Game 155 Thread: September 20 vs. Giants, 6p

I'd open this, but I'm afraid of its fragility.

Tyler Glasnow (3-3, 3.06) vs. Kai-Wei Teng (2-4, 6.41).

Okay so we've won two games against the Giants, allowing the Dodgers to clinch a 13th straight postseason berth and also open up a four-game lead on the Padres in the NL West, with eight games to play. The rest of this season becomes a final exam for who should make the postseason lineup.

Michael Kopech has already missed the cut. Justin Wrobleski, who gave up another run yesterday (over 1.1 IP), looks like he can't hold form over consecutive days, which is what we'll need for the playoffs.

Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott are on the bubble, though Yates had a three-up-three-down inning on Friday, while Tanner Scott had another shaky (albeit 2 K) inning to get the save.

I say, let's rest Glasnow early (a prudnet move, given his penchant for injuries), and just trot these bullpen arms out and see how they perform. We'd better learn now.

Game 154 Thread: September 19 vs. Giants, 7p

Clayton Kershaw (222-96, 2.54) vs. Robbie Ray.

Tonight is Joe Davis Bobblehead Night at Dodger Stadium. However, the publicity-hogging Clayton Kershaw decided to make his big retirement announcement yesterday, and with his final regular-season start at Dodger Stadium this evening, Kershaw has now completely eclipsed Davis' moment in the spotlight.

Davis, who has been the Los Angeles Dodgers' main play-by-play announcer since 2017 (after joining the Dodgers broadcasting team in 2016), took over for Vin Scully. He calls about 90 games per season for the Dodgers, since he is constrained by his other jobs calling national baseball and football games.

It's kind of sad that Davis is getting totally overshadowed by a guy who only started 20 games and has only 102 innings this year (to be fair, the 102 innings rank third on the team, and the 20 games started ranks second). But I guess tonight's sellout crowd that surely came to show their love for Davis will have to spare a little bit of gratitude for Kershaw.

I mean, 11x All-Star, 2x World Series Champion, 2014 NL MVP, 3x Cy Young Award, no-hitter--Kershaw is still the most important and legendary pitcher for the Dodgers franchise, sure. I'll give Kid K that.

Game 153 Thread: September 18 vs. Giants, 7p

Yoshinobu Yamamoto (11-8, 2.66) vs. Logan Webb (14-10, 3.34).

Blake Snell figured out how to optimize the Dodgers bullpen in yesterday's 5-0 victory: He wouldn't let any relievers into the game, at least not in a critical seventh inning with two on and two out, nursing a three-run lead. With the tying run, Otto Kemp, at the plate, Snell rejected Dave Roberts' attempt to bring in a reliever--Alex Vesia had actually left the bullpen, only to turn tack and leave the field of play--and stuck in the game to get Kemp to strike out and maintain the shutout through seven full frames.

In the eighth inning, Shohei Ohtani added a solo home run (his 51st this season), and Tommy Edman added a sacrifice fly, to expand the margin to 5-0. And Vesia did pitch a scoreless eighth inning, and even Tanner Scott had a scoreless inning in the ninth.

So we finally beat the Phillies (though we lost the series), and now we have four games against the Giants in our last homestand of the year. We're 5.5 games out of the #2 playoff seed, so that's not going to happen. But with ten games left in this season, we hold a two-game lead on the Padres for the divisional lead.

Meanwhile, the Giants are two games out of the last wild card spot--behind the Diamondbacks, but still not dead yet. Let's get some wins here, keep pace in the division, and banish the Giants.

UPDATE: I'll be at the Stadium tonight!

Game 152 Thread: September 17 vs. Phillies, 7p

Blake Snell vs. Jesus Luzardo.

That photo up above, my dear friends, is the Dodgers Bullpen Trust Tree, where all branches basically lie in ruin on the ground. With their second straight implosion last night, spoiling Shohei Ohtani's five no-hit inning start, the Dodgers bullpen has clearly demonstrated (against a playoff-bound team) that there are no pieces on which Dave Roberts can rely.

Justin Wrobleski, Edgardo Henriquez, and Blake Treinen all shit the bed last night. Anthony Banda, Jack Dreyer, and Alex Vesia all shit the bed Monday night. Tanner Scott has shit the bed so many times all year long, his bed has to be an absolutely toxic pig sty. Hopefully he's got a washable mattress protector.

And in both nights' losses, the bullpen has squandered leads, and comeback dramatics, to ultimately lose the game.

I'm not even going to get into the fact that the bullpen has recently screwed no-hit bids from both of our Japanese starting pitchers. At this stage, Roki Sasaki has to be wondering if he even wants to make it back to The Show, given the clowns that would follow after him.

And it's not like we've got starters who will go deep into games. We're just not built that way. Look at tonight's starter, for example.

An Anonymous Bob Redford Tribute

From the our anonymous poet:

Game 151 Thread: Sept 16 vs. Phillies, 7p

Ohtani (1-1, 3.75) vs. Sanchez (13-5, 2.57).

Last night, we lost in extra innings, despite heroics from Emmet Sheehan, Mookie Betts, and Andy Pages, mostly because our bullpen repeatedly failed us and gave up leads in multiple innings.

But the other disaster (and unfortunately, this one could have been avoided) was batting Teoscar Hernandez third in the lineup. Teo, who has been lost for most of the season and basically all of the second half, went 0-for-4 with 2 Ks, and squashed Dodgers rallies in the second, fifth, and seventh innings (making the third and final out in all four of his plate appearances).

I love Teoscar's energy and enthusiasm, his sunflower seed showers, and his unwavering support of teammates. I wouldn't sit him, as we need him to get his swing back. But I sure as hell wouldn't bat him third, either.

Come on, Doc.

Game 150 Thread: Sept.15 vs. Phillies, 7p

Emmet Sheehan (6-3, 3.32) vs. Ranger Suarez (12-6, 2.77).

A four-and-a-half game lead in the playoff standings, with only 13 games to go, is just too much for the Dodgers to make up, right? If we remain in the #3 playoff spot (as the divisional winner with the worst record), it means we'll play in the Wild Card round, against the Mets (or possibly the Giants, Diamondbacks, or Reds)--none of which are really great first-round opponents, especially in a short best-of-three series.

Bill Shaikin of the LAT reminisces that having a first-round bye didn't work so well for us in 2022 and 2023, though in 2024 we had a bye and barely eked out the NLDS victory. But Andrew Friedman, in a very confusing quote, still prefers we get the first-round bye:

“There is not a question in my mind that that does not make sense,” Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, told me last week. “It is better for your World Series odds to not play those three games.”

The five days off that come with a bye can disrupt the timing of hitters. They also can allow time for injured and weary players to recover — that could be critical for Dodgers catcher Will Smith, in particular — and for the Dodgers to arrange their starting rotation just the way they might like it. And, of course, you can’t be eliminated in the first round if you don’t play in it.

Taking the long view: if the Dodgers follow-up their pre-season juggernaut coronation with entering the playoffs as the worst divisional winner, one has to register this as a disappointment.

Maybe that's a big enough chip on the shoulder to motivate the Dodgers (who won the weekend series by dominating the last two games, but still slept through Friday's disappointing walk-off loss to the Giants).

Or maybe I'm just looking too far ahead.

Game 149 Thread: Sept. 14 @ Giants, 1p

Tyler Glasnow (2-3, 3.21) vs. Robbie Ray (11-6, 3.32).

I'm so late in putting up this Game Thread, I can also add the lineup here in the post:

• 1 Ohtani DH
• 2 Betts SS
• 3 T Hernandez RF
• 4 Freeman 1B
• 5 Edman CF
• 6 Call LF
• 7 Rojas 2B
• 8 K Hernandez 3B
• 9 Rortvedt C

Ben Rortvedt already has 8 RBI, almost 1/3 of what Kiké Hernandez has this whole season. Why is Kiké in the starting lineup today? I thought we would want to try and win this series.

Game 148 Thread: Sept. 13 @ Giants, 6p

Clayton Kershaw (10-2, 3.27) vs. Logan Webb (14-9, 3.12).

How about we don't use Tanner Scott today?

Game 147 Thread: Sept. 12 @ Giants, 7.15p

Yoshinobu Yamamoto (11-8, 2.72) vs. Justin Verlander (3-10, 4.09).

The Giants, left for dead after picking up the clubhouse cancer that is Rafael Devers (and subsequently trading away decent players at the deadline), have strangely surged back into third place in the NL West, and sit only 1.5 games back of the Mets for the last-wild card spot (the Reds share the Giants' 74-72 record). Devers, who now has played in almost the same number of 2025 games with both Boston and San Francisco, has a much lower WAR with SF (1.7 vs. 2.2 with Boston), but is still a formidable hitter with a .824 OPS / 136 OPS+ (vs. a .905 OPS / 149 OPS+, the latter of which was a career high).

We have seven games against San Francisco this season, starting with this one, and you just know Oyster Pubes would love nothing more than seeing the rival Dodgers roll over and play dead, like they did in most of July and August. Giants homer Grant Brisbee just posted a piece that basically called the Dodgers a disappointment, whose mortality this season has been exposed by aging veterans and insufficient young guns from the farm system.

Speaking of the Dodgers' young guns, Yoshinobu Yamamoto may come into this game salty. He was denied a no-hitter in his last start, cruelly losing the last out to a potentially-catchable fly ball to center that was met with little defensive effort on the part of Andy Pages. The center-field angles in Birdshit Park are equally precarious, so I'm hoping Pages has had some time to shag some balls out there this morning.

Oh, man. This is gonna be bad.

Post-Game 146 Thread: Curb Your Enhusiasm

DODGERS 9, ROCKIES 0

The Dodgers have now won four games in a row, following Wednesday's victory over Colorado, extending their NL West divisional lead back to three games over the Padres, and pundits are already coronating the Dodgers after one full rotation of solid starts:

[Wednesday Dodgers starter Blake] Snell put the finishing touches on a stellar turn through the Dodgers' rotation. Here's how the others fared leading up to Wednesday:

• Friday, Shohei Ohtani: 3 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 5 K, 1 BB
• Saturday, Yoshinobu Yamamoto: 8 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 10 K, 2 BB
• Sunday, Clayton Kershaw: 5 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 8 K, 1 BB
• Monday, Tyler Glasnow: 7 IP, 1 ER, 0 H, 11 K, 2 BB
• Tuesday, Emmet Sheehan: 7 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 9 K, 1 BB

And then Snell on Wednesday went 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 11 K, 2 BB.

But before we ge too excited here, let's just remember that our opponent the last three games was the Colorado Rockies, 40-106 on the year, who are getting outscored by opponents at a historic clip unseen in the modern era:

Through Tuesday, the Rockies have been collectively outscored by their opponents, 922-545. Their overall run differential of minus-377 would be the worst ever in the modern era, which began in 1901.

Barring a miraculous turnaround, they will shatter the current mark that has stood for more than nine decades: minus-349, a badge of ignominy set by the Boston Red Sox in 1932.

Oh, and Saturday's Yamamoto start, with 8.2 IP of no-hit ball? Yeah, that was the game where the last-place Orioles took Blake Treinen and Tanner Scott behind the woodshed, in a game we ended up losing when Baltimore scored four in the ninth inning with two out, walking it off.

And Friday? That was another walkoff victory for the Orioles, when Samuel Basallo took Tanner Scott yard to win the game. Scott also came in for Monday's game and gave up a leadoff double to Ryan Ritter of the Rockies, nursing a 3-1 lead, and barely escaped that one, as well.

And even last night, Michael Kopech walked the bases loaded in the seventh, causing the recently-activated Alex Vesia to come in to escape the jam, before Mookie Betts and company opened up the five-run eighth inning.

Our starters, many of whom were injured for some if not all of the year, remain untested. Our bullpen has a trust tree that is more like a full-but-floppy-branched balsam fir rather than a sturdy Douglas fir.

Our lineup, buoyed by the resurgent Mookie Betts (and to a lesser extent, Miguel Rojas), seems to be getting hot, especially with Teoscar Hernandez finally showing signs of life? But Andy Pages and Kiké Hernandez are still swinging after stupid pitches; Max Muncy and Tommy Edman are just back from extended IL stints; and even Freddie Freeman seems like he has cooled off (not to mention, Will Smith is struggling with a hand bruise).

The next ten games include seven against the Giants, fighting for their playoff lives and only two games behind the Mets for the last wild-card spot; and the Phillies, who have a four-game advantage on us for the #2 playoff spot and a first-round bye.

This Dodgers team has some bright spots. But they are still nothing like the dominant juggernaut predicted in the beginning of the season. So let's not let a sweep fo the majors' worst team get us too excited. Really.

Game 146 Thread: Sept. 10 vs. Rockies, 7p

Blake Snell (3-4, 3.19) vs. Kyle Freeland (4-14, 5.10).

It's the return of "Snellzilla" to the mound, who has not been that impressive in his last three games (all losses), including his most-recent egg, a 5.0 IP, 9 H, 5 ER dud against Pittsburgh. Even the Rockies aren't afraid of this starting pitcher, not when they know his kryptonite is just getting through the order a third time.

Roar.

Game 145 Thread: Sept. 9 vs. Rockies, 7p

Emmet Sheehan (5-3, 3.59) vs. Germán Márquez (3-12, 6.19).

Die Dodgers haben zwei Spiele in Folge gewonnen. Können sie es schaffen, drei Spiele in Folge gegen German zu gewinnen?

Game 144 Thread: Sept. 8 vs. Rockies, 7p

TBD Tyler Glasnow vs. Chase Dollander (2-12, 6.77).

Instead of using this home stretch to iron out any lingering nits as we gear up for the playoffs, the Dodgers are playing for their lives in these final 20 games. Key questions abound: Why is Michael Conforto still allowed to take at bats with his .197 BA and -0.7 WAR? Why should Tanner Scott ever touch the ball in the late innings? Why are we carrying Kiké Hernandez on our regular season roster when he is only good in the playoffs?

Maybe we can use this series against the Rockies to answer some of these questions definitively. But given it's a last-place team, and we went 1-5 against Pittsburgh and Baltimore last week--I'm guessing we're going to play just as poorly this series.

Which will lead to even more questions.

I'm hoping we don't suffer from the weight of the Rox today.

Game 143 Thread: Sep 7 @ O's, 10.30a

Clayton Kershaw vs. Tomoyuki Sugano.

This season is a disaster.

Game 142 Thread: September 6 @ Orioles, 4p

Yamamoto vs. Rogers.

A couple of days ago, I sacked up and dropped $30 for a month of SNLA+ so I could actually watch this Dodgers team that I love. (I was watching them through another (legal, mind you) streaming service earlier this year, but now needed to get SNLA+, so I dropped the coin. I figured, $30 for roughly 30 games--basically, $1/game investment.

After last night's Tanner Scott debacle, the latest in a long string of soul-crushing disappointments from our high-priced offseason addition, I feel totally ripped off. Sure, the bullpen was otherwise pretty good, with Shohei Ohtani and team covering for Tyler Glasnow's ouchie. And the Dodgers' offense was shitty again, leaving 8 on base and going 0-for-5 with RISP.

But Tanner Scott is a steaming pile of shit this year.

As is Michael Conforto.

For the love of god, stop playing these two black holes. There's only 21 more games. There's no more time to fuck around.

I could have used that $30 elsewhere.

Game 141 Thread: Sept. 5 @ Orioles, 4p

Tyler Glasnow (1-3, 3.41) vs. Krispy Kremer (9-10, 4.52).

The Dodgers' play has been downright disgusting of late, as we just dropped all three games to the last-place Pirates (who are the fourth-worst team in the National League). But wait--that disgust extends to the Padres as well, who just dropped three straight to the last-place Orioles (who are the fourth-worst team in the American League).

So the Dodgers go into Camden Yards where the birds are strangely hot, and the Padres...go to Colorado, which has been ice cold all year long.

At least the Dodgers can count on Michael C0nf0rt0 to stay ice cold!

Game 140 Thread: Sept 4 @ Pirates, 3.40p

Blake Snell (3-3, 2.41) vs. Paul Skenes (9-9, 2.05).

In yesterday's pathetic game (a 3-0 road loss), the Dodgers had bases loaded with none out in the second, and didn't score. Then they again had bases loaded in the fourth inning, and again didn't score. In fact, they went 0-for-7 with 10 LOB, and didn't score all game. And there you have it: a series loss to a last-place team, thanks to minimal RISP effort from the bottom of our lineup.

Much "credit" can be given to Andy Pages, 0-for-4 with 2 Ks, at least one of which was way out of the zone; Teoscar Hernandez, 0-for-4; Alex Freeland, 0-for-3 with a K; and Kiké Hernandez, 0-for-3 with a K. Pages' decision-making at the plate is incredibly frustrating to watch.

Alex Freeland is batting .190 with a .601 OPS / 69 OPS+ (0.2 WAR). Kiké Hernandez is batting .197 with a .605 OPS / 68 OPS+ (-0.3 WAR).

There's one school of thought that the Dodgers are just "pushing too hard." Possibly. But it's equally plausible that the Dodgers are not pushing at all; at least, the stats on the field from everyone 5-9 in the order certainly play that out. It seems like Nobody Wants This 2025 World Series title.

The only silver lining is that the Padres, losers of four straight (and swept by the Orioles!), also don't seem to want to win. We're still 2.5 games ahead of them in the West, and two games behind Philadelphia for the first-round playoff bye. The latter of which, we certainly don't deserve.

Game 139 Thread: Sept 3 @ Pirates, 3.40p

If this game is like yesterday's, it's gonna be torture.

Ohtani (1-1, 4.18) vs. Ashcraft (4-2, 2.58).

Our dispriting loss to the Pirates yesterday may have been allayed by the Padres' loss to the Orioles, allowing us to keep our lead of 2.5 games in the NL West (with 24 games to play). But we're now two full games behind the Phillies, who took the day off yesterday in the middle of their series with the Brewers (weird!), so we're still staring at having to play in the first round of the playoffs.

It would be great if Ohtani could right the ship here. After all, we've got Paul Skenes tomorrow.

Post-Game 138 Thread: Teoscar Hernandez Is Killing Us (and Michael Conforto Is Worse)

PIRATES 9, DODGERS 7

Two runs was the difference in this game, so it's fitting that we call out Teoscar Hernandez for letting this two-run double by Tommy Pham ruin the Dodgers' hopes at victory Tuesday (not to mention, probably rattle Clayton Kershaw, who settled back into a groove after that four-run first inning). Watching Hernandez in right field has been awful all season, but on this one he looked like an old man, getting to the ball late with a weak slide and then letting the ball roll past him into the corner, allowing two Pirates to score.

Teoscar Hernandez' Fielding Run Value, according to Baseball Savant, is -9 RPG (3rd percentile). That isn't far off from where he was in 2024, but it's a far cry from his above-average performance in 2023. At this stage of the season, though, we just can't afford to have this defensive liability bumbling around in right.

The misadventures in right field remind me a lot of watching the right-field escapades of Juan Soto, to whom the Mets are tethered for the next 15 years. Soto is also an awful fielder (as we saw plainly in the 2024 World Series). However, Soto has a 161 OPS+, driving his WAR to 5.5. Hernandez has a 102 OPS+, which is right at league average, and his WAR is 0.9. In 2025, Hernandez is only batting .247 (he batted .272 last year, and had a 135 OPS+).

Update: Jack Harris in the LAT says Hernandez' WAR is even worse since the end of June (-0.5, worse than all other Dodger players), which is terrifying.

All the sunflower seed showers in the world, as well as Hernandez' radiant smile and value-additive cheerleading, aren't going to make his play in right field any prettier.

The logical solution would be to move Teoscar back to left field, where he might have a chance at throwing runners out at third. We could either move Andy Pages over to right once Tommy Edman returns; or finally succumb to bringing back Mookie Betts to right field and slot Hyeseong Kim and the resurgent Miguel Rojas in the infield.

That of course leaves no place for Michael Conforto, whose own year-long experiment has been another unmitigated disaster. Conforto has a -0.6 WAR this season and a 75 OPS+, and yet we keep trotting him out there in the hopes that something might change? It's ridiculous.

Conforto was 0-for-3 in yesterday's loss. You can't spell C0nf0rt0 without three 0s.

We've got to stop both these players and move them from their current roles, before they doom our postseason chances.