Over the next week or so, the Dodgers have some very critical games coming up. First is a three-game series with Pittsburgh where they need to at least win the series, so they have a .500 homestand. Lately for the team as we all know, that has been asking a lot. They came out of the All-Star break and won 5 in a row, sweeping the Red Sox and taking the first 2 of 4 in San Francisco. After that series they dropped 4 of 5 to the Astros and Padres, blowing another 5 run lead in the process. In August, they are 3-3 after the loss to the Phillies on Wednesday.
Fans are concerned rightfully so because the team has been so inconsistent for well over 2 months. After Pittsburgh, they hit the road for four in Milwaukee against the division leading Brewers who are now just 2.5 games in front of the St. Louis Cardinals. The Dodger lead is also down to 2.5 over the Padres and 3 over Arizona. The Padres and Arizona are 8-2 after their last 10 games and Arizona is on a 4-game winning streak, Padres have won 5 in a row.
The good news is that Mookie should be back during the Milwaukee series. The big news is that he will play RF again, and he will be batting second. More good news is that Buehler pitched really well in his last re-hab start, and Kershaw, despite getting the loss, looked more like Kershaw in his 4.2 innings of work on Tuesday. Yamamoto threw his second bullpen, and it seems they are targeting a September return for the Japanese ace. Glasnow also pitched really well his last outing, and he will start Friday’s game, his Dodger Stadium debut, against Mitch Keller of the Pirates. River Ryan gets Pirates phenom Paul Skenes on Saturday, and Glasnow gets the final game of the homestand against lefty, Bailey Falter.
It does not get any easier after Milwaukee as the Dodgers go into St. Louis to face the surging Cardinals. The next homestand is 9 games against the Mariners, Rays and Orioles. The Dodgers end the month Labor Day weekend with a Friday-Monday wrap around critical series with Arizona. Will they still be in first place by the end of the month? Only if they turn around their mediocre play of the last couple of weeks. They need to play more like they did coming out of the break. Can Arizona and the Padres keep it up? San Diego’s schedule is pretty soft with the Marlins on the road this weekend, three with the Pirates at home, 3 at Colorado, then they come home for a seven game homestand against the Twins, who are in second place in the AL Central and have only 1 win less than the Padres, then four with the Mets, who have leap-frogged the Braves and are now in second in the NL East. They then go to St. Louis for 4 before finishing up the month on the road in Tampa with a 3-game series with the Rays.
Arizona in the meantime, plays Philadelphia at home for 4 games, then 3 with Colorado. Out on the road for 9, 3 with Tampa, 3 with Miami, and finish up the trip with 3 in Boston. Then they come home for 7, 3 with the Mets and 4 with LA. They have six more games with the Rockies and Giants, 4 with LA and 3 with the Padres, the last weekend of the season at home while the Dodgers are in Colorado finishing up against the Rockies. Six of LA’s last 9 games are with the Rocks. 3 with the Padres. So, unlike the last several years, the final weekend could have HUGE meaning to the division title.
While there is help on the way in the form of injured players returning to action, there will be some subtractions also and some popular players could get caught in the squeeze. CT-3 and Kike have to be on the bubble. I am starting to think that Kiermaier will also be a victim of the crunch. Three position players should be back in the next couple of weeks. Betts, Muncy and Edman. Then you have 1 for sure, Buehler, and maybe another, Yamamoto, returning to the rotation. Brasier is about ready to rejoin the bullpen. That is six players who will need to be either removed from the roster or sent down.
Minor League Report
Bobby Miller started for OKC tonight. He went 4.1 innings, allowing 2 hits, 3 runs, all earned, 4 walks and 6Ks. Hahn went .2 innings with a couple of Ks and a couple walks. Feyereisen pitched 1 inning giving up an unearned run on no hits and a walk. Lao pitched 2 innings, giving up 5 hits and 2 runs, both earned. Rooney pitched the 9th giving up a run on 1 hit and 3 walks. He struck out 1. OKC was plagued by 3 errors. Two by Freeland and another by Feyereisen. OKC scored first in the bottom of the 4th on a double by Hoese that scored Freeland. Round Rock scored 3 in the top of the fifth driving with a couple of walks and a couple of hits chasing Miller. OKC scored 2 in the bottom of the fifth, Trejo singled and Avans tripled. Rushing then hit a sac-fly scoring Avans. Round Rock scored single runs in the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th, innings to lead 7-3. OKC mounted a rally in the bottom of the 9th, but fell short and lost, 7-6. Feyereisen took the loss.
Tulsa lost a close game 2-1 to Arkansas. The Drillers had just 2 hits. Choi took the loss. He pitched 4 innings and gave up 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th. Duran pitched 3.1 inning of scoreless ball, and Morillo .2 innings. Keith and Ramos were the only Drillers with hits.
Lansing beat Great Lakes 8-4. The Loons scored first in the bottom of the first on a Dylan Campbell homer. Lansing scored 1 in the top of the 3rd and 4 in the top of the 4th. The Loons answered with 3 in the bottom of the 4th, Alonso walked, Biddison singled and Campbell hit his second homer to close the gap to 5-4. It stayed that way until the top of the 9th when Lansing scored 3 runs. Heubeck got the loss, his sixth. Hobbs gave up the deciding runs in the 9th. Campbell was 2-4 with 2 homers and 4 driven in.
At Rancho tonight, the Quakes have a 5-2 lead with one out in the 9th. Rancho scored 4 in the bottom of the 4th. Decker walked and Rojas singled. Hainline walked loading the bases. Meza hit a sac-fly. A walk to Munoz and another walk to Guererro forced home the second run. A wild pitch scored Hainline. George walked and Diaz hit into a double play scoring Munoz with the 4th run. A Decker homer in the bottom of the 5th, ended the scoring for the Quakes. Fresno scored 1 in the 8th and 12 in the 9th for the 5-3 final. Linan pitched 7 scoreless innings and got his 6th win. Gonzalez gave up all three of Fresno’s runs.
Born June 14th, 1948, in Los Angeles California. AKA The Bear
Leaving early in the morning for Denver. Nice win tonight. Much needed.
Miller had good stuff at OKC but once again he just can not avoid that one big inning when he loses his composure . It is the fil rouge of his career so far. Just can not toughen up and bullying his way out of trouble. A bulldog he is not.
Don´t know if he will be of any help in the stretch run and high leverage games . At least not this season.
Much needed win. Now lets see if we can somehow beat Skenes .
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anybody seen Crochet number from yesterdays game ?
Dodgers probably dodged a HUGE bullet there not trading for him.
2.1 innings, 9 hits, 7 r all earned, 4 Hr given up
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!
Jeff has referred to this before but it is so hard to believe what Doc/ FO says. It has been obvious that the team needed to put Mookie in right field when he is activated. Apparently they hadn’t planned on doing that and had him(let him) workout at ss. Then Doc says he’ll be the shortstop when he comes back. Now we know Mookie will return in rightfield.
What is going on!
A few people on this board were predicting Mookie would be back in RF (some said CF) with his return. Bear was adamant that he was returning to SS being that he was working out there. Made sense to me. This is similar to the Lux at SS in the spring and then the last minute move of Mookie to SS. This seems to put the player and the team in a uncomfortable situation because of the lack of preparation to play the position. Mookie definitely had his struggles.
Good news on Buehler and Yamamoto. It looks like Miller will not be pitching for the Dodgers this year. He needs to work on the mental part of pitching. I hope he can do that because he has the arm talent to be an ace for the team. Looking for Kershaw to continue building with each outing.
It was a nice offensive game for the Dodgers last night with everyone but Pages and Lux contributing. It’s encouraging to watch Lux prove not only to the team and the fans, but himself, that he can be a successful MLB hitter. Good on him for making the proper adjustments after enduring such a weak start. His current swing is much improved compared to whatever he was doing at the start of the season. Pages, on the other hand, is struggling with inconsistencies at the plate.
I’m looking forward to tonight’s game with the Dodgers’ promising pitcher, River Ryan, facing off against the Pirates rookie ace, Paul Skenes. It could be the first of many future match ups for these two.
Carry on.
I believe I read somewhere that Muncy and Edman will be playing for OKC tonight.
I’m really starting to hate the way leadership of my beloved Dodgers do things.
OKC has scored one run tonight on 2 hits. The hits came from Tommy Edman and Max Muncy. Edman scored the only run on a double by Muncy. And that is why they traded for Kevin Kiermaier.
The defensive wizard according to flawed stats Kiermaier is 0 for 10 since coming to the Dodgers. Exactly what I thought and he’s playing instead of Pages who is hitting RHP better than him.
Report on Ryan, right forearm tightness. Will be re-evaluated in a couple of days. Edman and Muncy expected to rejoin the team in about a week. Mookie back Monday in Milwaukee.
I read the article on dodgers.com about Betts in RF. Doc said some things that make it not a lock Betts will be in RF permanently.
“I know that I said we want to start with Mookie out there at short, to then give the potential to pivot out there,” Roberts said. “I had a good conversation with him last night. And, I think right now — and again, things always seem to change — but right now, we’re gonna kick Mookie out to right field.”
“It’s something that … we all feel that’s what’s best for our ballclub now, going forward. And could it change? Potentially.”
That DOES NOT sound like Betts is the permanent RF. It might turn out that way, but it sounds like Doc still wants to see what the infielders can do. How much more time does he need? As far as this blog and Mark’s blog, there were calls for Kike and Taylor to go bye bye about a month ago, and long before that, and now I hear crickets. Funny how some forget.
It’s hard to ignore Pages slashline against LHP .321/.363/.452/.815, at least it is for me, but then again there’s a good amount of defense only people here. There’s no way an average hitter let alone a shitty hitter with good defense is more valuable to the team than Pages.
A statement I saw today attributed to River Ryan makes me wonder about the pitch clock and the relation to pitching injuries this year. He alluded that the pitch clock was an issue for him and it makes you wonder if an extra few seconds between pitches for some guys allows the arm to be more ready for the next pitch. Or to put in another way and I don’t know the answer….. Does it put that much more stress on some pitchers arms to throw 10 pitches in say 5 minutes versus throwing those 10 pitches in 7 minutes?
Plaschke article this morning centered around Betts nails it my opinion. The Dodgers should not move him around like they have. There are other quotes I’ll leave out as I don’t want to piss anyone off in here, but I believe he’s right. Mookie should have been left in right field and Mookie should lead off.
Kopech has looked excellent so far with us. Of course, it’s safe to assume he’ll have a bad outing eventually, but all bullpen guys do.
This could be a nice weapon to have to come in the 5th inning with 2 on and 2 out of a big playoff game.
I stepped away form the game for a few minutes last night and came back to see Vesia had entered the game. I checked my phone for stats to see what Ryan’s pitch count was. That seemed OK. Injury? Later in the broadcast Davis announces that Ryan had forearm tightness. And I’m thinking, “of course he does”. We now wait and see what the final diagnosis might be. But, another black mark on the medical and training staff.
I think every starting pitcher, except Wrobleski, has been on the IL this season. They baby these guys while they’re in the minors. And then when they called up they can’t pitch 3,4,5 games and they have arm issues. WTF? I read that it might be because of the pitch clock in Ryan’s case. Really? Not the constant emphasis to have a high spin rate? Or obsession with throwing 100+ MPH? Finally, not properly building up arm strength? The philosophy of “throw hard as you can for as long as you can” gives the team and the fans the discouraging results we are now seeing.
Although no one actually cares what I think, I’m sick and tired of it!
Carry on.
My 2 cents on Mookie:
I agree with porpoiseboy that Mookie wants to play the infield and is going back out to RF for the good of the team in 2024.
I don’t see him out there permanently and I really don’t see him at SS permanently either. That only leaves 2B.
I wonder if there is any scenario in which AF trades Lux this winter and signs Adames to play SS? Lux has dramatically improved his trade value so if they actually want to move guys around, it would now be much easier this winter.
2025 Defensive allignment:
Smith – C
Freddie – 1B
Mookie – 2B
Adames – SS
Muncy – 3B
Teo – LF/RF
Edman – CF
X (someone we get in a trade that includes Lux + ?) – RF/LF
Possible candidates: Riley Green, Bryan Reynolds, Seiya Suzuki, Colton Cowser, Ian Happ
Possible internal options: Rushing, Pages, Outman
If we use an internal option Lux could be used in a trade for pitching (starter or bullpen).
I’m not advocating that we trade Lux but if Mookie winds up at 2B, there would really be no spot for Lux, although I guess they could try making him an outfielder again.
Reported about 20 minutes ago, Ryan has an elbow injury, most likely out for the year. Course of action will be decided later.
I am late on the conversation on Mookie. Mookie is a bit of a victim of his own skills. He is a superstar who is also versatile. When Muncy, was moved, lux was moved, Teo is moved, we teach from little league it is a team so you put your best team on the field. You respect the player and that is why Doc has had the conversations with Mookie to get buy in. But u r on the team so u do what’s best for the team. Instead of worrying about poor ole Mookie just be happy that he is good enough to solve a problem.
The front office bungled this from the beginning by thinking lux was the ss. The chess players might have anticipated this but they didn’t. So they didn’t want to move Mookie and they didn’t want Rojas at the time, couldn’t get a ss through trade, none on the farm, so our superstar can do it. Mookie saved the team at the time. I think Mookie wants to be the second baseman. The front office seems hellbent on playing lux. Lux is hitting well now but I don’t think he will ever be more than a solid player. I mean he is a platoon player. His value is going up so he is a trade option. The Dodgers will have to have a better plan at short next year. Mb Ohtani (kidding)
I believe the fans who pay salaries want and expect the best team on the field. Just win baby!!
I’m glad someone brought up Lux playing SS. When I saw he couldn’t play SS I was glad they put him at 2B. Why was I glad? BECAUSE I CARE ABOUT DEFENSE. I’m just not obsessed over defense stats that are flawed. For example what’s the difference between either Heyward or Outman in CF vs Kiermaier defensively?
14th Blown Save since June 28th. Most in baseball.
Gotta be Roberts. Right?
Sometime this season, Teo found a way to become a better 2-strike hitter.
Now he’s an RBI machine, and as clutch as they come.