MINNEAPOLIS, MN - SEPTEMBER 14: Spencer Jones #78 of the New York Yankees and Ben Rice #22 of the New York Yankees celebrate in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff berth against the Minnesota Twins on September 14, 2026 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images) | Getty Images
MLB Trade Rumors | Darragh McDonald: Well, it was nice while it lasted. The Yankees announced yesterday evening that they will be placing right fielder Aaron Judge on the ten-day injured list with a calf strain today; Max Schuemann is expected to be the corresponding move. Since it will be backdated to the 16th, Judge will be eligible to come off the IL for the final day of the season; however, given the nature of calf strains, it is entirely possible that we have seen the last of No. 99 for 2026.
New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: Arguably the biggest surprise of the 2026 season — beyond the fact that the Yankees somehow managed to keep their heads above water despite Aaron Judge missing three months, of course — has been the breakout of outfielder Spencer Jones. The former top prospect has managed to position himself as “a key cog in the Yankees’ lineup,” taking advantage of opportunities offered by injuries to Judge, Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger, and Giancarlo Stanton. In particular, his performance against southpaws, which had long been a weakness throughout his minor league career, has been a pleasant surprise. That being said, it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses: Jones has yet to flash the leather in the way many have expected him to. Even so, however, it seems likely that Jones will be a critical part of the team’s postseason run, whether as the starting center fielder or a key reserve.
MLB.com | Mike Lupica: For all the attention that the Yankees’ veteran stars — Judge, Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, and Giancarlo Stanton — receive, the 2026 season has been a veritable youth movement. Key to that has been the development, of course, of first baseman/designated hitter Ben Rice and AL Cy Young frontrunner Cam Schlittler. The two youngsters from Massachusetts, never highly rated as prospects, have turned themselves into veritable forces at the plate and on the mound, and without their contributions, the injury-riddled 2026 Yankees would almost certainly be spending the final few days of the season playing out the string, not attempting to make a last-ditch run at the AL East while lining up the rotation for a matchup with the Red Sox in the Wild Card round.
MLB Trade Rumors | Darragh McDonald: Yesterday afternoon, the Yankees announced that Oswaldo Cabrera, the popular utilityman who has been with the organization since 2015, had been claimed off waivers by the Cincinnati Reds. He had been designated for assignment earlier in the week, in order to make room on the 40-man roster for Clarke Schmidt.
Playbill | Logan Culwell-Block: Earlier this summer, former Mets infielder José Iglesias made the jump from the ballfield to the stage, joining the Broadway production of Buena Vista Social Club. Now, a Yankee great will be joining him: yesterday, Bernie Williams announced that he will be joining the show’s pit band for a limited run, from October 22nd through November 29th.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - SEPTEMBER 14: Spencer Jones #78 of the New York Yankees and Ben Rice #22 of the New York Yankees celebrate in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff berth against the Minnesota Twins on September 14, 2026 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images) | Getty Images
MLB Trade Rumors | Darragh McDonald: Well, it was nice while it lasted. The Yankees announced yesterday evening that they will be placing right fielder Aaron Judge on the ten-day injured list with a calf strain today; Max Schuemann is expected to be the corresponding move. Since it will be backdated to the 16th, Judge will be eligible to come off the IL for the final day of the season; however, given the nature of calf strains, it is entirely possible that we have seen the last of No. 99 for 2026.
New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: Arguably the biggest surprise of the 2026 season — beyond the fact that the Yankees somehow managed to keep their heads above water despite Aaron Judge missing three months, of course — has been the breakout of outfielder Spencer Jones. The former top prospect has managed to position himself as “a key cog in the Yankees’ lineup,” taking advantage of opportunities offered by injuries to Judge, Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger, and Giancarlo Stanton. In particular, his performance against southpaws, which had long been a weakness throughout his minor league career, has been a pleasant surprise. That being said, it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses: Jones has yet to flash the leather in the way many have expected him to. Even so, however, it seems likely that Jones will be a critical part of the team’s postseason run, whether as the starting center fielder or a key reserve.
MLB.com | Mike Lupica: For all the attention that the Yankees’ veteran stars — Judge, Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, and Giancarlo Stanton — receive, the 2026 season has been a veritable youth movement. Key to that has been the development, of course, of first baseman/designated hitter Ben Rice and AL Cy Young frontrunner Cam Schlittler. The two youngsters from Massachusetts, never highly rated as prospects, have turned themselves into veritable forces at the plate and on the mound, and without their contributions, the injury-riddled 2026 Yankees would almost certainly be spending the final few days of the season playing out the string, not attempting to make a last-ditch run at the AL East while lining up the rotation for a matchup with the Red Sox in the Wild Card round.
MLB Trade Rumors | Darragh McDonald: Yesterday afternoon, the Yankees announced that Oswaldo Cabrera, the popular utilityman who has been with the organization since 2015, had been claimed off waivers by the Cincinnati Reds. He had been designated for assignment earlier in the week, in order to make room on the 40-man roster for Clarke Schmidt.
Playbill | Logan Culwell-Block: Earlier this summer, former Mets infielder José Iglesias made the jump from the ballfield to the stage, joining the Broadway production of Buena Vista Social Club. Now, a Yankee great will be joining him: yesterday, Bernie Williams announced that he will be joining the show’s pit band for a limited run, from October 22nd through November 29th.
He was battling his mechanics. He was stretching out his long-bothersome back. And, most concerningly, he was losing the confident demeanor the Dodgers had seen when he first returned from his latest extended stint on the injured list last month.
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow gets a new baseball against the San Francisco Giants, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, in Los Angeles. Wally Skalij for CA Post
Thus, instead of accompanying the team on the second leg of its road trip this week in Cincinnati, Glasnow traveled immediately back to Los Angeles the day after his clunker against the Marlins.
No extra flight. No added time on the road. Just a week where he could focus on his delivery and try to keep his season from once again slipping off track.
“He got back on Pacific Standard Time, in his own bed, one leg of travel versus the two,” manager Dave Roberts said Friday afternoon. “He threw his bullpen a few days ago. That went great. So he’s dialed in.”
In a six-inning, two-run, 10-strikeout start in Friday’s 8-2 win over the San Francisco Giants, there was still more dialing in left for Glasnow to do.
He hung a curveball in the second inning that Jung Hoo Lee belted for a home run.
He lost his feel pitching from the stretch after a leadoff single in the third, giving up another run that briefly put the Dodgers behind before they stormed back with five home runs –– including four in the eighth inning alone –– from their recently resurgent offense.
The important thing, though, was that Glasnow felt better.
Glasnow (31) throws against the San Francisco Giants in the first inning. Wally Skalij for CA Post
With his health. With his throw. With his ability to get completely synced up in time for the playoffs.
“I think I feel relatively consistent. It’s just a matter of, sometimes I’m not going to feel good, sometimes I will,” Glasnow said. “Today, I think it was a step in the right direction. I think it’s better than feeling really good for a long time before [the playoffs]. I’d rather kind of feel it, work through some stuff and have a good one right before playoffs. So I think I’m in a good spot right now.”
That might sound counter-intuitive for a pitcher who could be crucial to the Dodgers’ postseason plans. It might be rationalization from an 11-year veteran who has never made it through a full regular season healthy.
Tyler Glasnow gets an out against the San Francisco Giants on Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, in Los Angeles. Wally Skalij for CA Post
“It is just making sure he’s feeling good, he’s healthy, which he is,” Roberts said. “So now it’s just letting him go do what he does and bet on the talent to perform. That’s where I think we all feel good, especially Tyler right now, just knowing the health and where the head’s at, all that stuff. We’re in a good spot.”
Roberts struck a decidedly different tone after Glasnow’s start last week, saying then that the right-hander “didn’t feel great coming into the game as far as kind of overall body.”
His absence in Cincinnati was also conspicuous, turning Friday’s outing into something of a late-season litmus test.
Tyler Glasnow throws a pitch during the first inning of the Dodgers’ blowout win over the Giants. Wally Skalij for CA Post
“This is an important start,” Roberts said beforehand. “He knows it.”
The manager’s evaluation afterward?
“I thought he did a good job of making pitches when he needed to,” Roberts said, encouraged by Glasnow’s ability to get swing-and-miss, as well as the way he retired 10 of his final 11 batters in a 98-pitch performance.
For his part, Glasnow downplayed whatever concerns had been lingering about his health of late.
Josue De Paula takes in the moment with teammates in the dugout during the game. Wally Skalij for CA Post
He acknowledged he felt “not great” last week. He cited the cross-country flight as perhaps getting him out of whack. But he also noted that, “in the course of a season, you’re not always going to feel good.”
“It wasn’t anything crazy,” he added. “But I definitely feel better now than I did then.”
At this point, that will have to be enough for the Dodgers. Come the start of the postseason, they will be counting on him to be an effective member of their rotation.
“Right now, I feel pretty good,” Glasnow said. “We worked on some stuff after that last start. Just tried to keep for this start, take it in the next start. And then hopefully everything is feeling good for playoffs.”
Shohei Ohtani seen in the dugout on Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. Wally Skalij for CA Post
PHOENIX — Aaron Judge is on the injured list again, but the Yankees could get two key pieces back off of it by next week.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. should be activated on the upcoming homestand that begins Tuesday, Aaron Boone said Friday, after the second baseman landed on the IL last week with a right thumb sprain.
Access the Yankees beat like never before
Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.
Friday marked his fourth day of hitting in a row after being shut down from baseball activities for about a week, while he has also been throwing the last couple of days.
Trent Grisham, meanwhile, is “pretty far into his running progression” from a right hamstring strain and “doing well,” Boone said, putting him in position to be in play at the end of the regular season.
Before Judge’s calf strain, it was questionable whether there would be a lane for Grisham to get playing time if and when he returned.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. works out before the Yankees’ win over the Mets on Sept. 11, 2026 at the Stadium. AP
But now it is possible he could return to center field at least against righties, bumping Spencer Jones to right field.
As for Ryan Weathers, the other Yankee trying to make it back in time for the playoffs (from a left forearm flexor strain), Boone acknowledged the lefty is “unlikely to get into a game before the end of the season.”
Weathers is set to throw a second bullpen session on Saturday, after which he could advance to facing hitters in live batting practice.
Trent Grisham look on during batting practice before the Yankees’ win over the Mets on Sept. 11, 2026 at the Stadium. AP
Whether that will give him enough time to show he should be part of the bullpen for the first round of the playoffs remains to be seen.
“We’ll see what our needs are and how he looks and if we feel like he’s ready to come in and be a contributor,” Boone said.
Anthony Volpe, who was back at second base, hit .348 with a .965 OPS and four steals in his first seven games since being called back up from Triple-A as an injury replacement for Chisholm.
That's one way to start off the last homestand of the regular season.
Forget the fact that it was against the lowly San Francisco Giants and their lineup featuring a who's who of ... "Who?" Forget the fact that five of the Los Angeles Dodgers' runs in their dominant 8-2 win on Friday night came off the relatively unknown Philip Abner. The Dodgers' lineup, without Shohei Ohtani, showed exactly what they're capable of offensively.
This is the version of the team Andrew Friedman envisioned when he signed Kyle Tucker to a four-year, $240 million contract and Edwin Díaz to a three-year, $69 million deal last winter.
"The talent," manager Dave Roberts said. "It's a high-floor talent level. I just like the way we're taking better team at-bats and making up for not having Shohei in there. Obviously, we're a better team with him, but it is nice to see there hasn't been a drop-off with him not in the lineup."
Here's a look at three winners from the Dodgers' victory over the Giants:
The Dodgers lineup is just fine
Mookie Betts started things off when he jumped on a low-90s fastball that San Francisco starter Cesar Perdomo left middle-middle and sent it over the fence in left center field for his 33rd leadoff home run as a Dodger. The bats went quiet briefly from there until the bottom of the fifth when Teoscar Hernández singled home Josue De Paula from third on a sharp liner to right field to tie the game at 2-2.
The rookie De Paula later drove in the go-ahead run on an RBI double in the sixth before a monster five-run eighth inning in which Max Muncy, Tucker, Betts and Will Smith all went yard to put the game out of reach.
"I think that's the beauty in it," Betts said. "We just keep giving ourselves opportunities and eventually, something will crack. It did tonight, so we just have to keep getting guys on base and giving ourselves the chances and the hits will follow."
Edwin Díaz looked good in return from IL
That set the stage for the trumpets to once again blare over the Dodger Stadium loudspeakers. Roberts said he wouldn't have put Díaz in if it wasn't for the six-run lead as he wanted to give Díaz some leeway in his first outing back from an IL stint after health and poor performance have plagued his season.
But Díaz took the opportunity and ran with it. In his first big league appearance since Aug. 17, he got two quick outs before giving up a base hit up the middle. Rather than let that snowball like it has many times in 2026, however, Díaz was able to buckle down and strike out Brett Harris on three pitches to seal a Dodgers win.
"I liked everything," Roberts said. "I liked his intensity; I liked the fastball velocity. The slider was good. It was just really good to get him back in the mix and that's something to build on."
Josue De Paula is different
The through line for the offense on Friday night was the 21-year-old De Paula. The No. 6 prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline finished the night 2-for-3 with a walk, two runs and an RBI, but it was the timing of each of those that made his Dodger Stadium debut so special.
De Paula led off the bottom of the fifth with a base hit, which Betts followed up with one of his own before he eventually scored the tying run on Hernández's RBI single. Two innings later, De Paula scored Tucker from first on a double that he put on a rope at 107 mph deep into the right field gap. As he reached second, De Paula pounded his chest and flexed.
Then, in that huge eighth inning, it was De Paula who kept it alive by working a four-pitch walk with two outs, his seventh in a week in the big leagues. Five pitches later, Betts blew the game open with a two-run homer.
"I just love his at-bats," Roberts said. "It's one of those things that we knew coming up to the big leagues, he wasn't going to get overwhelmed, and it just helps when you control the strike zone. He takes his walks, when the ball is in the hitting zone, he can slug you but he also knows how to get a base hit. It's been very professional."
That's one way to start off the last homestand of the regular season.
Forget the fact that it was against the lowly San Francisco Giants and their lineup featuring a who's who of ... "Who?" Forget the fact that five of the Los Angeles Dodgers' runs in their dominant 8-2 win on Friday night came off the relatively unknown Philip Abner. The Dodgers' lineup, without Shohei Ohtani, showed exactly what they're capable of offensively.
This is the version of the team Andrew Friedman envisioned when he signed Kyle Tucker to a four-year, $240 million contract and Edwin Díaz to a three-year, $69 million deal last winter.
"The talent," manager Dave Roberts said. "It's a high-floor talent level. I just like the way we're taking better team at-bats and making up for not having Shohei in there. Obviously, we're a better team with him, but it is nice to see there hasn't been a drop-off with him not in the lineup."
Here's a look at three winners from the Dodgers' victory over the Giants:
The Dodgers lineup is just fine
Mookie Betts started things off when he jumped on a low-90s fastball that San Francisco starter Cesar Perdomo left middle-middle and sent it over the fence in left center field for his 33rd leadoff home run as a Dodger. The bats went quiet briefly from there until the bottom of the fifth when Teoscar Hernández singled home Josue De Paula from third on a sharp liner to right field to tie the game at 2-2.
The rookie De Paula later drove in the go-ahead run on an RBI double in the sixth before a monster five-run eighth inning in which Max Muncy, Tucker, Betts and Will Smith all went yard to put the game out of reach.
"I think that's the beauty in it," Betts said. "We just keep giving ourselves opportunities and eventually, something will crack. It did tonight, so we just have to keep getting guys on base and giving ourselves the chances and the hits will follow."
Edwin Díaz looked good in return from IL
That set the stage for the trumpets to once again blare over the Dodger Stadium loudspeakers. Roberts said he wouldn't have put Díaz in if it wasn't for the six-run lead as he wanted to give Díaz some leeway in his first outing back from an IL stint after health and poor performance have plagued his season.
But Díaz took the opportunity and ran with it. In his first big league appearance since Aug. 17, he got two quick outs before giving up a base hit up the middle. Rather than let that snowball like it has many times in 2026, however, Díaz was able to buckle down and strike out Brett Harris on three pitches to seal a Dodgers win.
"I liked everything," Roberts said. "I liked his intensity; I liked the fastball velocity. The slider was good. It was just really good to get him back in the mix and that's something to build on."
Josue De Paula is different
The through line for the offense on Friday night was the 21-year-old De Paula. The No. 6 prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline finished the night 2-for-3 with a walk, two runs and an RBI, but it was the timing of each of those that made his Dodger Stadium debut so special.
De Paula led off the bottom of the fifth with a base hit, which Betts followed up with one of his own before he eventually scored the tying run on Hernández's RBI single. Two innings later, De Paula scored Tucker from first on a double that he put on a rope at 107 mph deep into the right field gap. As he reached second, De Paula pounded his chest and flexed.
Then, in that huge eighth inning, it was De Paula who kept it alive by working a four-pitch walk with two outs, his seventh in a week in the big leagues. Five pitches later, Betts blew the game open with a two-run homer.
"I just love his at-bats," Roberts said. "It's one of those things that we knew coming up to the big leagues, he wasn't going to get overwhelmed, and it just helps when you control the strike zone. He takes his walks, when the ball is in the hitting zone, he can slug you but he also knows how to get a base hit. It's been very professional."
DENVER, CO - SEPTEMBER 18: Lazaro Montes #99 of the Seattle Mariners hits a go-ahead solo home run in the ninth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on September 18, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The first night at Coors Field had it all. Specifically, all the possible infield permutations this Mariners roster could muster, shuffling J.P. Crawford and Cole Young around to give them a variety of vantage points for the 15 hits Seattle yielded to the Colorado Rockies as they somehow escaped with a 5-4 victory.
The M’s jumped out to a lead that evoked their recent series in Sacramento, and in keeping, they coughed up the 3-0 lead that the top of their order generously constructed for them right out of the gate. Crawford made sure this mission to mile-high altitudes would not come up homerless, cracking a solo shot in the first at-bat of the game off oft-injured Rockies RHP Gabriel Hughes. Randy Arozarena authored the first of his three hits, cracking a double that Dominic Canzone took as license to copy but Arozarena read sub-optimally off the bat, and Seattle seemed off to the races.
It seemed like that misread would haunt the M’s with Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez punching out, and while hitting the Josh Naylor 7-7-7 slots meant a rolled over grounder snuck through for a 2-RBI single with two outs, the pair of punchouts from Seattle’s stars were emblematic ones. For Raleigh, who’s looked far closer to his better self writ large in the past month and a half, it was nonetheless an eight-pitch punchout that came due to missing two center-cut fastballs by a hair, fouling them back before waving over a middle-middle slider in a 3-2 count. For Julio, the culprit was also three missed pitches in the zone, but two foul balls on bottom third sliders before a familiar frustration mostly new to 2026: staring at a fastball for strike three at the bottom rail.
Seattle would not be the major culprit of spoiled opportunities tonight, however. The Rox are a plucky club this year, with far more verve than their catastrophic 2025 season of a 43-119 season. But Colorado is likely to lose 100 games again this season, making it four straight campaigns with 100+ defeats, and tonight was a showcase in how. Despite a night where eight of their nine starters secured at least one hit, Colorado left 12 on base and went 4-for-20 with runners in scoring position, letting Bryan Woo wriggle out of danger time and time again to achieve a defensible 5.1 frames and just three earned runs. It could have easily been worse a dozen times over, and Seattle’s league-worst range on the infield created many of the conundrums Woo had to solve.
No pitcher looks stellar at Coors Field consistently, of course, and Seattle’s beleaguered bullpen deserves their kudos for tonight’s win. After Woo’s exit, Gabe Speier regrettably yielded the lead to breakout Rockies outfielder Jake McCarthy on a clobbered gap-shot triple and a RBI single in sequence, but from there it was nails. 3.1 frames followed Speier and despite runners reaching in each inning, not a single run crossed the plate again for Colorado.
It wasn’t much room, nor were Seattle’s precocious youngsters afforded much room to spark Seattle, but starting RF Lazaro Montes and pinch-hitter Michael Arroyo took their tag-team operation above the alpine. First, in the seventh, seeking a spark against southpaw from the past Brennan Bernardino, Arroyo aggressively took his chance in relief of Brock Rodden. He cracked a double down the third base line that looks familiar to anyone who’s watched Arroyo work through the minors, before dashing around the bases on a bunt and a sac fly. That set the stage for Laz, whose tour through the hitter-friendly parks of MLB has reached its zenith, visualizing and then manifesting a stratosphere-scraping second-decker to put the M’s up one in the ninth. Not even the speed of Cole Carrigg on base could stifle Seattle Friday night, as Andrés Muñoz managed a rare pickoff to clear the bases and quell the threat in the ninth. Not quite easy, but 5-4 with the players the M’s hope will help turn things around in 2027 is a pleasant way to start a series.
DENVER, CO - SEPTEMBER 18: Lazaro Montes #99 of the Seattle Mariners hits a go-ahead solo home run in the ninth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on September 18, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The first night at Coors Field had it all. Specifically, all the possible infield permutations this Mariners roster could muster, shuffling J.P. Crawford and Cole Young around to give them a variety of vantage points for the 15 hits Seattle yielded to the Colorado Rockies as they somehow escaped with a 5-4 victory.
The M’s jumped out to a lead that evoked their recent series in Sacramento, and in keeping, they coughed up the 3-0 lead that the top of their order generously constructed for them right out of the gate. Crawford made sure this mission to mile-high altitudes would not come up homerless, cracking a solo shot in the first at-bat of the game off oft-injured Rockies RHP Gabriel Hughes. Randy Arozarena authored the first of his three hits, cracking a double that Dominic Canzone took as license to copy but Arozarena read sub-optimally off the bat, and Seattle seemed off to the races.
It seemed like that misread would haunt the M’s with Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez punching out, and while hitting the Josh Naylor 7-7-7 slots meant a rolled over grounder snuck through for a 2-RBI single with two outs, the pair of punchouts from Seattle’s stars were emblematic ones. For Raleigh, who’s looked far closer to his better self writ large in the past month and a half, it was nonetheless an eight-pitch punchout that came due to missing two center-cut fastballs by a hair, fouling them back before waving over a middle-middle slider in a 3-2 count. For Julio, the culprit was also three missed pitches in the zone, but two foul balls on bottom third sliders before a familiar frustration mostly new to 2026: staring at a fastball for strike three at the bottom rail.
Seattle would not be the major culprit of spoiled opportunities tonight, however. The Rox are a plucky club this year, with far more verve than their catastrophic 2025 season of a 43-119 season. But Colorado is likely to lose 100 games again this season, making it four straight campaigns with 100+ defeats, and tonight was a showcase in how. Despite a night where eight of their nine starters secured at least one hit, Colorado left 12 on base and went 4-for-20 with runners in scoring position, letting Bryan Woo wriggle out of danger time and time again to achieve a defensible 5.1 frames and just three earned runs. It could have easily been worse a dozen times over, and Seattle’s league-worst range on the infield created many of the conundrums Woo had to solve.
No pitcher looks stellar at Coors Field consistently, of course, and Seattle’s beleaguered bullpen deserves their kudos for tonight’s win. After Woo’s exit, Gabe Speier regrettably yielded the lead to breakout Rockies outfielder Jake McCarthy on a clobbered gap-shot triple and a RBI single in sequence, but from there it was nails. 3.1 frames followed Speier and despite runners reaching in each inning, not a single run crossed the plate again for Colorado.
It wasn’t much room, nor were Seattle’s precocious youngsters afforded much room to spark Seattle, but starting RF Lazaro Montes and pinch-hitter Michael Arroyo took their tag-team operation above the alpine. First, in the seventh, seeking a spark against southpaw from the past Brennan Bernardino, Arroyo aggressively took his chance in relief of Brock Rodden. He cracked a double down the third base line that looks familiar to anyone who’s watched Arroyo work through the minors, before dashing around the bases on a bunt and a sac fly. That set the stage for Laz, whose tour through the hitter-friendly parks of MLB has reached its zenith, visualizing and then manifesting a stratosphere-scraping second-decker to put the M’s up one in the ninth. Not even the speed of Cole Carrigg on base could stifle Seattle Friday night, as Andrés Muñoz managed a rare pickoff to clear the bases and quell the threat in the ninth. Not quite easy, but 5-4 with the players the M’s hope will help turn things around in 2027 is a pleasant way to start a series.
QUEENS, NY — On July 4, Brandon Marsh was named to his first All-Star team.
It carried even more weight because he wasn’t going as a reserve. Marsh was voted a starter in left field for the National League at Citizens Bank Park, the culmination of a first half in which nearly everything had clicked.
In June, his average had climbed as high as .338. When the All-Star announcement arrived, Marsh was hitting .315, the sixth-highest average in the majors.
Since Independence Day, the picture has looked nothing like it.
Marsh is hitting .178, the lowest average in the National League over that span and the third-lowest in the majors.
The drop has been drastic. What has changed underneath it helps explain why.
A large part of Marsh’s first-half success came from the type of contact he was producing, particularly at the bottom of the strike zone.
Through July 3, Marsh saw 1,196 pitches across 328 plate appearances. Of those, 215 — 18 percent — were located within the bottom third of the strike zone: low and in, low-middle and low and away.
When pitchers went there, Marsh made them pay.
He hit .358 with a .965 OPS against pitches in those three zones. Nearly 32 percent of the balls he put in play were line drives.
His average launch angle was 14.7 degrees, which was important. Statcast defines its sweet-spot range as batted balls hit between 8 and 32 degrees. Marsh’s average against those low strikes sat comfortably within it.
That combination fit what made him so difficult to defend. Marsh wasn’t simply reaching pitches at the bottom of the zone. He was getting them off the ground, hitting them on a line and using the entire field.
Then the league started working back.
Don Mattingly acknowledged as much in August, while understandably stopping short of spelling out the Phillies’ scouting report for everyone else.
“They’re just doing some stuff different,” Mattingly said.
That, he explained, came with the territory after the way Marsh had performed.
“When you’ve been one of the best hitters in the game for a long period of time, they’re gonna start working on you a little harder,” Mattingly said.
The interesting part is that opponents haven’t simply started throwing Marsh down more often.
From July 4 through Thursday, Marsh saw 819 pitches. Of those, 148 were in the bottom third of the strike zone.
That’s 18.1 percent, almost identical to the 18 percent he saw during the first three months.
The location hasn’t changed much.
What pitchers are throwing there, and what Marsh is doing with those pitches, has.
Fastballs still make up a healthy portion of the attack. They have accounted for roughly 46 percent of the pitches Marsh has seen in the bottom third since July 4, compared with about 47 percent earlier in the season.
But the rest of the mix has shifted. Marsh has seen more offspeed pitches down there and fewer breaking balls.
Those offspeed pitches have given him particular trouble. Since July 4, Marsh is 3-for-37, an .081 average, in at-bats ending on a changeup or splitter in the bottom third of the zone.
Regardless of pitch type, though, the damage he once did down there has largely disappeared.
His .358 average against low strikes has fallen to .106. His .965 OPS has dropped to .296.
More revealing than the results is how the baseball is coming off his bat.
How Brandon Marsh’s contact down in the zone has changed
Batted-ball rates on pitches in the bottom third of the strike zone, through July 3 vs. since July 4.
Metric
Through July 3
Since July 4
Line-drive rate
31.6
15
Ground-ball rate
35.4
55
Pull-rate
49.4
57.5
Opposite-field rate
25.3
15
Pair that with Marsh’s average launch angle falling from 14.7 degrees to 6.9, below the lower end of Statcast’s sweet-spot range, and the change becomes clear.
More balls are going into the ground. More are going to the pull side.
His hard-hit rate on those pitches has dropped, too, from 51.9 percent to 42.5 percent.
Put it together and the contrast is striking: pitches that frequently became line drives earlier in the season are increasingly becoming pulled ground balls.
Fastballs provide an even cleaner example.
Marsh hit .400 against fastballs in the bottom third of the zone earlier this season. Since July 4, he’s hitting .176 against them.
Where the baseball goes after contact helps explain why.
His average launch angle against low fastballs has fallen from 7.2 degrees to minus-1.2. His ground-ball rate has jumped from 43.6 percent to 78.6 percent.
His pull rate has moved just as dramatically, from 35.9 percent to 64.3 percent.
The frequency of pitches down hasn’t changed.
What Marsh is doing with them has.
His own feel for the slump starts somewhere else.
Asked this week what he has noticed, he immediately pointed to his decisions at the plate.
“Swing decisions, gotta be better,” Marsh said Thursday.
He feels as though he has been expanding the strike zone more.
“Chasing a lot,” Marsh said.
The overall broader numbers show something interesting. Marsh’s chase rate has actually fallen from 38.4 percent — the 11th-highest mark in baseball through July 3 — to 33.9 percent since. His first-pitch swing rate is also down, from 33.5 percent to 27.6 percent.
His in-zone contact rate has gone up.
That doesn’t make what Marsh feels in the batter’s box any less real. It does suggest his slump is more complicated than simply swinging at too many pitches outside the strike zone.
He’s seeing roughly the same share of pitches at the bottom of the zone. The mix within that area has changed, and so has what he’s doing with those strikes when he swings.
Marsh doesn’t sound as though he believes his swing needs to be torn apart.
“I like where the swings are,” he said.
Instead, he is trying to make things simpler.
Marsh said his focus is getting back to using the other side of the field and hitting the baseball “hard on a line.”
In a way, his answer sounds a lot like the hitter the numbers describe from the first three months of the season.
The Phillies still believe that hitter is there.
Marsh is already shielded from many left-handed matchups through the Phillies’ platoon structure. More recently, his struggles have extended into the right-handed pitching he is expected to handle.
Mattingly said Friday that going in another direction against right-handers has crossed his mind, but he isn’t ready to make that kind of change.
“I still feel like we need him,” Mattingly said. “We feel like he’s getting closer to what we want him to be.”
The slump has affected some in-game decisions. Mattingly acknowledged there are situations now in which it is easier to go to a pinch hitter for Marsh earlier than it might have been when he was rolling.
But the Phillies haven’t moved away from him.
And with October approaching, getting Marsh back becomes more than an individual storyline.
The Phillies have the pieces to take one of their deepest lineups in years into the postseason. Marsh was a major reason it looked that way during the first half.
Getting that version of him back doesn’t require another run at .338.
The path Marsh described is much simpler than that: use the field, get the baseball off the ground and turn those pitches at the bottom of the strike zone back into hard line drives.
Bottles of Angry Orchard hard cider on the production line at the Boston Beer Co. Samuel Adams brewery in Cincinnati, Ohio, US, on Tuesday, May 14, 2024. The Federal Reserve is scheduled to release Industrial Production figures on May 16. Photographer: Jeffrey Dean/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Record: 80-74. Pace: 84-78. Change on 2025: +3.
Is it too late to bring Angry Orchard on as an official SnakePit sponsor? In sharp contrast to last Friday night cider-cap, where we blasted the Rangers 9-1, tonight was an exercise in Charles Bukowski-esque cirrhosis. By the time the first inning was over, the sky had fallen right through the leaking roof of Chase Field. The Yankees didn’t even have to swing hard to start the bleeding. Walks, a passed ball, and a cheap little bloop single. Then George Lombard Jr. cracked a two-run single into the grass, and the scoreboard already read 5-0. It was ugly, the kind of early wreck that makes a recapper want to reach into the fridge for something that burns going down.
Eduardo Rodriguez’s struggles in the first inning had been a matter of record, even before tonight. He came in with a first-inning ERA of 6.60, and facing nine batters over the course of a 45-pitch first inning was no help in that area. He was getting ahead of batters, but proved almost clinically unable to put them away. Instead, the Yankees kept on reaching base. A walk to some Goldschmidt guy. A single. Two more walks. Another single. By the time Rodriguez recorded his first out, it was with his 32nd pitch of the inning. There was still time for a wild pitch and two-RBI single, before Eduardo finished striking out the side. Can’t be many innings involving five runs and three strikeouts.
Fast forward to the sixth inning, and E-Rod was somehow still out there. He had staunched the bleeding, but allowed a pair of solo home-runs. One in the third, and one in the sixth, finally ending his night. The line: seven runs, all earned, in 5.1 innings, on five hits and four walks, with five strikeouts. It was the ninth time this year a Diamondback has been charged with seven or more earned runs in an outing, the most for the team since 2016. First time since June 20th though, when somehow we had two pitchers (Zac Gallen and Yilber Diaz) do it in the same game. But the D-backs’ rotation has struggled in September. They are now 1-6 in fifteen starts, with an ERA of 4.80.
After a brief cameo by Taylor Clarke in the sixth, we got to see Zac Gallen make his first appearance out of the bullpen, since the opening three appearances of his professional career, back in 2016 for the rookie league Cardinals. He wasn’t helped by his defense, with errors by Nolan Arenado and Pavin Smith. Though, to be fair, the latter E could probably have gone to Gallen. He seemed surprised to discover that, if you run over to cover first, somebody might throw the ball to you. He ended up allowing two runs, one unearned, over three innings, on two hits and two walks with two K’s. So our most expensive mop-up guy since Jordan Montgomery did at least save the bullpen.
There was a brief flurry of interest in the second inning when Corbin Carroll hit his 22nd home-run of the year (above). That narrowed the gap to 5-2 due to the presence of Geraldo Perdomo on base after a single. But the Diamondbacks wouldn’t actually get an at-bat with a runner in scoring position until the seventh inning. Arenado singled, and Carroll got his second hit, with a hustle double. Of course, pinch-hitter Jose Fernandez struck out, wasting a challenge in the process, and Tim Tawa also K’d. Two other at-bats with RISP in the ninth proved equally unproductive, but going 0-for-4 there tonight was hardly the cause of this defeat.
It was really more to do with Arizona pitchers issuing six walks, four of which came round to score for New York. Meanwhile, our hitters drew just one walk, while striking out eleven times. Perdomo, Arenado and Carroll each had two-hit games, the first-named also getting the only base on balls. Carroll was dropped to seventh in the order tonight. It’s the first time Corbin has started a game that low in the order for over two years (August 29, 2024). Perhaps there’s hope though, since he’s now batting .256 over his last ten games. This is a distinct improvement over the .081 BA in the ten prior to that. Too late for this year, but always good to finish strong.
The Padres won again, because of course they did. They are now in a three-way tie with the Cubs and Phillies, This would be tremendously exciting, if it weren’t for the fact that all that’s really to be decided are the seeding positions for the wild-card spots, because the D-backs are now five games back, with eight to play. Though I do note that the Cubs and Phillies possess worse records in September than the D-backs, both having gone 7-9, compared to Arizona’s 7-8. So are they “choking” as well? Or does that not count? Anyway, the Padres are 12-4, enjoying their own version of 2007’s Rocktober. Pet-tember? I dunno. Figure it out yourself.
Click for details at Fangraphs He drinks a cider drink: Corbin Carroll, +10% Pissin’ the night away: Eduardo Rodriguez, -38%
Yeah, not exactly the way I’d choose to finish my recaps for 2026, a game where our Win Probability was already down to 12% before the second out was recorded. But, hey, them’s the breaks. The killer hippo film will still be there tomorrow, I imagine. Thanks to those who stuck it out in the Gameday Thread. Not exactly a happy one, but there you go. Comment of the night to Justin27, who came up from Tucson with his best friend and her two kids, who got to see their first game at Chase. A salutary reminder, that even the darkest cloud has a silver lining somewhere.
Same two teams tomorrow, with a special celebration to honor the 2001 World Series team. Brandon Pfaadt starts for the D-backs, with a slightly earlier first pitch of 5:10 pm, Arizona time. See you for that. Killer hippos permitting, anyway…
Bottles of Angry Orchard hard cider on the production line at the Boston Beer Co. Samuel Adams brewery in Cincinnati, Ohio, US, on Tuesday, May 14, 2024. The Federal Reserve is scheduled to release Industrial Production figures on May 16. Photographer: Jeffrey Dean/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Record: 80-74. Pace: 84-78. Change on 2025: +3.
Is it too late to bring Angry Orchard on as an official SnakePit sponsor? In sharp contrast to last Friday night cider-cap, where we blasted the Rangers 9-1, tonight was an exercise in Charles Bukowski-esque cirrhosis. By the time the first inning was over, the sky had fallen right through the leaking roof of Chase Field. The Yankees didn’t even have to swing hard to start the bleeding. Walks, a passed ball, and a cheap little bloop single. Then George Lombard Jr. cracked a two-run single into the grass, and the scoreboard already read 5-0. It was ugly, the kind of early wreck that makes a recapper want to reach into the fridge for something that burns going down.
Eduardo Rodriguez’s struggles in the first inning had been a matter of record, even before tonight. He came in with a first-inning ERA of 6.60, and facing nine batters over the course of a 45-pitch first inning was no help in that area. He was getting ahead of batters, but proved almost clinically unable to put them away. Instead, the Yankees kept on reaching base. A walk to some Goldschmidt guy. A single. Two more walks. Another single. By the time Rodriguez recorded his first out, it was with his 32nd pitch of the inning. There was still time for a wild pitch and two-RBI single, before Eduardo finished striking out the side. Can’t be many innings involving five runs and three strikeouts.
Fast forward to the sixth inning, and E-Rod was somehow still out there. He had staunched the bleeding, but allowed a pair of solo home-runs. One in the third, and one in the sixth, finally ending his night. The line: seven runs, all earned, in 5.1 innings, on five hits and four walks, with five strikeouts. It was the ninth time this year a Diamondback has been charged with seven or more earned runs in an outing, the most for the team since 2016. First time since June 20th though, when somehow we had two pitchers (Zac Gallen and Yilber Diaz) do it in the same game. But the D-backs’ rotation has struggled in September. They are now 1-6 in fifteen starts, with an ERA of 4.80.
After a brief cameo by Taylor Clarke in the sixth, we got to see Zac Gallen make his first appearance out of the bullpen, since the opening three appearances of his professional career, back in 2016 for the rookie league Cardinals. He wasn’t helped by his defense, with errors by Nolan Arenado and Pavin Smith. Though, to be fair, the latter E could probably have gone to Gallen. He seemed surprised to discover that, if you run over to cover first, somebody might throw the ball to you. He ended up allowing two runs, one unearned, over three innings, on two hits and two walks with two K’s. So our most expensive mop-up guy since Jordan Montgomery did at least save the bullpen.
There was a brief flurry of interest in the second inning when Corbin Carroll hit his 22nd home-run of the year (above). That narrowed the gap to 5-2 due to the presence of Geraldo Perdomo on base after a single. But the Diamondbacks wouldn’t actually get an at-bat with a runner in scoring position until the seventh inning. Arenado singled, and Carroll got his second hit, with a hustle double. Of course, pinch-hitter Jose Fernandez struck out, wasting a challenge in the process, and Tim Tawa also K’d. Two other at-bats with RISP in the ninth proved equally unproductive, but going 0-for-4 there tonight was hardly the cause of this defeat.
It was really more to do with Arizona pitchers issuing six walks, four of which came round to score for New York. Meanwhile, our hitters drew just one walk, while striking out eleven times. Perdomo, Arenado and Carroll each had two-hit games, the first-named also getting the only base on balls. Carroll was dropped to seventh in the order tonight. It’s the first time Corbin has started a game that low in the order for over two years (August 29, 2024). Perhaps there’s hope though, since he’s now batting .256 over his last ten games. This is a distinct improvement over the .081 BA in the ten prior to that. Too late for this year, but always good to finish strong.
The Padres won again, because of course they did. They are now in a three-way tie with the Cubs and Phillies, This would be tremendously exciting, if it weren’t for the fact that all that’s really to be decided are the seeding positions for the wild-card spots, because the D-backs are now five games back, with eight to play. Though I do note that the Cubs and Phillies possess worse records in September than the D-backs, both having gone 7-9, compared to Arizona’s 7-8. So are they “choking” as well? Or does that not count? Anyway, the Padres are 12-4, enjoying their own version of 2007’s Rocktober. Pet-tember? I dunno. Figure it out yourself.
Click for details at Fangraphs He drinks a cider drink: Corbin Carroll, +10% Pissin’ the night away: Eduardo Rodriguez, -38%
Yeah, not exactly the way I’d choose to finish my recaps for 2026, a game where our Win Probability was already down to 12% before the second out was recorded. But, hey, them’s the breaks. The killer hippo film will still be there tomorrow, I imagine. Thanks to those who stuck it out in the Gameday Thread. Not exactly a happy one, but there you go. Comment of the night to Justin27, who came up from Tucson with his best friend and her two kids, who got to see their first game at Chase. A salutary reminder, that even the darkest cloud has a silver lining somewhere.
Same two teams tomorrow, with a special celebration to honor the 2001 World Series team. Brandon Pfaadt starts for the D-backs, with a slightly earlier first pitch of 5:10 pm, Arizona time. See you for that. Killer hippos permitting, anyway…
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 18: Mookie Betts #50 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates a solo home run with Teoscar Hernández #37, to take a 1-0 lead over the San Francisco Giants, during the first inning at Dodger Stadium on September 18, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The NL West division champion Dodgers (94-60) were not hungover from the champagne celebrations and defeated the rival Giants (64-89) Friday night at Dodger stadium.
The 8-2 victory evoked memories of the “4+1” game on this date 20 years ago when the Dodgers clobbered four home runs in the bottom of the eighth inning including two sets of back-to-back jacks.
Mookie Betts has been locked in at the plate of late. Betts greeted Cesar Perdomo with a leadoff home run to give the Dodgers an early 1-0 lead. He would go on to hit a second home run in the eighth to give him 22 on the season, the most he has hit since 2023.
The Giants answered with a Jung Hoo Lee solo home run against Glasnow to tie the game at a run apiece.
Glasnow continued to miss with his fastball, and the Giants made him work. Two singles, a stolen base, and a walk gave San Francisco a 2-1 lead in the third. Although Glasnow’s fastball command wasn’t the sharpest, he struck out a season-high 10 batters on the night.
Betts got on base for the third time of the night with a single in the fifth inning. Mookie’s hit followed Josue De Paula’s first career hit at Dodger Stadium, a leadoff single. Teoscar Hernández drove in the tying run with the third single of the frame against the rookie left-hander Perdomo.
De Paula impressed in his Dodger Stadium debut. The young phenom drove in the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth inning against the San Francisco bullpen with a ringing double to right field. He went 2-for-3 on the night with two hits and a walk.
The Dodgers put on a show with back-to-back home runs twice in the eighth inning. Max Muncy and Kyle Tucker started the homer fest with two booming back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the eighth against lefty Philip Abner.
The consecutive homers by the Dodgers harkened me back to the 4+1 game on this day in 2006. The Dodgers hit four consecutive home runs in the ninth inning, followed by a walk-off home run for a comeback win against the Padres. That was an electric game 20 years ago, and tonight’s win allowed us to both reminisce about the past and be excited for the upcoming postseason.
Betts hit the third home run of the inning for the Dodgers and the second of the night for the Dodgers shortstop. Then Will Smith followed Mookie with a solo shot of his own for the fourth long ball of the inning to make it 8-2 Dodgers.
It was a perfect opportunity to get Edwin Diaz in the game for the first time in a month. Diaz struck out two and capped off the 8-2 win with a scoreless ninth.
Friday particulars
Home runs: Mookie Betts 2 (22), Max Muncy (29), Kyle Tucker (17), Will Smith (8); Jung Hoo Lee (10)
The Dodgers and Giants battle again Saturday at Dodger Stadium (6:10 p.m., SportsNet LA). Tarik Skubal (10-7, 2.70 ERA, 0.955 WHIP) makes his final regular season start at Dodger Stadium before he pitches for the Dodgers in the postseason.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 18: Mookie Betts #50 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates a solo home run with Teoscar Hernández #37, to take a 1-0 lead over the San Francisco Giants, during the first inning at Dodger Stadium on September 18, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The NL West division champion Dodgers (94-60) were not hungover from the champagne celebrations and defeated the rival Giants (64-89) Friday night at Dodger stadium.
The 8-2 victory evoked memories of the “4+1” game on this date 20 years ago when the Dodgers clobbered four home runs in the bottom of the eighth inning including two sets of back-to-back jacks.
Mookie Betts has been locked in at the plate of late. Betts greeted Cesar Perdomo with a leadoff home run to give the Dodgers an early 1-0 lead. He would go on to hit a second home run in the eighth to give him 22 on the season, the most he has hit since 2023.
The Giants answered with a Jung Hoo Lee solo home run against Glasnow to tie the game at a run apiece.
Glasnow continued to miss with his fastball, and the Giants made him work. Two singles, a stolen base, and a walk gave San Francisco a 2-1 lead in the third. Although Glasnow’s fastball command wasn’t the sharpest, he struck out a season-high 10 batters on the night.
Betts got on base for the third time of the night with a single in the fifth inning. Mookie’s hit followed Josue De Paula’s first career hit at Dodger Stadium, a leadoff single. Teoscar Hernández drove in the tying run with the third single of the frame against the rookie left-hander Perdomo.
De Paula impressed in his Dodger Stadium debut. The young phenom drove in the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth inning against the San Francisco bullpen with a ringing double to right field. He went 2-for-3 on the night with two hits and a walk.
The Dodgers put on a show with back-to-back home runs twice in the eighth inning. Max Muncy and Kyle Tucker started the homer fest with two booming back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the eighth against lefty Philip Abner.
The consecutive homers by the Dodgers harkened me back to the 4+1 game on this day in 2006. The Dodgers hit four consecutive home runs in the ninth inning, followed by a walk-off home run for a comeback win against the Padres. That was an electric game 20 years ago, and tonight’s win allowed us to both reminisce about the past and be excited for the upcoming postseason.
Betts hit the third home run of the inning for the Dodgers and the second of the night for the Dodgers shortstop. Then Will Smith followed Mookie with a solo shot of his own for the fourth long ball of the inning to make it 8-2 Dodgers.
It was a perfect opportunity to get Edwin Diaz in the game for the first time in a month. Diaz struck out two and capped off the 8-2 win with a scoreless ninth.
Friday particulars
Home runs: Mookie Betts 2 (22), Max Muncy (29), Kyle Tucker (17), Will Smith (8); Jung Hoo Lee (10)
The Dodgers and Giants battle again Saturday at Dodger Stadium (6:10 p.m., SportsNet LA). Tarik Skubal (10-7, 2.70 ERA, 0.955 WHIP) makes his final regular season start at Dodger Stadium before he pitches for the Dodgers in the postseason.
Josue De Paula reacts after hitting a go-ahead RBI double in the sixth inning of an 8-2 win over the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium on Friday night. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
With eight games left in the regular season, the Dodgers already have ticked off the most important boxes on their to-do list for the postseason.
They clinched a playoff berth for a record-tying 14th straight season and won the division title for the fifth time in a row. And with Friday’s 8-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants, the Dodgers (94-60) also have an outside shot at their fourth 100-win season in six years.
But that doesn’t mean they don’t have a lot of work to do between now and the playoffs — the most important task being determining exactly where and when they’ll open the postseason.
With Friday’s win and the Milwaukee Brewers’ victory in Baltimore, the Dodgers trail the Brewers by two games in the race for the league’s best record and home-field advantage that goes with it. They also lead the Atlanta Braves by four games for the second-best record, which would give them a first-round bye and an extra five days to get their sizable contingent of walking wounded healthy.
“To get one of these top-two seeds is important. And our guys understand that,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Winning the division is great, but I still think our best baseball is ahead of us.”
Achieving that, however, will require emptying an injury list that is almost as long as the starting lineup. If the season ended today, the Dodgers would have at least seven players who wouldn’t be ready to play.
The Dodgers are hopeful left-hander Blake Snell, who came out of Wednesday’s game after an inning because of groin tightness, will be healthy enough for one more regular-season start.
Center fielder Andy Pages, who shares the team lead in RBIs with Shohei Ohtani despite missing a month because of a fracture in his left hand, is expected to be activated for the series against the San Diego Padres, which begins Tuesday, while backup catcher Dalton Rushing is swinging a bat and will hit against a pitching machine this weekend.
Roki Sasaki threw 48 pitches in a bullpen session Wednesday and could come off the IL next week, but Edgardo Henriquez, second among Dodgers relievers in innings and strikeouts, will miss the rest of the regular season because of a back strain. He could rejoin the team for the playoffs.
Then there’s Ohtani, the four-time most valuable player. He’s dealing with injuries to his left knee and right biceps. He has resumed taking batting practice and is eligible to come off the IL on Wednesday. Roberts hopes to get Ohtani 10 to 12 at-bats before the playoffs.
“I’m just really waiting to hear when he’s going to get on the field, let alone take live BP,” Roberts said. “He’s not there yet. But everything I’ve heard, it’s been a really productive last three to four to five days.”
One player who did return was closer Edwin Díaz. Limited by injuries to 16 appearances in his first season with the Dodgers, he was activated Friday and threw 17 pitches in the ninth, giving up a single and striking out two.
Dodgers reliever Edwin Díaz reacts after the final out of an 8-2 win over the Giants on Friday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
For Roberts, the last month has looked like an episode of “The Pitt,” with medical crises piling up, one atop the other. Yet that’s hardly slowed the Dodgers, who opened their final homestand of the season having won 11 of their last 14 games.
Now the focus becomes continuing that momentum while getting as close to full strength as possible.
“They can go hand in hand,” Roberts said. “We have a lot of good players that are more than capable of helping us win baseball games, at the same time making sure we try to get our best players to optimum health when the postseason starts.”
The Dodgers got a big lift Friday from rookie Josue De Paula, who didn’t figure in their regular-season plans — much less their postseason ones — until a week ago when he was called up to take Ohtani’s place. In his Dodger Stadium debut, De Paula singled and scored on a Teoscar Hernández single in the fifth, then roped a double to the wall in right-center an inning later, scoring Kyle Tucker to put the Dodgers ahead to stay.
Tucker, Max Muncy, Mookie Betts and Will Smith all homered in a five-run eighth inning, turning a nail-biter into a comfortable win. Betts also hit a solo blast in the first.
Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts celebrates after hitting a solo home run in the first inning Friday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“It’s crossed my mind,” De Paula said with a smile when asked if he’s in the discussion for a playoff roster spot. “But I try to focus on the now while I’m here and I’m enjoying every moment.”
“Yeah, he’s in the mix,” Roberts confirmed. “He’s certainly doing a lot of things well.”
All of the scoring helped Tyler Glasnow (5-1) earn his second win since April 23. Glasnow gave up just three hits in six innings, striking out a season-high 10.
Hernández, who had two hits, is batting .368 with 17 RBIs in September; Tucker, who also had two hits, is hitting .424 with five home runs and 13 runs scored in his last 10 games; Betts has six hits in his last eight at-bats, lifting his average to a season-high .254.
That’s helped make up for Freddie Freeman’s struggles. Freeman, who went hitless in four at-bats Friday, striking out twice, has just six hits — and 13 strikeouts — in his last 48 at-bats.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” Roberts said with a sigh before the game.
Josue De Paula reacts after hitting a go-ahead RBI double in the sixth inning of an 8-2 win over the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium on Friday night. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
With eight games left in the regular season, the Dodgers already have ticked off the most important boxes on their to-do list for the postseason.
They clinched a playoff berth for a record-tying 14th straight season and won the division title for the fifth time in a row. And with Friday’s 8-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants, the Dodgers (94-60) also have an outside shot at their fourth 100-win season in six years.
But that doesn’t mean they don’t have a lot of work to do between now and the playoffs — the most important task being determining exactly where and when they’ll open the postseason.
With Friday’s win and the Milwaukee Brewers’ victory in Baltimore, the Dodgers trail the Brewers by two games in the race for the league’s best record and home-field advantage that goes with it. They also lead the Atlanta Braves by four games for the second-best record, which would give them a first-round bye and an extra five days to get their sizable contingent of walking wounded healthy.
“To get one of these top-two seeds is important. And our guys understand that,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Winning the division is great, but I still think our best baseball is ahead of us.”
Achieving that, however, will require emptying an injury list that is almost as long as the starting lineup. If the season ended today, the Dodgers would have at least seven players who wouldn’t be ready to play.
The Dodgers are hopeful left-hander Blake Snell, who came out of Wednesday’s game after an inning because of groin tightness, will be healthy enough for one more regular-season start.
Center fielder Andy Pages, who shares the team lead in RBIs with Shohei Ohtani despite missing a month because of a fracture in his left hand, is expected to be activated for the series against the San Diego Padres, which begins Tuesday, while backup catcher Dalton Rushing is swinging a bat and will hit against a pitching machine this weekend.
Roki Sasaki threw 48 pitches in a bullpen session Wednesday and could come off the IL next week, but Edgardo Henriquez, second among Dodgers relievers in innings and strikeouts, will miss the rest of the regular season because of a back strain. He could rejoin the team for the playoffs.
Then there’s Ohtani, the four-time most valuable player. He’s dealing with injuries to his left knee and right biceps. He has resumed taking batting practice and is eligible to come off the IL on Wednesday. Roberts hopes to get Ohtani 10 to 12 at-bats before the playoffs.
“I’m just really waiting to hear when he’s going to get on the field, let alone take live BP,” Roberts said. “He’s not there yet. But everything I’ve heard, it’s been a really productive last three to four to five days.”
One player who did return was closer Edwin Díaz. Limited by injuries to 16 appearances in his first season with the Dodgers, he was activated Friday and threw 17 pitches in the ninth, giving up a single and striking out two.
Dodgers reliever Edwin Díaz reacts after the final out of an 8-2 win over the Giants on Friday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
For Roberts, the last month has looked like an episode of “The Pitt,” with medical crises piling up, one atop the other. Yet that’s hardly slowed the Dodgers, who opened their final homestand of the season having won 11 of their last 14 games.
Now the focus becomes continuing that momentum while getting as close to full strength as possible.
“They can go hand in hand,” Roberts said. “We have a lot of good players that are more than capable of helping us win baseball games, at the same time making sure we try to get our best players to optimum health when the postseason starts.”
The Dodgers got a big lift Friday from rookie Josue De Paula, who didn’t figure in their regular-season plans — much less their postseason ones — until a week ago when he was called up to take Ohtani’s place. In his Dodger Stadium debut, De Paula singled and scored on a Teoscar Hernández single in the fifth, then roped a double to the wall in right-center an inning later, scoring Kyle Tucker to put the Dodgers ahead to stay.
Tucker, Max Muncy, Mookie Betts and Will Smith all homered in a five-run eighth inning, turning a nail-biter into a comfortable win. Betts also hit a solo blast in the first.
Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts celebrates after hitting a solo home run in the first inning Friday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“It’s crossed my mind,” De Paula said with a smile when asked if he’s in the discussion for a playoff roster spot. “But I try to focus on the now while I’m here and I’m enjoying every moment.”
“Yeah, he’s in the mix,” Roberts confirmed. “He’s certainly doing a lot of things well.”
All of the scoring helped Tyler Glasnow (5-1) earn his second win since April 23. Glasnow gave up just three hits in six innings, striking out a season-high 10.
Hernández, who had two hits, is batting .368 with 17 RBIs in September; Tucker, who also had two hits, is hitting .424 with five home runs and 13 runs scored in his last 10 games; Betts has six hits in his last eight at-bats, lifting his average to a season-high .254.
That’s helped make up for Freddie Freeman’s struggles. Freeman, who went hitless in four at-bats Friday, striking out twice, has just six hits — and 13 strikeouts — in his last 48 at-bats.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” Roberts said with a sigh before the game.
