his head to challenge the ball call. And an ABS review showed the fastball had clipped the top of the strike zone. Ohtani fouled off the next two pitches before whiffing on a sinker to end the inning.
That missed opportunity rolled right into a sloppy fifth inning for the Dodgers defense.
Starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto had given up a two-run homer to Manny Machado the previous inning but had otherwise avoided damage.
To open the fifth, he induced Salas to hit the ball on the ground, but it got away from second baseman Tommy Edman as he dove up the middle, for a single.
Yamamoto then got a soft grounder out of Fernando Tatís Jr. But it was too soft, giving Tatís time to reach first before third baseman Max Muncy could get off a throw.
With runners on first and second, Yamamoto had a chance to contribute on defense, fielding Dustin Harris’ comebacker bunt. But Yamamoto’s throw to third sailed wide, allowing a run to score. Machado then made it a 4-1 game with a sacrifice fly.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto reacts after a throwing error to third base in the fifth inning.
(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)
Ohtani came up to the plate again in the seventh inning and put Dodgers fans on the edge of their seats by sending a long fly ball to straightaway center field. But the cheers died down as it fell shy of the fence.
“I think if you look back at the last couple weeks when he was active, he wasn’t really getting to that pitch,” Roberts said of the high fastball. “I think there might have been one pitch late that he squared up to left field that was at the top of the zone. But outside of that it was hard for him to catch up. I think tonight showed that he’s in a good spot physically.”
The top of the Dodgers order got one last chance to start a rally in the ninth inning, against star closer Mason Miller. Only Will Smith reached base, on a walk, and advanced to third on defensive indifference. Ohtani struck out on a slider.
“[Ohtani] certainly feels way better with the rest,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said before the game. “The biggest thing with five games to go is get him as many at-bats as we can, some rhythm and timing.”
Ohtani could get a day off in that span, Friedman said, but the Dodgers will make those decisions based on how he’s feeling.
“Just getting as many at-bats as he can and that rhythm and timing back before we head into October is going to be really helpful,” Friedman said.
Ohtani was not in rhythm before he landed on the IL. In the last three weeks before the Dodgers finally shelved him, he had a .130 batting average. And he only had two hits in his last seven games (26 at-bats) before the move.
“You end up making subconscious adjustments where you’re protecting yourself,” Friedman said, “and there’s just slight degradation as that’s happening that compounds over time.”
Though the Dodgers downplayed the correlation before Ohtani landed on the IL, they now hope that Ohtani’s improved health will go hand-in-hand with better performance.
“Shohei says he feels back to where he was earlier in the year, which is great, which is a good start,” Friedman said. “As they are coming back, it’s important for them to feel that way … now the question is, as you start to load on real games and that intensity and that workload, it’s making sure that what we’ve done keeps guys in position to be at their best.”
Manager Dave Roberts confirmed Tuesday that Shohei Ohtani (right biceps, left knee) was set to be reinstated from the 15-day injured list on Wednesday. Ohtani is feeling “considerably” better than he was before the IL stint, according to Roberts.
“I would say if he was a five, he’s probably an eight or a nine right now,” Roberts said before eight pitchers led the Dodgers’ 7-0 win against the San Diego Padres in the series opener.
On Tuesday, the Dodgers trimmed their magic number to clinch a first-round bye to one. And before the game, they returned two other important postseason pieces, reinstating center fielder Andy Pages (fractured left hand) and right-hander Roki Sasaki (right middle finger blister) from the injured list.
In corresponding moves, the Dodgers optioned right-hander Emmet Sheehan and catcher Eliézer Alfonzo to triple-A Oklahoma City.
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Angels lose to Athletics
Carlos Cortes and Zack Gelof each hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning as the Athletics rallied past the Angels9-7 on Tuesday night.
Cortes launched a drive to right-center off Sam Bachman (1-3) to give the A’s a 7-6 lead, and Gelof cemented the comeback from a 6-0 deficit they faced just two innings before.
Cortes came off the bench as a pinch-hitter in the seventh and finished two for two with a triple and three RBIs. He also scored twice.
Why has it been so hard for USC football to compete for a national title after setting the standard in college football during Pete Carroll’s tenure?
Times USC beat reporter Ryan Kartje spent the past four years conducting more than 100 interviews, gaining new insight into the football program’s dramatic rise, fall and difficult push to return to national relevance.
Today, we begin sharing that story with you in “House of Troy,” a new narrative podcast from L.A. Times Studios available now on Spotify and Apple.
Check out Episode 1: “Win Now.”
In the late 1990s, USC football was in desperate need of a revival. The school turned to an unpopular choice: Pete Carroll, a former NFL coach. What happened next would transform USC into a college football powerhouse and Carroll into the face of a modern dynasty. In the first episode of “House of Troy,” Kartje takes us back to the beginning of the Carroll era and the drama that unfolded on and off the field.
Listen to “House of Troy” now on Spotify and Apple.
Why now? Why leave the WNBA when she still leads the Sparks in scoring and rebounding, has played a central role in helping the league negotiate a transformative new collective bargaining agreement and returned to the city where her pro career began?
Ogwumike is at peace with her decision. And when she steps onto the court in a Sparks jersey for the last time Thursday, she will do it without regrets.
“I’m mostly grateful,” Ogwumike said. “I haven’t really been thinking much else besides just being grateful for the opportunity to have had a 15-year career in the WNBA and also to finish in a Sparks jersey.”
Four-time MVP A’ja Wilson scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the Aces to an 89-79 victory over the Sparks on Tuesday night and clinch at least a No. 3 playoff seed for Las Vegas.
The Aces (30-13), on a six-game winning streak, will get home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, which begin Sunday. If the standings hold, they would face No. 6 seed Washington (27-16) in the best-of-three series.
Chelsea Gray scored 17 points of for the Aces, Stephanie Talbot had 14 points and Jackie Young totaled 14 points and 11 assists.
From Gary Klein: The Rams aim to ride the momentum gained from Monday night’s victory over the New York Giants into Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos in Denver.
But it remains to be seen whether star receiver Puka Nacua will be available.
Nacua sat out against the Giants because of groin soreness.
“I’m not sure what his status is as far as this next coming week,” coach Sean McVay said Tuesday during a video conference with reporters. “I’m hopeful that he’ll play. … If he’s ready to go, great. If not, then we’ll continue to roll.”
From Kevin Baxter: The U.S. bowed out of this summer’s World Cup with an uninspired loss to Belgium in the round of 16, the same place it has exited the three previous World Cups in which it has played. For U.S. Soccer’s much ballyhooed “golden generation,” it was a performance that hardly shone and a sign that whatever progress the federation has made over the past two decades hasn’t gone as far as hoped.
That leaves Mauricio Pochettino, coach of the national team, in a bit of a quandary heading into the new four-year World Cup cycle. Should he continue building on a foundation that has proven to be structurally weak? Or should he raze that foundation and start anew?
Turns out the answer to both those questions is yes. Because the 28-man roster Pochettino called up for the first training camp of the new cycle is a little bit of both, featuring 13 players from the World Cup squad and 12 others making their first appearance with the senior national team.
1926 — Gene Tunney beats Jack Dempsey with a 10-round decision to retain the world heavyweight title.
1952 — Rocky Marciano knocks out Jersey Joe Walcott in the 13th round to retain the world heavyweight title.
1979 — The Houston Oilers overcome a 24-0 deficit to beat the Cincinnati Bengals 30-27 in overtime.
1983 — Gerry Coetzee knocks out Michael Dokes in the 10th round to win the WBA heavyweight title in Richfield, Ohio.
1992 — Manon Rheaume becomes the first woman to play in one of the four major pro sports leagues when she takes the ice in the first period for the NHL expansion Tampa Bay Lightning in an exhibition game. The 20-year-old goalie faces nine shots and allows two goals in St. Louis’ 6-4 victory.
2000 — Ben Matthews ties an NCAA record with five interceptions as Bethel beat Gustavus 14-13. Matthews ties the all-division record shared by eight players.
2007 — For the first time in NFL history, two players have 200-plus yards receiving in the same game — whether they were opponents or teammates — in Philadelphia’s 56-21 rout of Detroit. Philadelphia’s Kevin Curtis has 11 receptions for 221 yards and Detroit’s Roy Williams catches 9 passes for 204. Detroit’s Jon Kitna sets a franchise record with 446 yards passing.
2012 — The Tennessee Titans become the first team in NFL history to score five touchdowns of at least 60 yards in a game in their 44-41 overtime win over Detroit. The scorers are Tommie Campbell with a 65-yard punt-return; Jared Cook’s 61-yard reception from Jake Locker; Darius Reynaud’s 105-yard kick-return; Nate Washington’s 71-yard reception from Locker; and Alterraun Verner’s 72-yard fumble-return. The Lions also become the first team in NFL history to score two touchdowns in the final 18 seconds of regulation to either take the lead or force overtime.
2012 — Kansas City’s Jamaal Charles rushes for 233 yards, including a 91-yard TD run in the Chiefs’ 27-24 overtime win over New Orleans. Ryan Succop kicks six field goals, one to force overtime in the final seconds and a 31-yarder in overtime for the Chiefs.
2017 — The St. John’s-St. Thomas rivalry game obliterates the NCAA Division III attendance record with a crowd of 37,355. The Tommies use a stingy defense to hang on for a 20-17 win over the Johnnies at Target Field, the home of the Minnesota Twins. The previous mark was set on Oct. 8, 2016, with 17,535 fans watching Wisconsin-Oshkosh play at Wisconsin-Whitewater.
2017 — Juwan Johnson catches a seven-yard TD pass as time expires and fourth-ranked Penn State rallies to stun Iowa 21-19 in the Big Ten opener for both teams. Saquon Barkley has 211 yards rushing and 94 yards receiving for the Nittany Lions, who outgain Iowa 579-273 but nearly blew the game. With the Hawkeyes leading 19-15, Penn State goes 80 yards on 12 plays to close out the game, and Trace McSorley finds Johnson in a crowded end zone on fourth down.
2018 — Tiger Woods caps off one of the most remarkable comebacks in golf history. Woods ends his comeback season with a dominant victory at the Tour Championship. He taps in for par and a 1-over 71 for a two-shot victory over Billy Horschel. It’s the 80th victory of his PGA Tour career and his first in more than five years.
2018 — Drew Brees sets the NFL record for career completions while passing for 396 yards and three touchdowns and running for two scores to lift New Orleans past Atlanta 43-37 in overtime. Brees breaks the record of 6,300 career completions set by Brett Favre.
2022 — Tennis great Roger Federer plays his final pro match during Laver Cup in London; teams with friend and rival Rafael Nadal but loses to Americans Jack Sock and Frances Tiafoe.
Compiled by the Associated Press
This day in baseball history
1908 — In a crucial game with the Chicago Cubs, Fred Merkle of the New York Giants failed to touch second base as the apparent winning run crossed home plate. This resulted in a great dispute and the game was eventually declared a tie and played over on Oct. 8 when the Cubs and Giants ended the season in a tie.
1939 — Brooklyn’s Cookie Lavagetto went 6-for-6 to lead the Dodgers’ 27-hit attack in a 22-4 rout of the Philadelphia Phillies. Lovagetto had four singles, a double and a triple and scored four runs. He was the only Dodger without an RBI. Dixie Walker, Gene Moore and Johnny Hudson each drive in three runs.
1952 — The Brooklyn Dodgers clinched the NL title, the first time since 1948 that the pennant wasn’t decided in the season’s final game.
1957 — Hank Aaron’s 11th-inning homer gave the Milwaukee Braves a 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals and the NL pennant. It was the first time since 1950 that a New York team hadn’t finished first.
1979 — Lou Brock stole base No. 938, breaking Billy Hamilton’s record, as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Mets 7-4 in 10 innings.
1983 — Steve Carlton of Philadelphia recorded his 300th victory with a 6-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
1984 — The Detroit Tigers beat the New York Yankees 4-1, making Sparky Anderson the first manager to win more than 100 games in each league.
1986 — Rookie left-hander Jim Deshaies set a major league record by striking out eight batters to start the game and finished with a two-hitter and 10 strikeouts to lead the Houston Astros past of the Dodgers 4-0.
1987 — Albert Hall of the Atlanta Braves hit for the cycle in 5-4 win over the Houston Astros.
1988 — Jose Canseco became the first major leaguer to hit 40 homers and steal 40 bases in one season as the Oakland Athletics beat the Milwaukee Brewers 9-8 in 14 innings.
1992 — Bip Roberts tied the NL record with his 10th consecutive hit, then grounded out against Pedro Astacio to end his streak in the Cincinnati Reds’ game against the Dodgers.
1998 — Houston’s Craig Biggio became the second player this century to have 50 steals and 50 doubles in a season, joining Hall of Famer Tris Speaker.
2001 — Sammy Sosa became the first player to hit three home runs in a game three times in a season, but Moises Alou’s two-run shot rallied Houston to a 7-6 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
2008 — The New York Yankees’ streak of postseason appearances ended. Boston beat Cleveland 5-4, minutes before the Yankees’ win. The Red Sox victory clinched at least the AL wild card and eliminated New York, which had made 13 straight postseason appearances.
2013 — Alex Rios of Texas hit for the cycle in a 12-0 rout of Houston. Rios finished off the cycle with a triple to right-center field in the sixth inning.
2016 — David Ortiz hit a two-run homer in the first inning to set the RBIs record for a player in his final season, and the AL East-leading Boston beat Tampa Bay 2-1 for its ninth straight victory. Ortiz’s 37th homer came off Chris Archer and raised his RBIs total to 124, one more than Shoeless Joe Jackson in 1920. The 40-year-old’s 540th homer, his 300th on the road, struck an overhanging catwalk above the right-field seats.
2022 — Albert Pujols, who has announced his retirement at the end of the season no matter what happened, becomes the fourth player to reach the 700-home run mark — after Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds. He does so by going deep twice, first off Andrew Heaney in the third inning and then off Phil Bickford in the fourth for No. 700. The Cardinals win handily, 11-0, over the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. Thirteen division titles in 14 seasons, and in the year they didn’t win, they had 106 victories. We don’t have a lot to complain about.
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Division titles and Ryan Ward
—The Dodgers won the division title again, clinching it Thursday with their win over the Reds. Remember the olden days of yesteryear when winning the division was a huge deal? Now it is blasé. Dodgers fans live in a time where they have an embarrassment of riches,
Let’s look at how many NL West titles each team has won since divisional play began in 1969:
Dodgers, 24 San Francisco, 9 Cincinnati, 7 Arizona, 5 Atlanta, 5 San Diego, 5 Houston, 2
There was no official winner in 1994, which was ended by a labor dispute.
I guess I’m feeling extra nostalgic today, but I remember growing up the Dodgers’ biggest divisional rival was the Cincinnati Reds, who moved to the Central division in 1994 and have since won a grand total of zero division titles.
If we narrow NL West titles since 2000, we get:
Dodgers, 16 San Francisco, 5 Arizona, 4 San Diego, 2
Poor Colorado.
—The Dodgers made room for pitcher Kris Bubic on the 40-man roster by designating outfielder Ryan Ward for assignment. Ward has been a favorite of newsletter readers for a couple of seasons now, but he really had no place on the team anymore. He’s too old (28) to really be a prospect and his best triple-A season came in his third season at that level. His numbers declined in triple-A this season (you can see his numbers here).
He’s not great defensively, and the team already has corner outfielders who aren’t great defensively. They passed him over for Josue De Paula when they needed someone to fill in for Shohei Ohtani, and there are several outfielders in the system who are considered better than Ward.
In all likelihood, another team will pick him up and give him more playing time in the majors, something he wasn’t going to get with the Dodgers. Hopefully we see him next season in the “There names seem familiar” section of this newsletter.
Evidence of Dave Roberts’ growth
One of the knocks on Dave Roberts has always been his poor postseason managing. But his postseason managing has dramatically improved the last few seasons, and I’m not just saying that because they won the last two World Series. His decisions appear to not always be guided by analytics, like they are during the regular season. And it appears Roberts has indeed learned some things during his tenure. He recently appeared on the 6-1-1 podcast, hosted by former major leaguers Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins, and had this to say:
“When you’re talking about winning 11 games in October, I couldn’t believe more that it’s about people, and players you can bet on,” Roberts said. “The heartbeat that the analytics doesn’t line up with. I think that early on, my mistake was I continued to use that same method of the regular season in the postseason….
He also had high praise for two of his players.
“Mookie has said to me, ‘Doc, we wouldn’t have won the World Series if it wasn’t for Shohei and Yamamoto. And his point was, the discipline that they had every single day, how they worked with intention every single day … it raised the level even higher for our guys.”
Forgotten Dodger: Pete Reiser
Pete Reiser in 1941.
(Associated Press)
Pete Reiser never met an outfield fence he didn’t like crashing into and it may have cost him a Hall of Fame career.
Harold Patrick Reiser was born on March 17, 1919, in St. Louis. He loved westerns and as a child often walked around wearing a cowboy hat and carrying toy guns, so people started calling him Pistol Pete, which stuck with him throughout his baseball career.
After playing in 58 games with the Dodgers in 1940, Reiser came into his own in 1941 when he hit a league-leading .343 to go with 117 runs, 39 doubles, 17 triples, 14 homers and 76 RBIs. He also played great defense in center. That got him second place in NL MVP voting behind teammate Dolph Camilli (Reiser should have won). Reiser led the league in nine categories.
He followed that by hitting .310 with 33 doubles and 10 homers in 1942, leading the league with 20 steals and making his second straight All-Star team. However, on July 18 of that year, he crashed full speed into the center-field fence, which was made of concrete, while chasing a fly ball. He ended up with a separated shoulder and fractured skull. In those days though, you didn’t let little things like a fractured skull slow you down. He returned to the lineup a week later, but he wasn’t the same. He hit .244 the rest of the season.
He then enlisted in the Army and spent three years there. In 1944, after a long march in below-zero weather, Reiser was diagnosed with pneumonia. The Army decided to put him in Fort Riley, Kan., so he could play for the camp’s baseball team. With Reiser on the team, they were virtually unbeatable and Reiser was given his own room and excused from all other duties.
Reiser returned to the majors in 1946 and broke his leg while stealing second. He crashed into the fence in St. Louis and missed some time. But he still led the league with 34 steals, though his batting average dropped to .277.
In 1947, he was chasing another fly ball when he crashed into the wall face first. This caused another fractured skull. He was given the Last Rites by a priest in the hospital before making a miraculous recovery. He ended up playing 110 games that season.
He was a bench player the following season, as he had put on a little weight and had been slowed tremendously by his numerous injuries. The Dodgers traded him to the Boston Braves after the season for Nanny Fernandez and Mike McCormick.
By unofficial count, Reiser’s injuries over the years included four fracture skulls, multiple dislocated shoulders, two broken ankles, torn ligaments in both knees and and two beanings. He was carried off the field on a stretcher eleven times—five times when he was unconscious.
He retired after the 1952 season and came back to the Dodger organization as a roving minor-league hitting instructor. He joined Walter Alston’s coaching staff in L.A. in 1960 and helped tutor Maury Wills on how to steal bases. In an interview with this newsletter a few years ago, Wills made sure to give praise to Reiser as being a big part of his 104-steal season.
Reiser had a heart attack in 1965, went on to coach for other teams. He smoked a pack of cigarettes a day throughout his adult life and died of emphysema in Palm Springs in 1981. He was only 62.
The postseason race
Here are the postseason seedings as of Thursday’s games. The three division winners get the top three seeds, followed by the three teams with the best records. The top two division winners get a first-round bye. Milwaukee and the Dodgers have clinched division titles.
Remember, there are no extra games to break ties anymore. It all comes down to tiebreakers. Atlanta and Milwaukee have the tiebreaker over the Dodgers. For the wild card, the Cubs have the advantage over the Phillies, having won six of seven games against each other. The Diamondbacks and Padres have split 10 games, but their final three games this season are against each other, so that very well could determine the final wild-card spot.
These names seem familiar
How notable players who were with the Dodgers the last couple of seasons are doing with their new teams (through Wednesday). Click on the player’s name to be taken to their full stats page:
Anthony Banda, Twins: 2-0, 4.46 ERA, 2 saves, 34.1 IP, 31 hits, 15 walks, 33 K’s, 95 ERA+, out for the season
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. There are only 13 games remaining in the regular season. Time flies when you are having fun.
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A different opinion
Throughout the season, I like to occasionally reach out to others to see what they think of the Dodgers so the readers are not exposed to just my viewpoint. This time I reached out to two of my favorite sports people.
I have listened to sports talk radio for about 50 years. Bud Furillo, Superfan, Rick Talley, Joe McDonnell, Steve Edwards, Fred Wallin, Steve Somers and many, many others. For me, “The Mason and Ireland Show,” hosted by Steve Mason and John Ireland and currently on ESPN Radio, surpasses them all. They can talk knowledgeably about any of our local teams, and the Dodgers are no exception. They were kind enough to answer a few questions.
Q. With the postseason rapidly approaching, how would you assess the Dodgers’ season so far?
Ireland: Surprising, in this sense: the Dodgers are heavy favorites to win it all, but they rarely beat good teams. Since the All Star break, they are 6-16 against teams with winning records. That’s obviously not good, and doesn’t bode well for the postseason. But having said that, for the Dodgers, the regular season is basically a dress rehearsal for the playoffs. I’m not sure they’re motivated until October. Maybe they’ll “flip a switch” and turn it on when it counts. We’ll see.
Mason: The Dodgers seem to be in a good groove right now. Mookie is starting to look like Mookie. Teo has come around. But hard to judge this team without a healthy Andy Pages and with Ohtani on the IL. I worry that as an organization, they didn’t get Shohei off his feet sooner. He has wrestled with injury for the last couple of months, and his biggest at bats are coming in October. They still have a chance to win 100 games, and they’re in position to three-peat, but with the playoffs, it’s a crapshoot. It’s a historically good rotation, but will those bats be clicking at the right time?
Q. The Dodgers have won two World Series in a row. Winning a third would be great, but if they don’t, does winning two in a row make up for it?
Ireland: Absolutely. Let’s face it, most teams want to be the Dodgers. A seemingly unlimited payroll, best manager in baseball, best front office. It’s incredibly hard to win two World Series in a row, and almost impossible to win three straight. No National League team has ever done it. So if they pull it off, it’s icing on the cake. But the cake has been great.
Mason: When the Yankees clinched their three-peat in 2000, they only won 87 games and lost 15 of their final 18. That shows you how hard it is. Honestly, the odds are strongly stacked against anybody winning three in a row, but if they fail, it is not a waste of a season. When you go back-to-back, you’ve got to show a lot of gratitude to the organization and to those players. A lot has to go right to win it all.
Q. Do you think Shohei Ohtani should just stop pitching altogether and focus on hitting the rest of his career?
Ireland: Selfishly, I hope he does both. That’s what makes him the best baseball player I’ve ever seen in person. But it’s obviously hard, and he’s had to shut down pitching at least three times since he came over from Japan. This year, it seemed to me that he was going for the Cy Young Award, while trying to keep up his offensive numbers, and it didn’t work. So maybe they do just let him hit moving forward, but I hope not. One thing that complicates things is that at least so far, the Dodgers have let Shohei do what he wants. And my sense is that he wants to continue to pitch and hit, so that figures into this too. It may not be a Dodgers decision — it might be Shohei.
Mason: I really want Shohei to do both, but in a specific way. He’s never going to give you 25 starts, and as good as he is, I cannot imagine him winning the Cy Young. He started 14 games to start the season this year — I say, instead, put those 14 starts at the end of the season. Ramp him up after the All-Star break, and have him ready to contribute on the mound in October. I was there for the magical night in the playoffs last year, when he hit three home runs and struck out 10. As a baseball fan, I really want to see him do both.
Q. If you were put in charge of the Dodgers and could make three immediate changes to the organization, be it on field, the stadium, whatever, what would you choose?
Ireland: For starters, I would address affordability. Most Dodgers fans have been priced out. They lead the league in attendance every year, so they have a business model that works. But I would take two or three sections in the upper deck and make those $5 tickets. They can afford it, and I think the gesture alone would score major points with fans.
On the field, they need to get younger. Freddie Freeman is 36, and so is Max Muncy. Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernández, and Blake Snell are all 33. Andrew Friedman has been great at roster building, so they have the right guy. But it isn’t easy to say goodbye to great players as they age out, and he’s facing that now.
Finally, everybody I know thinks there’s a lockout coming. To me, that would ruin all of the progress baseball has made over the last five years. The game has never been better. All of the rule changes have worked, and the pitch clock has been brilliant. Most people feel the Dodgers are the main reason for the lockout. They outspend everybody, have a sweetheart TV deal, and most small market teams can’t keep up. The Dodgers need to lead the charge to avoid this lockout. I’m against a salary cap, but everything should be on the table. I would lock both sides in a room and tell them not to come out until they have a deal. It’s a huge story that we probably don’t talk about enough.
Mason: First I would expand the number of retired jerseys. It would be great to see guys like Maury Wills, Steve Garvey, Bill Russell, Davey Lopes, Orel Hershiser and other Dodger greats receive that honor.
Andrew Friedman is a genius, but he has overspent on guys like Kyle Tucker and Edwin Díaz. I’d like to see them consider more of their minor league talent employed. Love that Rushing and Freeland have had strong moments this year, but instead of signing Tucker, why not find a way to use De Paula or Tibbs or Sirota. I know they are unproven, but once upon a time, so was Andy Pages.
Pet peeve of mind, but I don’t like the brand of Dodger Dogs being served. Farmer John hot dogs had a better taste and texture than the ones they are using now. Plus, Dodger Dogs are much better when grilled, so why are there so many boiled hot dogs at the stadium?
Q. Favorite Dodger of all time?
Ireland: Can I say Vin Scully, or is that cheating? I say all the time that I grew up going to Sportscasters School, but I just didn’t know it. For years, I listened to Vin call the Dodgers, Chick Hearn call the Lakers, Dick Enberg call the Angels and Bob Miller call the Kings. FOUR Hall of Fame announcers — I didn’t know what a bad announcer sounded like until I moved out of L.A. But I had this exchange with my Dad before he died in 2017:
Dad: “If you want to be a sports announcer, you better study more than just the sports page.”
Me: “Not necessary — I just need to call the games.”
Dad: “Listen to Vin Scully — he talks about EVERYTHING.”
Of course, my Dad was right. Listening to Vin was a history lesson every time he did a game. I learned more from him than I did from a lot of my professors at UCLA.
Mason: Back in the day, I would have said Sandy Koufax, who I had the pleasure of meeting at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, but nobody, in the history of the game has awed me the way that Shohei Ohtani has. His performance in NLCS Game 4 last year is the greatest I have ever witnessed in person. Better than any athlete in any sport. I have been a baseball fan all my life, and I could never have even imagined that was possible. I also love Ohtani’s Harada chart, basically his goals in life and career. One of his goals has been to “be someone people root for.” Hard to find anybody who is not amazed by both his talent and his humility.
Q. I have long said that the Mason and Ireland show is the best sports talk show of all time. Do you guys remember when you first met? First impressions? And remind the readers where they can listen to you now.
Ireland: Mason and I were kind of a weird shotgun wedding in the beginning. In the early ‘90s, he moved to XTRA in San Diego from Toledo, Ohio, to do mornings. After a few months, the station decided they didn’t like him. So they moved him to nights in an effort to try and get him to quit.
I was a TV guy in San Diego, who filled in on the radio station when they needed somebody. They called me and said, “We’re going to put you on at night with Steve Mason, but he’s not happy with us. Anything could happen.” On the first night, I walked in and Mason was working on a screenplay on his computer and he told me, “Just have fun and say anything you want — I won’t be here for long anyway.” So we just started goofing around, and I asked Mase on the air why he thought mornings didn’t work. He started making fun of himself, then me, and we just clicked.
After it was over, I called the program director and said, “You guys are idiots — Mason is fantastic. If you can’t build a show around him, you don’t get it.” The more Mason stopped caring, the better he got. They came back to him and said, “That’s the guy we thought we were getting from Ohio.” They told him they wanted him to stay, and told him he could pick his partner. He picked me, and we were off and running. The first week was pretty bad, but we were following a failed show, so they let us work through it, and we’ve been at it ever since.
We’re on every day from noon to 3 p.m. on ESPN LA, and we post a podcast of every show as soon as it ends. You can also listen live on the ESPN LA app from anywhere in the world, which is a free app that works great. Also, you can find Mason’s podcast, “Mason Plus,” on that app, which has some great deep dives with a lot of cool people in and out of sports.
Mason: Thank you for the kind words. John’s story of our meeting and partnership is right on. In radio, there is this idea that you can throw any two people in a studio and they will automatically do great radio. It just doesn’t work like that. John and I clicked immediately. The show has always been good because John and I are so different. He’s Corona del Mar, and I am a kid from Toledo. Even now, he’s very Manhattan Beach, and I’m very Venice. We see the world differently, which leads to healthy debate, but we have a deep respect for each other and for what we have built.
The postseason race
The Dodgers’ magic number to clinch the NL West is four. Here are the postseason seedings as of Thursday’s games. The three division winners get the top three seeds, followed by the three teams with the best records. The top two division winners get a first-round bye. The division winner with the worst record plays the wild-card team with the worst record, and the other wild-card teams play each other in the best-of-three wild-card round that begins Tuesday, Sept. 29.
Remember, there are no extra games to break ties anymore. It all comes down to tiebreakers. Atlanta and Milwaukee have the tiebreaker over the Dodgers. For the wild card, the Cubs have the advantage over the Phillies, having won six of seven games against each other. The Diamondbacks and Padres have split 10 games, but their final three games this season are against each other, so that very well could determine the final wild-card spot.
The Dodgers won it all last season without a first-round bye, but with all the injuries, it would be nice to get that bye this season. They have only three games remaining against a team with a winning record, so they really have no one to blame but themselves if they don’t get it.
Up next
Monday: Dodgers (*Tarik Skubal, 9-7, 2.84 ERA [2-2, 2.93 ERA with Dodgers]) at Cincinnati (*Nick Lodolo, 3-4, 5.12 ERA), 3:40 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Vin Scully is interviewed by the Braves announcers during his final season. Watch and listen here.
Until next time …
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. I hope you all had a nice Labor Day and took the time to celebrate all the pregnant women around you. Wait, I am being told now that that is not what Labor Day is for. That explains all the strange looks at my local hospital’s maternity ward.
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Teoscar is back
On Aug. 23, Teoscar Hernández went 0 for 4 in a victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, striking out twice. That lowered his season numbers to .244/.305/.390, which, to go along with his poor defense, made him a below average player, with a WAR below zero.
The Dodgers were off the following day, and Dave Roberts gave Hernández the Aug. 25 game off for a mental reset. Which seems to have worked. Since Aug. 26, Hernández is hitting .440/.525/.660, going 22 for 50 with three doubles, one triple, two homers, 14 RBIs, seven runs, two steals and eight walks. His WAR has gone up to 0.7 and he is as responsible as anyone for the Dodgers’ seven-game winning streak.
And, strangely, his defense doesn’t seem quite as bad when he is hitting that well.
When asked about this resurgence by SportsNet LA’s Kirsten Watson after Tuesday’s win, Hernández did what he usually does, deflect the spotlight away from himself, saying:
“I feel really good at the plate. Now, it’s just being consistent with it, see good pitches and make contact. We’re going in a good direction, taking the right approach and it shows. I think everybody is doing what everybody expected us to do at the right time. Everybody is having good at-bats. The pitchers are throwing really good games. Everything is clicking right now for us.”
Hernández told reporters after the game that his injuries the last two seasons made him adjust his swing and he’s finally feeling close to 100%.
“Last year, I used [my regular swing] before I had the [adductor] injury. That’s the way I was hitting. Then when I came back, I was doing the same thing, but I was feeling it in my [injured] leg, so that’s why I stopped.”
“This year when I got my hamstring issue, I had to get rid of [the swing] because it was putting so much pressure on the hamstring. Little, little things that people barely notice or realize can change the swing and the results in games.”
And let’s point something else out. Despite the subpar season, who was the first Dodger to leap out of the dugout to celebrate a teammate’s success? Hernández. He didn’t sit around and brood and feel sorry for himself. He was there for his teammates. There are some things that aren’t measurable by OPS+, WAR or any other stats, and in some of those areas, Hernández is a superstar.
In 2024, there were two things that helped the Dodgers find a gear they never had been able to reach before: Shohei Ohtani and Hernández. They both rose to every occasion, where in the past it seemed the Dodgers would shrink in the big moments. Ohtani and Hernández had big hit after big hit during the season and postseason. The same last season, even with Hernández having a down year. This year, however, Hernández had been mainly a nonfactor. Until Aug. 26. The Dodgers can only hope it continues, because if it does, their chances to win the World Series get a lot better.
Ohtani heads to the IL
The Dodgers announced after Wednesday night’s game that they put Ohtani, who is dealing with soreness in seemingly every part of his body (left knee, right biceps, neck and left hip), on the injured list. Two-way players have to go on the 15-day IL, so he will be out until the final week of the season.
“Talking to Shohei, the doctors, the training staff, it’s the right thing to do,” Roberts told reporters after Wednesday’s game. “We tried to kick the can as much as we could. It’s more of let’s take the 15 days and get him reset, get him feeling better, and then build him back up to get the best of him for the postseason.”
With the Dodgers’ penchant to obfuscate when it comes to injuries, the fear here is he is hurt worse than they are saying. We won’t know for sure until he comes off the IL and starts playing again.
To replace Ohtani on the roster? In a bit of a surprise, the Dodgers are turning to their top prospect, Josue De Paula, who never has played above double A. The Dodgers never had promoted a player from double A to the majors since Andrew Friedman took over the front office before the 2015 season.
De Paula, 21, has spent the season with double-A Tulsa, hitting .303/.401/.547 in 588 plate appearances, with 37 doubles, 27 home runs, 104 RBIs and 31 stolen bases. That’s extra impressive considering he is about three years younger than the average double-A player.
He will start at DH tonight, so the Dodgers are throwing him right into the fire.
De Paula has walked 81 times and struck out 87 times this season, so he has a decent eye at the plate. He is considered a subpar fielder though, with one scout telling me during a game De Paula played with Rancho Cucamonga two seasons ago, “As an outfielder, he makes for a hell of a DH.”
The intriguing thing is — and I know I’m putting the cart about a mile ahead of the horse — that if De Paula plays well, he could be added to the postseason roster. Unlike the old days, you don’t have to be on the 40-man roster by Sept. 1 to be considered for the postseason, you just have to be with the organization by that date. The Dodgers would need to petition MLB to allow De Paula to be on the postseason roster, but that type of petition generally is approved.
The Dodgers will have to make room on the 40-man roster for De Paula, either by removing a player or putting someone, such as Dalton Rushing, on the 60-day IL.
Injuries R Us
The Dodgers have another injury concern as the season winds down: Freddie Freeman.
Freeman is bothered by a troublesome knee. He sat out Wednesday’s game.
“The right knee has been bothering him, and so just on the heels of an off day [Thursday], we felt it was best to just give him [the day off] and then see how he is on Friday,” Roberts said.
There are 16 games left in the season, and the Dodgers are without Ohtani, Freeman, Rushing and Andy Pages. That’s not ideal. It seems unlikely Rushing will be back, and you really need two of the other three back for the postseason.
The postseason race
The Dodgers’ magic number to clinch the NL West is six. Here are the postseason seedings as of Thursday’s games. The three division winners get the top three seeds, followed by the three teams with the best records. The top two division winners get a first-round bye.
Remember, there are no extra games to break ties anymore. It all comes down to tiebreakers. Atlanta and Milwaukee both have the tiebreaker over the Dodgers. For the wild card, the Cubs have the advantage over the Phillies, having won six of seven games against each other. The Diamondbacks and Padres have split 10 games, but their final three games this season are against each other, so that very well could determine the final wild-card spot.
The Dodgers won it all last season without a first-round bye, but with all the injuries, it would be nice to get that bye this season. They have only three games remaining against a team with a winning record, so they really have no one to blame but themselves if they don’t get it.
These names seem familiar
How notable players who were with the Dodgers the last couple of seasons are doing with their new teams (through Wednesday). Click on the player’s name to be taken to their full stats page:
Anthony Banda, Twins: 2-0, 4.46 ERA, 2 saves, 34.1 IP, 31 hits, 15 walks, 33 K’s, 95 ERA+, out for the season
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
From Maddie Lee: Even Dodgers catcher Will Smith, who’d never be accused of wearing his emotions on his sleeve, was a little worried during his monthslong absence because of a persistent neck injury that he might not be healthy by the end of the season.
“‘It was kind of the ‘who knows how long it’s going to take,’” Smith said when the Dodgers activated him at the beginning of the month. “But at some point I was going to be fed up and just kind of deal with it.”
It apparently didn’t come to that. And in the Dodgers’ 3-2 win against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday, Smith’s fifth time in the lineup since returning from the injured list, he put the Dodgers ahead with a first-inning home run and guided Dodgers left-handed starter Tarik Skubal through 7 ⅓ innings of two-run ball.
“He called a great game,” Skubal said of his Team USA teammate. “And the targets that he sets up, and the way that he goes about it, he gives me a ton of confidence back there.”
A neck problem that was initially expected to resolve on its own in a few days turned into a nearly three-month IL stint. With the revolving door behind the plate in Smith’s absence, getting him back down the stretch and into the postseason was going to be key.
While Smith was on the IL, backup catcher Dalton Rushing was thrown into the starting role, learning how to balance the defensive responsibility of serving as the main backstop at the major-league level with a desire to also contribute offensively.
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Donald, who rejoined the Rams last month after a two-year retirement, wouldn’t confirm if he was planning to play in the season opener when asked multiple times by reporters on Monday, only saying he was “feeling really good. Feeling great.”
The development isn’t surprising considering McVay and his assistants weren’t pushing Donald to play. Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula said Monday that the team was taking a “day-to-day” approach regarding Donald’s status.
“I think he’ll be ready to go sooner rather than later, but we’re making a decision that we think is best for him and for our team,” McVay said. “He’s attacked this the right way, but it would have been a really quick turnaround.”
Two questions for you: Will the Rams win the Super Bowl and how many games will they win, counting the playoffs? Click here to vote in our survey. Results announced on Friday.
The Lakers announced on Tuesday that they have commissioned a statue of the coach who led them to five NBA championships — with help from Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Pau Gasol and others — that will be unveiled April 9 when the Minnesota Timberwolves are in Los Angeles for the next-to-last game of the 2026-27 season.
Reid Detmers struck out nine and gave up one hit over six shutout innings, Zach Neto was four for five with a two-run homer, and the Angels beat the Red Sox 6-1 on Tuesday night to end Boston’s five-game winning streak.
Vaughn Grissom and Jose Siri hit RBI singles and the Angels scored twice on double-play grounders, providing ample offense for Detmers (5-8), who got his first win since a 1-0 decision over Kansas City on Aug. 15.
Detmers struck out at least one in all six innings he pitched and allowed only three runners. He retired the last 10 batters he faced after hitting Jahmai Jones with a pitch in the third, then was pulled before the seventh after throwing a career-high 112 pitches.
1909 — Jack Johnson retains his heavyweight boxing title when he fights Al Kaufman to a no decision in 10 rounds at Coffroth’s Arena in San Francisco.
1940 — Donald McNeil beats Bobby Riggs after losing the first two sets to capture the U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn. title. Alice Marble wins her third straight title with a two-set triumph over Helen Jacobs.
1956 — Australia’s Ken Rosewall wins the U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn. title with a four-set victory over Lewis Hoad. Shirley Fry beats Althea Gibson 6-3, 6-4 for the women’s title.
1960 — The Denver Broncos beat the Boston Patriots 13-10 in the American Football League’s first regular-season game. The game is played on a Friday night at Boston University’s Nickerson Field.
1968 — Arthur Ashe wins the U.S. Open by beating Tom Okker 14-12, 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Ashe is the first Black male to win a Grand Slam tournament. As an amateur, Ashe is ineligible to receive the $14,000 winner’s prize, but collects $280 in expenses for the two-week tournament.
1972 — UCLA’s Efren Herrera kicks a 20-yard field goal with 22 seconds remaining to beat preseason No. 1 Nebraska 20-17 at the Coliseum.
1974 — Jimmy Connors romps to a 6-1, 6-0, 6-1 victory over Ken Rosewall to win the U.S. Open.
1978 — Chris Evert beats 16-year-old Pam Shriver 7-5, 6-4 to win her fourth straight U.S. Open.
1979 — In an all-New Yorker U.S. Open men’s final, John McEnroe beats Vitas Gerulaitis, 7-5, 6-3, 6-3. Tracy Austin, at 16 years, 8 months and 28 days, becomes the youngest U.S. Open women’s singles champion, ending Chris Evert’s 31-match win streak at the Open with a 6-4, 6-3 win.
1984 — John McEnroe beats Ivan Lendl 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 to win his fourth U.S. Open.
1990 — Pete Sampras, at the age of 19 years and 28 days, becomes the youngest U.S. Open men’s singles champion, defeating Andre Agassi, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.
2000 — Venus Williams wins her first U.S. Open singles title, defeating Lindsay Davenport, 6-4, 7-5.
2006 — Top-ranked Ohio State tightens its hold on the No. 1 spot after beating the No. 2 ranked and defending champion Texas Longhorns 24-7 in Austin, Texas.
2007 — Asafa Powell sets another world record in the 100 meters, winning a heat at the Rieti Grand Prix in 9.74 seconds. The world’s fastest man improves his record by 0.03 seconds, having run 9.77 three times.
2012 — Serena Williams, two points from defeat, suddenly regains her composure and her game, coming back to win the last four games and beat No. 1-ranked Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 for her fourth U.S. Open championship and 15th Grand Slam title overall.
2015 — Japan’s Saori Yoshida wins her 16th world or Olympic freestyle title at the world wrestling championships. The most decorated athlete in wrestling history, the 32-year-old Yoshida wins her 13th title at worlds — to go with three Olympic golds in as many tries.
2017 — Sloane Stephens dominates Madison Keys in the U.S. Open final and wins 6-3, 6-0 for her first Grand Slam title. The 83rd-ranked Stephens is the second unseeded woman to win the tournament in the Open era, which began in 1968.
2018 — Alabama strengthens its hold on No. 1 over No. 2 Clemson. The Crimson Tide made its 106th overall appearance at the top of the AP football rankings, which started in 1936, passing Ohio State for the most by any school.
2018 — Green Bay Packers start 100th season with historic 24-23 comeback win over Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field; first ever Packer recovery from 17+ points deficit after three quarters (20-3).
2018 — Cleveland ends its 17-game losing streak with a 21-21 tie against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
2021 — Tom Brady becomes the first player in NFL history to start 300 regular season games. Brady and the Buccaneers defeated the Dallas Cowboys 31-29 on opening day of the 2021 season.
Compiled by the Associated Press
This day in baseball history
1914 — George Davis of the Boston Braves pitched a 7-0 no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies in the second game of a doubleheader. Davis’ no-hitter was the first thrown at Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox.
1922 — Baby Doll Jacobson hit three triples to lead the St. Louis Browns to a 16-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
1936 — The New York Yankees clinched their eighth American League pennant with a doubleheader sweep of the Cleveland Indians, 11-3 and 12-9. The Yankees finished 19½ games ahead of the Detroit Tigers for the largest margin in team history.
1945 — Dick Fowler of the Philadelphia Athletics pitched a 1-0 no-hitter against the St. Louis Browns in the second game of a doubleheader.
1948 — Rex Barney of the Brooklyn Dodgers pitched a 2-0 no-hit victory against the New York Giants on a rainy day at the Polo Grounds. He walked two and struck out four.
1965 — Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers tossed his fourth no-hitter, a perfect game, against the Chicago Cubs. Koufax fanned 14 in the 1-0 victory while Cubs pitcher Bob Hendley gave up one hit — a double by Lou Johnson.
1987 — Nolan Ryan strikes out his 4,500th batter.
1988 — Atlanta’s Bruce Sutter joined Rollie Fingers and Rich Gossage as the only pitchers to save 300 games as the Braves beat the San Diego Padres, 5-4 in 11 innings.
1992 — Robin Yount became the 17th player to reach 3,000 hits in the Milwaukee Brewers’ 5-4 loss to the Cleveland Indians. Yount singled to right center off Cleveland’s Jose Mesa in the seventh inning.
1998 — The New York Yankees officially clinched the AL East title, the earliest in AL history, beating the Boston Red Sox 7-5. The Yankees improved to 102-41 — 20½ games ahead of second-place Boston.
2001 — Barry Bonds hit three home runs to give him 63 for the season. The third homer was a three-run shot in the 11th inning lifting San Francisco over the Colorado Rockies 9-4. Bonds broke Roger Maris’ record of 61 for most homers in a season by a left-handed hitter.
2004 — Joe Randa had six hits and tied a major league record with six runs, and Alex Berroa hit a three-run homer and drove in a career-high five runs in Kansas City’s 26-5 victory over Detroit in the first game of a doubleheader. Randa became the first AL player to have six hits and six runs in the same nine-inning game.
2007 — Milwaukee became the third team in major league history to open a game with three straight home runs when Rickie Weeks, J.J. Hardy and Ryan Braun connected off Cincinnati’s Phil Dumatrait in a 10-5 victory. Weeks and Braun each hit two home runs and J.J. Hardy homered and hit two doubles — all in the first four innings.
2017 — Jose Abreu became the first White Sox player to hit for the cycle in 17 years in Chicago’s 13-1 rout of the San Francisco Giants.
2020 — At the urging of Roberto Clemente’s family, Major League Baseball pays tribute to its first Latin American superstar by allowing Puerto Rican players and others to wear his uniform number, 21, in his honor, on this day. This is akin to the wearing of No. 42 on Jackie Robinson Day. In addition, all members of the Pirates, Clemente’s former team, wear the number, the first time it has been worn by a team member since Clemente’s passing 48 years earlier.
2022 — Major League Baseball announces the adoption of a number of changes to the rules to be introduced at the start of the 2023 season. They include a pitch clock, limits on defensive shifts, and larger bases. All of these changes have already been successfully tested in minor league games and aim to improve pace of play, reduce injuries and create more in-game action.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
As Shohei Ohtani strode up to the plate Monday, Michael Bublé’s voice crooned over the Dodger Stadium speakers as always. But after four games out of the lineup, the song seemed to be asking fans to believe:
“I’m feeling … good.”
Ohtani at least looked more comfortable in the batter’s box than he did Wednesday, when pain in his biceps had him shaking his right arm. But his performance at the plate still remains in a slump — he went 0 for 3 with a walk in the Dodgers’ 6-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds.
“It’s hard to really feel 100% at any time in the season,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “So I wouldn’t say I’m there.”
Roberts will continue to closely monitor Ohtani, saying he’ll see how the superstar designated hitter feels Tuesday before finalizing any decisions about playing time.
The Dodgers and Ohtani have all but ruled out his return to the mound this season.
“Disappointing,” Ohtani said. “But I want to make sure that when I look back at this season, that I used this as an experience, a learning experience and make sure that I use that as something to improve upon for next season.”
Roberts said he hoped Ohtani could improve his offensive production by not pitching.
“That’s one part of the thought, to sort of take the pitching off of his plate and really try to let him lock in on being a hitter and get on track,” Roberts said. “Because the last couple of weeks he just hasn’t been himself in the box.”
In the six games before Roberts sat Ohtani because of health concerns, he only had two hits.
“I’m confident that my overall performance should be better moving forward,” Ohtani said. “I think the thing that I was more focused on was making sure that the pitching wouldn’t cause the worst scenario, which was for me to not be able to play at all.”
Teoscar Hernández is showered with sunflower seeds after hitting a three-run home run in the sixth inning Monday against the Reds.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Ohtani flew out in his first at-bat, and then struck out on a Chase Burns slider below the zone. He struck out again against Brandon Williamson to end the fifth before reaching base in the seventh on a walk.
“It was certainly good to get him back out there, but there was certainly nothing to kind of write home about,” Roberts said. “I think the main thing is that there was nothing alarming from the at-bats. To take four days off, to come out of it feeling good, I think that’s a win in itself.”
The Dodgers (87-57) caught a break with Burns — considered a top-five National League Cy Young candidate — since the Reds (69-75) had him on a pitch limit in an effort to manage his workload.
Burns held the Dodgers hitless through three innings, striking out Ohtani as his last act before handing duties to the bullpen.
Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan, recalled on Monday as the Dodgers optioned right-hander Bobby Miller, gave up a home run to Elly De La Cruz in the first before outdueling the Reds’ bullpen. He gave up three hits, one run and struck out 10 over 5⅔ innings.
Sheehan will remain in the rotation and is scheduled to start Sunday in Miami, Roberts said.
Against Williamson in the fifth inning, Teoscar Hernández lined a leadoff single into left field. After Alex Call was hit in the right foot with a pitch, Miguel Rojas chopped a grounder to Reds third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, whose errant throw allowed two runs to score as Rojas dashed to third.
The next inning, Hernández punctuated his recent hot streak by lining a three-run homer into the Dodgers’ bullpen — with the highest exit velocity (112.6 mph) of any ball he’s put in play since 2024, according to Statcast.
Dodgers pitcher Emmet Sheehan delivers during the third inning against the Reds on Monday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Though Dodgers relievers Seth Halvorsen and Jack Dreyer each gave up a run, the Dodgers tacked on insurance in the eighth inning with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly from pinch-hitting Will Smith. And the team extended its winning streak to five games.
Ohtani didn’t play a part in any of the Dodgers’ scoring, but at least he was back in the batter’s box.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani has not played since Wednesday, when he struck out four times and winced noticeably at the plate.
On Saturday, the Dodgers held him out of the lineup for the third consecutive game because of pain in his right biceps.
Manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani’s path back to the field is predicated on how he responds to hitting in the cage, which he planned to do before Saturday night’s game against the Washington Nationals at Dodger Stadium.
“My expectation is that he’s going to hit today in the cage,” Roberts told reporters. “Once he hits and how he comes out of it, that’ll be telling for tomorrow.”
The injured list becomes a consideration if Ohtani is not trending in a positive direction Sunday, Roberts said.
Ohtani falls under the 15-day category for the IL, which covers pitchers and two-way players, as opposed to the 10-day list for position players. The Dodgers can backdate the move up to three days, akin to time served. So a 15-day window would be reduced to 12 days.
Although Roberts said he has not spoken to Ohtani about how he feels physically, the manager said he can get a hint from the player’s demeanor.
“When he doesn’t feel well physically, he gets more short and he’s not the same personality,” Roberts said, adding that Ohtani has seemed looser and more easygoing the past couple of days.
Ohtani was still considered day to day, and Roberts again teased his possible availability off the bench.
Roberts wasn’t quite as bullish, however, about Ohtani avoiding the injured list.
After describing an IL stint as “unlikely but not impossible” on Thursday, Roberts said Friday that he was “hopeful, but I wouldn’t say confident,” that Ohtani would avoid the IL.
There are a wide range of possibilities for Ohtani as he continues to deal with lingering pain in his right biceps. Though the Dodgers experimented earlier in the season with ways to manage his two-way workload — holding him out of the batting order on the day he pitched, giving him the day off after a start on the mound, or both — this is the first time he has missed two consecutive games. And he hasn’t pitched since July 3.
Roberts described Thursday as a “spa day,” meaning Ohtani rested, watched the game from the dugout and didn’t do any baseball activities. Roberts said Friday was a day to “start getting his body moving a little bit.”
“Let’s stay in communication, and let’s see when the time to give the green light is,” Roberts said.
Roberts said Ohtani has been “very agreeable” with the decision to rest him. Ohtani has declined multiple requests for comment over consecutive days through a team spokesperson.
“I think he wants to be out there, wants to play,” Roberts said, “but he’s understanding.”
An MRI scan of the area around his biceps and neck showed no structural damage, or as Roberts put it “nothing of note at all,” which is a promising sign. But Ohtani’s swings and body language Wednesday signaled that something was clearly wrong, affecting Ohtani’s play.
The fact that the Dodgers have not put Ohtani on the IL yet doesn’t necessarily mean that he’ll be out fewer than 10 days — it just means that they can’t rule out an earlier return. Teams can backdate IL moves up to three days. But that hasn’t traditionally served as a hard deadline for the Dodgers to make IL decisions. It isn’t expected to in this case, either.
Shohei Ohtani is hurt. The Dodgers’ rotation is injured. The team is in a fairly long slump and a first round bye isn’t remotely guaranteed.
Although having an injured player take up a roster spot for more than a few days isn’t ideal, it’s easier to cover for the designated hitter spot than other positions. And there is no obvious replacement on the 40-man roster pushing for a call-up through an extended period of outstanding play. Those factors mitigate the urgency to make a move.
In Ohtani’s absence, the Dodgers have started outfielder Alex Call at DH against left-handed pitchers, with Dalton Rushing available off the bench in the later innings.
The setup has afforded Rushing more regular at-bats than initially expected when the Dodgers activated him this week. Because Rushing (elbow) is still working through a throwing program, the original plan was to have him pinch hit one at-bat per game until he was ready to return to catching duties.
The Dodgers also have not officially ruled out Ohtani’s return to pitching, seeing even one or two innings from him as a plus. But the longer he’s out, the less likely it’ll become.
Ohtani’s planned buildup from tossing live batting practice on Aug. 22, to preparing to possibly start a little more than a week later, instead ended with the Dodgers shutting him down from throwing. Ohtani hasn’t even gone through weighted plyo ball drills in “a few days,” according to Roberts.
Asked what that meant for Ohtani’s return-to-pitching timeline, Roberts said it “certainly pushes it back.”
The priority, however, is getting Ohtani back to himself on the offensive side before the postseason — whether that means a couple days off or more than a week.
Roberts described the two-day break from the lineup as not just a physical one, but also a mental reprieve for Ohtani. He recorded just two hits in his last six games (23 at-bats). And over the past four weeks, he has a .703 OPS — compared to his .903 OPS overall this season.
“With a lot of players, when they’re not feeling well physically it adds to the toll mentally and emotionally,” Roberts said. “So I think Shohei is like that, like most players. We’re just kind of balancing how many days is sufficient to then be worth the time to get back, versus running this play out of days off and it not being adequate.”
