Given the problem the Dodgers have with their pitchers staying in the rotation for the whole season, and the way Shohei Ohtani was lunging for sweepers, I would say, “Don’t allow him to hit anymore.” Bill Plaschke says Ohtani led them to two championships. In 2024, the 55/55 year, he indeed did, although I would argue that Freddie Freeman did even more. But last year, many others were responsible for their ultimate victory, not Ohtani. Use him as a pitcher and a part-time hitter.
Mike Schaller Temple City
So Bill Plaschke has momentarily stopped playing psychic and has morphed into general manager, saying the Dodgers should either force Shohei Ohtani to stop pitching or trade him. Is Plaschke part of the medical staff of the Dodgers so he knows the root causes of Ohtani’s injuries this year, or what it might take this offseason to fix them?
He has written a lot of inane columns making bold statements that he usually has to eat crow on, and trading Ohtani while he is still one of the best players on the planet would fall into that category. Ohtani will eventually get to the point where his body can’t do both, but I’m sure no one is using Bill Plaschke’s medical expertise to determine when that might be.
Danny Balber Jr. Pasadena
OK, so now Plaschke is ready to give the boot to Shohei Ohtani, the baseball GOAT, as he much as he was gleefully behind basketball GOAT LeBron James’ departure based upon his controlling of the team’s condition, from trades to draft picks. This takes more chutzpah than Ohtani’s insistence to continue as a two-way player.
When will the L.A. Times decide they’ve had enough of him?
Two things can be true: The Dodgers’ season ended prematurely and, for Shohei Ohtani, the offseason couldn’t come soon enough.
Thursday’s elimination — a no-doubt-about-it sweep at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers, who vanquished the Dodgers in the same fashion Ohtani and Co. had summarily eliminated them last season — was apparently the only way to get the two-way superstar out of the lineup.
Now he can get some much-needed rest and recovery, a reality check and, possibly, some surgical procedures to repair the knee and biceps injuries that plagued him this season.
Ohtani didn’t rule anything out in his postgame scrum, several rows deep, in front of his locker after the Dodgers’ 6-4 defeat in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series.
“Hard to tell at this point,” the 32-year-old Ohtani said in Japanese, via interpreter Will Ireton. “It’s something that’s going to be analyzed, discussed over the offseason, and see if that’s a viable thing to do.”
Hopefully, for the Dodgers’ sake and for baseball’s, Ohtani and his team will see their way to a reasonable load management plan. Hopefully they’ll find a viable injury management strategy.
Especially if he continues to pitch, as Ohtani said he plans to: “Yes, definitely, and looking forward to having a better season.”
Hopefully this bumpy season — his first as a Dodger to end short of the championship following the 2024 and 2025 title runs — will make Ohtani better. Wiser. More willing to listen to his body and to communicate what it’s telling him with the ball club that relies on him so much.
“I’ll always trust Shohei,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s the best player on the planet, and he’s not completely healthy. But I just give him a lot of respect for not running from it, still wanting to participate, still wanting to play when he’s not 100%.”
But hopefully when Ohtani’s knee barks next time, he won’t pitch through it. Hopefully when his right arm tightens up, he’ll step out of the box. Even — or especially — if it takes longer than a 15-day IL stint to make him right.
Hopefully he’s learned that irrespective of a sense of duty or pride or a selfish streak, the cold-hitting fact is that a compromised version of Ohtani leaves the Dodgers’ whole team — a $400 million investment — compromised, as it was this postseason.
“I don’t really want to take it for granted for the opportunity to be able to play with these guys,” Ohtani said. “But honestly, I think I’m just very disappointed.”
In eight playoff games against the Atlanta Braves and Brewers, Ohtani hit .192 (five for 26). He struck out 10 times. He didn’t get an extra-base hit or drive in a run until Thursday, in the season finale, which reminded us of Ohtani’s power — he walloped his first home run since Aug. 18, a three-run missile in the second inning that traveled 428 feet — and his pain.
Roberts looked, for a moment, like a genius for continuing to keep Ohtani in the lineup — and to pencil him in as the Dodgers’ leadoff hitter after batting him sixth on Wednesday.
For that one shining moment.
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run in the second inning of the Dodgers’ 6-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 4 of the NLCS on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
But Ohtani also struck out three times Thursday — made to look foolish in a much-too-familiar way.
The Dodgers needed a healthy Ohtani to deal with a young, hungry ballclub like the Brewers.
To have a chance against a team that was, as Dodgers utility man Kiké Hernández said, “almost playing perfect baseball,” they needed him dialed in and not tinkering, not staying late searching.
They need the version of him that delivered the perfect game a year ago, his three-home-run, 10-strikeout masterpiece that sent Milwaukee home in Game 4 of the NLCS.
“Ohtani is arguably the best player in the world,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.
“He’s proven that to us. He had the greatest game I’ve ever seen played by an individual player last year against us.”
The Dodgers need that guy striking fear into opponents. Not him striking out, or getting stranded helplessly on base.
Shohei Ohtani tosses his bat after hitting a three-run home run against the Milwaukee Brewers during the Dodgers’ 6-4 loss in Game 4 of the NLCS on Thursday at Dodger Stadium.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
And they got a glimpse of that guy Thursday with that second-inning home run, a shot that had him throwing his arms up and screaming toward his dugout, as emotive as we’ve seen him, relieved and exulting after giving the Dodgers a 4-0 lead — and a fleeting expectation that they’d play a Game 5 on Friday.
“It was a lot of pent-up anger, frustration,” Roberts said. “It was the best ball he hit in probably two, three months, and it was a big hit.”
“It was like,” Max Muncy said, “that’s the swing we’ve been waiting for.”
Now we all wait for baseball to return — and then to learn what this season taught Ohtani, one of the most unique athletes in the history of the game.
“Not quite satisfied with how things shaped up on the pitching side at the end of the year,” Ohtani said. “… I haven’t been able to really come to grips in terms of what I’ve learned overall. It’s something that I’m going to kind of go back to the drawing board in terms of treatment, training program, and see what I can come up with for next season.”
What we don’t know: What the future holds, in what could be a turbulent winter for the Dodgers and for all of Major League Baseball.
Here are four things we don’t know about the Dodgers, but well worth keeping an eye on:
Shohei Ohtani
Just three short months ago, we wondered whether Ohtani would win his fifth most valuable player award and his first Cy Young Award. Has the time come for the Dodgers to consider curtailing his pitching?
As the Dodgers trudged through the playoffs, we endured daily drama over where in the lineup Ohtani would bat (first, second, fourth, fifth or sixth) and what he could produce despite playing through multiple injuries.
We’ll soon get a better understanding of those injuries, and whether rest, rehabilitation and/or surgery might be recommended for each one. We’ll also get a better sense of what the future might hold for Ohtani as a two-way player, and for his potential to perform at an elite level on both sides of the ball.
Ohtani said he plans to resume pitching next year. He is 32. He just completed his 14th professional season.
Ohtani has pitched more than 132 innings once since 2016, when he was 22 and playing for the Nippon Ham Fighters.
In his three seasons with the Dodgers, this was the first that did not involve rehabilitation from elbow surgery. He started 14 games before a knee injury prevented him from pitching any more this season.
Payroll
Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal walks off the field during Game 1 of the NLDS.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Major league owners are poised to shut down the sport this winter, in pursuit of a salary cap designed to restrain the Dodgers, since they won’t restrain themselves.
The owners’ initial proposal set a salary cap of $245 million next year. The Dodgers already have $347 million committed to 14 players next year, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts.
Under a cap, the owners have promised a transition period to account for existing commitments, and an actual negotiated cap could be higher.
Even if the players do not agree to a cap — and they insist they won’t — whatever economic system that would emerge from collective bargaining would be almost certain to make it painful for the Dodgers to spend so freely.
Whatever the case, the Dodgers could face the kind of difficult roster choices they often have papered over with money this decade. Two closers for $141 million? Good luck with that.
And would they be able to fit soon-to-be free agent Tarik Skubal into their payroll? Skubal might well sign before the lockout is expected to start in December, but there is nothing agent Scott Boras loves more than pitching a marquee free agent to a new owner. The two other Southern California teams — the Angels and San Diego Padres — both have one.
Age
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, left, and general manager Brandon Gomes have decisions to make about their aging roster.
(Luke Hales / Getty Images)
When Andrew Friedman made his name as the general manager of the Tampa Bay Rays, he did it in large part by taking advantage of one market inefficiency within the American League East: He beat up on the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees because they were stuck with rosters crowded with aging stars on big contracts. The Rays couldn’t have done that even if Friedman had wanted to.
He didn’t want to do it too much in Los Angeles, because it compromises roster flexibility. But, after seven National League West titles and no World Series championships, ownership went all in: Mookie Betts (12 years, $365 million), Freddie Freeman (six years, $162 million), Ohtani (10 years, $700 million), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12 years, $325 million), Tyler Glasnow (five years, $137 million), Blake Snell (five years, $182 million), Will Smith (10 years, $140 million) and Kyle Tucker (four years, $240 million).
It worked: three rings in six years. Now the bill comes due.
The Dodgers fielded the oldest group of position players in the major leagues this season. Ohtani and Betts are under contract through their age-39 seasons; Smith will be 38 when his deal’s up, Yamamoto and Max Muncy 37, Snell 36, Glasnow 35.
Something to watch this winter: Freeman is 37, signed through next year. He would like to play until 40 and finish his career here. That would take a two-year extension. Would the Dodgers say no?
Ownership
Mark Walter’s insurance empire is under investigation by federal authorities — and the subject of discussions with state regulators — over allegations the businesses he controls failed to properly follow laws designed to protect investors.
Walter’s company has denied wrongdoing, and neither Walter nor his businesses have been charged with a crime. He is, however, a defendant in multiple civil lawsuits in which insurance policyholders claim he and several of his companies committed fraud and breach of contract.
Walter may need more than $20 billion to satisfy regulators by recapitalizing insurance companies. He abruptly sold the Lakers in August, in a deal that valued the team — not just Walter’s controlling interest — at $12.5 billion. He and fellow Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly also sold a small stake in English soccer club Chelsea FC last month for about $1.27 billion, the Financial Times reported. It is uncertain how Walter would provide the rest of the money for recapitalization.
“Regarding the Los Angeles Dodgers, to be clear, the team is not being sold,” Walter’s holdings company said in a statement last month.
It is uncertain whether a resolution with insurance regulators would satisfy the Department of Justice, which reports to President Trump. In July, when the Dodgers visited the White House, Walter presented Trump with an official World Series championship ring with his name engraved on it. He also sold the Lakers to former Disney chief Bob Iger and venture capitalist Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law.
Major League Baseball is monitoring the situation and could conduct its own review after the state and federal matters are concluded.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. Game 4. What will happen? Let’s find out together.
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Game 4 thoughts
Pregame
—I’m interested to see how much energy and drive the Dodgers have in Game 4. Will they go down swinging (figuratively, not literally). Will they force the Brewers to rip the title from their hands?
—Fox did a great segment on Charley Steiner before Game 3. You can watch it here. There are things you can criticize the Dodgers for, but you also have to salute them for taking care of people like Steiner and Andrew Toles. They gave Steiner some hope during his cancer battle, and that’s very important.
—One thing about Shohei Ohtani before the game begins. It’s easy to pin the 3-0 deficit on him. He’s the most famous baseball player right now, and he’s not playing well. I wish there was a lot more clarity around his injuries. However, to pin the 3-0 deficit on him is unfair. Going into Game 4, here are the batting stats:
Miguel Rojas, 1 for 2 Mookie Betts, .250, no extra-base hits or RBIs Kyle Tucker, .250, one double, no RBIs Shohei Ohtani, .222, no extra-base hits or RBIs Teoscar Hernández, .200, no extra-base hits, one RBI Tommy Edman, .167, no extra-base hits or RBIs Andy Pages, .125, no extra-base hits, one RBI Max Muncy, .111, no extra-base hits or RBIs Freddie Freeman, .091, no extra-base hits, one RBI Will Smith, .091, one double, two RBIs Kiké Hernández, 0 for 5 Team, .165, two doubles, five RBIs
Ohtani has hit better than most of the Dodgers this series.
First inning
—The one thing that bothers me about Tyler Glasnow: It seems he gets two quick strikes on a batter, then tries to get cute with the pitches.
—Holding the Brewers scoreless in the first is nice.
—First and second, one out. Really should score a run here.
—And a double play. This could be important later.
Second inning
—Hey, they got Jake Bauers out using only four pitches. Miracle!
—And the Brewers go down quietly.
—If you mute the TV and watch an ad, but can’t tell what the ad is for without the sound, then it’s a bad ad.
—Manny Machado was in an ad. Reminds me of the old Yogi Berra quote, “Nobody likes Manny Machado.”
—Kyle Tucker has been the star of the Dodger offense.
—Here comes Dustin May to pitch for the Brewers. The Dodgers used to have a pitcher named Dustin May. I wonder if they are related.
—First and third, nobody out. It would be advantageous to score here.
—Miguel Rojas, in what could be his final game, starts, but is pinch-hit for before getting a chance to bat. You can’t let Rojas end his career like that, so a win is in order.
—Max Muncy strikes out. The worst thing you can do in that situation.
—Now, a double play?
—Andy Pages singles! Another miracle! He’s the only Dodgers who can hit in the clutch this postseason. Dodgers 1, Brewers 0.
—Kiké flies to center. Now Ohtani.
—And a majestic home run! Ohtani let about two months of frustration out with that scream after the homer. Dodgers 4, Brewers 0.
—I feel like Tom Hanks in “A League of Their Own” after Geena Davis returns to the team. “We’re gonna win!”
—Now can the Dodgers stop the Brewers from responding?
Third inning
—Glasnow is pitching great.
—Max Muncy seemed to be anticipating that bunt.
—Now if Will Smith could just get going.
—The Dodgers go down quietly. But they have a four-run lead for the first time in forever.
Fourth inning
—”Buy one Subway footlong, get one free” sounds more like a punishment than a reward.
—”Meal of Horror” describes every meal at Jack in the Box, not just this special Krusty the Klown one.
—John Smoltz tried to explain why Glasnow can be dominant, but it made no sense whatsoever.
—Will Smith makes an ABS challenge and loses. Oh well, it happens.
—Brice Turang walks. Don’t walk people with a four-run lead.
—A ground-rule double. Let’s hold them to no more than one run here.
—And the Dodgers get out of it. But Glasnow will be on a short leash.
—The Dodgers can’t just rely on four runs to carry them.
—Max Muncy gets a much-needed hit for him.
—And that ends the fourth.
Fifth inning
—Please stop walking people with a lead.
—Frelick steals second. It’s not hard to steal off of Glasnow.
—And the Brewers immediately cash in. Dodgers 4, Brewers 3.
—Evan Phillips comes in. Still has never given up a run in the postseason.
—Brewers are like the Dodgers, making the pitcher work.
—Brewers load the bases with two out. And that’s it for Phillips.
—Can Alex Vesia escape the jam against the pesky Jake Bauers?
—He cannot. Bauers walked on four pitches. Remember all the little things the Dodgers did right the last two years to win the World Series? They are doing none of those things this year. Dodgers 4, Brewers 4.
—The Dodgers go down quietly. This is beginning to feel like the first three games.
Sixth inning
—And just like that, the Brewers lead. Team of destiny. Brewers 5, Dodgers 4. Some people don’t like that I’m named Houston. Will they hate that I’m named Mitchell too? Do I have to change my whole name?
—You certainly can’t blame any of the losses on Tucker. Another hit for him.
—But the Dodgers can’t cash in. This could be important later.
Seventh inning
—It’s so funny that Edwin Díaz is the steadying presence out of the bullpen after the season he had.
—But he will remain unusable, regular season or postseason in Strat-o-matic or APBA.
—Leadoff double by Pages. Can they cash in?
—Kiké bunts! Pages to third.
—And look who’s coming up.
—And Ohtani strikes out, and looks bad doing so.
—And the Dodgers waste another chance.
Eighth inning
—Well, at least it looks like the Dodgers have a closer for next season.
—Quick inning for the Brewers. Do the Dodgers have a run in them?
—Will Smith comes through. Man on third, one out. If they don’t score here, it’s over.
—And Tucker pops out.
—And Teoscar strikes out.
—Two innings in a row, the Dodgers have a runner on third and one out and fail to score.
Ninth inning
—Maybe Díaz should have pitched earlier in this series.
—Brewers add an insurance run. Brewers 6, Dodgers 4.
—Again, the Brewers are playing like the Dodgers did the last two postseasons.
—Dodgers have been out-homered 7-1 in this series.
—Bottom of the ninth. Do the Dodgers go quietly?
—Tommy Edman grounds out.
—Pages struck out.
—Kiké lines to left.
—That’s it. Remember that Tom Hanks quote from earlier? They lost that game.
—Remember what Joe Davis said at the end of last year’s World Series? “To beat the champ, you’ve got to knock them out.” And that’s exactly what the Brewers did.
—As Max Muncy said after the game, “They were relentless with everything that they did. They just strung together good at-bat after good at-bat. That’s usually what we do. We didn’t do it this series and they did.”
—The three teams with a shot to win the World Series: The Brewers, who have never won. The Rays, who have never won. The Guardians, who haven’t won since 1948. It will be fun to see who wins.
Miguel Rojas is retiring
That was indeed the final game of Rojas’ career.
“This is it, guys,” he said, announcing his retirement after Game 4. “It’s been a lot, the last four years of my life here. And obviously making my debut here in 2014 changed my life, not just for me but for my whole family. They took care of my son, my daughter, my wife, and everybody in my family. It’s really amazing what I can think about, what happened to me and to my family the last few years.
“I just wanted to say thank you to all the veteran guys for allowing me to be myself when I got here, even though I didn’t play one game for the Los Angeles Dodgers for the last eight or nine years before I came here. They allowed me to be the leader that I wanted to be, the person that I wanted to change the culture and kind of give a little bit more of a culture, chemistry to the clubhouse. I feel like that is going to be a legacy that I wanted to leave here, other than my performance on the field. … I want them to remember me as a guy who always did everything possible to help my teammates win and to help the team get better every single day.”
I had a reader email me in the ninth inning that he felt ill watching the Dodgers play. Really? The team won the last two World Series and reached the NLCS in the third year. To feel ill or angry over this team is just the wrong way to look at it. Disappointed? Sure. Sad? Sure.
But if those feeling linger into Friday, remember that this team has given you many memorable moments over the last three seasons. They were outplayed by a better team here. Tip your cap to the Brewers. And, after the disappointment ends, thank the Dodgers for three incredible seasons. In fact, here are the Dodgers since 2016:
2016, Lost in NLCS 2017, Lost in World Series* 2018, Lost in World Series 2019, Lost in NLDS 2020, Won World Series 2021, Lost in NLCS 2022, Lost in NLDS 2023, Lost in NLDS 2024, Won World Series 2025, Won World Series 2026, Lost in NLCS
*-Astros cheated to win.
An embarrassment of riches.
Up next
That concludes the 12th season of Dodgers Dugout. We’ll be back in the next couple of weeks to discuss the offseason and whether there will even be a 2027 season.
In the meantime, today’s a new day. Look at the sunshine. Look at your family and loved ones. Everything is OK.
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. Game 3. What will happen? Let’s find out together.
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Game 3 thoughts
—Well, Shohei Ohtani is in the lineup and batting sixth. How will he do tonight? Who knows. My feeling has always been this: Great players always want to play. It’s the job of the front office and manager to protect the player from himself. If Ohtani was just in a normal slump, I’d play him. But if he’s injured so badly it is hurting his swing, which appears to be the case, he needs to sit. No player, even as great as Ohtani, is bigger than the team.
—Will Smith is batting seventh. He’s in a worse slump than Ohtani.
—Many people are calling this a must-win game. The only must-win game is an elimination game.
First inning
—That is not the start the Dodgers were looking for. Brewers 1, Dodgers 0.
—Home run, then three straight strikeouts. Did the homer make Snell angry?
—Never thought I would see a Corey Seager hair ad.
—The Dodgers have solid warning-track power in this series so far.
Second inning
—First and second, one out. This is not the start the Dodgers were looking for.
—Someone needs to tell Will Smith that’s it’s OK to use an ABS challenge early in the game occasionally.
—And Snell gets out of it.
—Some of these TV ads make no sense at all.
—Kyle Tucker batting cleanup in the postseason. Who would have believed it?
—”Shohei was adamant that he could play!” That doesn’t mean that he should.
—Ohtani and Smith are now a combined four for 45 in this postseason.
Third inning
—Snell seems locked in now. It’s time for the Dodgers to make the Brewers pitchers feel unlocked in.
—That’s the kind of sterling analysis that you only get here.
—I was just getting ready to wonder why Miguel Rojas is starting over playoff Kiké when Rojas singled. Never mind.
—First and second, one out. Really need to score a run here. Especially with Freddie Freeman and Teoscar coming up.
—Every overhead shot shows a bunch of empty seats. This happens when you outprice the regular fan.
—And the Dodgers don’t score.
Fourth inning
—Will Smith made an early ABS challenge and won! Stop the presses! Bring me the finest muffins and bagels in all the land!
—Ohtani got on base!
—Smith challenged another call! What’s going on?
—And then he struck out anyway, taking all of the joy out of the successful challenge.
Fifth inning
—Just think if Snell could stay healthy a full season. He’d probably have six Cy Youngs.
—Somewhere in America, a child to his father during the Megan Fox ad: “Hey dad?” “Yes son?” “What’s Viagra? And why does that woman have red skin and make me feel all tingly inside?”
—Our version of Front Row Amy, Mary Hart, is in her traditional spot, looking bored as ever.
—Rojas walks. Dodgers really need to score a couple of runs.
—Tommy Edman swings at the first pitch after the previous batter drew a walk. Things that make you go hmmmm.
—The Brewers outfielders dive for a lot of catches that they don’t need to dive for.
—And the Dodgers strand another leadoff runner.
Sixth inning
—Ad begins “You never know how many days there are in October.” Well, yes I do. 31.
—You really have to score when the first two batters walk.
—They pitched Ohtani like he was MVP Ohtani.
—I probably wouldn’t have hit for Pages, the only guy with a hit with runners in scoring position this series.
—The Dodgers finally get a clutch hit. And it’s Will Smith. He’s on a roll! Dodgers 2, Brewers 1.
—Abner Uribe was struggling. You had to foresee them going with Hall, the left-hander, next. Wasted Josue De Paula, who is on the roster only for his bat. Better to see Rojas or Kiké against a struggling Uribe. And then, if they bring in Chad Patrick to face Rojas or Kiké, then you go with De Paula.
—But they should have scored at least one more. This may become important later.
Seventh inning
—Snell still in the game. Good.
—Leadoff walk. Bad.
—Dodgers only have one bench player left, Hunter Feduccia.
—Jake Bauers is pesky. Every team needs a guy like Bauers.
—Snell up to 97 pitches, Bauers could be his last batter.
—And Bauers homers. Brewers 3, Dodgers 2.
—See, if Dave Roberts had taken Snell out, people would have said “Why didn’t they leave him in? He was doing so well.” And now people are saying “They should have gone to the bullpen!”
—And there’s another home run. Brewers 4, Dodgers 2.
—It might be time to remove Snell now.
—Here comes Evan Phillips, who has pitched 17 scoreless innings in his postseason career. Yet he has been relegated to mop-up duty.
—And the Dodgers go down quietly. In this series, the Brewers always answer back when the Dodgers score. The Dodgers don’t answer back when the Brewers score.
Eighth inning
—Brewers feel like the Team of Destiny right now.
—The other thing that needs to be remembered: It’s easy to say “Dodgers hitters are just terrible, they are slumping at the worst time.” But sometimes you just tip your cap to the other team and say “Your pitchers beat us.” The Brewers look like the Dodgers of the last two seasons.
—Max Muncy made a nice play on that ball, even if it turned into an infield single. And Muncy was named a finalist today at third base for the Gold Glove award. I would have never thought that possible as little as two years ago.
—Justin Wrobleski now in the game. Where’s Jack Dreyer?
—I’m picking on Ohtani far too much. They don’t win two World Series without him. He gave them the swagger they were missing. That shouldn’t be forgotten. And as I’ve mentioned, it’s the team’s job to bench the player, not the player’s job. What great player would say “I don’t want to play?”
—And the Dodgers go down quietly. I have that phrase saved so I just have to paste it in. Saves me a lot of time.
Ninth inning
—Why do people get seats behind home plate and then spend most of the game on their phone?
—And the Brewers add on an insurance run. Brewers 6, Dodgers 2.
—And the Dodgers go down quietly.
—So the Dodgers are down 3-0. Only once in postseason history has a team rallied from a 3-0 deficit, the 2004 Boston Red Sox in the ALCS. Dave Roberts had an important stolen base in that series.
—It’s not impossible for the Dodgers to come back from this, but it is improbable. They have been outplayed in every aspect of the game. Offense, pitching, managing, energy, clutch ability, the list goes on.
—We’ll just have to wait and see what Game 4 brings us. Remember, game time changed from 6 p.m. to 5 p.m. In the meantime, enjoy life.
Up next
Thursday at Dodgers, 5 p.m., FS1/Fox Deportes/Fox One
*Friday at Dodgers, 6 p.m., FS1/Fox Deportes/Fox One
*Sunday at Milwaukee, 5 p.m., FS1/Fox Deportes/Fox One
*Monday at Milwaukee, 5 p.m., Fox/FS1/Fox Deportes/Fox One
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.
The quiet crowd had come alive. The quiet pitcher had become unhittable. The quiet catcher had loudly blasted a ball that sent Chavez Ravine into tremors.
In the sixth inning Wednesday night, with their pursuit of history on the line against those pesky Milwaukee Brewers, the somnolent Dodgers had finally come to life.
Moments later, they were dead again.
The Brewers’ Garrett Mitchell yells after hitting a solo home run in the seventh inning off Blake Snell in Game 3 of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.
It’s not over, but it is. The Dodgers aren’t done, but they’re so done.
The chase for a third consecutive World Series championship is historically and essentially and practically kaput. Their pursuit of a three-peat has been smothered by the Brewers’ own version of a three-peat, and nearly all hope is lost.
The Dodgers now trail the Brewers three-games-to-none in this best-of-seven series, a virtually impossible mountain to scale, achieved only once in major-league history.
Yes, Dave Roberts stole the base that spurred the Boston Red Sox to work out of a similar hole against the New York Yankees in 2004, but he’s no longer on the field and any of that inspiration has long since vanished.
“I don’t know if some of those guys even know I played,” said Roberts before the game..
They could have used some of his fire Wednesday in a game played against a background of apathetic embarrassment.
Namely, it wasn’t a sellout. How can an NLCS game in the most perpetually crowded baseball stadium in America not sell out?
The huge swaths of empty seats were perhaps a sign that, after watching their team slog through two losses in Milwaukee, Dodger nation had already given up. The 50,708 fans who did show up made lots of noise, but it was too late to reverse the optics of a team abandoned.
Dodgers left fielder Teoscar Hernández reacts after taking a strike in the sixth inning of Game 3 of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Not surprisingly, there were several standing ovations given to injured star Shohei Ohtani, who the Dodgers considered benching before allowing him to talk his way into staying in the lineup. Also not surprisingly, Ohtani did little to reward his devotees, He hit a soft flyout, he was hit by a pitch, he drew a walk to help fuel the Dodgers sixth-inning rally and he singled after the Brewers had taken a three-run lead. No heroics. No hard hits. No chance.
The injury-plagued season of Ohtani will end with the Dodgers surely realizing that they should have taken control of his situation instead of empowering him to dictate the terms of his participation. They shouldn’t have let him keep playing hurt, but they did because they didn’t want to upset him, and it was the team that ended up paying the price.
All this negativity swirling around Dodger Stadium Wednesday night and, to think, the Dodgers were just moments from saving themselves.
Snell was brilliant for six innings, allowing just a leadoff home run to Jackson Chourio.
The Dodgers then set him up for a victory by taking advantage of a terrible decision by Brewers manager Pat Murphy.
Entering the sixth inning Brewers starter Robert Gasser had allowed just three singles in five shutout innings and had thrown just 72 pitches. Yet he was stunningly pulled by Murphy in favor of heavily used Abner Uribe.
Sure enough, Uribe threw eight balls in his next nine pitches to walk Teoscar Hernández and Kyle Tucker. After Max Muncy struck out, Ohtani drew a five-pitch walk in one of his best plate appearances this month.
Up stepped Smith, who entered the game with one hit in his previous 25 postseason plate appearances. But this night was going to be different, as it was hours after Will Smith’s wife, Cara, announced the birth of their third child.
Oh baby! Dad powered a two-run double off the left-center field fence to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.
Snell took the mound in the seventh having retired the previous 14 Brewers and looking strong. But he had not pitched this deep all season. And the Chourio home run was the first he had allowed this season.
Should Roberts have pulled him? You decide. Snell opened the seventh by walking Andrew Vaughn and losing an 11-pitch duel to Bauers, who won the battle with a two-run homer. Two pitches later, Garrett Mitchell took Snell deep to almost exactly the same right-center field spot to give the Brewers a 4-2 lead they never lost.
Snell was gone, but it was too late and too much. The weary and distracted Dodgers never again showed much energy on a night when Dodger Stadium did its best.
There was Keith Williams Jr. hitting all the high notes — and even higher — during his usual incredible national anthem.
Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers hits a two-run home run during the seventh inning of Game 3 of the NLCS on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
There was past Brewers playoff nemesis Chris Taylor chanting, “It’s time for Dodger baseball!.”
Late in the game, there was even unofficial Dodger emcee Ice Cube on the video board saying “We ain’t backing down to no one.”
The hardest part of all this is that Cube is wrong. The Milwaukee Brewers are a good team but make no mistake.
Blessed with an opportunity to step up and make history, the Dodgers backed down.
From Maddie Lee: Shohei Ohtani emerged from the visiting dugout at American Family Field with a bat in his hand, and the mass of media members scattered in foul territory up the third-base line shifted his way, pulled by the magnetic force that is Ohtani’s stardom.
Monday marked the third straight day Ohtani had hit on the field, after a multi-round session off the pitching machine on the workout day and batting practice before each of the first two games of the National League Championship series against the Milwaukee Brewers. But the novelty of the move — Ohtani only took batting practice on the field a few times during the regular season, always in the midst of a slump — had yet to fully wear off.
“The results, take full responsibility,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton on Tuesday. “That’s all I can really say, why the results haven’t been where I wanted it to be. But I think there’s different approaches to this, whether that be focusing on reducing the symptoms and getting rid of the pain and/or just making sure that I’m moving well in the swing.”
That break of routine for the start of the NLCS did not pay off in terms of results. But after a conversation with Ohtani, manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday that he felt “great” about playing Ohtani in Game 3 of the NLCS, even though Ohtani is still physically compromised by nagging right biceps and left knee problems.
“He’s adamant he feels good enough to be in there,” Roberts said. “He’s close to finding something with his swing. … Yeah, he wants to be in there and help us win a ballgame and win a championship. Great conversation, and I’m excited about having him in there.”
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Dodgers should have benched Shohei Ohtani
From Bill Shaikin: The Dodgers never waver in their game plan for the regular season: win enough games to secure a bye in the opening round of the playoffs and, in so doing, afford players all the down time they need during the summer to be in top form come fall. They do not need to hurry anyone off the injured list so they can squeak out another National League West title.
Unfortunately for the Dodgers and their increasingly perilous hope of a three-peat, they did not follow that game plan with Shohei Ohtani. The Dodgers failed Ohtani this summer, and now all that remains is for them to cross their collective fingers and hope for the best.
Hope, as they say, is not a strategy.
The Dodgers should drop Ohtani from the postseason roster.
Amid headlines about how the Dodgers might have benched Ohtani for Game 3 of the NL Championship Series, manager Dave Roberts said the thinking was more about coupling Tuesday’s day off with a second consecutive day of rest.
No. 1 Milwaukee vs. No. 2 Dodgers at Milwaukee 2, Dodgers 1 (box score) at Milwaukee 7, Dodgers 4 (box score) Wednesday at Dodgers, 5 p.m., FS1/FOX Deportes/FOX One Thursday at Dodgers, 6 p.m., FS1/FOX Deportes/FOX One *Friday at Dodgers, 6 p.m., FS1/FOX Deportes/FOX One *Sunday at Milwaukee, 5 p.m., FS1/FOX Deportes/FOX One *Monday at Milwaukee, 5 p.m., FOX/FS1/FOX Deportes/FOX One
ALCS
No. 1 Tampa Bay vs. No. 2 Cleveland Cleveland 7, at Tampa Bay 3 (box score) at Tampa Bay 3, Cleveland 1 (box score) Thursday at Cleveland, 3 p.m., TBS/truTV/UniMas/HBO Max Friday at Cleveland, 3 p.m., TBS/truTV/UniMas/HBO Max Saturday at Cleveland, 5 p.m., TBS/truTV/UniMas/HBO Max *Monday at Tampa Bay, 2 p.m., TBS/truTV/UniMas/HBO Max *Tuesday at Tampa Bay, 5 p.m., TBS/truTV/UniMas/HBO Max
* if necessary
World Series starts Friday, Oct. 23
Walker Kessler makes Lakers debut
From Broderick Turner: The plan for the Lakers had been to turn their fourth preseason game into a dress rehearsal for the upcoming season.
But that was not the case.
The Lakers did get the preseason debut of center Walker Kessler on Tuesday night, a good sign for them to see their biggest acquisition of the summer play.
But on the flip side, Luka Doncic didn’t play in the Lakers’ 101-89 loss to the Golden State Warriors at T-Mobile Arena because he was resting.
“He’s not injured, just getting the night off,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said.
Kessler had 11 points, nine rebounds, one blocked shot and one steal.
From Gary Klein: Less than 24 hours after kicking-game issues led to the Buffalo Bills defeating the Rams in overtime, the team released kicker Harrison Mevis, a team official said Tuesday.
Mevis missed a 50-yard field-goal attempt in the first half, and a had potential 48-yard game-winning field-goal attempt blocked in overtime. The Bills went on to win 37-34 in overtime, dropping the Rams’ record to 2-3.
“Not even close to good enough,” coach Sean McVay said of the field-goal and extra-point units after the defeat. “It cost us the game tonight.”
From Gary Klein: Quarterback Matthew Stafford, the Rams’ most valuable and most important player, will have a new blindside protector when the reigning NFL MVP faces the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.
With left tackle Alaric Jackson suspended by the NFL for two games for punching an opposing player after the Rams 37-34 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Monday night, coach Sean McVay said Tuesday that veteran David Quessenberry would take Jackson’s spot.
Quessenberry, 36, is a ninth-year pro in his second season with the Rams. He has not started a game since 2023 when he started four times for the Minnesota Vikings.
McVay said the Rams also would open the 21-day window for rookie tackle Keagan Trost to return from injured reserve.
Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists in the dynamic first period of his four-point night, propelling the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-1 victory over the winless Kings on Tuesday.
Vasily Podkolzin got his sixth and seventh goals of the season, Leon Draisaitl also scored and Devon Levi made 39 saves for the Oilers, who have won five straight and scored at least three goals in every game of their 5-0-1 start.
McDavid recorded at least three points in a period for the 33rd time in his 11-year career, doing it in the first period for the 10th time. The six-time Art Ross Trophy winner as the NHL’s top scorer has a whopping 16 points already this season with five multi-point games.
Martin Pospisil scored the tiebreaking goal with 4:22 left, Yegor Sharangovich added an empty-netter with 1:22 remaining and the Calgary Flames beat the Ducks 4-2 on Tuesday night.
Adam Klapka and Aydar Suniev added goals, and Dustin Wolf stopped 22 of 24 shots as the Flames (1-5) won for the first time this season. Beckett Sennecke and Leo Carlsson scored goals, and Lukas Dostal had 32 saves for the Ducks (4-2).
Pospisil’s decisive goal came after he took a pass from Suniev at the center circle, skated down the left side, deked Ducks defenders Tyson Hinds and Tristan Luneau by faking a shot and snapped the puck past Dostal’s short side for a 3-2 lead.
1945 — The Chicago Cardinals snap the longest losing streak in NFL history at 29 games with a 16-7 victory over the Chicago Bears.
1949 — Ezzard Charles TKOs Pat Valentino in 8 for heavyweight boxing title.
1951 — Detroit’s Jack Christiansen returns two punts for touchdowns, but the Lions still lose, 27-21, to the Rams.
1962 — Houston’s George Blanda throws six touchdown passes to lead the Oilers to a 56-17 rout of the New York Titans.
1967 — The Kings, led by Brain Kilrea, beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 in their NHL debut. The game is held at Long Beach Arena. Kilrea scores two goals, including the first one in Kings history.
1978 — Darryl Sittler of the Toronto Maple Leafs gets seven assists in a 10-7 victory over the New York Islanders.
1979 — Edmonton’s Wayne Gretzky scores his first NHL goal in a 4-4 tie with the Vancouver Canucks. Gretzky beats goaltender Glen Hanlon with the game-tying power-play goal with 1:09 remaining in the third period.
1990 — Joe Montana passes for career highs of 476 yards and six touchdowns and Jerry Rice ties an NFL record with five scoring receptions as the San Francisco 49ers beat the Atlanta Falcons 45-35.
1991 — New York Rangers right wing Mike Gartner scores his 500th career goal in the first period of a 5-3 loss to the Washington Capitals.
2005 — Ryan Newman sets a NASCAR record by winning his fifth consecutive Busch Series race, the Charlotte 300 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
2006 — Mats Sundin scores his 500th career goal, completing a hat trick with a short-handed overtime game-winner and giving Toronto a 5-4 victory over Calgary. The third goal is Sundin’s 15th in overtime — the most in NHL history.
2007 — Tom Brady of New England passes for 388 yards and a career-high five touchdowns in a 48-27 win over previously unbeaten Dallas. The five TDs gives Brady the NFL mark with at least three in each of the first six games of the season.
2011 — Japan’s Kohei Uchimura becomes the first man to win three titles at the world gymnastics championships in Tokyo. Uchimura finishes with 93.631 points in the men’s all-around, more than three points ahead of Germany’s Philipp Boy.
2012 — Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers sets a career high and ties a franchise record with six touchdown passes, three to Jordy Nelson, and the Packers rout the Houston Texans 42-24. Rodgers completes 24 of 37 passes for 338 yards and ties Matt Flynn’s single-game record for TD passes, set in last year’s regular-season finale against Detroit.
2015 — Sylvia Fowles has 20 points and 11 rebounds as the Minnesota Lynx capture their third WNBA title in five years with a 69-52 victory over the Indiana Fever in Game 5.
2018 — Stephen Gostkowski hit a 28-yard field goal as time expires, and the New England Patriots beat the Kansas City Chiefs 43-40 after blowing a big halftime lead. Tom Brady passes for 340 yards and a touchdown and runs for another score in his 200th victory as a starting quarterback, tops in NFL history. With New England leading 24-9 at halftime, Patrick Mahomes directs an impressive rally by Kansas City in the second half. He finishes 23 of 36 for 352 yards in his first loss as a starting quarterback, with three of his four TD passes going to Tyreek Hill.
2020 — The NFL cancels the Pro Bowl scheduled for January, 31, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Compiled by the Associated Press
This day in baseball history
1973 — 42-year-old future Baseball Hall of Fame center fielder Willie Mays′ last MLB career hit, as N.Y. Mets beat A’s, 10-7 in World Series Game 2 in Oakland.
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.
The Dodgers never waver in their game plan for the regular season: win enough games to secure a bye in the opening round of the playoffs and, in so doing, afford players all the down time they need during the summer to be in top form come fall. They do not need to hurry anyone off the injured list so they can squeak out another National League West title.
Unfortunately for the Dodgers and their increasingly perilous hope of a three-peat, they did not follow that game plan with Shohei Ohtani. The Dodgers failed Ohtani this summer, and now all that remains is for them to cross their collective fingers and hope for the best.
Hope, as they say, is not a strategy.
The Dodgers should drop Ohtani from the postseason roster.
Amid headlines about how the Dodgers might have benched Ohtani for Game 3 of the NL Championship Series, manager Dave Roberts said the thinking was more about coupling Tuesday’s day off with a second consecutive day of rest.
“It was never a benching,” Roberts said.
Roberts drew a parallel between what might have happened with Ohtani and what did happen with Freddie Freeman during the NLCS two years ago, when the Dodgers provided what the manager called a “reset” — a day off for the team, followed by a rest day for Freeman.
“And he ends up winning the MVP in the World Series,” Roberts said.
Freeman had been playing with a bad ankle for three weeks, and even then he had been more productive that October than Ohtani has been in this one. Ohtani has been playing with a bad knee and biceps for three months, and the Dodgers already have tried intermittent rest.
They tried that in September, twice. They touted their bye week before the start of the playoffs. They talked up their three days off before the start of the NLCS.
They went 0 for 4. Enough already.
Roberts said the Dodgers — not just Ohtani, but the coaching staff and the training staff — see progress. True, no doubt. But we’ve heard similarly encouraging words after each of Ohtani’s rest breaks.
“We’re listening to Shohei, and we’re going to support the crap out of him and believe in him,” Roberts said, “and that’s it.”
Ohtani said Tuesday that his symptoms have subsided since the Dodgers put him on the injured list, for the minimum stay. That was a month ago.
Shohei Ohtani is just three for 20 this postseason.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
On Tuesday, he said his approaches can alternate between “focusing on reducing the symptoms and getting rid of the pain and/or just making sure that I’m moving well in the swing.”
There is no evidence so far that this might work, and an uncomfortable and increasing body of evidence that it might not.
Ohtani is batting .150 in the playoffs, with three hits in 20 at-bats. Of the 39 players with at least 20 at-bats this postseason entering play Tuesday, only three have a lower OPS than Ohtani’s .411.
One of them, Dodgers catcher Will Smith, has one hit in 23 at-bats. But he is hitting the ball hard: in the NLCS, one ball hit at 102 mph, another at 101, and every ball hit harder than the one Ohtani hit the hardest.
That exit velocity: 86 mph.
He has not pulled a ball in the series for a hit, or for an out.
Over his major league career, he has homered once every 14 at-bats.
He has not hit a home run since Aug. 18, a span of 107 at-bats. He has driven in one run since then; the Dodgers batted him cleanup in Game 2.
And, since hitting that last home run, Ohtani is batting .036 against fastballs thrown 95 mph or harder. The average fastball in this postseason: 96.2 mph, according to analyst Mike Petriello’s close-up of all the different ways Ohtani’s swing is fouled up.
When Ohtani spoke with reporters before the playoffs started, he said he might not know the full extent of his injuries or what he might need to do to rehabilitate them until after the postseason.
“I haven’t been able to get a good grasp of the root cause of all this,” he said then. “I think that process is going to happen during the offseason, when I’m going to have a little bit more time to be able to address it. But as of now, it’s something I’m just going to have to manage.”
The Dodgers did not need Ohtani to win the NL West. They needed to shut him down for an extended period to maximize their chances of winning in October.
They failed to do that. They believed a few days of rest would allow them to nurse Ohtani through the rest of the season.
Shohei Ohtani emerged from the visiting dugout at American Family Field with a bat in his hand, and the mass of media members scattered in foul territory up the third-base line shifted his way, pulled by the magnetic force that is Ohtani’s stardom.
Monday marked the third straight day Ohtani had hit on the field, after a multi-round session off the pitching machine on the workout day and batting practice before each of the first two games of the National League Championship series against the Milwaukee Brewers. But the novelty of the move — Ohtani only took batting practice on the field a few times during the regular season, always in the midst of a slump — had yet to fully wear off.
“The results, take full responsibility,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton on Tuesday. “That’s all I can really say, why the results haven’t been where I wanted it to be. But I think there’s different approaches to this, whether that be focusing on reducing the symptoms and getting rid of the pain and/or just making sure that I’m moving well in the swing.”
That break of routine for the start of the NLCS did not pay off in terms of results. But after a conversation with Ohtani, manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday that he felt “great” about playing Ohtani in Game 3 of the NLCS, even though Ohtani is still physically compromised by nagging right biceps and left knee problems.
“He’s adamant he feels good enough to be in there,” Roberts said. “He’s close to finding something with his swing. … Yeah, he wants to be in there and help us win a ballgame and win a championship. Great conversation, and I’m excited about having him in there.”
Roberts made clear that he wasn’t ever considering “benching” Ohtani, but rather weighing whether it would make sense to give him a couple days to “reset,” similar to how they approached Freddie Freeman’s ankle injury in 2024, giving him two days off during that postseason run.
“The symptoms have subdued a lot, especially when I was on the IL, spending that time just being able to reduce the symptoms,” Ohtani said. “As of now with the swing, it’s a daily process of trying different things, different feel on a daily basis.”
Though Ohtani’s arrival kicked off the Dodgers’ back-to-back championships, this isn’t his first time slumping in the postseason. His bat went quiet in the 2024 World Series (two for 19). And between his two-homer game to open last year’s wild-card round, and Game 4 of the NLCS when the two-way star authored the best individual game ever played, he went four for 33.
The difference this time is Ohtani, who has hit three singles in 20 postseason at-bats, isn’t fully healthy. But he was adamant that he would still be able to find a way to produce regardless.
“Over the course of this long season, there’s only really a short period of time when my mechanics is completely in sync,” he said. “So it’s just really kind of just going back and forth, finding the right parts of the swing and managing just the different parts of the swing. So it’s a constant, ongoing process that’s headed in the right direction.”
When healthy, Ohtani has the ability to break out of even the most dire of slumps with an otherworldly performance, like that three-homer (as a hitter), 10-strikeout (as a pitcher) all-timer. Opposing pitchers still have taken a cautious approach to facing him.
This version of Ohtani, however, hasn’t hit a home run since Aug. 18, a little over three weeks before he landed on the injured list. He’d played through nagging knee and biceps injuries for most of the season. But by the first week of September, the Dodgers could no longer argue that his poor performance wasn’t necessarily connected to his ailments.
Shohei Ohtani strikes out during the sixth inning of Game 2.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Now, the stakes are as high as ever. Trailing the Brewers 2-0 in the best-of-seven series, the Dodgers desperately need to put themselves in the best possible position to win Game 3 and avoid four straight win-or-go-home contests. And to do so, they need to know what kind of production Ohtani is physically capable of.
“I’ve never wavered in my belief in him,” Roberts said. “The work that he’s putting in — shoot, he squared the bunt in Game 2 to potentially get on base. That just speaks to whatever it takes to help the team win. He’s always been about the team, whether it’s hitting first, second, fourth, or wherever, right? So for me, just hearing his conviction, that’s what I wanted to hear.”
The communication between Ohtani and the team on injuries has been a work in progress in his third year with the Dodgers.
“We certainly had a lot of communication with him throughout the year, and worked together really well in terms of how to go about this,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said in late September.
“And I think in his mind, he just thought that what he was dealing with was more minor, because it wasn’t like he would see a doctor and go, ‘Oh my God, you have this ailment.’ There were just a number of different things that were bothering him. And I think in his mind, he thought the best way to help the team was to go out and play, which I respect. But us staying really connected and sharing that information, I think, will be really important going forward.
“And again, the communication back and forth has been awesome. The fully sharing exactly how he’s feeling, maybe not as awesome. But again, I would rather [have] that with a guy than the other side of that.”
So, Ohtani kept trying to work his way back to the mound for weeks after receiving a lubricating Orthovisc injection in his knee at the beginning of the All-Star break. And when his biceps injury flared again, and the discomfort extended up through his neck, the Dodgers put off an IL move as long as possible.
Roberts said Ohtani’s conviction lined up with what the manager was hearing from the Dodgers hitting coaches and medical staff.
“No one knows what’s going to happen tomorrow and the ensuing days,” Roberts said. “At the end of the day in this big moment, we’re listening to Shohei, and we’re going to support the crap out of him and believe in him, and that’s it.”
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. Win or lose, Tuesday is an off day. So forget about the Dodgers for a day and enjoy life.
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Game 2 thoughts
First inning
—Nervy ABS challenge by Mookie Betts. First batter of the game challenges?
—Takes second on a groundout. Third on a wild pitch. Scores on a sacrifice fly. Is this the mid-60s Dodgers? Dodgers 1, Brewers 0.
—And Shohei Ohtani still looks lost.
—I’ll bet on Yoshinobu Yamamoto every time.
—Where’s this Brice Turang guy come from?
—And then the score is tied. Dodgers 1, Brewers 1.
Second inning
—Nice to see Andy Pages draw a walk, but the Dodgers go down relatively quietly.
—There’s something about the name Garrett Mitchell that I like. I can’t figure out why, though.
—Can you tell I had to step away for a few minutes during this inning? Sorry.
Third inning
—Tommy Edman pays immediate dividends.
—Wow. Betts hit that ball hard.
—Sal Frelick made a great catch in right field.
—The Brewers taketh away and giveth. Don’t see that many errors on pickoff throws nowadays. Dodgers 2, Brewers 1.
—I think after the season we will see the headline “Ohtani spotted in full body cast.”
—Wow! Brewers manager Pat Murphy basically buried his rookies for making mistakes in the previous half-inning.
—A nice play by Kyle Tucker. He’s gotten better at everything!
—Sometimes John Smoltz will fall in love with a topic and won’t let it go. Like drawing throws to first base.
—First and second, one out. Can the Brewers cash in?
—Brewers are making Yamamoto work.
—Another PitchCom problem for the Dodgers! The battery probably ran out because of this long at-bat by Jake Bauers.
—Is it me, or could Teoscar have caught that ball if he hustled?
—Nice 12-pitch at-bat by Bauers.
—And the Brewers cash in. Brewers 3, Dodgers 2.
Fourth inning
—The Dodgers knocked out the Brewers’ ace early in Game 1 and still lost. Can they reverse that this game?
—I prefer the Limu Emu (and Doug) commercials to the Liberty Bibberty commercials.
—Only in this newsletter are those types of important things debated.
—The Dodgers seemed to be in a hurry to end that half-inning. Must be some great food in the clubhouse.
—For those of you emailing to ask, the woman who sits in the front row behind home plate and writes down every play is Front Row Amy, Amy Williams. She’s had season tickets for about 15 years and logs every play. She’s very famous in Milwaukee.
—Roki Sasaki quiets things in the bottom half. How many innings will he pitch?
Fifth inning
—Leadoff double for Tucker. Can the Dodgers cash in?
—The Dodgers bunted! And Logan Henderson threw the ball away! He should never be allowed to throw to first again. Dodgers 3, Brewers 3.
—Murphy must be extra furious at his rookies now!
—Could I use any more exclamation marks?!?
—Henderson pitched well, but two throws cost him. Baseball!
—Hey, the Dodgers used to have a pitcher named Dustin May too. What are the odds?
—Betts advanced the runner to third, Small ball.
—Can the Dodgers cash in?
—Freeman gets a sacrifice fly. Or does he? The Brewers challenge the call.
—And the call stands. Everything is happening in this game. Dodgers 4, Brewers 3.
—Tommy Edman always seems to be in the middle of the action.
—That HPE self-driving network commercial doesn’t work at all.
—Only one inning for Sasaki. Surprising.
—Kris Bubic, who made the team over Jack Dreyer, which made some fans mad, gets to earn his keep.
—And he doesn’t earn his keep. Dodgers 4, Brewers 4.
—This has been a great series.
—Christian Yellich singled, Mitchell walked. Where’s Jack Dreyer?
—That infield hit seemed to anger Brock Stewart. He fired three fastballs right past Sal Frelick.
Sixth inning
—The Dodgers go down quietly. Ohtani again looked terrible.
—Can no pitcher throw the ball to first anymore?
—If you are going to intentionally walk a guy to get to William Contreras, make sure your first pitch to him is not right down the middle. Brewers 5, Dodgers 4.
—The Brewers fans can get really loud.
—Tanner Scott comes in and quiets things down.
Seventh inning
—That was an at-bat from the last season version of Pages, flailing at a pitch way out of the zone.
—The Dodgers again go quietly. All their power has drained away.
—This is what drives me crazy about modern baseball. Scott strikes out all three batters he faces, but they take him out of the game.
—And Edgardo Henriquez gives up a hit to the first batter he faces.
—I seem to be extra cranky today. Must be how Pat Murphy feels all the time.
—And the inning ends quietly.
Eighth inning
—Another quiet inning for the Dodgers. Those are piling up.
—The Dodgers have scored four runs. Two on errors, two on sacrifice flies. Not they typical way they score runs.
—David Hamilton hit .245 this season, but you’d never guess that watching him in this game.
—He steals second, takes third on a groundout, scores on a single. Small ball. Brewers 6, Dodgers 4.
—And the Dodgers turn to their seventh reliever of the game, Justin Wrobleski.
—Another run comes in. Brewers 7, Dodgers 4.
Ninth inning
—The Dodgers need to have a tough discussion about Ohtani. Yes, he’s great. Yes, he’s won two MVP awards in two seasons with the Dodgers. And if he was just in a slump, I’d be OK with leaving him in the lineup. But he is obviously hurting. You are doing him and the team a disservice.
—Ohtani flies to left.
—Will Smith, also not hitting well, flied to right.
—Miguel Rojas, batting for Max Muncy, strikes out.
—Dodgers now trail 2-0. Desirable? No. Happy about it? No. But teams have come back from 2-0 deficits before. It could happen again. We could be sitting here Thursday wondering what happened. Or thinking the Dodgers are right back in it. We’ll just have to wait and see.
—Meanwhile, like I said at the start, take Tuesday and enjoy life. It’s just a baseball game.
Up next
Wednesday at Dodgers, 5 p.m., FS1/Fox Deportes/Fox One
Thursday at Dodgers, 6 p.m., FS1/Fox Deportes/Fox One
*Friday at Dodgers, 6 p.m., FS1/Fox Deportes/Fox One
*Sunday at Milwaukee, 5 p.m., FS1/Fox Deportes/Fox One
*Monday, Oct. 19 at Milwaukee, 5 p.m., Fox/FS1/Fox Deportes/Fox One
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.
MILWAUKEE — Mookie Betts slapped his bat with his free hand after tipping a slider from Brewers right-hander Abner Uribe back into catcher William Contreras’ mitt.
Betts had been setting the tone for the Dodgers from the leadoff spot all postseason, taking good at-bats against some of MLB’s best starting pitchers. But there wasn’t much he could do against a sinker-slider mix like Uribe’s.
Uribe shuffled off the mound, and the crowd at American Family Field roared.
Then, with left-handed-hitting Freddie Freeman coming to the plate, Milwaukee had an answer for him too. Manager Pat Murphy signaled to the bullpen, left-hander Aaron Ashby emerged and struck out Freeman on four pitches, only one of which touched the strike zone.
“They all throw 100 [mph] from different angles,” Freeman said after the Dodgers’ 7-4 loss in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series on Monday.
Those back-to-back strikeouts in the eighth inning were part of five perfect innings thrown by the Brewers’ bullpen — a postseason record. And the Dodgers’ inability to rally against the Brewers’ relievers, paired with the shortest start in Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s postseason career, sunk their chances of evening the series.
The NLCS heads to Los Angeles with the Brewers leading 2-0 in the best-of-seven series.
The Dodgers’ performance against the Brewers’ bullpen on Monday magnified how much the star-powered lineup hasn’t been clicking with Shohei Ohtani struggling at the plate. He went 0 for 4 in the cleanup spot in Game 2, bringing his postseason total to three hits, all singles, in 20 at-bats.
Manager Dave Roberts told the Athletic after the game that he would “have a conversation” with Ohtani on Tuesday to determine “what’s best for him, what’s best for [the team].”
Factoring into the decision of whether to bench Ohtani is an understanding that he likely is not completely healthy, according to a person with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly.
Ohtani has dealt with left knee and right biceps issues for much of the season. But it’s been difficult since he returned from the injured list to determine whether health, bad swing habits caused by earlier injuries, or some combination of the two has been to blame for his poor performance.
Ohtani hasn’t addressed the media since the day before Game 1 of the division series.
“It’s tough,” Teoscar Hernández said. “We obviously need his help. He’s a big, big part of this team, and it’s really important. And I feel bad for him. I know what he’s capable of. He’s been dealing with some stuff in the past. We don’t know if it’s still there. But it’s Shohei. Any moment he can come through.”
The game wasn’t doomed, per se, when Yamamoto exited after 2⅔ innings, but it was clear it would be an uphill battle for the Dodgers.
Yamamoto stood on the same mound where a year ago he’d thrown a complete game and was pummeled by Brewers fans’ chants:
“Yel-li! Yel-li!”
As the fans celebrated Brewers captain Christian Yelich’s two-run single for an early lead, Roberts emerged from the visiting dugout, ready to take the ball from the starter who’d made himself a household name with his postseason heroics.
“He just didn’t have it tonight, which is very rare,” Roberts said.
The two walks Yamamoto issued in the inning set up Yelich for a big at-bat. The first walk, to Brice Turang, included a borderline ball-four call. Yamamoto’s hand flew up to the back of his hat like he was contemplating an ABS challenge, but neither he nor catcher Will Smith pulled the trigger. And the second, to Jake Bauers, lasted 12 pitches.
The other run Yamamoto gave up, in the first inning, also included a missed opportunity for a challenge.
Yamamoto struck out Jackson Chourio — whose leadoff home run last year was the lone run in Yamamoto’s NLCS complete game — to open the frame.
Then Turang worked a full count — although the first ball caught most of the low and outside corner — before he hit an opposite-field double.
“It was kind of early in the game, we kind of had him on the ropes where we could just get him out there,” Smith said. “The walk one was a bummer but I guess it happens. It’s baseball.”
The next batter, William Contreras, fought off a low slider, poking it into shallow left field to tie the score.
Against Brewers starter Logan Henderson, the Dodgers capitalized on a couple of errant throws by the pitcher, on a pickoff attempt and a sacrifice bunt, to contribute to two unearned runs, on a day when he gave up four runs in all.
Hernández and Freeman hit sacrifice flies in the first and fifth innings, respectively. Freeman’s came off former Dodger Dustin May, driving in a runner inherited from Henderson. And that was the most the Dodgers accomplished against the same relief corps that held them off the day before. They finished with three hits, their fewest in a playoff game since 2020.
“If there is a positive, you can say that a lot of our guys are starting to get looks at their back-end guys,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “But when they’re as good as they are, I don’t know how much that helps. Unfortunately, that’s the issue with that.”
If the Dodgers are going to bounce back, they’ll either have to figure out how to score against the Brewers’ suffocating bullpen, or build early leads and maintain them.
The Dodgers were forced to throw seven relievers behind Yamamoto. In the fifth inning, with the Dodgers up 4-3, Roberts brought in left-hander Kris Bubic — replacing right-hander Roki Sasaki after a hitless inning — to face the left-handed-heavy heart of the order. But Bubic missed down the middle to the right-handed-hitting Contreras, who gave the fastball a ride over the center field wall, tying the score.
In the sixth, against Dodgers right-hander Brock Stewart, Contreras drove in the go-ahead run in a traffic-filled inning that included a Freeman error on a muffed pickoff attempt. Left-hander Tanner Scott came to the rescue and struck out Bauers and Yelich to end the inning and Garrett Mitchell to kick off the seventh.
The Brewers added insurance runs in the eighth inning with RBI singles by Turang off hard-throwing right-hander Edgardo Henriquez and Bauers against left-hander Justin Wrobleski.
“The guys in here are really good at staying together,” Betts said. “I don’t think there’s much doubt going on. I think we just need to regroup and figure out what we need to do individually. But there’s no doubt.”
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. Another year, another NLCS. What happens this time? Let’s find out together.
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Game 1 thoughts
—As always, this is written as the game is going on, and I don’t go back and change my opinions to match the outcome of the game, so I might write something in the second inning that looks dumb considering how the game ended. Baseball!
—I’m predicting Dodgers in six. They lose today. Win tomorrow. Win two of three at home, win Game 6 in Milwaukee.
—Dodgers won the past two World Series. Brewers were last in the World Series in 1982, when they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals.
—I’m not a big fan of the Fox pregame show.
—Jacob Misiorowski can throw the ball 104 mph. I once threw a baseball 104 … feet.
—There’s something about Ken Rosenthal that I find disquieting. Of course, I’m sure some people say the same about me.
—Nice play by Jake Bauers to open the game.
—Freddie Freeman seems like he says “don’t like that two-strike pitch, so I’ll foul it off.”
—And Will Smith‘s struggles continue. But, the Dodgers are making contact.
—The Dodgers seem to have a lot of PitchCom problems.
—Two strikeouts for Skubal, 15 pitches. No strikeouts for Misiorowski, 12 pitches.
Second inning
—Opponents are still pitching to Shohei Ohtani as if he is full-strength Ohtani.
—Andy Pages does it again. He does not look intimidated by any situation. Dodgers 1, Brewers 0.
—Great at-bat by Kyle Tucker. He has really been what they expected for the past six weeks. Already 40 pitches for Misiorowski.
—It would be really nice to get at least one more run here. Bases loaded, one out.
—Kiké grounds into a double play. More Clark Kent than Superman there. That could come back to haunt the Dodgers later.
—Tarik Skubal looks really good so far.
—As soon as I wrote that, he gives up a double. Sorry.
—Skubal has very wide open eyes. He looks perpetually astonished. Skubal: 29 pitches. Misiorowski: 47.
Third inning
—Dodgers waste a leadoff single by Mookie Betts. This could be important later.
—I got a lot of emails during this game disagreeing with me about John Smoltz, saying he talks way too much. I agree (I wrote that), but what he says is often insightful. He just needs to edit things down in his brain before it reaches his mouth.
Fourth inning
—A leadoff single by Teoscar. Will they waste this one? Insurance runs would be nice.
—No one has ever successfully explained a balk call. I think the umpiring crew decides before a game, “We need to call a balk today.”
—And the Dodgers can’t cash in. This could be important later.
—Misiorowski has made 85 pitches through four, so he probably has one more inning left in him.
—And now it’s tied. Dodgers 1, Brewers 1. By the way, in tribute to my old boss, Mike James: The game is not tied, the score is tied.
—It’s hard to see from the center-field camera. Stupid fireworks. What about those of us with asthma? First-world problems.
—Dodgers are down to their last challenge! For some reason I don’t find that as stressful as many others do.
—Don’t Brice Turang and Jake Bauers realize they aren’t supposed to hit left-handers well? Come on guys, get with the program.
—And a double play ends the inning.
—You know that swing Ohtani has in the New Balance commercial? That’s the swing he is missing. Maybe study that ad.
—Things I don’t need to see during a game while watching with my grandchildren: Ads for horror movies (like “Other Mommy.”) And that Sydney Sweeney ad.
—By the way, I need all you kids to get off my lawn. Darn neighborhood rapscallions.
Fifth inning
—That will be it for Misiorowski. 4 1/3 innings, five hits, three walks. Didn’t have his best stuff, but he battled. Seems like you should have more than one run when you get eight batters on base in 4 1/3.
—It is funny, though, to hear everyone praise the ace after he just went 4 1/3. I always think back to Fernando Valenzuela in Game 3 of the 1981 World Series. He pitched a complete game despite not having his best stuff, throwing 147 pitches, giving up nine hits and walking seven while defeating the Yankees, 5-4. Now that was battling without your best stuff.
—Another double play. Dodgers don’t get a left on base that inning, but really they did.
—Hey, a bunt! I thought those weren’t allowed anymore because they were a waste of an out.
—And the Brewers immediately cash in, something the Dodgers haven’t been able to do. Brewers 2, Dodgers 1.
—Skubal won’t last much longer.
—Gift hit for Jackson Chourio.
—Turang walked to load the bases. I can’t believe Skubal is still in the game.
—And Skubal escaped the jam. Dodgers are lucky to be trailing by only one.
Sixth inning
—Ohtani has become Bill Russell as a hitter.
—One thing the Dodgers do that is bothersome: When they fall behind, they seem to abandon their plan to make the pitcher work.
—Max Muncy with a hard single. The most underrated player on the team this season.
—And Pages strikes out. Another chance wasted.
—Alex Vesia is great.
Seventh inning
—It didn’t work out, but the Dodgers were less swing happy that inning.
—I find Brewers fans far less annoying than Braves fans.
—The five franchises to never win a World Series: Brewers, Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Rays.
—I wrote that before Fox put up the graphic with the same info. Really.
—Evan Phillips strikes out the side.
Eighth inning
—And the Dodgers strand another runner.
—Another bunt! Anarchy!
—First and second, one out. Can the Brewers cash in against Tanner Scott?
—Intentionally walking the bases loaded is a gutsy move.
—But it pays off.
Ninth inning
—Muncy, Pages and Tucker against Trevor Megill.
—Muncy pops out.
—Pages flies out.
—Tucker walks. Good at-bat.
—Can Josue De Paula, at 21 years old, be a Game 1 hero? (As former colleague Bob Cuomo would say, “Hero? How many lives did he save?”)
—De Paula walks. He feels no pressure ever. What a batting eye for one so young.
—Betts flied out. One final blown chance by the Dodgers.
—I should point out that the Dodgers were seventh in the majors this season in batting average with runners in scoring position at .262. The Brewers were second, .276. The Dodgers were seventh with two out and runners in scoring position at .241. The Brewers were ninth at .239.
Final score: Brewers 2, Dodgers 1.
Nothing to worry about. The Dodgers have trailed 1-0 before and won, and led 1-0 and lost. This is why they play seven games. We’ll be back tomorrow.
Poll results
We asked, “Who will win the NLCS?”
After 11,784 votes, the results”
Dodgers in six, 51.3% Dodgers in five, 18.4% Dodgers in seven, 15.8% Brewers in six, 7.5% Brewers in seven, 3.2% Dodgers in four, 2.2% Brewers in five, 1.4% Brewers in four, 0.2%
Up next
Monday: Dodgers (Yoshinobu Yamamoto) at Milwaukee (Logan Henderson), 2 p.m., Fox/FS1/Fox Deportes/Fox One
Wednesday at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox/FS1/Fox Deportes/Fox One
Thursday at Dodgers, 6 p.m., Fox/FS1/Fox Deportes/Fox One
*Friday at Dodgers, 6 p.m., Fox/FS1/Fox Deportes/Fox One
*Sunday at Milwaukee, 5 p.m., Fox/FS1/Fox Deportes/Fox One
*Monday, Oct. 19 at Milwaukee, 5 p.m., Fox/FS1/Fox Deportes/Fox One
Shohei Ohtani hits three home runs, strikes out 10 in Game 4 of the 2025 NLCS against the Brewers. 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’m back! Who missed me? No one? That’s sad.
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Game 4 thoughts
—Sorry I missed the first three games, I was sick and had to rest. A combination of Nyquil, Theraflu, Zinc and vitamin C had me seeing three Dodgers on the mound. I guess I could have written about the one in the middle. But I’m back for the duration.
—Best wishes to Joe Davis, who lost his voice. I like the Davis-John Smoltz combo, though Smoltz tends to use 20 words to say something he could say in five.
—Some online complain that the Dodgers announcer gets to call the Dodgers’ postseason games. They must have missed the Vin Scully years. Plus, no one seems to be complaining that a Braves Hall of Famer is the commentator. I detect no bias from either of them.
—This recap is written as the game is going on. I don’t go back and change things to make me look good …. or bad. It’s just what I’m thinking at the time.
First inning
—Tyler Mahle was 4-1 with a 1.99 ERA in nine starts with the Braves. He throws a lot of strikes, so being patient will be extra difficult for the Dodgers today.
—Will we get the good Tyler Glasnow or the bad Tyler Glasnow?
—My mom could steal a base off Glasnow.
—You ever notice how great it is when Dodger fans stand up and cheer when their pitcher has two strikes, but how annoying it is when other fans do it?
—That’s OK. The Dodgers were going to have to score a run to win anyway, now they need to score two.
Second inning
—Watching Shohei Ohtani swing makes me think we are going to hear that his injuries were a lot more serious than let on. Sort of like in 2024 when he hurt his shoulder much worse than they said.
—Ohtani still hasn’t learned to slide without jamming his left arm into the ground.
—Rare back-to-back errors by the Braves. Not exactly how you’d predict the teams would score their first runs. Dodgers 1, Braves 1.
—Glasnow seems to be effectively wild so far.
Third inning
—We seem to be in the settling-in phase of the game now.
—Glasnow has made 44 pitchers. 22 balls, 22 strikes. That’s not really sustainable. Michael Harris II reaches on a walk. Will he steal on the first pitch?
—Whoever runs Atlanta’s in-game noise is stuck in the 1980s. An air horn? I half-expect a sound effect from Pac-Man.
—And Harris didn’t try to steal at all. Surprising.
Fourth inning
—The Dodgers are chasing too much.
—I like the Danny DeVito Jersey Mike’s commercials. Not a big fan of Jersey Mike’s though.
—Speaking of fast food, when is Carl’s Jr. bringing back the steak sandwich?
—Great. Now I’m hungry.
—All three Dodgers struck out.
—Do you think the Dodgers brain trust has had any conversations about giving Ohtani a game off?
—Suddenly, both pitchers are locked in.
—As soon as I write that, Glasnow walks Mike Yastrzemski (worth 29 points in Scrabble).
Fifth inning
—Nice at-bat by Kiké Hernández, even if it did end in an out. The Dodgers need to make Mahle work.
—Andy Pages is scorching the ball. He needs to get off this list though:
Worst career postseason batting average, minimum 80 plate appearances:
Dan Wilson, .091 Dal Maxvill, .114 Brandon Lowe, .115 Andy Pages, .123 (10 for 81) Yasmani Grandal, .127 Rhys Hoskins, .141 Austin Meadows, .145 Jason Heyward, .145 Mike Bordick, .148 Mark McLemore, .152
—Glasnow walked Austin Riley. These walks are going to cost him at some point.
—Mookie Betts never swings at the first pitch. Michael Harris II swings at every first pitch.
—I’m not sure how the Tomahawk Chop chant is still a thing.
—Ronald AcuñaJr. walks. And that’s it for Glasnow. Only one hit, but five walks.
—Matt Olson creamed that ball. If any of us had been playing second, we’d have said, “What? A ball was just hit by us? Never saw it.” These guys make fielding seem so easy.
Sixth inning
—Will Smith is one for 16 this series. It’s amazing the Dodgers are up 2-1, because it feels like no one is hitting.
—The Dodgers were hitting .218 coming into this game, the Braves .160.
—Ozzie Albies could have been at third if he had run hard out of the box on his double off the wall. Will it cost the Braves?
—Edgardo Henriquez tries to get out of the inning. This feels like a pivotal moment.
—The Braves hit ball hard twice, but right at people. And at the two worst fielders. But they are out of the inning.
—That inning seemed to last a million years.
Seventh inning
—This will probably be Mahle’s last inning.
—Ohtani swings at the first pitch.
—Teoscar gets a hit, and that’s it for Mahle, who pitched very well.
—I’m not sure of the wisdom of pinch-hitting for Super Kiké. But Josue De Paula walked. Tommy Edman runs for him.
—Now it’s Kyle Tucker. Is this his moment?
—Teoscar almost has an all-time base-running blunder.
—Tucker walks. New pitcher for Atlanta, to face Pages. Time to get off that worst 10 list.
—He gets off it! Two RBIs. 2025 is a distant memory. Dodgers 3, Braves 1.
—Now, who comes out of the bullpen to hold it?
—Just want to circle back to De Paula. He’s 21 and spent most of the season in double A. But he doesn’t chase any pitches and works an important walk. Impressive.
—Henriquez stays on the mound for the bottom of the inning.
—Hard shot to Max Muncy, who is so much better as a fielder compared with two years ago.
—Henriquez shakes off Will Smith twice and then throws a meatball up to the plate. Maybe listen to Smith.
—After a booming double by Harris, Acuña swings at the first pitch and bounces out. Thanks.
Eighth inning
—The Dodgers go down quietly, and turn to Tanner Scott for the bottom of the eighth.
—Scott made Olson strike out on a pitch that was almost in the dugout.
—Scott looks dominant. Three outs away.
Ninth inning
—Braves bring in their close to maintain the two-run deficit. It’s former Angels closer Raisel Iglesias.
—He failed. Muncy crushed that ball. Dodgers 4, Braves 1.
—I see all these ads for betting sites and prediction markets and still wonder why sports allows these ads.
—Can Edwin Díaz get the final three outs and send the Dodgers to the NLCS?
—Díaz always starts the game with PitchCom problems.
—Rowdy Tellez is a large human being.
—Strike out, fly out, fly out. See you Sunday in L.A. or Milwaukee.
—By the way, how much longer is the postseason nowadays? Today (Thursday), is the 70th anniversary of Don Larsen’s perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series.
Farewell, Fred Claire
Former Dodgers general manager Fred Claire died this week. He was 91. Claire took over the Dodgers in April 1987 when Al Campanis made a fool of himself on “Nightline,” making racist remarks. The Dodgers had a poor season, but Claire was subtly changing the Dodgers, signing players such as Mickey Hatcher and acquiring Tim Belcher. Before the 1988 season, Claire signed Kirk Gibson to a three-year, $4.5-million deal (doesn’t that contract sound quaint nowadays). He acquired Alfredo Griffin, Jay Howell and Jesse Orosco, among other moves. And we all know how the 1988 season ended.
More important, Claire may have been one of the nicest people in history. He took part in the “Ask… “ series in this newsletter, and would check in with critiques and compliments throughout the history of this newsletter. If I needed to contact a retired player for an “Ask…” interview, he invariably had their number. He will be missed.
Former Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley, on Claire: “We hired Fred in 1969 as publicity director when he was the beat writer covering the Dodgers for the Long Beach Press-Telegram. He then began a distinguished 30-year career with the Dodgers. Fred was a talented team player and everyone in the organization enjoyed working with him. We were all happy when he was Executive Vice President and named major league Executive of the Year after the 1988 Dodgers won the World Series. Our thoughts are with his wife Sheryl and the entire family.”
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.
ATLANTA — Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani took the news that he was hitting fifth in Game 3 of the National League Division Series so well that he responded with a joke.
As manager Dave Roberts tells it, when he laid out his thoughts on the lineup against Braves ace Chris Sale, Ohtani said, “In all honesty, I was going to come to you in September and say, why don’t you hit me seventh?”
Regardless of how poorly Ohtani has hit lately, the news came as a shock on Tuesday. And it reflected the aggressive read-and-react approach Roberts is going to take with the best-of-five series tied through two games.
Fifth is the lowest Ohtani has ever hit in the Dodgers’ starting lineup. He hasn’t hit fifth or lower in a starting lineup since 2020 with the Angels.
For most of the season, through ups, downs and injuries, Ohtani has led off. When he returned from the injured list with five games left in the season, Roberts started batting him second against left-handed pitchers, with right-handed hitting Mookie Betts batting ahead of him.
But in eight postseason at-bats so far, Ohtani has recorded just two hits, both singles.
“This is just a Sale thing, and also who I feel is going to come out of the bullpen tonight,” Roberts said, making clear that he doesn’t plan to bat Ohtani fifth against all left-handed pitchers in the postseason. “So [Wednesday] versus [right-hander Tyler] Mahle, it will look different.”
Against Mahle, however, Roberts said Ohtani won’t necessarily lead off, citing Mahle’s neutral-to-reverse platoon splits. But Ohtani won’t hit fifth, Roberts said. Sale is a special case.
The last time the Dodgers faced Sale, he shut them out for nine innings. All time, Ohtani has a .517 OPS against Sale in the regular season, and he went one for seven against him this year.
“It might give him a different look, let the game come to him a little bit later,” Roberts said. “I don’t think it’s a pressure thing. I do think it’s something where he wants to do more. But in that same breath, I do think that there’s going to be a couple big spots today where he’s going to be at bat.”
In the Dodgers’ first two postseason games, Ohtani’s plate discipline has wavered, making it difficult to pinpoint the root of his struggles. Does it all come down to approach? Could his nagging left knee and right biceps problems be contributing to his poor performance?
The Dodgers aren’t looking for him to be the hero every game, and trying to do so could even exacerbate his problems at the plate. For the lineup to click, however, he does need to be more productive.
“He’s a very good self-evaluator, a very extremely high competitor and expects a lot from himself,” Roberts said. “I still think he’s very confident. But Sale’s a different monster. He’s tough, certainly against lefties.
“But I still think [Ohtani’s] confident. So now with that, just getting him back in the zone — and that’s easier said than done, I understand that.”
On Tuesday, Roberts also inserted right-handed hitting Kiké Hernández into the lineup, batting ninth and playing third base. And he kept right-handed hitter Miguel Rojas in the lineup, moving him from third to second and starting utility player Tommy Edman on the bench. Left-handed hitting third baseman Max Muncy will also be available off the bench.
“Tommy, he’s been going through it in the last couple of months, and it’s been a grind for him on both sides of the plate,” Roberts said. “Hasn’t had a whole lot of success against Sale — the heater up, the ball down below, with a flat swing. … Getting Kiké involved right now, I think it’s added intensity, urgency. I just think he’s going to put forth some good at-bats, and you’re not giving up anything on the defensive side.”
ATLANTA — As the Dodgers mull potential lineup changes for Game 3 of the National League Division Series, manager Dave Roberts said he is “open” to moving Shohei Ohtani lower in the batting order.
In his three seasons with the Dodgers, Ohtani has batted first or second in every game he has started. However, as he has admitted he is trying to “manage” in the aftermath of knee and arm injuries, and as Roberts has acknowledged Ohtani is “not 100%,” the lack of success could compel the manager to replace him at the top of the lineup with a more productive hitter at some point.
“I would,” Roberts said Monday. “I would. I think it’s something that, you know, I think moving him from 1 to 2 — but going further than that? I’m open to it.
“And it’s something that if I do, I would obviously have the conversation with Shohei to explain why. And at the end of the day every conversation I’ve had with him is whatever’s best for the team, he’s all-in on. So I know that undoubtedly.”
The Dodgers are batting .215 through the first two games of the NLDS, with the Atlanta Braves scheduled to pitch left-handed ace Chris Sale in Game 3 on Tuesday. If the Dodgers lose, they would need to win back-to-back elimination games to advance beyond this series.
Roberts said the lineup changes he would consider include starting Kiké Hernández and Miguel Rojas, both of whom hit well against left-handers. That could mean infielders Max Muncy (0 for 7 against Sale, with five strikeouts) and Tommy Edman (0 for 11 against Sale) might not start.
Center fielder Andy Pages, who batted so poorly last October he was benched for the final three games of the World Series, is hitless in seven at-bats in this series, with four strikeouts.
“I’m gonna continue to give Andy leash,” Roberts said. “I believe in him. I feel that for us to win the World Series this year, we’re gonna need him to be an active part of our team.
Roberts said he did not envision benching catcher Will Smith, who is 0 for 8 in the series. The Dodgers’ backup catcher, Hunter Feduccia, is a career .205 hitter with no postseason experience.
But, even with the Dodgers’ star-studded lineup, the spotlight shines brightest on Ohtani.
Ohtani has not homered since Aug. 18. He hit .157 between then and the end of the regular season, striking out in 41% of his at-bats. In this series, he has two hits and two strikeouts in eight at-bats, and his inability to refrain from swinging at pitches outside the strike zone has become a glaring weakness.
“He’s not 100%,” Roberts said. “But, at the end of the day, he can still do a better job of staying in the strike zone.”
Ohtani hasn’t given the Braves a reason to challenge him within the strike zone.
“Everything orbits around Shohei, in the sense of his talent,” Roberts said. “And the Braves are going to enter with caution. And, so, knowing that, they’re going to continue to expand as long as we keep giving that to them. So until we show some discipline, they’re going to continue to kind of use that playbook.”
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.
