Of all the heroes in the Dodgers’ 5-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves in their National League Division Series opener Saturday at Dodger Stadium, none was more stunning than the shrugging, somnolent, underachieving right fielder whom Dodger fans have treated like an overpaid outcast.
Just listen to them now.
Booo…Yayyyyy!
Locked in a one-run game on a scorching 100-degree afternoon, Tucker drove an AJ Smith-Shawver fastball 408 feet over the right-field fence in the sixth inning for a two-run homer that essentially ended the Braves’ afternoon and set up the Dodgers for what appears to be a certain series sweep.
Yes, the Dodgers only lead one game to none in this best-of-five deal, but the Braves are clearly out of breath and out of pitching after enduring last week’s wild-card series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Braves dug deep in their bullpen for all eight innings Saturday. They may have to dig even deeper in Game 2 on Sunday or desperately start ace Chris Sale on short rest.
Their offense looks wasted, their bullpen is taxed, and they spent most of Saturday in one sweaty mess.
Of course, the Dodger bullpen almost handed the game back to them when Ozzie Albies hit a two-run homer off Tanner Scott in the ninth to close what seemed to be an insurmountable gap. But Scott was mercifully lifted for Evan Phillips, who recorded the final out of the game to save the Dodgers from disgrace.
And to etch Tucker into the rare role of hero.
“Obviously for us it’s about winning a championship,” said manager Dave Roberts when asked about Tucker afterward. “Our fans, they really remember what you do in the postseason. So this is certainly a way to change the story for a season in 2026.”
Indeed, except for the back end of the bullpen, Dodgers old and new rose to the championship occasion.
Skubal in his first Dodger postseason start after being traded here from Detroit on Aug. 2? Six innings of brilliance, 15 batters in a row retired at one point, only one three-ball count in the first five innings, two allowed hits, seven strikeouts, two walks and only nicked by a Sean Murphy homer.
Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal delivers during the first inning Saturday against the Braves.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Teoscar Hernández, almost benched during a rocky regular season? Same old Teo, the guy who leads the Dodgers with 27 RBIs over the last three postseasons, this time opening the scoring with a two-run homer in the fourth.
Max Muncy, the forgotten stalwart who always seems to show up huge in October? Same old Max, blasting a ball over the right-field fence in the sixth to give the Dodgers a 5-1 lead.
But Kyle Tucker? This was not the same old Tucker. Nobody saw this coming. Certainly, he finished the regular season strong with a .969 OPS in September with six homers and 13 RBIs, but he was awful for most of the previous five months after joining the team this winter with baseball’s highest annual salary of $60 million.
Tucker batted .196 at home. He seemingly jogged after fly balls, wildly swung and missed at fastballs, and who would have thought he would take control with one out in the sixth and the Dodgers leading 2-1?
There was one out. This was a big moment. Skubal was out of the game and the Dodgers had lost all their early momentum when Hernández popped a single to center, bringing up Tucker.
On Smith-Shawver’s second pitch, he connected, and after Tucker trotted across home plate, the most amazing thing happened.
He smiled.
“I think that we all know — it’s been well talked about — the struggles he had this year,” said Roberts. “I give him a lot of credit for grinding through it, not running from it, always posting and kind of getting to the other side of it.”
It was an otherwise ordinary Dodger playoff win that began with a rare bit of Dodger second-guessing.
Many questioned the Dodgers choosing to pitch Skubal in Saturday’s opener while slotting Blake Snell into Sunday’s spot and leaving last season’s playoff hero Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the bench until Game 3.
The reasoning was that Skubal could get two starts in this series on full rest while Yamamoto, who requires an extra day’s rest, was only getting one start in the series regardless. Furthermore, by holding him back in this series, the Dodgers ensured that Yamamoto would get two starts in the National League Championship Series.
Still, you have to wonder, how do you take a guy with a 7-0 postseason record with a 2.25 ERA and put him third in the rotation?
Turns out, the Dodgers knew what they were doing, and before the game, even Andrew Friedman acknowledged this was their best pitching staff of this era.
“I feel like this is the best and deepest pitching staff we’ve ever had going into October,” said the Dodgers president of baseball operations. “I think we had some tough conversations in leaving some guys off the roster. That would have never happened before.”
There were also pregame question marks surrounding the health of Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman.
Those questions remain, as the two future Hall of Famers went two-for-seven with two singles and not much power.
Ohtani, fighting arm and leg injuries, entered the game batting .157 since Aug. 18 with zero home runs during that time.
“As of now, it’s something I’m just going to have to manage,” he said through interpreter Will Ireton.
Ohtani and Freeman are going to have to manage better than this for the Dodgers to three-peat.
Maybe they should take some advice from the Dodgers’ latest candidate to be christened Mr. October.
The deciding game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves played silently on the Dodger Stadium scoreboard Thursday as Dodgers players practiced below.
The Dodgers were less than 48 hours away from the first pitch of the National League Division Series. The “2026 Postseason” decals had been freshly painted up the baselines that afternoon. All that was left to be decided was their opponent — the winner of the game serving as the backdrop of their intrasquad scrimmage.
About a half an hour after the Dodgers cleared the field, the Braves advanced to the NLDS with a 6-2 win over the Phillies. The Dodgers and Braves will open the best-of-five series at Dodger Stadium on Saturday at 1 p.m. PDT.
“We are the team to beat,” veteran utility player Kiké Hernández said. “We are the team that you have to go through. And that’s all nice words and everything, but we got to take care of business on the field. But I feel great about my team.”
The Dodgers are the reigning back-to-back champions and are aiming to become the first National League team to win three World Series in a row.
“Obviously it’s there, but it’s not something we’re really focused on,” veteran third baseman Max Muncy said of the three-peat chase. “We’re trying to focus on ourselves getting ready this week, paying attention to whoever we might be playing and just trying to get ready for a postseason series the same way we’ve always gotten ready for it.
“We don’t need to be adding any extra pressure onto ourselves. We’ve been saying that for a long time. When you talk about three-peating, you’re putting that extra pressure on it that doesn’t need to be there. Winning a World Series is already hard enough as it is. So for us, we’re just trying to focus on what we have ahead of us and without the added noise to it.”
So, how did the Dodgers get ready for the postseason? Their bye week consisted of wild-card watch parties, batting practice, live pitching — from a long list of arms on Wednesday, especially — and an open workout Thursday that culminated in a scrimmage. Right-hander Tyler Glasnow, who’s penciled in to start Game 4 of the NLDS if necessary, started for the home team Thursday.
“Instead of showing up, checking a box to work out, then eject, I think that sacrifice from friends, family, it’s important,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We’re at the home stretch. We’re in the playoffs, and so I think that the more guys spend time with one another, it just lends itself to just more togetherness.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, left, talks with third baseman Max Muncy during practice Thursday.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
The Dodgers have figured that out over five postseasons in this format. This is their fourth with a bye — after going through the wild card last year. And they introduced the watch parties in 2024.
“You’ve earned the bye and you should take that time to rest and recover,” Muncy said. “But you don’t want to give guys too much time to be at home and get that taste of what it might be like. That really worked for us back in 2024. You get guys here to the field. You’re not forcing anyone to do anything but you’re making all the guys hang out together for extended periods of time when they could be at home enjoying family time — which is great for everybody but not when you know what’s coming for us ahead.
“You’re going to be facing a team that’s already been through the fire. They’ve already been through the emotions. They’ve already been through the roller coaster which is the postseason. It’s hard to go from an at-home setting to trying to find a way to flip the switch.”
The Braves have, indeed, been through the fire. They claimed the No. 3 seed with a 94-68 record and the NL East title. They took Game 1 of the wild-card series against the Phillies but lost Game 2 in extra innings, forcing a winner-take-all Game 3.
The Dodgers did not need Tarik Skubal to win the National League West. They traded for him to help them win a third consecutive World Series.
Their legacy is at stake. So is his.
That could be hyperbole. Skubal turns 30 next month, already the winner of two Cy Young awards, one of them unanimously. He could sign the largest contract of any pitcher in major league history this fall. His career might be only at its halfway point, and already we can say he’ll be remembered as a star.
So I asked him if his career would feel somehow empty if he did not win a World Series. No one in Anaheim thinks any less of Mike Trout, and no one in San Diego thinks any less of Tony Gwynn, because neither Hall of Famer won a World Series.
Skubal thought about it. Yes, he said, his career would feel diminished without a championship.
“I think winning is the most important thing, so I think that’s fair to say,” Skubal told me.
“If I retire and I don’t have one, that will definitely be something that I don’t know when I will live it down.”
The Dodgers imported him for five or six starts in October, the first of them this weekend. I wasn’t sure of the right noun to use to capture his feelings: Excitement? Pressure? Responsibility?
“I think all of those things,” he said.
How so?
“I’ve grown to appreciate expectations from teammates, from fans, from organizations,” he said. “I’ve come to appreciate pressure. Early on in my career, there wasn’t much of that. It was more just kind of finding my footing, which I’m grateful for. It helped me learn a lot about myself.
“Having the expectation of being a team that is going to win the World Series, and me being a part of that, is something that I’ve come to really appreciate. I’ve come to appreciate all that stuff. As much as they can be looked at as negative things, or stress-inducing things, I’ve come to really appreciate those things, because I haven’t had that for my entire career.”
As soon as the Dodgers traded for Skubal two months ago, he was delighted to receive a text message from a pitcher who wore the weight of expectations throughout his career.
“Honestly,” Skubal said, “I wanted to get a jersey from him.”
The Dodgers’ Tarik Skubal pitched seven scoreless innings in his final start of the regular season last week against the San Francisco Giants.
(Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
They talked pitching too, of course, and stayed in touch. When the Dodgers landed Skubal, Kershaw’s welcome text led to him sharing advice not just about the team itself but about navigating the notorious L.A. roads to Dodger Stadium, and various neighborhoods that Skubal, his wife and two young boys might enjoy.
For Kershaw, the postseason was a widely publicized menace throughout the previous decade. In 2019, after he inherited a two-run lead in the deciding game of the division series, Kewshaw gave up home runs to Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto.
After the game, Kershaw said, “Everything people say is true right now about the postseason.”
In 2024, the Tigers were five innings from the American League Championship Series, leading 1-0 in the deciding game of the division series, with Skubal on the mound. Three singles, a hit batter and a grand slam later, the Tigers trailed for good.
“I felt pretty responsible for the season ending,” Skubal said.
Kershaw earned his redemption in 2020, winning both of his World Series starts as the Dodgers won their first championship since 1988. That title lifted the postseason burden off Kershaw, and I wondered whether Skubal might feel the same way if he leads these Dodgers to a parade.
Skubal rejected the premise.
“I don’t really buy into that narrative with Kersh, the postseason struggles,” Skubal said.
Kershaw’s 41 postseason appearances include four starts on short rest and nine relief outings. In 2013, he pitched a combined 259 innings between the regular season and playoffs. In 2015, that number was 246 innings.
“It takes a superhuman to be held to the standard he was being held to, in the biggest of moments,” Skubal said. “I think he was great. He did everything he could for his team. He wore it out there sometimes. Chasing box scores and stuff is kind of unfair to judge guys on, because I’m sure he was pitching through some stuff and grinding through some stuff.
“But he had to do it, because he was Clayton Kershaw.”
Kershaw’s postseason earned-run average: 4.62. For Skubal, in six postseason appearances, all of them starts: 2.04. In that one five-run inning, he gave up more runs than he has in the other 38-2/3 innings of his postseason career.
After he gave up those five runs, he returned for one more inning and retired the side in order.
“That moment solidified who I thought I am, in terms of how I responded to that failure, how I responded to that adversity,” he said. “It’s weird to say and it’s probably weird to portray, and I don’t know how many people it’s going to resonate with, but that’s what I feel.”
Right time, right place: If Skubal wants to win a World Series, where else would he rather be?
“For him?” pitcher Blake Snell said. “There’s no better time for anybody than right now.”
The Dodgers acquired infielder Tommy Edman from the St. Louis Cardinals at the 2024 trade deadline. For Edman, that’s two Octobers and two parades.
“In St. Louis, I think we were hovering around .500,” Edman said. “I found myself traded here and I was like, ‘OK, all of a sudden I’m on the team with the best record in baseball right now, going for a ring just about every single year.’
“That’s the expectation we have here. There’s definitely a level of excitement.”
“There’s also a difference between being on a team like the Tigers — and nothing against that organization — where the goal really isn’t to win the World Series. It’s the hope,” Roberts said. “But being here and seeing the standard that we have and it’s like: ‘I’m here to win the World Series. This team has the best chance to win the World Series, and I get to be a part of it.’
“So I fully see him, now that he is completely immersed into our culture, where the first month was trying to feel his way: ‘Where do I fit in? I’m this hired gun.’ And now it’s like he’s one of the guys.”
Skubal insists that he has not really thought about his free agency, that his focus is on the here and now, and on each start as it comes. That means this month could be his last in Dodger blue, and that means this really might be his best chance to win a World Series.
“I don’t really know if I like the verbiage of that, thinking I must win this year,” he said. “I don’t think that’s fair.”
The Chicago White Sox used a big first inning and a three-run homer from Chase Meidroth to propel them to a 7-3 win over the Houston Astros on Wednesday to sweep their AL Wild Card Series.
It’s the first time Chicago has won a playoff series since beating Houston in the World Series in 2005. Under the direction of second-year skipper Will Venable and with a letter of support from Pope Leo XIV, the White Sox advanced to face AL Central champion Cleveland in the AL Division Series beginning Saturday in Cleveland.
The White Sox, who lost 100 games in each of the last three seasons, are the only team in major league history to follow consecutive 100-loss seasons with a playoff berth.
The AL West-winning Astros went 81-81 to become the first team to reach the postseason without a winning record. Their recent playoff woes in Houston continued Wednesday as they dropped their ninth straight home playoff game in a ninth trip to the postseason in the last 10 years.
Chicago pounced on the Astros for four runs in the first inning a day after scoring three in the first two innings of a 6-3 win. Houston ace Hunter Brown was lifted after getting just two outs and wasn’t helped by a sloppy defense which committed two first-inning errors.
Dodgers right fielder Kyle Tucker has never shied away from just how bad his performance at the plate was for much of his first season in Los Angeles.
For the first five months of the season, when he’d show brief glimpses of progress before sinking back into an extended slump, Tucker’s .683 OPS was the third-worst among Dodgers hitters with at least 100 plate appearances, better than only Hyeseong Kim and Kyle Freeland, who both spent time in triple A.
In September, however, he found a sustainable adjustment. He fixed his bat path, extending through the ball more consistently instead of pulling off of it. He posted a .889 OPS in September, on par with his four straight All-Star seasons before signing with the Dodgers.
Now, all of a sudden, he looks like a potential difference-maker in the postseason.
“The last month or so is more or less what I expect out of myself,” Tucker said in a recent conversation with The Times. “The biggest thing is we have an opportunity now being in the playoffs to win another World Series. Once the playoffs start, you can forget about any stats or personal numbers. The only one that really matters is the win column. So that’s just what I’m gonna try and contribute towards.”
The Dodgers offense had a lot of success stories like Tucker’s in the final month of the regular season. He helped carry the offense, along with Teoscar Hernández and Mookie Betts, who turned around their seasons down the stretch, and Will Smith, who returned from the IL and quickly found his home run swing.
The Dodgers’ starting rotation is their biggest strength going into the postseason. But the offense’s performance against elite pitching, and the bullpen’s execution in tight games, could make or break a series.
Here’s how some other key players are trending going into the postseason:
Designated hitter Shohei Ohtani: Fortunate to have the bye
Shohei Ohtani appears on the right track for a successful postseason.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Ohtani returned from the IL with five games left in the season, and he went five for 21 with one extra-base hit.
All indications from general manager Brandon Gomes and manager Dave Roberts in video conference calls before the Dodgers’ closed workout Tuesday were that Ohtani was feeling good physically.
“I feel confident that you’re going to see the best version of Shohei of the last two months,” Roberts said. “I know that’s sort of a low bar given his injury, but I do think that he’s as healthy as he’s been in quite some time, and every day from the training staff, it keeps getting better. So, number one, he’ll be a threat being in the lineup, but I do think that the performance piece will be what we’re hoping for.”
First baseman Freddie Freeman: Ice cold
Freddie Freeman did not hit well in September.
(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)
Freeman, who pushed through a bout with tendinitis in his right knee earlier this month, hit just .184 in September and went 0-for-7 in his last two games.
On Tuesday, Freeman said he had no pain in his knee. But finally acknowledged that the injury could have affected his swing mechanics, while again emphasizing that he wouldn’t use that as an excuse.
Freeman has a plan for the bye week that he hopes will set him in the right direction for the playoffs.
“I’m going to hit on the field every day,” he said Sunday. “I already know how my Tuesday is going to go. There’s going to be a lot of blocked balls to left [field], a lot of flares into left. I’m hoping as Tuesday goes Wednesday, I’ll come back and those will be put down a little more. Thursday they’ll be moved over to shortstop and by Friday I will be feeling good. That is how my head is thinking right now.”
Center fielder Andy Pages: Out of the gate running
It was hard to predict how the center fielder would look at the plate when he returned from a fracture in his left hand. He recorded a 1.181 OPS in six games and homered twice in the final regular-season series against the San Francisco Giants.
“He went into last October really scuffling, and it sort of bled into October,” Roberts said over the weekend. “Where, I think right now he feels really confident, swinging the bat well, and the hope is that this one bleeds into October as well.”
Reliever Edgardo Henriquez: Healthy
Henriquez is “trending really well” after throwing live batting practice, Gomes said. If this week continues to go smoothly, the flame-throwing right-hander is expected to be on the NLDS roster.
“Given the body of work, what he’s done, the unique skill set,” Roberts said, “could be huge for us — will be huge for us.”
Reliever Edwin Díaz: Strong finish
Díaz made five appearances after his latest return from the IL (neck). He gave up just one hit in those games, with a 52.9% strikeout rate.
“I don’t know if we could have asked much more out of Edwin,” Gomes said. “Felt like each outing was more and more sharp and looking more like himself. So feel that he’s in a great place right now. Stuff out of hand is as good as it’s been all year. And we know that he has pitched in the hottest of hot games in the past and in any role, especially in the postseason. So he’s looked great, and glad that he’s in the position that he’s in and was able to bounce back after the IL stint.”
NLDS weather: Sweltering
Los Angeles’ weather forecast for this weekend, when the Dodgers are set to host the first two games of the NLDS, shows temperatures reaching the high 90s. The Dodgers are scheduled to play Game 2 at 5 p.m. on Sunday. But Saturday’s game time will depend on the results of the wild-card round. First pitch for Game 1 could be at 1 p.m. or 6 p.m.
Let’s get the rose-colored story line out of the way, right away.
The postseason starts Tuesday, and it could be the last we see of Major League Baseball for a long, long time. The owners expect to lock out the players when the collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, and the owners have made their pitch loud and clear: No new agreement without a salary cap, for they believe there can be no true competitive balance without one.
You’ll hear a lot about how the way this postseason sets up, or how it plays out, could impact the bargaining.
Don’t believe a word of it. Nothing that happens this October will be relevant to the new labor agreement.
Come on. The team with the lowest payroll — the Cleveland Guardians — won their division. So competitive balance can’t be completely out of whack, can it?
Cleveland hasn’t won the World Series since 1948. The opponent was the Boston Braves, who subsequently moved to Milwaukee and then Atlanta.
What about the team with the best record in the American League: the Tampa Bay Rays, who beat up on big-market bullies in the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox?
The Rays never have won the World Series.
Well, what about the Milwaukee Brewers? For the second consecutive season, the team in baseball’s smallest market posted baseball’s best record.
The Brewers got swept in last year’s National League Championship Series. They never have won the World Series.
But aren’t the Brewers the best example of a team playing beyond its payroll instead of using it as an excuse?
Isn’t that what got everyone agitated? Doesn’t everyone outside L.A. know the Dodgers have destroyed competitive balance, and the owners are trying to fix it?
The owners were ready to fight for more than a year before the Dodgers helped themselves to Díaz, Tucker and Skubal. For years, the commissioner’s office touted baseball’s competitive balance, citing in part how the league championship series and World Series matchups changed almost every year.
After the Dodgers won in 2024, the commissioner’s office redefined competitive balance as how often a small-market team won the World Series, last accomplished by the 2015 Kansas City Royals. The seeds for this winter’s labor war had been planted.
If the Dodgers flop this October, the owners are not going to suddenly back off a salary cap. If, say, the Brewers or Rays win, the owners will say that’s the exception that proves the rule.
There are ways for owners to direct more revenue to small-market teams without the salary cap the players insist they will not accept, and without limiting the definition of success to winning the World Series, which risks devaluing the product among 29 fan bases every year. Whether the owners wish to consider them without the cost certainty that comes with a salary cap will be the story line of the cold winter ahead.
The Dodgers are scheduled to open next season on March 25. Neither owners nor players would have lost any significant revenue by then — ticket sales and broadcasting rights for owners, salaries for players — so a new agreement by then is uncertain at best.
So enjoy the postseason.
So, at least for now, isn’t the postseason tilted toward the Dodgers and Yankees?
Those screams you hear are coming from New York, where Yankees fans are annoyed that their team finished with the second-best record in the AL and still could be eliminated in two or three days. The Yankees finished behind the Rays and received a wild card.
The Yankees lost 13 fewer games than the AL West champion Houston Astros and 10 fewer games than the AL Central champion Guardians, both seeded ahead of them. The Astros are a .500 team, the worst record a division champion has taken into the postseason. The Guardians get a bye, just like the Dodgers.
The Yankees drew the Red Sox, which means painful amounts of national commentary will focus on (1) how the system victimized the Yankees and the Red Sox; and (2) baseball’s most hyped rivalry.
Until baseball realigns its divisions or seeds its playoffs by wins, regardless of division, the Yankees should simply do what Aaron Judge said about how they should respond to criticism of their fundamentally frightening 2024 World Series: “Play better.” And baseball’s best rivalry will be on October display only if the Dodgers and San Diego Padres meet in the NL Championship Series.
Still laughing, though, at sanctimonious Yankees fans believing baseball is somehow unfair to the poor, gutty Yankees.
Can anyone save baseball in 2027?
We should try Pope Leo. He’s a long-suffering Chicago White Sox fan. In his first full year as pope — and after three consecutive 100-loss seasons — the White Sox made the playoffs.
Some fans call it a miracle, a reporter told the pope. Did the pope have anything to do with the turnaround?
He smiled.
“No comment,” he said, then paused.
“Great things happen in Chicago,” he said.
The Cubs made the postseason too. The Cubs and White Sox have shared Chicago since 1901. This is the fourth time both have qualified for postseason play. Deep dish pizza for all, but a World Series in Chicago this fall might truly require divine intervention.
Those Yankees had a Hall of Fame closer. In 1998, Mariano Rivera got the final four outs of the clincher. In 1999, he got the final four outs. In 2000, he got the final three outs.
These Dodgers? Their closer? Your guess is as good as theirs.
“I do not know,” said Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations.
This might be a good time to know, no? The regular season is over. The postseason is upon us.
“I feel very confident that we’re going to be going into October with arguably the deepest and best pitching staff that we’ve had,” he said. “Exactly what their roles will be and how things will be ordered, I don’t know right now.”
Perhaps the Dodgers are overthinking this. They have done that before.
Tanner Scott converted 25 of 29 save opportunities this season, including saves Friday and Saturday.
But the strongest hitters on the Dodgers’ possible division series opponents are left-handed — Matt Olson, Drake Baldwin and Michael Harris II on the Atlanta Braves; Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber on the Philadelphia Phillies — and the Dodgers may not hesitate to use the left-handed Scott against those guys in the seventh or eighth inning.
In theory, these Dodgers have three candidates as closer: Scott, their marquee closer signing for 2025 and actual closer for most of 2026; Edwin Díaz, their marquee closer signing for 2026; and Roki Sasaki, their accidental closer last October.
Yet Friedman said he could envision scenarios where Evan Phillips could close, or even Brock Stewart, or perhaps Alex Vesia against a run of left-handed hitters. The Dodgers hope to activate Edgardo Henriquez for the playoffs. The starters could close, too, especially a well-rested Tyler Glasnow early in the first round.
“We’ve got a number of guys that we really trust,” Friedman said. “Depending on who we’re playing, how deep our starter goes, there are a lot of factors that would go into it. But, more than who will be that pitcher on the mound, is the fact that we have so many candidates we feel really good about.”
That the Dodgers have improvised an October relief corps, transformed a rookie starter into a postseason closer and run bullpen games in elimination games might lead you to conclude Friedman does not really believe in the concept of a designated closer. In a world where “high leverage” is the trendy jargon, maybe a closer is more of an anachronism than a necessity.
That the Dodgers invested $72 million in Scott and $69 million in Díaz in consecutive winters would lead you to conclude Friedman does indeed believe in the concept of a designated closer. In fact, he does.
“I think it’s extremely helpful,” he said.
The Dodgers do not hold splashy news conferences to introduce closer candidates. When the Dodgers introduced Díaz last December, Friedman proudly introduced the three-time All-Star as the closer.
“For us, we have a high bar,” Friedman said then. “To name someone the closer, you have to be one of the best. You have to be elite and dominant at what you do.”
Díaz’s season went awry, limited to 18⅔ innings after elbow surgery and then a neck injury. But in five September appearances since his activation from the injured list, he gave up no runs and one hit in five innings, striking out nine of the 17 batters he faced. (In the same span, Scott has given up no runs and two hits in five innings, striking out nine of the 19 batters he faced.)
Dodgers reliever Edwin Díaz high-fives teammates in the dugout after pitching against the San Diego Padres on Sept. 22.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“What we’ve seen out of Díaz recently has been really encouraging,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “What that ultimately means, we don’t know yet.
“Of course, if you have a reliever who is really hot in October, that can be extremely valuable. It doesn’t mean you use him exclusively in the ninth. But, by and large, that’s how you would use him.”
Roberts saluted Díaz for working hard to get back to an uncertain assignment.
“I’m really proud of Edwin, given the deal he signed, to work it out, to go to the minors, to come back and pitch in whatever role we ask of him, that shows a lot of character,” Roberts said.
“He could have mailed this year in. That’s something that has not gone unnoticed. And we’ll see how October plays out.”
The Dodgers could be forgiven for believing it will all work out in the end. Their final pitcher in each of the World Series clinchers under Friedman, all starters: Julio Urías in 2020, Walker Buehler in 2024, Yoshinobu Yamamoto in 2025.
The pitchers to record a postseason save in those championship seasons: Kenley Jansen, Joe Kelly, Brusdar Graterol, Blake Treinen and Urias in 2020; Alex Vesia, Treinen and Buehler in 2024; Glasnow, Sasaki and Treinen in 2025.
The organizational flexibility can lead to some uncomfortable discussions within the clubhouse, as Roberts and coaches keep the relievers updated on the latest plan for how they might be used.
“It is tricky,” Roberts said. “These are constant conversations. They are ever-evolving. They are ongoing.”
If all goes right for the Dodgers, those conversations will be ongoing for another month.
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.
The Dodgers plan to give catcher Dalton Rushing a chance to make his case for a spot on the postseason roster, after playing just four games in the last seven weeks because of a right elbow injury.
He’s set to be activated from the injured list before the end of the season, manager Dave Roberts said, and he’ll serve as a left-handed bat off the bench.
“Just showing them that I can swing it, and it’s an option,” Rushing told The Times after taking live batting practice Tuesday for the first time since landing on the IL earlier this month. “I know that you kind of tie [the team’s] hands up when you can’t play defense. So, I’m not expecting anything… just continue to take at-bats and see where we go from there.”
The slight tear in Rushing’s ulnar collateral ligament made headlines after he landed on the IL on Aug. 3. But Rushing’s MRI scans suggest the UCL — which is associated with Tommy John surgery — is not the issue.
The pain in his elbow seems to stem from a flexor strain. The small tear in his UCL has remained the same size since 2022, he said.
Rushing received platelet-rich plasma injection after aggravating the flexor injury a second time while working through a throwing program at the beginning of the month.
“I’m pretty confident I can still avoid surgery after the shot,” he said, noting that he’s been getting regular scans to monitor his healing. “Obviously, when I re-injured it the second time, I was almost 70-30, thinking that I was for sure going to need surgery. But after I got the shot and it ran its course, I feel as close to healthy in my arm as I have in a pretty long time.”
This time, Rushing has abandoned the throwing program. But he said he doesn’t regret trying to return to the field the first time around.
“In my eyes, me trying to throw is me showing them that obviously I want to help the team win,” he said. “I want to give us the best available option that we have at that moment, and that was my whole plan all along. So I hope they see there wasn’t any selfishness in that.”
The Dodgers will need a left-handed bat off the bench in October, but Rushing now has competition.
Rookie Josue De Paula replaced Shohei Ohtani on the roster when the superstar landed on the 15-day IL two weeks ago. His first major-league hit was a three-run home run, and he entered Tuesday with a .974 OPS in 10 games.
Even if the Dodgers option De Paula on Wednesday when they reinstate Ohtani, 10 days before the NL Division Series, he will be eligible to be added to the NLDS roster via petition to the Commissioner’s Office.
“It’s going to be a good debate,” Roberts said. “Hitting off the bench is very difficult, and so you’re just trying to figure out who gives us the best chance. To be quite frank, it’s going to be tougher for Dalton given the time that he’s missed, and … you have three games to get back in the playoff form, which is tough to do. It’s not a knock on him. He’s been great for us. But it’s still tough given that also you’re talking about the consistency of at-bats recently from Josue. We have to have those conversations and make a decision.”
Rushing played a large role in the Dodgers’ regular season. In his second year in the majors, he was thrust into the primary role behind the plate for two months because of Will Smith’s lingering neck injury. Now, he might not see the field in the postseason.
“It sucks,” he said of the injury derailing him down the stretch. “I mean, that’s really the only thing I can say about it, it’s not what I wanted — by no means.”
Looking beyond the playoffs, Rushing plans to evaluate his routine, hoping to set himself up to be available for more of 2027.
“I don’t even want to talk about it right now because we still have obviously a bigger task at hand,” Rushing said. “But my main plan moving into playing every day in the future is, make sure that my body can hold whatever stress or whatever is needed for this team — first base, behind the plate, whatever they need. I want to make sure my body can handle it and do it for 162.”
Only the Pirates and Cubs have met more often than the Dodgers and Giants, who faced off for the first time in 1889. And over all that time, the Dodgers are just two games better, with 1,294 wins to the Giants’ 1,292.
The Dodgers and Giants have also won more pennants, made more World Series appearances and have more players wearing their caps in the Hall of Fame than any other National League teams, all of which fueled a rivalry that was once among the most visceral and passionate in American sports.
But that was then and this is now.
After Sunday’s 3-1 victory over the Giants, the Dodgers’ 14th win in their last 17 games, the team could finish a season with 100 wins for the fourth time in six years. The Giants have had just one winning record in that time.
The Dodgers (96-60), who have won five straight division titles, are headed to the postseason for a record-tying 14th consecutive year. The Giants will miss the playoffs for a fifth straight season.
So is the rivalry dead? That depends on who you ask.
“It’s always a rivalry,” Giants pitcher Logan Webb. “We’d like to make it a little closer when it comes to the standings. But I definitely feel it when I throw against them.”
But then Webb, who is from Northern California, grew up with the rivalry and, as the longest-tenured Giant, pitched against the Dodgers in games that mattered. Giants coach Ron Washington, who made his major league debut with the Dodgers when the rivalry was still a thing, said many players on San Francisco’s roster don’t know that background.
“It should be a rivalry. But I don’t think the young kids we got know anything about a rivalry. They’re not history buffs.”
Webb said it’s the responsibility of the veterans on both sides to keep that history alive by explaining the enmity to the young players.
“I think there are still guys that came up in the system that know what it’s like,” he said. “It’s my job to kind of hype these guys up to play a game like this.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who played for the Dodgers and Giants during his 10-year career, agrees the rivalry now exists more in the history books than the current standings, where the Giants have been overtaken by the San Diego Padres, who will finish second to the Dodgers in the N.L. West for the fourth time in five seasons.
“It’s certainly a rivalry in the sense of the history, the fan bases,” Roberts said. “But obviously it’s about relevancy. The Padres have been successful the last handful of years, and so it’s certainly built some momentum. The geography lends itself to that too.
“But Dodgers-Giants is always fun.”
It hasn’t been so much fun for the Giants lately. San Francisco hasn’t won the season series with the Dodgers since 2021 and has lost more than 90 games this year for the first time in nine seasons.
On Sunday they went in front three batters into the game with Johan Cox working Dodger opener Jack Dreyer for a leadoff walk, then making his way around the bases on Dreyer’s throwing error, a stolen base and a one-one single by Victor Bericoto.
San Francisco would get just one more hit — a single by Jung Hoo Lee with one out in the sixth.
That allowed the Dodgers to tie the score in the bottom of the sixth on Tommy Edman’s seventh home run of the season just inside the right-field foul pole. An inning later they went ahead to stay when Max Muncy singled under a sliding Cox at second, moved to third on a single by rookie Josue De Paula and scored on Kiké Hernández’s double to center.
Josue de Paula hits a double in the fifth inning Sunday.
(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)
A two-out single by Muncy, his second of the game, scored Teoscar Hernández, who also had two hits, in the eighth inning with the final run.
Even the slumping Freddie Freeman contributed to the Dodgers’ 11-hit attack, ending an 0-for-11 slide with a broken-bat single in the fourth then singling again in the eighth.
Sunday’s result helped clarify the Dodgers’ once-muddy playoff picture. With six games left in the regular season, the Dodgers lead Atlanta by four games in the race for the second seed in the National League playoffs, which would give them a first-round bye and the homefield advantage in the division series.
The team’s postseason roster may be getting clearer as well. Right-hander Emmet Sheehan, who made 22 starts this season, came out of the bullpen for the first time Sunday and was brilliant in his audition for the playoffs.
“If there is a role in the postseason, it will be out of the [bull]pen,” Roberts said of Sheehan, who gave up just a hit and walk, striking out nine — one off his season high — in 5 1/3 innings.
De Paula, meanwhile, whose third multihit game extended his modest hitting streak to four games, appears to have secured a job as the team’s left-handed bat off the bench while utility player Hyeseong Kim, who has spent the last four months in the minors, will rejoin the Dodgers after the triple-A playoffs and be considered for a roster spot as a pinch-runner and late-inning defensive replacement.
“My expectation is that Hyeseong will be here during the off week and potentially be a conversation for the postseason because he has the ability to run, play defense, and steal a base,” Roberts said.
After Monday’s off day, the final break of the regular season for the Dodgers, the team is expected to activate Andy Pages, Roki Sasaki and Shohei Ohtani from the injured list during its three-game series with the Padres.
“We’ll get Andy back on Tuesday, which will be great, and then shortly thereafter we’ll get Shohei back. So yeah, things are starting to come together,” Roberts said. “We’re in a good spot.”
From Maddie Lee: The Dodgers celebrated clinching a postseason berth with a champagne toast. Simple. Restrained. Leaving room for larger celebrations to come.
“The message was, ‘We haven’t come close to playing our best baseball yet,’” manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 4-1 win over the Reds on Monday. “And here we are with 12 games left, getting a ticket to the postseason. And that says a lot about this entire organization. And just to finish strong.”
It marked the Dodgers’ 14th straight playoff berth, tying a record set by the Atlanta Braves from 1991 to 2005.
“It’s different than anything I’ve experienced, for sure,” Tarik Skubal said of the understated celebration. “But I think it just speaks to the people in this room and what they expect out of this team. That was cool. A little toast and move on. Forget it happened. We’ve got more to accomplish.”
Most teams don ski goggles to celebrate with champagne and beer showers. The Dodgers will save the messier celebration for clinching the division. Their win over the Reds (70-80) trimmed that magic number to three.
It was fitting that Skubal, the Dodgers’ big trade-deadline acquisition, was on the mound for the clincher. He’s progressively improved in his eight starts with the Dodgers. And on Monday, he breezed through seven shutout innings, allowing just four baserunners (three singles and a walk).
“I think a lot of the struggles have been me versus me,” Skubal said. “Thinking too much out there, not competing the way I know how to compete. Just thinking too much about pitch selection at times and trying to be too fine and not challenging guys.”
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Will Edwin Díaz be on postseason roster?
From Maddie Lee: Even as the Dodgers clinched a postseason berth with their 4-1 win over the Reds on Monday, bullpen uncertainty loomed.
When they get to the playoffs, who’s going to take the ball in high-leverage situations?
Their options are dwindling. Edgardo Henriquez landed on the 15-day injured list Monday with low back discomfort, ruling him out for the rest of the regular season. Edwin Díaz was so shaky in his rehab assignment Sunday that a spot on the postseason roster isn’t guaranteed.
“We have to go with our best pitchers, as far as performance, talent, all that stuff,” manager Dave Roberts said before the Dodgers opened a four-game series against the Reds. “So my bet is that he will be [on the roster]. But there’s got to be some kind of evidence or something for us to sort of bet on. And so my bet is, yes, but we’ve still got to see something.”
Reid Detmers struck out eight over six innings, and Jose Siri and Denzer Guzman each drove in two runs to help the Angels beat the fading Seattle Mariners 6-4 on Monday night.
Detmers (6-8) gave up three runs and seven hits and a walk as third-place Seattle (70-81) dropped 5½ games behind AL West-leading Houston with 11 to play.
Ryan Watson pitched 1⅓ scoreless innings and Ben Joyce walked two in the ninth before retiring J.P. Crawford on a lineout to first base for his fifth save.
From Kevin Baxter: Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and his staff had spent the last 12 months loudly insisting they’d done nothing wrong.
The podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” first raised questions about payments star forward Kawhi Leonard received from Aspiration Partners without doing any endorsement work to benefit the company on Sept. 3, 2025. The NBA responded by starting an investigation.
In its findings — released Sept. 2 — an independent law firm reported “a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations” that benefited Leonard, who received $66 million in cash and equity from four companies through agreements facilitated by Ballmer and team executives at the request of Leonard’s uncle and then-agent. Those deals violated the league salary cap, which limits how much teams can pay players. The cap is $164.961 million for the coming season.
The Clippers released two statements that same day, protesting the finding and the stiffest sanctions in NBA history, including a $30-million fine and the loss of five future first-round draft picks. In addition, Ballmer, 69, was banned from all league activities for the next year.
After immediately calling the NBA’s investigation “biased” and vowing to “vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us,” the Clippers were silent for 11 days.
Sunday’s season-opening debacle — a sloppy, uninspired and uninspiring 26-14 loss to the Arizona Cardinals at SoFi Stadium — was a first, giant step back for these Chargers.
You can’t call Game 1 of any season a must-win. But you can pan back and recognize that sometimes Game 1 is a really, really should-win affair.
Not only because the Cardinals represented as close to a gimme as the Chargers are going to get on their precarious schedule.
But the Chargers also missed a prime opportunity to fill a hole in the L.A. football plot, rare as those are.
Star edge rusher Myles Garrett first experienced knee discomfort and swelling during training camp, a condition that caused him to sit out the majority of team workouts throughout the weeks leading up to the season opener.
But Garrett failed to record a tackle, and was clearly not himself, in an embarrassing defeat by the San Francisco 49ers on Friday in Australia.
On Monday, Garrett was scheduled to have surgery, and he will sit out at least the next four games on injured reserve.
Will lineman Aaron Donald, who has returned from a two-year retirement, make his season debut against the Giants?
“We haven’t decided that yet,” McVay said. “He’s going to continue to work his process and we’ll see what that looks like.”
1899 — Willie Smith wins the U.S. Open golf title, beating George low, Val Fitzjohn and W.H. Way.
1923 — Bill Tilden wins the U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn. championship, beating William Johnston in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4.
1962 — Frank Tripucka of the Denver Broncos passes for 447 yards and two touchdowns in a 23-20 win over the Buffalo Bills.
1971 — Stan Smith wins the U.S. Open title over Jan Khodes and Billie Jean King beats Rosie Casals for the women’s title. It’s the first time in 16 years both titles were won by U.S. players.
1973 — Three-year-old Secretariat wins the Marlboro Cup Invitational Handicap in the then-world record time of 1:45 2-5 for 11/8 miles.
1973 — Archie Griffin of Ohio State starts his NCAA record string of 31 games of rushing for at least 100 yards, leading the Buckeyes to a 56-7 rout of Minnesota in Columbus.
1978 — Muhammad Ali becomes the first three-time heavyweight champion with a unanimous 15-round decision over Leon Spinks at the Superdome in New Orleans.
1991 — The United States women’s gymnastics team makes history with its first team medal — a silver — at the World Championships in Indianapolis.
2002 — Sam Hornish Jr. wins another incredible race at Texas Motor Speedway, and his second straight IRL title. Hornish side-by-side with Helio Castroneves for many of the last 25 laps in the season-ending Chevy 500, crosses the finish line 0.0096 seconds — only a few inches — ahead of the other driver in contention for the season championship. Hornish wins his IRL-record fifth race of the season and becomes the first driver to win two IRL championships.
2002 — Oakland quarterback Rich Gannon begins NFL record-tying (Kurt Warner, Steve Young) streak of six consecutive 300-yard passing games, throwing for 403 yards in Raiders’ 30-17 victory at Pittsburgh.
2004 — NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announces a lockout of the players union and cessation of operations by the NHL head office.
2012 — LSU beats Idaho 63-14 to give the Tigers an NCAA FBS record 40th-straight non-conference regular season victory. LSU also set a Tiger Stadium mark with 20 straight home wins. Kansas State had 39 straight non-conference regular-season wins from 1993-2003.
2013 — Philip Rivers is 36 of 47 for 419 yards and three touchdown passes to Eddie Royal to lead San Diego to a 33-30 victory at Philadelphia. Michael Vick of the Eagles passes for a career-best 428 yards and two touchdowns and runs for a score.
2018 — Zlatan Ibrahimovic scores his 500th worldwide goal in the Galaxy’s 5-3 loss to Toronto FC. The 36-year-old Swede joins Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the only active players with 500 goals for in club and international play.
2021 — U.S. gymnasts, including Simone Biles, testify against former team doctor Larry Nassar at a Senate Committee hearing, criticizing a system that allowed it to happen.
2022 — Tennis great Roger Federer announces his retirement from pro tennis at 41 with 20 grand slam wins and 103 ATP titles.
Compiled by the Associated Press
This day in baseball history
1902 — Chicago Cubs infielders Tinker, Evers and Chance turn their first double play together.
1912 — Joe Wood of the Boston Red Sox pitched his 16th consecutive victory to tie Walter Johnson’s record as he beat the St. Louis Browns 2-1.
1938 — Brothers Lloyd and Paul Waner hit back-to-back homers for the Pittsburgh Pirates off Cliff Melton of the New York Giants. This was the only time brothers hit successive home runs in a major league game. It was Lloyd’s last homer.
1946 — The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs 2-0 in five innings when the game was called because of gnats. The insects became such a problem for the players, umpires and fans that the game had to be stopped.
1963 — All three Alou brothers — Felipe, Matty and Jesus — played in the outfield at the same time for the San Francisco Giants in a 13-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
1969 — St. Louis left-hander Steve Carlton struck out 19 Mets for a nine-inning game record. New York won the game 4-3 on a pair of two-run homers by Ron Swoboda.
1979 — Bob Watson of the Red Sox became the first player to hit for the cycle in both leagues as he led Boston to a 10-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. He hit for the cycle with the Houston Astros against San Francisco on June 24, 1977.
1990 — Bobby Thigpen pitched one inning and became the first relief pitcher with 50 saves in a season as the Chicago White Sox beat the Red Sox 7-4.
1996 — The Baltimore Orioles set baseball’s season home run record with five against Detroit, including Mark Parent’s record breaking shot in the third inning and Brady Anderson’s 10th leadoff homer of the year. The homers gave the Orioles 243, three more than the 1961 New York Yankees.
1997 — Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 51st and 52nd homers in Seattle’s win over Toronto to become the sixth major league player to hit 100 or more home runs over two consecutive seasons. Griffey hit 49 homers last season.
1998 — Ken Griffey Jr. hit his AL-leading 52nd homer and drove in five runs to become the fourth-youngest player to reach 1,000 RBIs, leading the Seattle Mariners over the Minnesota Twins 12-7.
2002 — Arizona’s Curt Schilling struck out eight to reach 300 for the season, joining Randy Johnson as the first teammates in baseball history to each strike out 300 in the same season. The Diamondbacks beat Milwaukee 6-5 in 13 innings.
2008 — In an unprecedented move, the Milwaukee Brewers fired manager Ned Yost. It marked the first time in major league history — except the strike-split 1981 season — that a manager was fired in August or later with his team in playoff position. The Brewers, 83-67, lost seven of eight and fallen into a tie with Philadelphia for the NL wild-card lead.
2009 — David Ortiz hit his record-breaking 270th homer as a designated hitter and had an RBI single in Boston’s 4-1 victory over the Angels. Frank Thomas had held the mark with 269.
2011 — Pablo Sandoval tripled in the sixth inning to complete the first cycle of his career and San Francisco beat Colorado 8-5.
2017 — The Cleveland had its AL record winning streak stopped at 22 as the Indians were beaten 4-3 by the Kansas City Royals, who became the first team to conquer the defending league champions since Aug. 23. The Indians came within four of matching the overall record held by the 1916 New York Giants.
2014 — The Mets’ Jacob deGrom ties a major league record when he strikes out the first eight batters he faces before his opponent on the mound for the Marlins, Jarred Cosart, singles to right. DeGrom ties the record set by Jim Deshaies in 1986. He strikes out 13 in seven innings but ends up with a no-decision as the Marlins win, 6-5.
2022 — On Roberto Clemente Day, the Rays make history by fielding an all-Latino line-up (excluding starting pitcher Shane McClanahan). It consists of C René Pinto, 1B Harold Ramirez, 2B Isaac Paredes, SS Wander Franco, 3B Yandy Díaz, LF David Peralta, CF José Siri, RF Randy Arozarena and DH Manuel Margot, with five countries being represented. All wear Roberto Clemente’s iconic uniform number, 21, as they go on to defeat the Blue Jays, 11-0.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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CINCINNATI — The Dodgers celebrated clinching a postseason berth with a champagne toast. Simple. Restrained. Leaving room for larger celebrations to come.
“The message was, ‘We haven’t come close to playing our best baseball yet,’” manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 4-1 win over the Reds on Monday. “And here we are with 12 games left, getting a ticket to the postseason. And that says a lot about this entire organization. And just to finish strong.”
It marked the Dodgers’ 14th straight playoff berth, tying a record set by the Atlanta Braves from 1991 to 2005.
“It’s different than anything I’ve experienced, for sure,” Tarik Skubal said of the understated celebration. “But I think it just speaks to the people in this room and what they expect out of this team. That was cool. A little toast and move on. Forget it happened. We’ve got more to accomplish.”
Most teams don ski goggles to celebrate with champagne and beer showers. The Dodgers will save the messier celebration for clinching the division. Their win over the Reds (70-80) trimmed that magic number to three.
It was fitting that Skubal, the Dodgers’ big trade-deadline acquisition, was on the mound for the clincher. He’s progressively improved in his eight starts with the Dodgers. And on Monday, he breezed through seven shutout innings, allowing just four baserunners (three singles and a walk).
“I think a lot of the struggles have been me versus me,” Skubal said. “Thinking too much out there, not competing the way I know how to compete. Just thinking too much about pitch selection at times and trying to be too fine and not challenging guys.”
He has grown more comfortable with the pitching coaches and his catchers, and it has brought out a better version of him. Skubal seems to be peaking at the right time — just as Roberts hoped for the team as a whole.
Even after clinching the division likely this week, the Dodgers (91-59) will be playing for seeding, aiming for at least a first-round bye.
“It’s always helpful in the sense of giving your guys a break to reset,” Roberts said. “But given all the tax and where our guys are health-wise, to get that week would be huge. So we’ve still got to play well to finish out the season to get to that point.”
The position-player group has been hit the hardest down the stretch.
Designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (right biceps and left knee), center fielder Andy Pages (left hand fracture) and backup catcher Dalton Rushing (sprained right elbow) are on the IL. First baseman Freddie Freeman was out of the lineup Monday managing right knee soreness, and second baseman Miguel Rojas was playing through shoulder soreness after aggravating a longstanding partial tear in a labrum.
“You’ve got to give credit to the front office,” said Teoscar Hernández, who hit a two-run homer Monday. “They put together a really good team, [a] deep team that has a little bit of too much of everything. A lot of pitchers, a lot of position players here, players that can play all over the field. We’re one of the oldest teams. We know [injuries] are going to happen throughout the season. So, we’ve just gotta be ready, and the team has to be ready, and everybody else.”
Here are more specific injury updates provided by Roberts:
— Ohtani is set to hit off a tee Tuesday. Up until this point, he’s been working out, lifting and undergoing treatment.
— Pages hit softer balls Monday and will advance to hitting baseballs in the cage Tuesday. “He’s trending really well,” Roberts said.
— Freeman is expected to return to the lineup Tuesday, but Roberts will continue to keep a close eye on him. “Where we’re at in the season, an IL is not an option in the sense of — I personally don’t think we have a better option,” Roberts said. “So I don’t think it needs to be 10 days. But could it be more than one? That’s a fair question. And I’ve got to talk to the training staff, Freddie, and ultimately make that decision. But I don’t think IL would make sense at all.”
— Rojas did not receive a cortisone injection as he had initially predicted when he hurt his shoulder Sunday. But he said it’s still a possibility as he manages pain in his shoulder. The Reds have left-handed starters scheduled for two of the four games, making Rojas’ right-handed bat valuable.
“Right now it’s front of mind, it’s not great,” Roberts said of the Dodgers’ injury situation. “But I will say this: Once you get to October, athletes have a magical way of feeling better. It happens every single year, where there’s that extra adrenaline that athletes get when you get to the postseason.”
