For the first time in three years, the Los Angeles Dodgers find themselves in unfamiliar territory, struggling to pull away from the pack. For nearly a decade, they’ve enjoyed the luxury of coasting through the stretch run, using September as a mere rehearsal—with only a one-game playoff in 2018 and a nail-biting NL West showdown with the Giants in 2021 offering any real drama. But this season has been different. The Dodgers have stumbled at times, with Dave Roberts maintaining his calm demeanor. Now, as they head into the final stretch, Roberts is shifting gears and “going to the whip,” ready to push his team to the finish line.
Cruise control has its advantages, but it’s hard not to think about how a month of low-stakes baseball might have derailed the last two Dodgers teams, which together amassed 211 regular-season wins but managed just one in the postseason.
“Last September felt like there was nothing to play for,” Miguel Rojas remarked, recalling how last year’s Dodgers, who had secured a double-digit division lead by August 16, spent September focusing on patching up their pitching staff—only to be swept in the NLDS.
This year, the Dodgers don’t have the luxury of waiting for things to fall into place. As of Tuesday, they held the most wins in the majors but they also have two of the hottest teams in baseball, the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks, right on their heels in the same division.
The Dodgers, however, are framing this as a positive. They believe that having real stakes will keep them sharp, ensuring they stay competitive rather than trying to manufacture intensity as the postseason approaches.
Those high stakes were on full display Tuesday night. Despite an early deficit, the Dodgers stayed in the fight. Jason Heyward, battling to hold onto his roster spot with another crunch looming this week, stepped off the bench and smashed a 99-mph fastball from Andrés Muñoz for a go-ahead three-run homer in the eighth inning.
“Man, that was probably the highlight of the season for me so far,” said manager Dave Roberts.
The 6-3 win over the Seattle Mariners kept the Dodgers’ lead at three games, preserving their cushion for another day and securing the best record in baseball. This $%#%&*&%$# just got serious, and Doc is going to the whip. Hang on, this is going to be a Wild Ride.
News & Notes
- Walker Buehler is still struggling as is Bobby Miller. Walker said, “I need to go do it.“That’s all there is to it.” Yes, he does, and he might get two or three more starts to do it… then the Dodgers will have to make a tough decision. Many times, the changes needed are not that big. I root for him and he is a Junkyard Dog, so there is that! Sometimes it’s just a small tweek!
- One roster decision that is going to be tough (unless there is another injury) is whether to keep Heyward or Kiermaier. That’s a tough one, but I suspect the LH bat will prevail.
- Flaherty tonight!
- I will probably post more in this stretch run, and I am thinking this may be my final year, but enjoy it while you can.We have a World Series to win.
- Jeff Dominique and Michael Norris at www.LAdodgerChronicles.com put out some really good stuff. It’s the morons there who bother me. Here’s a sample: “Let’s tell it like it is. This is the weakest roster the Dodgers have had in several years. The neglect, arrogance, short sightedness of management has resulted in many losses this season. The misguided and boring obsessions with load management, lefty-righty matchups and .200 hitting utility players is a huge reason the Dodgers are struggling to stay in first place. Management is sad, predictable and weak. If they get swept out of the playoffs again, heads need to roll, along with pink slips.” Insane and delusional!
We like to make predictions here. I feel 100% the choice is Heyward
Heyward to stay or go?
KK in CF is pretty doggone good.
KK in CF is pretty darn great. Also–note to Mark–a prime example of why Lux simply doesn’t have the arm to be a top-notch centerfielder.
Anyway, not an easy decision between KK and Heyward. Two gold-glove quality veteran outfielders.
I think Roberts has a soft spot for Heyward, who’s been a clubhouse leader since his arrival. He said that Heyward’s HR was probably was his (Robert’s) highlight moment of the season.
This is another reason why I think Mookie could shift to CF, with Heyward in RF. Edman could move into the keystone mix with Rojas and Lux. (Edman won a gold glove at 2B.) All three remain under contract in ’25.
Anyway, a lot of tough personnel decisions ahead.
At least 3B seems to be covered, now that Maximum Max back.
Yeah, it’s just three games, but he’s hitting .400, with 2HRs and 6 RBIs and OBP of .500.
With Mookie and Max back in the mix, and Lux en fuego, that lineup is pretty fierce….
As for next season, what if the Dodgers decide to put Mookie at 2B permanently?
Lux could be a big trade chip–or perhaps he could shift to LF, where his arm would be less of an issue.
Tough call on who stays and who goes. My guess (only a guess), is one of the utility players, Kike or Taylor provide the same skill set and both are right handed hitters. It seems as though there isn’t as many good left handed pitching in the contending teams in either the starters or in the pen. Whatever the front office decides will be okay with me. I’m goad I don’t have to make the decision or have the conversation with the player that has to go.
If its between those two, then they have a month or so to audition for the spot
If I’m correct, I believe CT3 started his rehab assignment yesterday. Position players can only go on rehab for 20 days (pitchers are 30 days), so he’d need to be activated around Sept 9th if they want to us the entire time.
On the other hand, the team has stated that he’ll need “at least a week of rehab” which indicates they may bring him back sooner. As of Sept 1st rosters are increased to 28 players (an extra position player and an extra pitcher) so they could just add CT3 at that point without removing KK or JHey or Kike. That would mean leaving Pages at OKC but I’m thinking that may be exactly what they do because they love veterans in the post season.
Taylor has played 4 re-hab games already. 3 at OKC and 1 at Rancho where he played last night. He went 4-11 at OKC and 1-4 last night. Personally, I don’t care how good he did at either, they do not need a sub-Mendoza line hitter right now. But, since he has such a large contract through next season, my guess would be that he stays, and Kike gets cut. They are basically the same player. And Edman is a switch hitter, so he stays, and Heyward is a leftie power bat off of the bench. He stays. This is my last post here. I took offense to what Mark said about Jeff’s site. I do not think that we have morons posting over there. I just think Jeff is a very tolerant site administrator. But if things get testy, he nips it in the bud. And I also think it was a little too much of a slap in the face to a guy who used to contribute heavily to this site. Plus, Jeff is recovering from surgery. He hasn’t been able to sit up for any length of time for the last couple of weeks. I respect Mark a lot, but to me, he crossed a line criticizing Jeff’s site. After all, many of the people who post here, post there also. In my world, he owes Jeff an apology.
I didn’t take it as insult at all.
To each his own I guess.
Its really not that serious….
I just read this, Michael, and I have not criticized Jeff or Jeff’s site. In fact, I said this:
“Jeff Dominique and Michael Norris at http://www.LAdodgerChronicles.com put out some really good stuff. It’s the morons there who bother me.”
At the top of my links, Jeff’s site is right after the Dodgers sites.
I DID NOT CRITICIZE JEFF’S SITE! It’s very clear what I said, but OK, I will apologize:
“Jeff, I am sorry for all the morons at your site.”
OK, I am being funny, but you and Jeff are both very knowledgeable, and most of the morons there came from here. There are a few who aren’t morons, but I digress.
I have ran most of them off… I admit it!
I am not going to make you post here, but I always read Jeffs site every day and recommend it. I do not get the outrage.
I wonder if there’s any interest in signing Elias Diaz with Barnes on the IL. He may not want to come here if it’s only short term however.
Probably not enough time to establish rapport with the staff…
There’s already too many catchers on the 40 (4).
The Dodgers now have three catching prospects in their Top 30.
1. Rushing
2. Cartaya
3. Galiz
Ideally, Rushing will develop into a catcher, but I hear whispers that the Dodgers do not think he belongs behind the plate. I think Feduccia gets traded or taken in Rule 5 this offseason.
As always – your daily readers really appreciate the effort and passion that you put into this site.
All of us will miss this site and the insights from you and the other main contributors if this is your last year. So what better way to go out then with a World Series win!
While I have been a supporter of Lux, I along with the rest of you on this site was ready for him to be replaced! So glad that none of us are the FO or manager making the decisions. I am really happy for Lux and hope this is the start of awesome 5-6 year run for him.
Lux is an example of why the team gives players time to turn it around. Lux turned it around in a big way. Thor is an example of someone who didn’t and was sent packing. Buehler will probably get a couple more starts and then a decision will be made . Same with Miller when it comes to this season. I wonder if the team will go with a six man rotation when Glasnow and Yamamoto return. It would help manage Stone’s innings for the rest of the year.
That’s a tough one, but I suspect the LH bat will prevail…….. You mean since they both bat Lefty?
Exactly! 😉
10:10 PM ET
Mariners (64-63)
Dodgers (75-52)
SP Logan Gilbert R
7-9 2.96 ERA
SP Jack Flaherty R
9-5 3.06 ERA
Confirmed Lineup
DH S. Ohtani L
RF Mookie Betts R
1B F. Freeman L
LF T. Hernandez R
2B Gavin Lux L
C Will Smith R
3B Max Muncy L
SS Tommy Edman S
CF K. Kiermaier L
77° Wind 8 mph Out
Rojas was scratched from the lineup ahead of Wednesday’s game versus Seattle, Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reports.
“It’s unclear exactly why Rojas was taken out of the starting nine, but the Dodgers should provide more information relatively soon. In the meantime, Tommy Edman will move to shortstop while Kevin Kiermaier starts in center field”.
Dominican Summer League
“The regular season concluded in the Dominican Republic, and neither of the two Dodgers teams in the league made the playoffs. But, 17-year-old shortstop Emil Morales homered and doubled on Tuesday, part of a three-hit, five-RBI day that was a fitting coda to his excellent first professional season.
Morales hit .342/.478/.691 with a league-leading 14 home runs to go with 11 doubles, 46 RBI, and 48 runs scored in 46 games, and also stole 12 bases. His wRC+ was 187 before Tuesday’s big day at the plate.
Signed by the Dodgers in January for $1.9 million, Morales was ranked the team’s No. 8 prospect in MLB Pipeline’s midseason update”,
This is a FANtastic dodger blog. The commenters are…let me put it this way. I’ll take quality over quantity any day of the week. The takes are insightful and knowledgeable. I thank you all. I’m not quite sure why Bear is ‘offended ‘. And it’s funny how the tolerant don’t tolerate you, Mark. Ha ha . Oh well. You’ve got the clientele you want now. Let’s go get that ring!
Book em
Book ’em! Dano!
I am sorry that 25 of the 5,000 who read this blog daily have left, but “Oh well.”
We are all smarter.
Think they all went to the Spectrum site Mark, just a bunch of haters and doomsday fans , even when we win.. after a cocktail or so I drift over there and screw with their minds for some kicks, but man those boys are wound tight!! Every thing is straight up personal and to a man and woman it’s all about Fire Roberts. Win or lose. Myself, that is my cutoff for any kind of intellect, you say those words and we are done, you have no Fing clue about the pressures that Roberts deals with day in and day out. Dodgers lead the league with players on the IL , yet still have the best record in the league. And by the way, that was Docs call to have J- Hay pinch hit last night, he had previous success against that pitcher. And of course you don’t hear crap about it. Feel like Doc is just in a lose lose situation with a lot of spoiled Bitch Ass Entitled under 30 or 40 Dodger fans who didn’t live through the dark seasons that us old dogs did , who were just thankful if we made the playoffs every 3 or 4 years.