
The Dodgers departed Wednesday for their final multi-city trip of the regular season with their magic number to clinch a fifth straight division title at six, meaning their first champagne shower of the year could come as early as Sunday in Miami.
But the team is limping toward that celebration, with Freddie Freeman, the team’s leading hitter, joining Shohei Ohtani, the team’s top slugger, on the sidelines for Wednesday’s 14-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds on a hot and sticky night at Dodger Stadium.
After the victory, manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani will be placed on the injured list and will not travel with the team to Miami as he recovers from an array of ailments, with right arm discomfort the most pressing issue.
The Dodgers soldiered on without Freeman and Ohtani, with the 14 runs scored matching the most in a game since June 27 and the margin of victory matching their largest of the season. And it made a winner of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who scattered three hits over seven innings while matching a career high with 10 strikeouts in notching a career-best 13th victory. He left to a standing ovation from the fans behind the third-base dugout.
The win also extended the team’s winning streak to a season-long seven games and left the Dodgers a season-best 32 games over .500. But with four key players already on the injured list, manager Dave Roberts is running out of time to get his team healthy for the playoffs, where they’ll be facing teams a lot better than the last-place Reds.
“It’s just how to get guys back, but give them enough time to prepare for the postseason,” Roberts said. “Does that mean more off days for those guys? Probably.”
Freeman, who also leads the team in games played and at-bats, was held out of the final game of the homestand with pain in his right knee. Roberts said Freeman, who is hitting .136 in September, has been hobbled by the knee for a while but hopes his first baseman can return to the lineup Friday.
“It’s a possibility,” Roberts said. “It’s also a possibility that we give him three days off to then get him ready, optimally, for the September run.”
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Ohtani’s situation is more troubling. The Dodgers’ two-way star, who has been battling lingering injuries to his left knee, right biceps, neck and left hip, played Monday for just the third time in nine days and took a swing that “didn’t feel great,” Roberts said.
Neither Ohtani nor Freeman spoke to reporters before Wednesday’s game.
Roberts said he’s had second thoughts about not putting Ohtani on the IL last week and now faces the likelihood the Dodgers will enter the postseason with their most important player diminished.
“The balancing part, No. 1, is getting him back to as healthy as he can be,” Roberts said. “Is he going to be 100% by the end of this season? No.
“If we look right now, here today, I would love to go back and put him on the IL,” he said. “But at that moment in time we all felt that giving him four days was sufficient.”
The team’s injured list already includes center fielder Andy Pages, backup catcher Dalton Rushing, closer Edwin Díaz and right-hander Roki Sasaki.
The Dodgers didn’t appear to miss any of them Wednesday, opening the scoring in the second after Teoscar Hernández blooped a single to center and raced to third on Kyle Tucker’s single into the right-field corner. Hunter Feduccia then reached on a fielder’s choice, loading the bases for Alex Freeland, whose double-play grounder scored Hernández.
Read more:Shohei Ohtani out of the Dodgers lineup, available to pinch-hit
Will Smith doubled with one out in the third, then rode home on Mookie Betts’ 19th homer of the season to make it 3-0.
Elly De La Cruz answered in the fourth for the Reds, hitting a towering homer to center, giving him five straight games with a home run. But the Dodgers got that back, and more, in their half of the inning, scoring six times on five hits, two walks and two wild pitches to blow the game open. The big hit was a two-run double from Kiké Hernández, just his fourth game with an RBI this season.
Max Muncy had a two-run homer in the sixth, his 27th of the season — but his first this month — and Kiké Hernández added another in the seventh, giving him a season-high four RBIs on the night. Tucker closed the scoring with a solo homer in the eighth.
Betts finished with three hits and three runs scored, while Tucker had three hits and scored twice. Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández — who has a 10-game hitting streak — had two hits each. Tommy Edman was the only starter without a hit or run scored.
Now the Dodgers head back out on the road, where Roberts is hopeful no one else comes up lame.
“Freddie is just managing the day-to-day. I do think that we’ll manage Shohei the right way and he’ll be ready for the postseason,” he said.
“If he’s out there, he’s certainly a presence. There’s still enough time to, if he needs days, to do that while still finding time to get at-bats to prepare for the postseason.”
That time, however, is running out.
Josue De Paula to debut
The Dodgers plan to call up top prospect Josue De Paula on Friday, a person without authorization to speak publicly said. He will take Ohtani’s spot on the active roster. The Dodgers will still need to create a space for him on the 40-man roster.
De Paula, 21, has spent the season with double-A Tulsa, hitting .302/.400/.539 in 583 plate appearances, with 36 doubles, 26 home runs and 31 stolen bases.
Times staff writer Maddie Lee contributed to this report.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.


















