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.

Game 138 Thread: Sept 2 @ Pirates, 3.40p

Clayton Kershaw (9-2, 3.06) vs. Carmen Mlodzinski (3-7, 3.86).

The Dodgers now have a 2.5 game lead on the Padres in the NL West, but if they want to extend that lead (as well as try and make up ground against the red-hot Phillies for the #2 seed in the National League), they'd better start getting Bizet, starting with tonight's game in PNC Park.

Not to spoil Act IV, but if the Dodgers can slay Carmen, that would be a good start.