Brian Wolfe, a standout pitcher at Servite who played three seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays, has died at age 45, his wife shared Tuesday on Facebook.
“I’m am sorry to write this but after a really really difficult and torturous battle Brian Wolfe passed away early this morning,” Rachell Wolfe wrote.
No other details have been provided.
Wolfe was one of Orange County’s most dominant high school pitchers during the late 1990s. After going 8-0 with an ERA of 0.27 as a sophomore in 1997, he was the Friars’ ace the next two seasons.
Honored both years as a member of The Times’ All-Orange County team, Wolfe went 11-2 with a 1.37 ERA and a county-best 139 strikeouts as a junior and was 12-0 with a 1.30 ERA and nearly 100 strikeouts as a senior.
After committing to Cal State Fullerton in the fall of 1998, Wolfe opted to sign with the Minnesota Twins organization after being drafted in the sixth round (179th overall) the following summer. He spent the next several years working his way up through the minor leagues with the Twins, Milwaukee Brewers and Blue Jays before making his major league debut with Toronto as a relief pitcher in 2007.
Wolfe appeared in 72 games over three seasons with the Blue Jays, compiling a 5-5 record and a 3.81 ERA in 82.2 innings pitched. He became a free agent after the 2009 season and spent the next nine years playing in Japan with Nippon Professional Baseball, playing for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (including the 2013 season as teammates with Shohei Ohtani), Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (winning the Japan League title in 2014 and 2015) and Saitama Seibu Lions.
Former MLB outfielder Brandon Barnes posted a tribute to Wolfe on Wednesday, calling his fellow Orange County native “one of my best friends and a mentor.”
Even Dodgers catcher Will Smith, who’d never be accused of wearing his emotions on his sleeve, was a little worried during his monthslong absence because of a persistent neck injury that he might not be healthy by the end of the season.
“‘It was kind of the ‘who knows how long it’s going to take,’” Smith said when the Dodgers activated him at the beginning of the month. “But at some point I was going to be fed up and just kind of deal with it.”
It apparently didn’t come to that. And in the Dodgers’ 3-2 win against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday, Smith’s fifth time in the lineup since returning from the injured list, he put the Dodgers ahead with a first-inning home run and guided Dodgers left-handed starter Tarik Skubal through 7 ⅓ innings of two-run ball.
“He called a great game,” Skubal said of his Team USA teammate. “And the targets that he sets up, and the way that he goes about it, he gives me a ton of confidence back there.”
A neck problem that was initially expected to resolve on its own in a few days turned into a nearly three-month IL stint. With the revolving door behind the plate in Smith’s absence, getting him back down the stretch and into the postseason was going to be key.
While Smith was on the IL, backup catcher Dalton Rushing was thrown into the starting role, learning how to balance the defensive responsibility of serving as the main backstop at the major-league level with a desire to also contribute offensively.
Rushing seemed to be getting the hang of it, with Chuckie Robinson and then Eliézer Alfonzo behind him, before he hurt his right elbow right before the trade deadline. The Dodgers traded for an entirely new catching duo, Hunter Feduccia and Ben Rortvedt, who held down the position until Smith’s return.
“It was frustrating early,” Smith said. “Just looking for answers why it was taking longer, but we finally got those answers. And then it was kind of a pretty straightforward process from there. So last month or two hasn’t been too bad.”
Smith and the Dodgers sought multiple doctors’ opinions. He was eventually diagnosed with an annular tear and given two possible recovery timelines. Though they proceeded with hope for the earlier return, the longer one came to fruition.
Now, the Dodgers are carrying three catchers, trying not to overwork Smith in his first weeks back. He’ll be out of the lineup Wednesday and play two of three games in Miami, manager Dave Roberts said.
With Rushing back on the IL for the same elbow injury, Feduccia can also serve as a left-handed bat off the bench, and Alfonzo gives the team more substitution flexibility.
Entering Tuesday, Smith had already thrown out three baserunners attempting to steal in his first week back in action. But despite some hard contact, hits weren’t falling for him. He went two for 17 with a single and a double in the same time period.
“Will is just very consistent, dependable,” Roberts said. “I know he’s taking really good at-bats. Hitting some balls to the warning track.”
On Tuesday, batting third in the lineup against Reds left-handed starting pitcher Nick Lodolo, he showcased the kind of influence he can make on both sides of the ball.
In Smith’s first at-bat, he battled for nine pitches, finally lifting a changeup over the left field wall.
“That was really good to see,” Roberts said. “With Will, it’s just great having him in there because you know you can count on the at-bat quality, and obviously having him behind the plate has been good.”
The next inning the Dodgers (88-57) doubled their score when Tommy Edman — hitting in the leadoff spot in place of Shohei Ohtani (right biceps and left knee), who was out of the lineup Tuesday as the Dodgers ease him back from a four-day absence over the weekend — was hit in the leg by a pitch with the bases loaded.
The Reds then tied the score in the third, as Elly De La Cruz launched a two-run homer off Skubal. But the Dodgers pulled ahead again two innings later, courtesy of the red-hot bat Teoscar Hernández has been swinging in September.
Tarik Skubal pitches in the second inning Tuesday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Hernández avenged his ill-fated inside-the-park home run attempt — he was thrown out at the plate on an aggressive send two innings earlier — with a well-struck RBI single.
Skubal wrapped up his deepest start of his Dodgers tenure to a standing ovation. He’d limited the Reds to just four hits, while recording five strikeouts in an efficient performance.
Flame-throwing reliever Edgardo Henriquez replaced Skubal, tasked with recording the last two outs of the eighth. He did so with the help of an ABS challenge from Smith that secured an inning-ending strikeout.
Lefty Tanner Scott earned the save, retiring three straight batters after a leadoff walk, and the Dodgers extended their winning streak to six games.
“It’s the last stretch,” Smith said at the beginning of the month. “We’re fighting for seeding as well. So yeah, it’s definitely time to step on the gas.”
The Dodgers (80-54), who were swept for the third time this month, are clinging to a one-game lead over the Braves (79-55) for the second-best record in the National League. They are three games behind the Milwaukee Brewers (83-51) for the best record in baseball.
“I wish we’d played better,” Roberts said. “I wish we’d have won the game. I wish we’d won the series. It didn’t happen. But right now, there’s nothing we can do but just go out there and keep trying to get better and win a baseball game [Friday].”
What was expected to be a pitchers’ duel between Dodgers rotation leader Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Sale lived up to the hype.
Yamamoto gave up a home run to Drake Baldwin on his first pitch, but he quickly settled in and gave up just three more hits while striking out eight over 6⅓ innings.
Sale was even better. He mowed down the Dodgers with 11 strikeouts, limiting them to five hits in nine innings.
The Dodgers went up against an even crisper version of Sale. His velocity was up, and the 100.1-mph fastball he threw to Shohei Ohtani the second time through the order was his hardest-thrown pitch since 2018, according to MLB.com.
“That guy, he’s doing things no one’s ever seen,” Sale told reporters after striking out Ohtani and holding him hitless in four at-bats. “Tit for tat, he’s probably the best I’ve ever seen. When you’re facing the best, you gotta bring your best. Tonight it worked out.
“You can’t hang your hat on that kind of stuff. You never anticipate or expect that because of who he is and his talent and what he brings to the table. This is a game of small battles. He’s going to win some, I’m gonna win some. When you’ve got a guy like that, you gotta step on the gas a little bit.”
The Dodgers have struggled at times since the All-Star break, but Will Smith’s return from injury and Shohei Ohtani’s return to pitching should help.
Sale got a standing ovation when he walked out for the ninth inning. And Braves fans booed when a safe call at first withstood replay review instead of ending the game on a double play. But Sale remained and had an even bigger final moment of the game: one more strikeout.
“Sale had it, and we didn’t have much of an answer,” said Mookie Betts, the only Dodger with two hits. “We’ve been able to score runs [the last couple of months]. We might not score 10 a night, but we’re scoring runs and giving ourselves a chance to win games. We just got to figure out other ways to win and be able to push a couple more runs across and whatnot.”
Thursday marked the 13th one-run game the Dodgers have played this month. And the small margins seem to be taking a toll, as the Dodgers’ bullpen and defense have wavered.
The solution would seem to be to get the offense back to scoring in bunches. But that’s not a simple button the Dodgers can press, especially against pitchers of Sale’s caliber.
The Dodgers lost all three games in Atlanta by one run.
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers against the Atlanta Braves in the first inning Thursday.
(Erik S. Lesser / Associated Press)
“It seemed like we were always chasing,” Roberts said. “It’s hard to play from behind. Your margins are much thinner, smaller. And when you don’t capitalize on opportunities, then you come up on the short end. But like I said, they’re a good ballclub. They do things the right way. And we’ll look forward to seeing them in October.”
The Dodgers entered the series riding a six-game winning streak built against the Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates. But it’s been a long time since they’ve beaten a good team. In fact, they haven’t won a series against any team that entered Thursday in playoff position since taking two of three from the Philadelphia Phillies from July 20-22.
In the interim, the Dodgers have gone 1-12 against teams in a playoff spot.
“I was thinking about it tonight: The game tests you,” Roberts said. “August is that third leg of a mile, and it’s the hardest leg, and you know we’ve got to get through it and grind. And there’s a new series, a new team. We’ve got [Tarik] Skubal going [Friday against the Detroit Tigers]. We’ve just got to flush it.”
Tucker takes day off
Roberts sat slumping right fielder Kyle Tucker against Sale.
“I didn’t want to feel like I’m piling on against a really tough starter,” Roberts said. “Get him ready for the weekend.”
But Roberts said that wasn’t a reflection of how he’d approach the postseason. If the Dodgers face the Braves in the playoffs, Roberts would expect to start Tucker in right field against Sale.
Roster move
As expected, the Dodgers put right-hander Roki Sasaki on the 15-day injured list because of a blister on the middle finger of his right hand and recalled hard-throwing reliever Seth Halvorsen.
“He’s probably our most rested reliever, and it’s going to come in hot,” Roberts said. “So I’m going to run him out there if the situation calls for it.”
Those who were at Dodger Stadium on a gorgeous Friday night seemed to be in for an all-nighter.
They have Tommy Edman to thank for getting home a bit earlier.
With two outs in the 10th, Kiké Hernández on third and Kyle Tucker on first, the second baseman hit a walk-off single against Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Gregory Soto, earning the Dodgers a 5-4 win.
“Yeah, it feels great,” Edman said. “We’ve kind of been struggling a little bit in those clutch situations, myself included, so it felt really good to come through.”
Edman entered the at-bat 0 for 3 and was seemingly on the verge of keeping the 200-minute game alive in an unfavorable way.
Soto, however, threw the same low-middle sweeper that Edman fouled off one pitch earlier, and the second baseman jumped on it the second time around, propelling the Dodgers (78-51) to four consecutive wins for the first time since late July.
“That’s something I really try to take pride in — leaving past at-bats behind me — and I think I’ve done a good job of that this year,” Edman said. “I think that’s something we do really well overall as a group, and that leads to coming through in big situations like that, putting past at-bats behind you.
“One of the best feelings after grinding for 10 innings,” he added. “We had a bunch of pitchers do a really good job today.”
However, the victory was tempered by the loss of center fielder Andy Pages, who was struck in the left hand with a Bubba Chandler pitch in the third inning. Manager Dave Roberts said X-rays showed a fracture and Pages is expected to be out at least four weeks.
The right-hander brought the urgency to the mound that the Dodgers were missing during an abysmal 5-11 stretch that ended with a sweep against the Colorado Rockies this week.
“I personally felt like today’s game is very important,” Yamamoto said. “We’re gonna have [Tarik] Skubal starting [Saturday], and I just wanted to maintain the momentum, which started in Colorado.”
Yamamoto surrendered two runs — both via singles from Pirates designated hitter Nick Gonzales — on five hits over 6⅓ innings, striking out nine and walking one.
“My stuff was pretty good today,” Yamamoto said. “I was feeling pretty good out there. So even after letting runners on the bases, I just tried to focus and then take it one hitter at a time.”
Chandler, meanwhile, exited after four innings. Max Muncy hit a two-run homer in the first, and Mookie Betts contributed a two-run single in the third.
The Dodgers, with a 4-2 lead, cruised into the eighth. But Kyle Hurt gave up a tying two-run homer to Oneil Cruz.
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the second inning Friday night.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Matters looked grim for the Dodgers in the 10th when Evan Phillips found himself in a one-out, bases-loaded jam.
All was well, though, once Phillips got Henry Davis to ground into an inning-ending, 6-4-3 double play.
“That was great,” Roberts said of Phillips. “I know that he’s trying to kind of build as we’re going through this, and [it] hasn’t been smooth sailing for him and the success that he’s used to. But this is a big one. Big confidence builder for him … to strand those two runners was a big outing for him.”
Edman took care of the rest.
And for maybe the first time in weeks, the Dodgers appear to be inching back to their champion ways.
“I think our guys are kind of reinterested, you know, collectively,” Roberts said before the game. “So, that’s a good thing.”
Andy Pages sustains hand fracture
Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages gets hit by a pitch during the third inning against the Pirates on Friday night.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Roberts said Pages sustained a fracture on the back of his left hand when he was hit by the 100-mph pitch It’s unclear if he will need surgery.
“Well, it’s just really unfortunate, obviously,” Roberts said. “It’s not season-ending. … So, I would expect him back, knowing him, on the earlier side. … I feel for him because he’s having such a good year.”
Roberts said Edman is an option to fill in for Pages in center field.
In a more positive development, Will Smith faced live pitching for the first time since June, and Roberts said that the plan is to activate the catcher during the first week of September.
“Today was a good day for Will,” Roberts said. “Taking at-bats. He’ll catch a couple bullpens today. He’ll do a couple more lives. … He still needs to get his legs back under him before we feel confident that he can take down a major league game and feel good coming out of it.”
Roberts added that Smith is “gonna play in the postseason” and that there is enough time for him to reach 100% strength.
Tyler Glasnow will likely be activated during the Dodgers’ upcoming trip to Atlanta.
“I just saw him. He had a great outing — his last rehab outing,” Roberts said. “I’m not sure which day we’re gonna pencil him in against the Braves, but if all of the things check out, it’ll be that [series].”
Ohtani will return to the mound at some point this season.
“It’s gonna happen,” Roberts said. “[Ohtani] threw another bullpen. … I think that there’s going to be a live or two, and then he’ll be on the mound. I just don’t know when we’re going to do that with the scheduling.”
Dalton Rushing is “pain-free” and close to facing live pitching, according to Roberts, but the catcher is “unlikely” to return to catching this season.
“I hope I’m wrong,” Roberts said. “But he’s determined to go through the process, the progression, the build-up and get back. And we’ll see where we’re at.”
Roberts didn’t rule out the possibility of Rushing being activated as a designated hitter down the line.
The Dodgers just can’t have some peace and calm, can they? Now, an owner is getting in on the fun with some controversy.
