This means the driver alone oversees both the train’s movement and door operations, rather than having a second conductor on board.
The dispute centres on the first stage of the new railway, serving six stations between Oxford and Milton Keynes.
Trains on this route will stop at Oxford, Oxford Parkway, Bicester Village, Winslow, Bletchley and Milton Keynes Central.
According to RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey, the proposals would be a “significant risk” to safety and existing train manager roles.
He added: “RMT will not accept the watering down of safety on the rail network.”
However, Chiltern Railways has rejected the claim that the new services would compromise passenger safety.
Interim managing director Tony Baxter said: “We have run most of our trains with the driver in control of the doors for decades, safely and as approved by the independent rail regulator.
“It also means over 100 new permanent jobs at Chiltern, and no changes to the roles of existing colleagues.”
The operator also stressed that every East West Rail train will have two staff members on board – a driver, and a colleague to look after and assist passengers and check tickets.
The company has said it remains committed to working with RMT to solve the dispute.
What changes will be in place over the weekend?
According to Chiltern Railways’ website, the majority of passengers will “experience a near normal train service”.
There will be no services for Stratford-upon-Avon or Leamington Spa for the entire day.
Passengers will instead need to travel via Dorridge, taking a West Midlands Railway service between Stratford-upon-Avon and Dorridge.
Customers have been assured that tickets will be valid via Dorridge at no additional cost.
A further four long distance services will only operate part of their journeys:
0644 Stourbridge Junction to London Marylebone – will start at Banbury
0819 Stourbridge Junction to London Marylebone – will start at Birmingham Moor Street
1802 London Marylebone to Stourbridge Junction will terminate at Birmingham Moor Street
1932 London Marylebone to Stourbridge Junction will terminate at Banbury
Certain trains in and out of London Marylebone will have additional stops at Wembley Arena for passengers heading to the Girlguiding Big Gig pop concert.
His October track record suggested he was an unlikely hero. He entered Wednesday with a .123 playoff batting average. He was benched in Game 5 of the World Series last year. He’d even started this postseason hitless in the first two games of the National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves, and was given the red light on ABS challenges.
He didn’t carry any of that up to the plate with him in the seventh inning, with the score tied, the bases loaded and hard-throwing Braves reliever Robert Suarez entering the game to face him.
“I like being in those at-bats,” Pages said in Spanish after the Dodgers’ 4-1 win in Game 4 of the NLDS. “There are times the result comes, sometimes not, but I prepare to be in those spots. And today I was able to get the result.”
He was patient, working a full count as he fouled off and then foul-tipped a pair of fastballs in the zone.
The next one, he sent through the middle of the infield for a two-run single to finally give the Dodgers the lead in the deciding moment of the series.
The Dodgers are headed to the NL Championship Series for the ninth time in 14 seasons. They will play the Milwaukee Brewers, who finished off the San Diego Padres in four games, starting Sunday. And they came one step closer to their goal of winning a third straight World Series.
Pages has contributed to the last two titles with his regular-season play and his glove. The game-saving catch he made in Game 7 of the World Series last year, trampling Kiké Hernández in the process, has been immortalized in bobblehead form. But now, he has a big moment with his bat.
“There’s never been a doubt about him, his talent,” Hernández said. “You can’t carry previous postseasons into this postseason. Everything is a new chapter. Every time you take the field in October, you get an opportunity to rewrite your story. So the fact that he struggled in the previous couple postseasons doesn’t mean that was going to happen again this year.
“I mean, during the regular season, you have two bad games and nobody freaks out about it, but because people are adding up previous postseasons, they’re going to freak out. But nobody doubted him. That’s why he stayed in the lineup. And I’m really happy that he was the one that won us a series.”
The signs of a potential breakout were there. When Pages came back from a fractured left hand for the final week of the season, he didn’t miss a beat.
Then he went 0 for 7 in the first two games of the NLDS, and manager Dave Roberts said he wanted to see him “slow down a little bit.”
“I’m going to 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.”
Pages recorded two hits in Game 3 and logged another single in his first at-bat Wednesday.
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“Everybody really forgets how young Andy Pages is, you know?” veteran infielder Miguel Rojas said of the 25-year-old. “He’s just starting his career. He’s still like a rookie in this clubhouse for us, because he’s one of the youngest. But at the same time, we see his potential, we see what he can do on the field and we feel so proud of him because … whenever he has the opportunity to contribute to this team, he does it in different ways. Defensively, offensively and on the bases.”
On Wednesday, Pages already had showed off his range in center field when he tracked down a fly ball off Matt Olson’s bat in the left-field gap. But the Dodgers desperately needed someone to contribute with runners in scoring position.
The game had been tied at one run apiece since the second inning.
The lone run Dodgers starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow gave up was made possible by Braves leadoff hitter Michael Harris II’s speed. He got on top of Glasnow’s first pitch, a fastball up and out of the strike zone, to shoot a single through the right side.
Harris then stole second and advanced on a groundout. Then, in an 0-and-2 count to Ozzie Albies, Glasnow spiked a curveball in front of the plate. Catcher Will Smith managed to block the ball, despite the high bounce, but it rolled back toward the mound, giving Harris time to dash home.
Glasnow limited the Braves to one hit in 4-2/3 innings. But five walks prevented him from pitching deeper into the game.
The Dodgers couldn’t get anything going against Braves starter Tyler Mahle, either.
They hadn’t faced Mahle since April, when he was with the San Francisco Giants and racking up a 5.13 ERA. But he’d been lights out since the Braves acquired him, authoring a 1.99 ERA. In his postseason debut, he limited the Philadelphia Phillies to one run in seven innings.
The Dodgers saw that new and improved version of him on Wednesday.
The one run the Dodgers scored against him was something of a fluke.
In the second inning, Shohei Ohtani, who moved up to the cleanup spot after hitting fifth the day before, drew a five-pitch walk without taking a swing. He then stole second base, drawing an errant throw that allowed him to advance to third. So, he was in position to score the tying run when Braves shortstop Mauricio Dubón, who robbed Freddie Freeman of a home run as the left fielder the day before, dropped a popup in shallow left.
The Dodgers recorded only three hits against Mahle in 6⅓ innings. So, the game would come down to the bullpens.
In the seventh, the Dodgers loaded the bases with a single from Teoscar Hernández, a walk from pinch-hitting rookie Josue De Paula, and a five-pitch walk from Kyle Tucker.
The Dodgers had gone 0 for 15 with runners in scoring position for the series when Pages stepped to the plate.
“It’s been incredible, especially the way he’s working, just to be ready for these big moments,” Teoscar Hernández said. “I think he was a little bit off his timing at the beginning of the series. Now that he understands he doesn’t have to do too much to help this team win games, I think everything is coming back to the way it was before he got hurt.
“He’s one of the best on the team. We get to this point because of him, the regular season he had. This is not a surprise for me that he’s having this kind of moment in the playoffs.”
Pages didn’t seem surprised, either.
“What happened last year, happened,” he said. “It’s in the past now. All I can do now is be in the moment. And being in the moment today, I was able to get the result.”
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.
He pounded his chest twice as he left the batter’s box, and all of Dodgers nation rocked to the beat.
Andy Pages did it. He finally did it. He finally broke out of his baffling two-year October slump with a hit so powerful, he didn’t even have to climb over Kiké Hernández to get it.
How powerful? With one smooth swing he broke a tie by scoring two runs while sending two teams packing, the Atlanta Braves trudging home for the winter and the Dodgers charging into the National League Championship Series.
Yeah, it was a blast, both figuratively and literally, Pages’ two-out, two-strike bases-loaded single in the seventh inning Wednesday night silencing the lame tomahawk-chopping fans at Truist Park and giving the Dodgers an eventual clinching 4-1 victory against the Braves in the National League Division Series.
Dodger Andy Pages hits a two-RBI single against the Braves during Game 4 of the NLDS Wednesday in Atlanta.
(Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
Certainly, it only gets tougher from here. In winning this best-of-five series three games to one, the Dodgers can now prepare for a best-of-seven showdown task against either the mighty Milwaukee Brewers or blazing San Diego Padres.
Yes, they will need to hit better, they will need Blake Snell to find his focus, they will need Shohei Ohtani to show up.
But… Andy Pages! Seriously! If a guy who was seven for 66 in the last two postseasons and was so helpless last year he was benched for the last three games of the World Series… if that guy can drive in the winning run from the bottom of the order? The once-fallible Dodgers may just be unbeatable.
“There’s no more talented team than the Los Angeles Dodgers,” manager Dave Roberts shouted in the postgame clubhouse. “We’re the best organization in sports, top to bottom. We’re smarter, we’re better, and we’re tougher.”
At that point, someone referenced a recent comment from Padres owner José E. Feliciano insinuating that the Dodgers, baseball’s oldest team, was composed of dinosaurs.
“And we’re dinosaurs!” shouted a voice above the clubhouse din.
If they’re dinosaurs, their first initial is “T” and their last name is ‘Rex.”
It’s OK to start seriously thinking about a three-peat now. They’re now just eight wins away but, given how mediocre the American League playoff teams appear, they could realistically be just four wins away.
Here’s guessing that the NLCS will be the real World Series. And here’s guessing the Dodgers will be ready.
Pages, who won the hearts of Dodger fans last October when he made a leaping game-saving catch over the back of Kiké Hernández, was granted his first big October swing thanks to the Braves largess.
In the seventh inning of a 1-all tie, Teoscar Hernández redeemed himself for another fielding blunder with a single that finally drove dizzying Tyler Mahle from the game.
In came Game 2 rookie sensation Didier Fuentes, only this time, he was all rookie and zero sensation, walking Josue De Paula and Kyle Tucker to load the bases. Considering De Paula is just a kid and Tucker has been struggling, the fact that both showed such patience in such a pressure situation was pretty cool. And moments later, it got even cooler.
In came veteran reliever Robert Suarez, and Pages was ready for him, working the count full before lining the two-run single up the middle.
The Dodgers added a run two innings later on a Max Muncy home run — has there ever been a playoff game when he hasn’t homered? — to finalize the score.
Dodger Max Muncy celebrates after hitting a home run in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the NLDS against the Braves in Atlanta Wednesday.
(Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
When the game ended on an Austin Riley fly out to right field, Pages celebrated in center field by taking off his cap, turning his face to the sky and pounding the cap three times into his glove.
It was a series that was worth the emotion, the Dodgers famous starting rotation giving up just four runs in 21 ⅓ innings, the bullpen solid behind a revived Edwin Díaz, and the offense doing just enough to beat Braves aces Chris Sale and Mahle.
In the fifth inning of a tie game, starter Tyler Glasnow issued walks to Riley and Michael Harris II. With two out, in came Alex Vesia. Up stepped slugger Matt Olson. The fans climbed to their feet. This was the Braves’ big chance.
Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz throws the ball against the Braves in the ninth inning Game 4 of the NLDS Wednesday in Atlanta.
(Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
But Olson swung at the first pitch and lined it directly to second baseman Kiké Hernández to end the threat and quiet the joint. Díaz threw a hitless ninth for his second save of the series and…who’s going to beat them?
Afterward, Roberts referenced nearly half of his team when talking about his pride. He talked about Pages’ hit, about De Paula’s walk, about reliever Edgardo Henriquez’s 1 ⅔ shutout innings, about Muncy’s bat and Freddie Freeman’s glove.
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“I guess, amazement,” he said. “Our guys just continue to fight, persevere. You never know who the guy’s going to be.”
The only glaring weakness was, once again, the superstar who used to be their strength. Ohtani scored the Dodgers’ first run after drawing a walk but went hitless in three ensuing at-bats. He only got two hits in the four-game series and you have to wonder if his injury-wracked body would be better out of the lineup.
How well are they playing without the full services of their most historic player? On the verge of making history, the Dodgers don’t even miss him.
Few pubs boast a more idyllic setting. As I emerge from the woods after a 15-mile hike, The Bridges, on the banks of the Onny River, in the rolling south Shropshire hills, glistens in the late afternoon sun. Inside it’s all wooden beams, with light streaming through stained glass and huge bunches of homegrown flowers adding splashes of colour. There’s time for a pint before general manager Sam Thompson shows me to my room in the recently converted stables.
I’m here exploring part of the 185-mile (297km) Shropshire Way, on a two-day Heart of the Hills hike – one of the county tourist board’s new Rail-Ready Short Breaks. Designed for people who don’t have time to tackle the whole route, the itineraries focus on loops that are easy to access by train, with illustrated PDF downloads, GPX files, accommodation suggestions and highlights of what to do along the way. My route will take me from Shrewsbury to Bishop’s Castle via Ratlinghope – about 27 miles, perfect for a weekend.
The Bridges pub in Ratlinghope.
Shrewsbury itself is worth lingering in – the historic market town is crammed with independent shops and restaurants (I loved Csons for its creative small plates) and impressive Tudor architecture. But I’m most intrigued to learn that beavers have been reintroduced here by the council and the Shropshire Wildlife Trust. The first kit in the county in 400 years was born late last year and the Trust’s Tom Freeland shows me around the site, the Old River Bed nature reserve, just two miles north of the town centre. A boardwalk crossing wetlands allows an up-close view of the rewilding project. Although we don’t spy the elusive creatures (we see heron and plenty of moorhen), there’s still lots to learn. “It’s been a great success in inspiring the community to find out more about our local wildlife,” says Tom. Nature talks and guided tours of the beaver enclosure are in the pipeline, too.
Back at my base, the 16th-century Lion + Pheasant townhouse hotel, I dine on pan-roasted trout in the beamed restaurant (there’s a popular wine and tapas bar on site too) and the next morning set off to walk the first leg to Ratlinghope. Crossing the River Severn, the city soon peters out and quiet country lanes lead to Lyth Hill Country Park where expansive views open up across Shropshire.
It’s a steady climb to Wilderley Hill, past fields of rape, bright patches of yellow in a sea of green, and I stop under an oak tree to picnic. There’s no one around, just the songs of wren and chaffinch filling the air. The landscape changes on the approach to Ratlinghope as the route traces a brook, crosses wooden bridges and winds through pretty woodland. Just off the path lies the 12th-century St Margaret’s Church, the burial place of 19th-century farmer Richard Munslow, the last known “sin-eater”, whose job it was to eat bread and drink ale over corpses to absorb their sins.
I enjoy a drink instead in the pretty beer garden at The Bridges. The seven immaculate, minimalist rooms are round an adjacent courtyard – and guests have access to a lounge above the pub, too. The food in the bar includes Guinness rarebit and duck terrine, while the light-filled restaurant focuses on organic fare from the owners’ regenerative farm on the Linley Estate and the Welsh Marches. I feast on huge radishes with anchoïade, and hake with fennel, capers and crispy polenta. Breakfast the next morning – homemade granola and poached rhubarb – is equally delicious. It’s such a lively, friendly place I’m tempted to move nearby for the pub alone. They’ll even drive locals home if they’ve had one too many, Sam tells me.
Blue skies and gentle sunshine greet me for day two of the hike, a 12-mile yomp across rugged moorland and pastures to Bishop’s Castle. The pub lies on the edge of the Long Mynd, a heath and moorland plateau, but I’m heading north to the Stiperstones, a national nature reserve with a wild, dramatic ridge of quartzite rock formations that pierce the ground. I climb higher, passing Devil’s Chair tor, watching skylarks and buzzards soar overhead.
The Devil’s Chair on the Stiperstones Ridge, Shropshire. Photograph: Vincent Lowe/Alamy
It’s a beautiful walk. After several hours, a magnificent avenue of Linley Beeches line the descent into Bishop’s Castle, a pretty town of half-timbered houses. Bank House B&B, a Georgian renovation with an oak-panelled drawing room and five antique-filled rooms, is my home for the night. I pop into the Poetry Pharmacy where prescriptions are poems chosen to spark specific emotions, to be “taken” when required (I leave with a bottle of Joy). Although little remains of the medieval castle that once stood here and gives the town its name, the grand Castle Hotel, with its pretty gardens and welcoming restaurant, is worth a visit.
With more time, I could, of course, carry on and add another loop of the trail. But the train back home beckons – Craven Arms station is a short bus or taxi ride away – and I leave feeling pleased to have dipped my toe into a small segment of the Shropshire Way. As far as rambling weekends go, it’s ticked all the right boxes, and whetted my appetite to discover more.
Bruno Fernandes says he has spoken to Cristiano Ronaldo and denies a rift within Portugal’s squad after the 41-year-old abruptly left the team’s training camp in Copenhagen. Ronaldo departed after tensions with coach Jorge Jesus became public, saying he would explain his reasons “in due course”.
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.
Many favour a circular walk, but you can give a linear one new shape with the addition of a novel form of transport. My wife Helen, our friend Tom Cox and I take the water taxi – a rigid inflatable boat (Rib) – from West Bay on Dorset’s coast to Lyme Regis, with a plan to walk back to our starting point.
The rain stops as the boat leaves the harbour, the views open along Chesil Beach to low-lying Portland to the east, and west to Lyme Regis; on the far horizon, we can see Start Point on the Devon coast. Our skipper, Nick, is highly knowledgable and takes time to stop and point out the history of the shoreline and the treacherous waters of Lyme Bay. The seabed is studded with wrecks – fishing boats and smugglers’ ships, but some are from the two world wars.
The Cobb at Lyme Regis. Photograph: Martin Augustus/Alamy
On New Year’s Day 1915, the battleship HMS Formidable was torpedoed by a German submarine. Of its crew of 750, no more than 200 survived. In the second world war, the Dorset coast was a huge mustering station for the allied forces in preparation for D-day. During Exercise Tiger, a large-scale rehearsal for the Normandy landings, hundreds of American service personnel were killed in an attack by German boats later known as the Battle of Lyme Bay – the wreck sites are now designated war graves.
At Lyme Regis, we disembark on to the Cobb, the harbour wall that snakes unsteadily into the bay and was made famous by Jane Austen, who had Louisa jump from it in Persuasion, and by John Fowles, who lived in Lyme. The movie adaptation of his novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman starred Meryl Streep as Sarah Woodruff. Its famous trailer begins with the actor sweeping across the Cobb, the hood of her cloak covering her face. For the filming, many buildings in the town were given a 19th-century facade. For a film that plays with time, it seems appropriate that the town’s bookshop kept its temporary fascia for many years.
Our walk back to West Bay is 10 miles long and begins not along the coast but by heading inland. The west Dorset coast is friable – the cliffs keep falling on to the beaches, and the path to Charmouth takes a diversion through a golf course. It wasn’t always like this: once there was a coastal road, Long Entry, between the two settlements. In 1725, Henry Fielding, then aged 17, attempted to abduct his cousin Sarah, with whom he was infatuated, from Lyme. The future novelist made his escape along Long Entry before being stopped by her guardian.
The statue of Mary Anning in Lyme Regis. Photograph: Darren Galpin/Alamy
Our walk back to the coast is interrupted by a sculpture on the path. The shape of a woman, angular and determined, a hammer in her outstretched right hand, the other holding above her head the skeleton of a prehistoric animal. There’s another recent sculpture of the same subject, Mary Anning, in Lyme Regis, recording her importance to palaeontology and to the town, but this upland creature, made by Greta Berlin, is wilder, perfectly suited to its woodland setting. The representation of the fossil held aloft is Anning’s discovery: Ichthyosaurus anningae. One cannot walk this section of Dorset’s coast without being aware of its ancient past and the fragile geology close to the surface. Our boat trip began on crumbly sandstone, which gave way to fossil-rich clay as we travelled west.
Charmouth is a pretty village with no harbour; its shallow waters make it popular with those learning to swim or paddleboard. This next section of the South West Coast Path, to West Bay, coincides with the Monarch’s Way, the route that Charles II took to flee to mainland Europe after the civil war. Our day is more peaceful but the path is steep. We’re grateful for Tom’s company – his latest novel, Everything Will Swallow You, is infused with the history and landscape of the Dorset coast and his knowledge enlivens our walk, as do the pasties he brings, baked by his wife, Ellie.
The Anchor Inn at Seatown. Photograph: Darren Galpin/Alamy
We pass the remains of St Gabriel’s Church, which fell into disuse in the 18th century, although smugglers found within its walls useful shelter for their contraband. Soon we’re on Golden Cap, the highest point on the south coast – 191 metres (627ft) above sea level, with extraordinary views over Lyme Bay. At Seatown, we stop at the Anchor Inn for refreshments, meeting friends who have opted for a shorter walk. From Thorncombe Beacon, we descend to Eype Mouth – in Old English Eype is “Steep Place”; the church in this secluded village was chosen by PJ Harvey to record Let England Shake, a Mercury prize-winning album rich with the echoes of war.
There are further reminders of the coast’s fragility on the final stretch to West Bay – one sign references a cliff fall in 2020, and the path is frequently redirected to safer routes. West Bay, a small stone town, was once the harbour from where Bridport exported its rope and was originally called Bridport Harbour, but had its name changed by the railway company hoping to attract tourists. The railway is long gone – its station now hosts a restaurant in railway carriages – but West Bay, with its stalls for chips and views back towards Lyme, is a fitting place to end, a town out of time.
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.
St Cuthbert’s Way now ranks alongside the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and France’s scenic Route Napoleon as the ‘Best in Travel’ for Lonely Planet guide.
15:35, 25 Sep 2026Updated 15:36, 25 Sep 2026
The traditional Good Friday Pilgrimage to Holy Island in 2024(Image: Getty Images)
A 62-mile walking route to England’s Holy Island has been named as one of the world’s top experiences in the ‘travel bible’ Lonely Planet.
St Cuthbert’s Way now ranks alongside the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and France’s scenic Route Napoleon as the ‘Best in Travel’.
The list also highlights lesser-known destinations like Quebec and Veneto, and cities such as Dessau in Germany, Šibenik in Croatia, León in Spain and Rabat in Morocco.
St Cuthbert’s Way covers 100km from Melrose in the Scottish Borders through some of the most peaceful countryside in the UK to Lindisfarne in Northumberland.
The BBC featured “The Road to Holy Island’ in a series earlier this year, including sections of St Cuthbert’s Way. It featured celebrities Patsy Kensit, Ashley Banjo, Hermione Norris and Jayne Middlemiss.
Lonely Planet recommends its “moorlands” and “ghostly hillforts” and village pubs. The walk officially opened in the summer of 1996. It begins in Melrose where St Cuthbert started his religious life in 650 AD and makes its way through the Eildon hills, past Jedburgh to Morebattle and Town Yetholm.
From there it crosses the border into England passing through Wooler before ending up on Holy Island off the Northumberland coast where St Cuthbert was first laid to rest.
Most people walk it from west to east as that follows the chronology of the saint’s life and also benefits from having the prevailing wind at your back.
It is described as enjoying an “ever-changing variety of scenery and spectacular views” and can be “easily completed” in four to six days.
The walk offers dramatic views of the countryside of southern Scotland and northern England, and an area identified as the most peaceful in the UK.
It ends with a ‘bit of a bang’ at Lindisfarne, famous for its causeway, castle and beautiful views. St Cuthbert is recognised as one of the world’s earliest wildlife conservationists. He was born in 635 AD and, after a “divine vision,” the young shepherd entered the monastery in Melrose.
A decade later, the town was struck by the plague and afterwards, he helped victims throughout the countryside and was reported to have performed many miracles.
He transferred to Lindisfarne in 664 but, described as a “hermit by nature,” retired to Inner Farne in 676. His efforts to protect birds led to his recognition as one of the earliest wildlife conservationists.
Andrew Fox, Chair of Visit Northumberland, said: “We are thrilled to see Northumberland featured in Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2027.
This recognition shines a global spotlight not only on St Cuthbert’s Way, but on the wider range of world-class experiences that make Northumberland such a distinctive destination.
“St Cuthbert’s Way perfectly captures the growing demand for more meaningful travel experiences.
Whether visitors come to walk, reflect, explore our coast and countryside, discover our historic sites or simply slow down and reconnect with nature, Northumberland offers an unforgettable journey and a genuine sense of place.”
The Lonely Planets top places and experiences in Europe are:
Places
Veneto, Italy
Dessau, Germany
Swedish Riviera (Skanör-Falsterbo), Sweden
Šibenik, Croatia
León, Spain
Experiences
Road-trip through history on the Route Napoléon, France
Sail the Aeolian Islands, Sicily
Walk St Cuthbert’s Way to Lindisfarne, United Kingdom
Dive into an unexpected underwater world, Greece
Be wowed by wonderful Killary Fjord,Co Galway, Ireland
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.
You could easily spend all day on South Coast Highway 101 in Encinitas, with its many restaurants and shops, but this northern stretch feels more laid-back, if that’s possible in San Diego, where flip-flops are de rigueur.
Conceived by owner Heidi Ledger as a showcase for small independent makers, including women in particular, Thread Spun is a sunny, inviting retail space offering fair trade apparel, home goods, accessories and gifts from around the world.
Inside, you’ll find plenty of great gifts for others — or yourself — including Los Angeles women-owned brands such as Amente clothing, Flowerhead Tea, hand-poured candles from Roen Candle Co. and Jessica Gonzalez’s playful asparagus-shaped candles for Happy Organics.
Grab a cold drink while you shop — visiting on a hot day, I appreciated that they offered refrigerated drinks for sale — while perusing a wide assortment of cards, books, apothecary gifts and jewelry.
The boutique also offers creative workshops for the local community on the back patio, including sewing, upcycling, journaling and, fittingly, the art of making sun catchers to brighten your home.
Around Encinitas: The boutique opened here in 2020, right next to 101 Piercing, Child of Wild jewelry and Leucadia Floral and Plant, known for its great selection of houseplants and fresh flowers. If you head farther down North Coast Highway 101, you’ll find plenty of restaurants, surf shops and coffee houses, including the longtime favorite, Pannikin Coffee and Tea.
At just 19, Luke Littler has won every major trophy in darts.
He is a multi-millionaire with lucrative sponsorship deals and his own TV show.
But has his rapid rise turned some against him?
This past weekend the teenager was once again subjected to boos and whistles from sections of the crowd as he took to the stage at the World Series of Darts in Amsterdam.
What is surprising though is that it came as ‘The Nuke’ was on a quest to complete a darts clean sweep by becoming the first player to win all 10 major televised tournaments in a calendar year.
But Samuel Gill, editor of Dartnews.com, suggests Littler’s future in the sport could be at stake.
“There’s a real fear that within a few years he’ll just turn around and walk away from the sport,” Gill told BBC Sport.
“So, I think for fans, ‘Don’t bite the hand that feeds you’. If people keep taunting him and don’t want him to win, he might end up just walking away and not bothering anymore.”
Amsterdam was the latest tournament where Littler has faced what some might describe as an overly hostile reaction from fans.
A vibrant pantomime-style atmosphere is part and parcel of the darts experience and Dutch and German crowds are amongs the most raucous – but it is clear Littler believes he has been unfairly targeted.
The referee stopped the match during his narrow win against Nathan Aspinall in the last-16 on Saturday to warn the hostile crowd about its behaviour, before play resumed.
It followed Littler also being booed during his win against home favourite Danny Noppert on Friday.
The teenager’s quarter-final defeat to Jonny Clayton ended Littler’s quest for the clean sweep, but the Warrington native clearly felt fans had been unduly harsh towards him.
Littler has now withdrawn from a series of upcoming events.
“Just no point in me travelling, wasting my time while I’m getting booed,” said Littler.
WASHINGTON — As President Trump tells supporters to vote in November as if he were on the ballot, California Republicans in tight congressional races are sending a different message to voters.
The four California Republicans running in the state’s most competitive U.S. House races, plus a fifth opposing a fellow Republican in a close contest, are appearing to keep some distance from Trump as they campaign ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
They all skipped the president’s midterm convention in Dallas this month. Two candidates in tough races removed references to Trump on their campaign websites. And most are favoring a heavy focus on local and state issues in their campaigns — a contrast to Trump’s approach, driven home in Dallas, of casting the election as a loyalty exercise.
President Trump watches as balloons fall at the Republican convention.
(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)
“You’ve got to do me the biggest favor you’ve ever done me. You’ve got to do this for me: You have to pretend I am on the ticket,” Trump told a crowd at the GOP midterm convention. “Pretend I am on the ticket because this is going to turn out to be one of the most important elections.”
The dynamic within the GOP reflects several competing factors: the need to attract new voters in districts made more purple by California’s redistricting, the hope that Trump can rally the base while candidates focus on swing voters, and the fear among Republicans that the president’s flagging approval ratings could cost them crucial seats in the midterms.
“There is a bit of jujitsu to it,” said Rob Stutzman, a longtime California Republican consultant. “These candidates are hoping that Trump motivates these voters to vote … [while they] focus on gaining votes, particularly from independents who don’t like the president right now.”
The state’s redistricting under Proposition 50, which redrew the congressional map to be more favorable to Democrats, also handed Republican candidates the necessity of persuading more unaffiliated voters and moderate Democrats — likely a major factor in their stances toward the White House, said Pete Peterson, dean of the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy.
“To the degree that Republican candidates are distancing themselves, they’re understanding that they’re actually appealing to newer electorates,” Peterson said. “[The districts] have been made more moderate, more purple, and candidates may be responding accordingly as a way of trying to attract those voters.”
Facing headwinds
The party in power typically faces an uphill battle in midterm elections, and vulnerable candidates often distance themselves from the sitting president. As Republicans fight to keep control of the House and Senate in November, however, they are dealing with particularly serious challenges stemming from Trump’s low favorability rating and public frustration with the economy, the war in Iran and the escalating trade war with Canada.
Trump largely has dismissed concerns about the economy and the war, even as polling shows both are weighing heavily on voters. He also has exacerbated challenges for his party amid the growing public backlash to data centers and artificial intelligence, doubling down on his support for AI advancement in recent days even as GOP candidates in tight races look to respond to constituents’ concerns.
He also drew criticism from some within his party after promising to give a $5,000 payment to every adult citizen if Republicans win the House and Senate in November, a legally murky idea.
Still, Trump has urged Republican lawmakers in tough reelection campaigns to run on his record and earlier this month vowed to spend the last month before the election stumping for candidates in 35 battleground races, including in Alaska and Texas. He has not yet mentioned plans for California.
“All you have to do is talk about it, and you’re going to win and you’re going to win big,” Trump said of his record.
Candidates nationwide seem unconvinced. A Washington Post analysis found that Republican politicians have stopped mentioning Trump on social media, doing so about half as often as they did in January. Many in competitive races skipped his convention, and in recent weeks some have broken with him on data centers and the payout pitch.
In California, the headwinds for the GOP were captured in a survey released last week: A greater share of independents said they would vote for the Democratic candidate over the Republican in their House districts, the Public Policy Institute of California found, and a majority of likely voters polled Sept. 4-10 said they would choose the Democratic candidate if the election were held now.
Robert Rivera, left, of San José and Corky Galey of Modesto listen to gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton during a town hall in Modesto on Aug. 26.
(Sara Nevis/For The Times)
Last week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton’s campaign blasted a fundraising text to voters that began: “We get it. Maybe you don’t like Trump. Maybe you can’t stand MAGA.”
Democrats have seized on the dynamic.
“California Republicans know their loyalty to a toxic MAGA brand is a losing strategy,” said Anna Elsasser, spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Unlucky for them, no desperate rebrand can save them from their clear record of broken promises — from raising costs, to ripping away health care, to supporting another forever war everyone hates.”
Leaning on the local
Rep. Young Kim (R-Anaheim Hills) stripped her campaign website of the “America first” branding and references to Trump that defined it before the primary.
(Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call via Associated Press)
In Orange County, Rep. Young Kim — in a close contest with fellow Republican Ken Calvert — has stripped her campaign website of the “America first” branding and references to Trump that defined it before the primary. And in Northern California, Rep. James Gallagher has scrubbed Trump’s endorsement from his campaign website, which months ago prominently featured his close ties to the president.
Other candidates in tight races — Rep. David Valadao, running for reelection in the Central Valley; Kevin Lincoln, challenging Democratic Rep. Adam Gray; and Jim Desmond, running to fill the seat of retiring Republican Rep. Darrell Issa — have leaned on campaign optics centered around their regions rather than on sharply partisan politics.
None of the three attended Trump’s convention. Valadao rarely mentions Trump on social media and is the last House Republican still running who voted for Trump’s second impeachment. Desmond does not mention his support from Trump on his endorsements web page; Lincoln does.
Rep. Kevin Kiley, who left the Republican Party this year after his district was redrawn and after he clashed with Trump over tariffs, also is making an appeal to middle-of-the-road voters, promoting legislation around AI safeguards while taking aim at Sacramento policies. Kiley still caucuses with congressional Republicans but says he won’t if reelected.
Representatives for Gallagher, Lincoln, Desmond and Valadao did not respond to requests for comment.
Chris Pack, a spokesperson for Kim, said she was “proud of her work with President Trump to deliver results for Southern California.” But he framed her race as a choice between Kim and her opponent, saying the campaign’s messaging is focused on Calvert’s record. Pack didn’t answer a question about the removal of Trump’s name from Kim’s website.
Moves like Kim’s and Gallagher’s are angled at conveying to moderate voters that “they’re not going to be beholden to the party line, they’re simply going to run on common sense,” and may give centrist Democratic voters “permission” to consider the candidates, said one GOP operative who works in the state, granted anonymity in order to speak candidly.
In competitive districts like the ones California Republicans are trying to hold on to, Trump’s ask for voters to pretend he’s on the ballot is “probably not as helpful,” the operative said.
Instead, strategists see the local focus as the most effective strategy for California Republicans, along with a focus on statewide issues that allow them to counter policies of Gov. Gavin Newsom that they perceive as unpopular with voters.
“California Republicans know what’s best for their districts,” the operative said. “They all have their own independent records and are pretty well-known by their communities.”
Republicans are making the case that California’s long-term affordability issues, which far predate the current national economic landscape, have been exacerbated and mishandled by Democrats. The party also is leaning on an argument that Democrats are overly focused on Trump and have few substantive policy solutions.
Texas attendees hold up flags and cowboys hats at the Republican convention.
(Smiley N. Pool / Dallas Morning News via Getty Images)
Mike Madrid, a veteran California Republican political consultant, argued that a last-minute rebrand is unlikely to stick for candidates whose party has built a political identity around loyalty to the president and his policies. He said Republicans’ retreat is a sign of how Trump’s popularity is dwindling.
“I wouldn’t call that subtle in politics,” he said. “When you’re distancing yourself from the president of your own party, a man that everybody’s been championing as a political and cultural hero in those parts, I don’t think that’s subtle at all.”
When asked to make his case to midterm voters in an interview last week, Vice President JD Vance argued that Americans should give his party more time to deliver.
“Give us another chance,” Vance said on the All-In Podcast. “Give us another couple of years to continue to work on the amazing things that we have been doing for the past two years.”
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. Thirteen division titles in 14 seasons, and in the year they didn’t win, they had 106 victories. We don’t have a lot to complain about.
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Division titles and Ryan Ward
—The Dodgers won the division title again, clinching it Thursday with their win over the Reds. Remember the olden days of yesteryear when winning the division was a huge deal? Now it is blasé. Dodgers fans live in a time where they have an embarrassment of riches,
Let’s look at how many NL West titles each team has won since divisional play began in 1969:
Dodgers, 24 San Francisco, 9 Cincinnati, 7 Arizona, 5 Atlanta, 5 San Diego, 5 Houston, 2
There was no official winner in 1994, which was ended by a labor dispute.
I guess I’m feeling extra nostalgic today, but I remember growing up the Dodgers’ biggest divisional rival was the Cincinnati Reds, who moved to the Central division in 1994 and have since won a grand total of zero division titles.
If we narrow NL West titles since 2000, we get:
Dodgers, 16 San Francisco, 5 Arizona, 4 San Diego, 2
Poor Colorado.
—The Dodgers made room for pitcher Kris Bubic on the 40-man roster by designating outfielder Ryan Ward for assignment. Ward has been a favorite of newsletter readers for a couple of seasons now, but he really had no place on the team anymore. He’s too old (28) to really be a prospect and his best triple-A season came in his third season at that level. His numbers declined in triple-A this season (you can see his numbers here).
He’s not great defensively, and the team already has corner outfielders who aren’t great defensively. They passed him over for Josue De Paula when they needed someone to fill in for Shohei Ohtani, and there are several outfielders in the system who are considered better than Ward.
In all likelihood, another team will pick him up and give him more playing time in the majors, something he wasn’t going to get with the Dodgers. Hopefully we see him next season in the “There names seem familiar” section of this newsletter.
Evidence of Dave Roberts’ growth
One of the knocks on Dave Roberts has always been his poor postseason managing. But his postseason managing has dramatically improved the last few seasons, and I’m not just saying that because they won the last two World Series. His decisions appear to not always be guided by analytics, like they are during the regular season. And it appears Roberts has indeed learned some things during his tenure. He recently appeared on the 6-1-1 podcast, hosted by former major leaguers Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins, and had this to say:
“When you’re talking about winning 11 games in October, I couldn’t believe more that it’s about people, and players you can bet on,” Roberts said. “The heartbeat that the analytics doesn’t line up with. I think that early on, my mistake was I continued to use that same method of the regular season in the postseason….
He also had high praise for two of his players.
“Mookie has said to me, ‘Doc, we wouldn’t have won the World Series if it wasn’t for Shohei and Yamamoto. And his point was, the discipline that they had every single day, how they worked with intention every single day … it raised the level even higher for our guys.”
Forgotten Dodger: Pete Reiser
Pete Reiser in 1941.
(Associated Press)
Pete Reiser never met an outfield fence he didn’t like crashing into and it may have cost him a Hall of Fame career.
Harold Patrick Reiser was born on March 17, 1919, in St. Louis. He loved westerns and as a child often walked around wearing a cowboy hat and carrying toy guns, so people started calling him Pistol Pete, which stuck with him throughout his baseball career.
After playing in 58 games with the Dodgers in 1940, Reiser came into his own in 1941 when he hit a league-leading .343 to go with 117 runs, 39 doubles, 17 triples, 14 homers and 76 RBIs. He also played great defense in center. That got him second place in NL MVP voting behind teammate Dolph Camilli (Reiser should have won). Reiser led the league in nine categories.
He followed that by hitting .310 with 33 doubles and 10 homers in 1942, leading the league with 20 steals and making his second straight All-Star team. However, on July 18 of that year, he crashed full speed into the center-field fence, which was made of concrete, while chasing a fly ball. He ended up with a separated shoulder and fractured skull. In those days though, you didn’t let little things like a fractured skull slow you down. He returned to the lineup a week later, but he wasn’t the same. He hit .244 the rest of the season.
He then enlisted in the Army and spent three years there. In 1944, after a long march in below-zero weather, Reiser was diagnosed with pneumonia. The Army decided to put him in Fort Riley, Kan., so he could play for the camp’s baseball team. With Reiser on the team, they were virtually unbeatable and Reiser was given his own room and excused from all other duties.
Reiser returned to the majors in 1946 and broke his leg while stealing second. He crashed into the fence in St. Louis and missed some time. But he still led the league with 34 steals, though his batting average dropped to .277.
In 1947, he was chasing another fly ball when he crashed into the wall face first. This caused another fractured skull. He was given the Last Rites by a priest in the hospital before making a miraculous recovery. He ended up playing 110 games that season.
He was a bench player the following season, as he had put on a little weight and had been slowed tremendously by his numerous injuries. The Dodgers traded him to the Boston Braves after the season for Nanny Fernandez and Mike McCormick.
By unofficial count, Reiser’s injuries over the years included four fracture skulls, multiple dislocated shoulders, two broken ankles, torn ligaments in both knees and and two beanings. He was carried off the field on a stretcher eleven times—five times when he was unconscious.
He retired after the 1952 season and came back to the Dodger organization as a roving minor-league hitting instructor. He joined Walter Alston’s coaching staff in L.A. in 1960 and helped tutor Maury Wills on how to steal bases. In an interview with this newsletter a few years ago, Wills made sure to give praise to Reiser as being a big part of his 104-steal season.
Reiser had a heart attack in 1965, went on to coach for other teams. He smoked a pack of cigarettes a day throughout his adult life and died of emphysema in Palm Springs in 1981. He was only 62.
The postseason race
Here are the postseason seedings as of Thursday’s games. The three division winners get the top three seeds, followed by the three teams with the best records. The top two division winners get a first-round bye. Milwaukee and the Dodgers have clinched division titles.
Remember, there are no extra games to break ties anymore. It all comes down to tiebreakers. Atlanta and Milwaukee have the tiebreaker over the Dodgers. For the wild card, the Cubs have the advantage over the Phillies, having won six of seven games against each other. The Diamondbacks and Padres have split 10 games, but their final three games this season are against each other, so that very well could determine the final wild-card spot.
These names seem familiar
How notable players who were with the Dodgers the last couple of seasons are doing with their new teams (through Wednesday). Click on the player’s name to be taken to their full stats page:
Anthony Banda, Twins: 2-0, 4.46 ERA, 2 saves, 34.1 IP, 31 hits, 15 walks, 33 K’s, 95 ERA+, out for the season
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Fog Walk is a seasonal outdoor entertainment destination combining nature and relaxation. Runs until Feb. 28. For more details, visit abha.platinumlist.net.
Fog Walk is a seasonal outdoor entertainment destination that combines nature and relaxation. Runs until Feb. 28, 2027. For more details, visit abha.platinumlist.net .
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. There are only 13 games remaining in the regular season. Time flies when you are having fun.
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A different opinion
Throughout the season, I like to occasionally reach out to others to see what they think of the Dodgers so the readers are not exposed to just my viewpoint. This time I reached out to two of my favorite sports people.
I have listened to sports talk radio for about 50 years. Bud Furillo, Superfan, Rick Talley, Joe McDonnell, Steve Edwards, Fred Wallin, Steve Somers and many, many others. For me, “The Mason and Ireland Show,” hosted by Steve Mason and John Ireland and currently on ESPN Radio, surpasses them all. They can talk knowledgeably about any of our local teams, and the Dodgers are no exception. They were kind enough to answer a few questions.
Q. With the postseason rapidly approaching, how would you assess the Dodgers’ season so far?
Ireland: Surprising, in this sense: the Dodgers are heavy favorites to win it all, but they rarely beat good teams. Since the All Star break, they are 6-16 against teams with winning records. That’s obviously not good, and doesn’t bode well for the postseason. But having said that, for the Dodgers, the regular season is basically a dress rehearsal for the playoffs. I’m not sure they’re motivated until October. Maybe they’ll “flip a switch” and turn it on when it counts. We’ll see.
Mason: The Dodgers seem to be in a good groove right now. Mookie is starting to look like Mookie. Teo has come around. But hard to judge this team without a healthy Andy Pages and with Ohtani on the IL. I worry that as an organization, they didn’t get Shohei off his feet sooner. He has wrestled with injury for the last couple of months, and his biggest at bats are coming in October. They still have a chance to win 100 games, and they’re in position to three-peat, but with the playoffs, it’s a crapshoot. It’s a historically good rotation, but will those bats be clicking at the right time?
Q. The Dodgers have won two World Series in a row. Winning a third would be great, but if they don’t, does winning two in a row make up for it?
Ireland: Absolutely. Let’s face it, most teams want to be the Dodgers. A seemingly unlimited payroll, best manager in baseball, best front office. It’s incredibly hard to win two World Series in a row, and almost impossible to win three straight. No National League team has ever done it. So if they pull it off, it’s icing on the cake. But the cake has been great.
Mason: When the Yankees clinched their three-peat in 2000, they only won 87 games and lost 15 of their final 18. That shows you how hard it is. Honestly, the odds are strongly stacked against anybody winning three in a row, but if they fail, it is not a waste of a season. When you go back-to-back, you’ve got to show a lot of gratitude to the organization and to those players. A lot has to go right to win it all.
Q. Do you think Shohei Ohtani should just stop pitching altogether and focus on hitting the rest of his career?
Ireland: Selfishly, I hope he does both. That’s what makes him the best baseball player I’ve ever seen in person. But it’s obviously hard, and he’s had to shut down pitching at least three times since he came over from Japan. This year, it seemed to me that he was going for the Cy Young Award, while trying to keep up his offensive numbers, and it didn’t work. So maybe they do just let him hit moving forward, but I hope not. One thing that complicates things is that at least so far, the Dodgers have let Shohei do what he wants. And my sense is that he wants to continue to pitch and hit, so that figures into this too. It may not be a Dodgers decision — it might be Shohei.
Mason: I really want Shohei to do both, but in a specific way. He’s never going to give you 25 starts, and as good as he is, I cannot imagine him winning the Cy Young. He started 14 games to start the season this year — I say, instead, put those 14 starts at the end of the season. Ramp him up after the All-Star break, and have him ready to contribute on the mound in October. I was there for the magical night in the playoffs last year, when he hit three home runs and struck out 10. As a baseball fan, I really want to see him do both.
Q. If you were put in charge of the Dodgers and could make three immediate changes to the organization, be it on field, the stadium, whatever, what would you choose?
Ireland: For starters, I would address affordability. Most Dodgers fans have been priced out. They lead the league in attendance every year, so they have a business model that works. But I would take two or three sections in the upper deck and make those $5 tickets. They can afford it, and I think the gesture alone would score major points with fans.
On the field, they need to get younger. Freddie Freeman is 36, and so is Max Muncy. Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernández, and Blake Snell are all 33. Andrew Friedman has been great at roster building, so they have the right guy. But it isn’t easy to say goodbye to great players as they age out, and he’s facing that now.
Finally, everybody I know thinks there’s a lockout coming. To me, that would ruin all of the progress baseball has made over the last five years. The game has never been better. All of the rule changes have worked, and the pitch clock has been brilliant. Most people feel the Dodgers are the main reason for the lockout. They outspend everybody, have a sweetheart TV deal, and most small market teams can’t keep up. The Dodgers need to lead the charge to avoid this lockout. I’m against a salary cap, but everything should be on the table. I would lock both sides in a room and tell them not to come out until they have a deal. It’s a huge story that we probably don’t talk about enough.
Mason: First I would expand the number of retired jerseys. It would be great to see guys like Maury Wills, Steve Garvey, Bill Russell, Davey Lopes, Orel Hershiser and other Dodger greats receive that honor.
Andrew Friedman is a genius, but he has overspent on guys like Kyle Tucker and Edwin Díaz. I’d like to see them consider more of their minor league talent employed. Love that Rushing and Freeland have had strong moments this year, but instead of signing Tucker, why not find a way to use De Paula or Tibbs or Sirota. I know they are unproven, but once upon a time, so was Andy Pages.
Pet peeve of mind, but I don’t like the brand of Dodger Dogs being served. Farmer John hot dogs had a better taste and texture than the ones they are using now. Plus, Dodger Dogs are much better when grilled, so why are there so many boiled hot dogs at the stadium?
Q. Favorite Dodger of all time?
Ireland: Can I say Vin Scully, or is that cheating? I say all the time that I grew up going to Sportscasters School, but I just didn’t know it. For years, I listened to Vin call the Dodgers, Chick Hearn call the Lakers, Dick Enberg call the Angels and Bob Miller call the Kings. FOUR Hall of Fame announcers — I didn’t know what a bad announcer sounded like until I moved out of L.A. But I had this exchange with my Dad before he died in 2017:
Dad: “If you want to be a sports announcer, you better study more than just the sports page.”
Me: “Not necessary — I just need to call the games.”
Dad: “Listen to Vin Scully — he talks about EVERYTHING.”
Of course, my Dad was right. Listening to Vin was a history lesson every time he did a game. I learned more from him than I did from a lot of my professors at UCLA.
Mason: Back in the day, I would have said Sandy Koufax, who I had the pleasure of meeting at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, but nobody, in the history of the game has awed me the way that Shohei Ohtani has. His performance in NLCS Game 4 last year is the greatest I have ever witnessed in person. Better than any athlete in any sport. I have been a baseball fan all my life, and I could never have even imagined that was possible. I also love Ohtani’s Harada chart, basically his goals in life and career. One of his goals has been to “be someone people root for.” Hard to find anybody who is not amazed by both his talent and his humility.
Q. I have long said that the Mason and Ireland show is the best sports talk show of all time. Do you guys remember when you first met? First impressions? And remind the readers where they can listen to you now.
Ireland: Mason and I were kind of a weird shotgun wedding in the beginning. In the early ‘90s, he moved to XTRA in San Diego from Toledo, Ohio, to do mornings. After a few months, the station decided they didn’t like him. So they moved him to nights in an effort to try and get him to quit.
I was a TV guy in San Diego, who filled in on the radio station when they needed somebody. They called me and said, “We’re going to put you on at night with Steve Mason, but he’s not happy with us. Anything could happen.” On the first night, I walked in and Mason was working on a screenplay on his computer and he told me, “Just have fun and say anything you want — I won’t be here for long anyway.” So we just started goofing around, and I asked Mase on the air why he thought mornings didn’t work. He started making fun of himself, then me, and we just clicked.
After it was over, I called the program director and said, “You guys are idiots — Mason is fantastic. If you can’t build a show around him, you don’t get it.” The more Mason stopped caring, the better he got. They came back to him and said, “That’s the guy we thought we were getting from Ohio.” They told him they wanted him to stay, and told him he could pick his partner. He picked me, and we were off and running. The first week was pretty bad, but we were following a failed show, so they let us work through it, and we’ve been at it ever since.
We’re on every day from noon to 3 p.m. on ESPN LA, and we post a podcast of every show as soon as it ends. You can also listen live on the ESPN LA app from anywhere in the world, which is a free app that works great. Also, you can find Mason’s podcast, “Mason Plus,” on that app, which has some great deep dives with a lot of cool people in and out of sports.
Mason: Thank you for the kind words. John’s story of our meeting and partnership is right on. In radio, there is this idea that you can throw any two people in a studio and they will automatically do great radio. It just doesn’t work like that. John and I clicked immediately. The show has always been good because John and I are so different. He’s Corona del Mar, and I am a kid from Toledo. Even now, he’s very Manhattan Beach, and I’m very Venice. We see the world differently, which leads to healthy debate, but we have a deep respect for each other and for what we have built.
The postseason race
The Dodgers’ magic number to clinch the NL West is four. Here are the postseason seedings as of Thursday’s games. The three division winners get the top three seeds, followed by the three teams with the best records. The top two division winners get a first-round bye. The division winner with the worst record plays the wild-card team with the worst record, and the other wild-card teams play each other in the best-of-three wild-card round that begins Tuesday, Sept. 29.
Remember, there are no extra games to break ties anymore. It all comes down to tiebreakers. Atlanta and Milwaukee have the tiebreaker over the Dodgers. For the wild card, the Cubs have the advantage over the Phillies, having won six of seven games against each other. The Diamondbacks and Padres have split 10 games, but their final three games this season are against each other, so that very well could determine the final wild-card spot.
The Dodgers won it all last season without a first-round bye, but with all the injuries, it would be nice to get that bye this season. They have only three games remaining against a team with a winning record, so they really have no one to blame but themselves if they don’t get it.
Up next
Monday: Dodgers (*Tarik Skubal, 9-7, 2.84 ERA [2-2, 2.93 ERA with Dodgers]) at Cincinnati (*Nick Lodolo, 3-4, 5.12 ERA), 3:40 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Vin Scully is interviewed by the Braves announcers during his final season. Watch and listen here.
Until next time …
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
