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.

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.

2025 Dodgers WAR (Through June 23, 2025)

I just peeked at this and found it pretty surprising:

• Shohei Ohtani 3.6
• Will Smith 3.3
• Andy Pages 3.0
• Mookie Betts 2.7
• Max Muncy 2.3
• Freddie Freeman 1.9
• Teoscar Hernandez 1.6
• Tommy Edman 1.5
• Michael Conforto -1.1

For substitutes, Hyeseong Kim leads with a 1.1 WAR. Kiké Hernandez has a 0.6 (better than I expected!), and Miguel Rojas and Dalton Rushing each have 0.3.

Austin Barnes was -0.3 and Chris Taylor was -0.6.

From a pitching perspective, Yoshinobu Yamamoto has a 1.9 WAR, and Clayton Kershwaw has a 0.4 WAR. Roki Sasaki is 0.1, as is Tyler Glasnow. Blake Snell has a -0.2 WAR, worse than even Dustin May (-0.1) and Tony Gonsolin (-0.1). Landon Knack has a -0.3 WAR.

Within the relief corps: Ben Casparius has a 0.7 WAR, Alex Vesia is at 0.5, Jack Dreyer is at 0.4, and Anthony Banda is at 0.3. New pickups Tanner Scott is at 0.1 and Kirby Yates is at 0.0.

Game 58 Thread: May 31 vs. Yankees, 4p

Max, Fried.

Landon Knack (2-2, 5.22) vs. Will Warren (3-2, 4.09).

The Dodgers overcame their national-TV curse and actually won last night's game, staging a furious six-run comeback from 5-2 in the sixth inning to take the lead 6-5 off of Max Fried, and then extend the lead to 8-5 off of Andy Pages' two-run RBI single. The outcome was totally surprising, given Dodgers starter Tony Gonsolin was serving up meatballs (four HR, in fact) to the Yankees' lineup--but to Gonsolin's credit, he hung in there through 6.0 IP, outdueling Yankees ace Fried and earning the victory.

We're going to need a lot of the same formula tonight, given Landon Knack's penchant for meatballs of his own, not to mention this game is also nationally-televised (this time on Fox, rather than Apple TV+). My expectations are very low for tonight's game, but I'd sure like to see a win.

SoSG Sax and Dusty will both be at today's game, so please give a shout if you're going to be there! Let's go, Dodgers!

Game 29 Thread: April 28 vs. Marlins, 7p

Dustin May (1-1, 3.68) vs. Edward Cabrera (0-1, 6.14).

Welcome back, former Dodger first base coach Clayton McCullough (now the manager of the Miami Marlins). The Marlins are not doing well this year, suffering from sloppy defense... just like the Dodgers! So maybe it's a McCullough thing.

Gotta give some love to Andy Pages, who went 10-for-12 in the series against the Pirates, including a hone run, three doubles, and four RBI. This output alone lifted his batting average from .183 to .277, and his OPS from .650 to .861 (Pages is now sitting at a 146 OPS+, which is higher than Teoscar Hernandez (145), and is absolutely amazing).

And then, we have Max Muncy, who is at a 55 OPS+. Maybe we can trade him to the Marlins for Sandy Alcantara (whom we'll see tomorrow!).

Game 12 Thread: April 7 @ Nationals, 3.45p

Dustin May (0-0, 0.00) vs. MacKenzie Gore (0-1, 2.45).

The doubtful guests Dodgers visit Washington to face Gore(y). Will Dustin May's start be another horror show (just like Sunday's disastrous debacle, starring Andy Pages)?

Andy Pages' route from center field on Bryce Harper's leadoff double, B7, in yesterday's 8-7 loss.

Post-Game 69 Thread: Blowing Through Stop Sign, Pages Loses Game

RANGERS 3, DODGERS 2

Watching the play in isolation, it was maddening to see Dodgers rookie Andy Pages blow right through Coach Dino Ebel's stop sign and try to score from first on the bottom-nine Jason Heyward double to right-center.

Heyward laced a shot to the gap that was misplayed by the center fielder, scoring Will Smith from second base to make it 3-2 Texas. But it didn't look deep enough to justify the baserunning boldness of Pages, and when Pages was thrown out at the plate by a good distance, it seemed like a pretty stupid decision to try and stretch his run by 90 feet. It wasn't very close at home, and Pages cost us the game.

That said, it could be argued that Pages had already overachieved by even earning the two-out walk to get on base in the first place, so maybe we were playing with house money.

And with the nine-hole coming up next, it wasn't like Cavan Biggio, let alone any others in our expansive cast of shitty utility player benchwarmers, was going to get a game-tying RBI single after that point. But at least we would have still been alive.

At the end of the day, Pages should have known better than to take it upon himself to chance it, especially after making another baserunning blunder against the Yankees last weekend. He can't turn into the next Yasiel Puig on the basepaths.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shielded Pages from criticism, but here's hoping he took Pages aside and told him this can't happen again.

At least I left the game early, so I didn't have to see this mess in person.

Post-Game 33 Thread: Dodgers B-Players Beat Bee Team

When the beekeeper wins, we all win.

DODGERS 8, DIAMONDBACKS 0

After a dispiriting game Tuesday, with the Dodgers dropping a 4-3 decision in extras after a two-hour delay on the start time due to a swarm of bees, it was the Dodgers who got the last laugh in the series, winning tonight's rubber match (which started on time and was pest-free), 8-0.

Diamondbacks ace Jordan Montgomery was slated to start the Tuesday game, but the Snakes' bee delay shifted his start to Wednesday against Yoshinobu Yamamoto. That shift wasn't good for Montgomery, who lasted only 3.0 IP and gave up 6 ER, including an onslaught second inning where eight Dodgers tacked on five runs: two on a Andy Pages HR; one on an Austin Barnes double, and two more on a 2-RBI Mookie Betts single.

No, that wasn't a typo: the bottom five in our lineup actually showed up today, with each person scoring a run today (actually, the entire Dodgers lineup each scored a run, save leadoff hitter Mookie Betts). The bottom five looked like this:

5: K Hernandez: 0-for-2 with 3 BB, 1 K
6: Pages: 1-for-5 with 3 Ks but a 2-run HR
7: Rojas: 2-for-4 with an RBI and a BB
8: Taylor: 1-for-2 with an RBI and 2 BB
9: Barnes: 1-for-4 with an RBI and 1 K

Yamamoto had a great outing: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 2 BB and 5 Ks. The Dodgers' staff notched 7 Ks, so free Jumbo Jacks will be distributed tomorrow!

The Dodgers, following a difficult homestand, win all three series and go 7-2 on this roadtrip. Day off tomorrow, then a big series at home vs. the Braves this weekend!

Post-Game 24 Thread: Dodgers Bats Finally Wake Up In The Finale

Andy Pages goes yard in the fifth to put the Dodgers up 10-0 (Pages' first MLB HR).

DODGERS 10, METS 0

Really excited for Andy Pages to get his first major league home run today, and the HR looked like this:

And that wasn't the only memorable home run today, as Shohei Ohtani hit his 176th career MLB home run, the most ever for a Japanese-born player, breaking a tie with Hideki Matsui. That moonshot, in the third inning to put the Dodgers up 2-0, looked like this:

Tyler Glasnow bounced back from his bad outing against the Nationals (where he was apparently under the weather, which may account for his off-day), and went eight scoreless innings with 10Ks and no walks. That was the first time the Dodgers had had a starter go to the eighth inning since 2022 (Clayton Kershaw).

Oh, we needed today's win (our first shutout win of the year), after dropping the first two games in this series (capping a 3-6 homestand) and looking awful at the plate. Chris Taylor (0-for-1 with a HBP) is still batting a miniscule .051; Gavin Lux (0-for-2 with 2 walks and 2 runs) .148; and James Outman (0-for-4 today) .179. But we may have seen Freddie Freeman get some rhythm again (which started last night). If Teoscar Hernandez could start hitting again, and the bottom of the lineup could just start hitting, we might have something here.

That is, until our middle relievers enter the game.