Category: Sports News

Bye-bye bye.

Hello, Dodger bullpen.

It was all so familiar. It was all so infuriating. It was the 2025 season boiled down into three hours of roars, then screams, then sighs.

The gasping, grappling Dodgers needed a three-game sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies this week to have any chance at a first-round bye in the upcoming playoffs.

One game down, and their bullpen has already suffocated them.

They’re not going to get the bye. They couldn’t survive Philly’s first punch. It was the same old story. The Dodgers’ continually vexing relief pitchers gave back a two-run lead, ruined two ensuing comebacks and then were burned for a 10th inning double steal that led to the winning run in the Phillies’ 6-5 victory.

In a scene reminiscent of past October failures, a mournful Dodger Stadium crowd witnessed the Phillies dancing out of their dugout and squeezing into souvenir T-shirts and loudly celebrating on the field after clinching the National League East title.

In a scene also reminiscent of past October failures, just a few steps from the party, the Dodgers clubhouse was deathly quiet.

Read more:Dodgers fall to Phillies in extra innings, hindering their playoff bye chances

Max Muncy was asked about the bullpen, which allowed all six Phillies’ runs Monday, including three homers.

“That’s a tough question,” he said.

He attempted to answer it anyway, saying, “It’s frustrating from a team perspective, but they’ve done a great job for us all year and they’ll continue to do a great job.”

Sorry, but there is no spinning out of this mess. This is not a championship bullpen. This is not even a pennant-winning bullpen. This bullpen has been overworked and outmatched and simply outplayed all season, and when the Dodger front office had a chance to fix it at the trade deadline, they did virtually nothing.

It’s everyone’s fault. It’s an organizational failure. This bullpen is going to be the death of them. The slow expiration officially started Monday.

Fueled by fat pitches from Anthony Banda and Jack Dreyer and Alex Vesia and Blake Treinen, the Dodgers suffered a loss that may well have ended their hopes of defending their title.

Now trailing the Phillies by 5 ½ games with a dozen games to play, there’s virtually no way the Dodgers can pass them and finish with the National League’s second-best record, which means instead of getting a week off they are headed for a dangerous three-game wild card series.

If they win the West over the San Diego Padres — no guarantee — they will play those three games at home. If they finish second in the West, they will play those three games on the road.

Read more:Will Shohei Ohtani boost the bullpen in the playoffs? Dodgers weigh complex options

Either way, a team with a cooked bullpen and a sore-handed star catcher and all kinds of uncertainty surrounding their rotation won’t get the advantage of a much-needed rest.

"We want the bye, obviously,” Freddie Freeman told reporters last weekend.

It’s strangely not so obvious to everyone. Throughout the next two weeks there will undoubtedly be experts who will make the argument that the Dodgers don’t really want or need a bye week because it robs the team of its routine and rhythm.

Don’t be a dummy.

The Dodgers were desperate for that bye. The Dodgers knew they needed that bye. They knew they needed to rest the relievers, set up a Shohei Ohtani-led rotation, and give Will Smith’s right hand time to heal.

Yes, the bye week bewitched them in 2022 and 2023, when the offense lost its swagger and the Dodgers were beaten in two stunning division series upsets by the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks.

But, then again, they earned the bye last year and you know how that ended up.

They needed to pass the Phillies. And they needed to start that process this week, as the Phillies’ remaining schedule includes a closing six-game stretch against the Miami Marlins and Minnesota Twins.

Read more:Q&A: Here’s what’s at stake for the Dodgers over the final two weeks

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is understandably steering clear of the bye-no bye debate, telling the media, “We’re gonna try to win as many games as we can. ... Where it falls out is where is falls out. ... I don’t think it matters for me to say how important it is. … I kind of just want to win games and see where it all plays out.”

Here’s how it — ugh — played out Monday:

Banda starts the game as an opener and allows a shot into the right-center field stands by Kyle Schwarber.

Dreyer enters the game with a two-run lead in the seventh and allows a two-run homer to somebody named Weston Wilson.

Vesia allows a go-ahead homer by Bryce Harper in the eighth.

Treinen doesn’t hold the runners on base in the 10th, allows a double steal, and JT Realmuto hits the eventual game-winning fly ball.

“I had the guys that I wanted, and that doesn’t always work out,” said Roberts.

It feels like it’s too late to work out.

“Trying to see which guys step up,” said Roberts. “Just gonna try to figure out who’s going to seize the opportunity.”

On Monday night, the opportunity seized them, dragging them into a three-game series that could cost them everything.

Tough to beat a wild card opponent with a bullpen that folds.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Chris Sutton believes Rangers' players are operating in a "toxic" environment amid the club's current struggles, calling head coach Russell Martin position "horrific".

Martin, appointed in the summer, has won three of his 12 games and Rangers have not won in their past five fixtures.

"I've got sympathy for him," said former Celtic forward Sutton. "I feel sorry for some of the players. I really, really do.

"You just don't get time in Glasgow. It's all about winning. It's turning ugly. It's a really difficult place to play. The environment to play in, it is toxic.

"The problem that the Rangers hierarchy have... These were the guys who hung their hat on Russell Martin. They keep backing him.

"I don't think he's helped himself, he told everybody the players are scared. That's the Rangers manager telling every other club in Scotland that his players are playing with fear. That's on him. Why would you do that?"

Sutton, like Martin, is a former Norwich City player and suspects supporters will stop attending Rangers matches.

"Unless he goes on an incredible run, Rangers fans, from what I'm hearing, they're just not going to rock up and watch the team," Sutton added on the BBC's Football Daily podcast. "They won't fill the stadium. They are so disillusioned.

"This has turned so ugly, so quickly. The start was so important for Russell Martin. He doesn't have any real allies other than the people who employed him.

"Nobody else at the club wants him to stay. In a short space of time, that's a horrific position for him to be in."

Philadelphia came to Los Angeles having already clinched a playoff berth. With Monday’s 6-5 extra-inning win over the Dodgers they added a division title to that collection, one they celebrated in the center of the Dodger Stadium infield, then with champagne in the tiny visitors’ clubhouse.

The Dodgers are zeroing in on a playoff berth and division title of their own. So the chances are high the teams will meet again in the postseason, which makes this week’s series a great opportunity to do a little scouting.

“We try to gather as much information as we can,” infielder Miguel Rojas said. “They're doing the same thing.”

That’s not the main objective though. Because if the Dodgers are closing in the postseason, they aren’t there yet. And they have even more work to do after Monday’s game, which ended with Philadelphia’s J.T. Realmuto’s 10th-inning sacrifice fly scoring ghost runner Harrison Bader from third with the winning run.

“With where we're at, I'm trying to win every game,” said manager Dave Roberts, whose team fought back from deficits three times before losing. “And where it falls out is where it falls out.”

One of the things that both sides surely learned Monday is that the Dodger bullpen is still far from being playoff ready. Because after Emmet Sheehan held the Phillies to one hit over 5⅔ innings, striking out seven, he watched a quartet of relievers combine to give up four runs — three on homer runs — over the next four.

“It's frustrating, just from a team perspective,” third baseman Max Muncy said of a bullpen that has blown 24 saves and ranks fourth in the National League with 30 losses.

It’s unlikely to cost the Dodgers another trip to the postseason. Even with Monday’s loss, they are two games in front of idle San Diego in the National League West with 12 games to play and their magic number for clinching an 11th division title in 12 seasons is 10.

Read more:Will Shohei Ohtani boost the bullpen in the playoffs? Dodgers weigh complex options

The magic number to clinch a wild-card berth is six.

The Dodgers have also been eyeing the No. 2 seed in the postseason tournament, however, a spot Philadelphia holds and one that brings with it a bye in the first round. It’s a break Roberts’ battered roster could use, but it’s one that may now be impossible to grasp: Monday’s win pushed the Phillies’ lead to 5½ games in the race for No. 2, a deficit the Dodgers have less than two weeks to make up.

“It’s really hard to not face these games down the stretch like a playoff game,” Rojas said. “We've been doing this for almost two weeks now. That's the way that we have to look at it if we want to be prepared for October.”

Those preparations were uneven at best Monday. At the plate, the Dodgers fought back from deficits three times to send the game to extra innings on Andy Pages’ solo homer with one out in the ninth. But they also went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and, after Muncy grounded out with the bases loaded in the 10^th, they left nine men on base. That erased a big game from Mookie Betts, who drove in three runs on two sacrifice flies and a game-tying homer in the seventh.

That gave him 19 RBIs in September and his 78 for the season, three better than his total from all of last year. But that wasn’t enough to overcome another bullpen meltdown.

Sheehan followed opener Anthony Banda to the mound, taking the ball three batters in the game with the Phillies already leading 1-0 on Kyle Schwarber’s league-leading 53^rd home run. Sheehan left with a 3-1 lead after giving up his only hit, a leadoff double to Otto Kemp in the seventh. But three batters later the Phillies had a 4-3 lead after Weston Wilson, the Phillies No. 9 hitter, homered off Jack Dreyer.

The Dodgers rallied to tie the game twice after that but each time the bullpen gave the lead back, the final run coming in the 10^th on Realmuto’s game-winning fly ball to right off right-hander Blake Treinen (1-5).

Asked if the series will show the Dodgers anything that can use if they face the Phillies again next month, Muncy shook his head.

Read more:Q&A: Here’s what’s at stake for the Dodgers over the final two weeks

“Personally, I don't necessarily think so,” said Muncy, who third-inning homer, his first since returning from the injured list as week ago, opened the Dodgers’ scoring. “We've done that in the past. We've played teams right before we've seen them in the postseason and usually they do everything complete[ly] opposite.

“Right now, you're just trying to win a game. You're not really worried about what's ahead.”

Notes

Reliever Brock Stewart, the Dodgers’ most-celebrated acquisition at the trade deadline, left Monday to join Oklahoma City for a two-game rehab assignment. Stewart, on the injured list since Aug. 12 with right shoulder inflammation, is expected to pitch Tuesday and Thursday in Triple A before returning to Dodger Stadium.

“If all goes well, then we have a conversation over the weekend,” Roberts said of Stewart’s availability. “We’ve just got to make sure he's healthy. If he's right, then it could be very additive.”

For the second straight year Betts has been chosen as the Dodgers’ nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, baseball’s most prestigious off-the-field prize, in recognition for his wide-ranging charity work.

In January, Betts’ 5050 Foundation donated more than $30,000 of Nike clothing to victims of the Southern California wildfires. A few weeks later, in partnership with the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF), he donated more than $160,000 to the Brotherhood Crusade to help fight hunger and homelessness in Los Angeles.

Also this season the 5050 Foundation partnered with the Obama Foundation at Hyde Park Academy to donate youth sports equipment and other supplies while also funding the Mookie Betts Metro Baseball Tournament in Nashville.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Dodgers are planning to use Shohei Ohtani as a starting pitcher in the playoffs, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman confirmed Monday.

That doesn’t mean, however, that there aren’t certain scenarios in which he could also come out of the bullpen, as well.

“Things play out in October that you can’t foresee,” Friedman said before Monday’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies — shortly after, coincidentally, catching up with new Phillies signing and ex-Dodgers favorite Walker Buehler, who made three starts in the Dodgers’ rotation last postseason before emerging for a title-clinching save in Game 5 of the Fall Classic.

“Walker Buehler was a starting pitcher for us last year, and finished out Game 5 of the World Series,” Friedman noted. “So you never know how things are going to play out.”

Read more:Q&A: Here’s what’s at stake for the Dodgers over the final two weeks

The possibility of Ohtani pitching in relief has been percolating for the last several weeks. Pitching coach Mark Prior said he could “absolutely” envision it during an appearance on the "Dan Patrick Show" last month. Manager Dave Roberts has more recently reiterated that the conversation regarding Ohtani’s postseason pitching role remains open as the regular season winds down.

“Could it change down the road in the postseason? Possibly,” Roberts said Sunday when pressed on the topic again. “But right now we see him as a starter.”

Friedman largely echoed that sentiment Monday, a day before Ohtani was set for his next scheduled start in a pivotal series against the Phillies (who entered this week’s visit to Dodger Stadium 4 ½ games ahead of the Dodgers for the No. 2 seed in the National League standings, and the first-round bye that comes with it).

Friedman praised Ohtani, who has returned from a second-career Tommy John surgery this year with a 3.75 ERA and 49 strikeouts over 36 innings, as “one of the best starters in the National League.”

He said the team’s expectation is that the right-hander “will impact us as a starting pitcher” in the playoffs — even though Ohtani might not pitch much past the fifth inning of games (the limit he has been held to in his recent regular season starts) and won’t be asked to make consecutive starts on normal four days of rest (he has gotten at least five days off between each of his outings this year).

“No one is taking on more than [he is with the] pitching and also hitting and running the bases,” Friedman said. “So just trying to be cognizant of that.”

However, pitching out of the bullpen in some specific, late-game situations could remain on the table.

Like Buehler last year, and Clayton Kershaw in many Octobers before that, a long postseason run would likely offer opportunities for the Dodgers to use Ohtani as a reliever in the days between his starts — perhaps in potential close-out games or on nights when the back end of the team’s struggling bullpen is low on other trustworthy options.

Read more:Hernández: How Shohei Ohtani drove himself to become a first-time World Series champion

Ohtani does have memorable personal experience in such a role, having recorded the final outs of Team Japan’s victory in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

When looking ahead to this postseason, Friedman did not close the door on that possibility either; even though he said his focus has remained on navigating the final two weeks of the regular season first.

“We’re expecting him to be a starter for us,” Friedman said, “and depending on everything else, we’ll figure out where to go from there.”

Of course, Ohtani’s two-way status would add extra complications to any potential bullpen plans.

There are logistical questions — like how he would warm up if his spot in the batting order comes up the inning before he’s supposed to take the mound.

And then there is a technical dilemma — with MLB’s two-way rules having been written in a way that, if Ohtani were to enter the game as a reliever, the Dodgers would lose him as a designated hitter once he exits the mound.

“Once you fire him … and you decide to come out of it, you have to take that cost of losing the DH and losing him as a hitter,” Roberts said. “You got to be willing to take the chance.”

That reality might restrict Ohtani to pitching only out of the bullpen in the ninth inning of games, and could make the Dodgers more hesitant to use Ohtani in relief at all for fear of what would happen if a game extended past the end of his outing.

"I think they missed the mark with it,” Friedman said when asked if he was frustrated by the language of the two-way rule; which was enacted by MLB several years ago in response to Ohtani’s emergence as a two-way star, but only allows him to remain in the game as a hitter after he exits pitching starts, specifically.

“I think the rule was put in place to try to encourage people to do it, to incentivize people," Friedman said. "So yeah, I think they missed.”

Friedman noted he’d liked to see the rule eventually changed to also include relief appearances, but acknowledged “that's more of an offseason, future thing.”

“Obviously,” he added, “it's not reasonable for us to ask for that in-season.”

Read more:'Really impressed.' Shohei Ohtani's return to two-way role going (mostly) well a month in

Thus, for now, the Dodgers will continue to weigh the complex pros and cons of how to use Ohtani’s arm once they reach October.

His current weekly pitching schedule has Ohtani lined up to throw in Game 1 of a potential wild card series, which will begin exactly two weeks from his Tuesday night start against the Phillies (though Friedman insisted that wasn’t intentional).

Whether his services are needed, even in narrowly conceivable circumstances, out of the bullpen beyond that remains to be seen — with the Dodgers continuing to leave that possibility open for now.

“I think so much of it is, when does he start? What’s that time off in-between? How lined up are our other starters?” Friedman said.

“Until we know that, it's hard to get too much into it."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.