Los Angeles Dodgers PUNKED by Houston Astros | Is Two-Way Shohei Ohtani hurting his bat?

Los Angeles Dodgers PUNKED by Houston Astros | Is Two-Way Shohei Ohtani hurting his bat?

Did the Astros just expose the Dodgers or is it just a bump on the road for Los Angeles? You are Locked On Dodgers, your daily Los Angeles Dodgers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. It’s time for Locked On Dodgers, your team every day. Boy, was it a rough weekend for the boys in blue. Not only being swept by the Astros at Dodger Stadium, but Shi Otani is struggling big time. And the injury bug is now starting to hit possession players. I’ll be talking about that in today’s show, which is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code locked on MLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. If you’re an everydayer of lockdown Dodgers, you might be asking yourself, who’s this talking to me right now? Well, I’m Harry Ruiz. Nice to meet you, mucho. Today’s my first appearance here. So, let me do a quick introduction of myself. I’ve been working in sports media for nearly two decades, including the last 5 years as a Spanish playby-play radio broadcaster for the Las Vegas Raiders. Plus, since 2024, I’m also the Spanish voice of USC football. While from August through January, I’m super busy on the grid iron calling football games, Dodgers baseball is a huge passion of mine as a native Angelino and former season ticket holder. And I’m excited to join the Locked Dodgers family co-hosting this podcast with Travis Rogers who has the day off and he’ll be back on Wednesday for our first show together. It’s a huge opportunity to be on this platform where I’ll get to bring you my takes regarding my favorite team that before I only posted on social media and in text threads with friends who are also fellow Dodger fans. Well, after getting that out of the way, let’s kick things off with the noshow that the Dodgers had this weekend at home in a battle against the Astros. Los Angeles and Houston, they are two of the best teams in the majors. Both are divisional re leaders and between them they have won four out of the last eight world series. I expected a competitive series but it was far from it. Friday night record setting loss 18 to1 worst loss ever at Dodger Stadium since it opened in 1962. And the fans they stayed till the end because it was Fourth of July and they wanted to watch that fireworks show. So that was torture right there for them. It was the worst home loss for the franchise in 78 years. But also, it’s the second time this season that they’ve lost by at least 16 runs at Chavis Ravine after being shut out by the Cubs 16 to nothing on April 12th. Ouch. It even hurt saying that. On Saturday, it was the Miguel Rojas game in my opinion with him throwing the ball away after a chopper in the third inning that broke a two- two tie, giving the Astros their first lead of the game, and they never looked back. Mickey hit a two-run bomb in the fourth to put LA within one, but they ended up losing six to four. Key moment, Muki Betts led off the bottom of the seventh inning with LA losing by only one run. He hit a fly ball that was misread by Cooper Hmel and rolled all the way back to the wall. Muki started rounding second when the left fielder was already throwing the ball back to the infield and Betts was easily out at third. This was one of only two Dodgers hits in the last four innings of the game. You’re down and you only get two hits in the last four innings. That’s terrible. On Sunday, the Dodgers bats were ice cold despite ending the game with a total of seven hits. Michael Conforto in the second and Dalton rushing in the eighth were the only players to get in scoring position for Los Angeles. And with that, they threw down the drain EMTian’s good start, which was the bright spot for the team during the series finale that they ended up losing 5 to one. swept by the Astros in back-to- back seasons. Seven consecutive losses to Houston. If we go back to 2023, this Dodgers team was flat throughout the weekend. Like I said, no show. Embarrassing. It’s the first series loss since dropping two out of three at St. Louis in early June. First sweep since dropping all three to the Angels at Chavis Ravine in midMay. Here’s where I ask the question. Did the Dodgers get exposed? Did the Astros do the Astros did they figure out LA and do is there a blueprint now out there for the Dodgers now being beatable? Because they came into this series with the best record in baseball. Right now they still have the best record in the National League and they are the divisional leaders in the NL West. But will there be teams looking at what the Astros did this weekend, the way that they approached at bats, the way that they approached pitching? Of course, the Astros had great defense on the field and you can’t teach that. Those are the guys that they got their skills and they took care of business. But I feel that LA, they barely have a winning record right now against winning teams. Barely have a winning record against teams over 500. 20 wins and 19 losses. And now they’re going to be on the road against two teams that fit that description. Milwaukee from Monday through Wednesday, then San Francisco from Friday through Sunday. It’s great that the Dodgers took care of business before Houston against the likes of Washington, Colorado, Kansas City, and the White Socks. All teams with losing records, teams that you should beat. And they did. That’s what they should do when you compare the payrolls between LA and all those teams. But to lay an egg against Houston, playing the Dodgers is every team’s World Series. Los Angeles will have a series off here and there, but man, this weekend they were inferior in every phase of the game, batting, pitching, defensively. It was a tough watch as a Dodgers fan because you don’t want to lose against the Astros after what happened in 2017, losing your first World Series since 1988. You go into the Fall Classic and go down in seven games and then you end up finding out about the cheating scandal. Dodgers fans can’t stand the Astros. Then Jose Altuve, the lone position player still on the strolls from that year, comes out and clobbers you the way that he did. That’s the worst case scenario and it happened Friday, Saturday, Sunday. He just had a great series. Want to add insult to injury? They didn’t have two of their top stars in Jeremy Pena and Yordon Alvarez who are injured. That’s where we can’t have excuses about who you send to the mound or to the plate. Look at look at the Astros. They were missing two key players. They didn’t send to the mound their top pitcher Brown. He wasn’t part of the rotation. They did use Ramber Valdez who’s great, but they didn’t have to send Brown and they still swept the Dodgers. So, I get it. You look at the Dodgers pitchers throughout the weekend and it’s two rookies and Emma Chian who hadn’t pitched in two years. Of course, Choani opened the game on Saturday, but that was Robo’s game and Robleski ended up allowing five runs. So, it’s tough, but that’s what you’re playing with right now. And you got to go out and get results if you don’t have the best starting pitchers out there because it’s not their turn. It’s not Yoshi No Yamamoto and Clinton Kershaw’s turn. And you got young players out there. Your bats got to respond. And the bats for the Dodgers were Mia A. You look over on the first game, one run for the Dodgers, Will Smith solo home run. You look on the game over on Saturday, four runs and you only scored two before trailing the rest of the way. You look over on Sunday’s game, one run. And it was Dalton Rushing, the rookie, who ended up producing it. Where’s everybody else? Where’s the $400 plus million dollar payroll that the Dodgers have right now? You have to have a complete game right here. Well, hopefully this weekend got Mookie Bets out of the slump that he found himself in during the second half of June. Meanwhile, Freddy Freeman, he had nine hits over the last seven games. But Shi is having his worst stretch since joining the Dodgers. In just a moment is Otani Swing playing paying the price for him pitching again. Ever wish managing your money felt easier? With Monarch money? It can. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances. After I joined Monarch Money, I was shocked to see how many subscriptions I had and also all that takeout, man, it definitely stacked up. Monarch Money is more than a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments, and spendings in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also building wealth. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code lockedMLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com code lockedMLB for half off your first year. Thank you for tuning in wherever you may be via your favorite podcast app or on our YouTube channel, which keeps growing every single day. Turn on your notifications. That way, you’ll get the heads up the moment a new episode or a YouTube short with the latest Dodgers news drops. Believe me, if you bleed blue, this is the place to be. Today’s my debut here on Lockdown Dodgers. So, I want everyone in the YouTube comments to let me know where you’re tuning in from. On Saturday, the reigning and defending National League most valuable player, Show Otani, had his fourth pitching appearance for the Dodgers. He went two innings where he only allowed one hit, a leadoff single to Isach Paredes, but he ended up retiring the next five batters in a row, including striking out the side in the second inning. That was exciting to watch in person. His strikeouts match the amount that he had in the first three starts of the season combined. So, one inning during his first two outings with LA. Two innings is in his next two outings with the Dodgers. It’ll be interesting to see if he pitches more next time that he’s on the mound. Probably this weekend in the Bay. That’s positive for the Dodgers. The Japanese superstar ZRA is now down to 1.5 after pitching consecutive innings, five of them, without players crossing the plate and only one of them, one guy getting into scoring position. Great. The hope is that for someday we get Shi Otani being that dual threat that won him the MVP in the American League both in 2021 and 2023 with the Anaheim Angels. The problem here is Showi Otani’s batting numbers have dipped since he started pitching. He’s batting 212 since he took the mound for the first time with Los Angeles on June 16th against the Padres’s. Yes, I know that he hit his 30th home run in that span on Friday night and he became the quickest Dodger to get to 30 home runs before the All-Star game. Congratulations to him. It’s always exciting getting to watch Show Otani play, but over the last eight games, he has three base hits in 30 at bats. Three base hits in 30 at bats. If you know how to do math, you know that batting average is pretty low and it’s very close to be a 0 something if he doesn’t get a hit in his next at bat over there in Milwaukee. I was there at the stadium on Saturday. I went to watch game two of this series between Dodgers and Astros. I was hoping I was like, “All right, we laid an egg on Friday.” It was terrible. Fortunately, I didn’t go on Friday because I was debating between Friday and Saturday. Show pitching on Saturday made me say absolutely, I’m going on Saturday instead of Friday. I was there at the stadium. So, the moment that the first inning, the top of the first inning ended, I kept my focus on Shi Otani. I watched him go close to the railing there at the dugout. He didn’t go down to the dugout. One of the bat boys already had all his equipment there ready. His elbow guard, his helmet, his gloves. He had everything ready there for him. Show just took his hat off. He took his glove off. He left it there. He left his stuff as a pitcher and then started putting all his gear together. And you know that with the pace of play rules that there are out there today. It’s like, hey, you got to be ready for whenever that clock hits zeros. So I was watching and watching and watching. I actually posted on TikTok all that procedure for Shoi Otani from the moment that he gets to the railing to start switching gear to when he takes his first swing or watches his first pitch as the leadoff hitter for the Dodgers. Show Otani, he only had two practice swings before heading into the batters box while m Michael Boué is feeling good was playing at Dodger Stadium. Baseball players and pro aletes in general are monsters of habit. I’ve been around boxers. I’ve been around basketball players, football players. They all have their routine and they have it down to a tea, almost down to the second. And I remember going to watch Clinton Kershaw when I was a season ticket holder for the Dodgers and you saw his routine the day that he pitched from the exact minute you knew at what time he was going to be walking out to the field, start stretching, start long tossing. And that’s the case with almost every pro athlete. And now Shoi Otani has to start switching what he had been doing with the Dodgers since he debuted for the team in 2024 as a batter where he wasn’t pitching. He was only swinging at balls. Now it’s taking a toll clearly on him because Shi, he hasn’t been on rhythm since he started pitching. He’s not the same Shi Otani before he took the mound for the Dodgers. So now he start needs to start getting used to pitching once per week after not doing so since 2023, which feels like an eternity ago when he was doing great individually with the Angels, but that team wasn’t winning. Now he’s with the Dodgers. He’s winning. He’s feeling himself. He knows that he can contribute to a team to be great. And look at what he’s doing with the Dodgers. Last year he couldn’t pitch. So what did he do? He stole 50 plus bases because he wanted to give this team more than just clobbering balls out of the park. He’s like, “All right, if I get on base, if I walk, I’m going to steal second base. I’m going to be a threat on the base paths.” Now that he’s a pitcher and he’s batting as well, he’s not risking those stolen bases as much anymore. He’s focusing on the pitching. And man, the expectations are skyhigh when it comes to show Otani. He was batting nearly 300 before he made his first pitching appearance this year. Since he started pitching again, he’s closer to 200 in that span. That’s no bueno. That’s not good. But you know what? He’s show Otani. He’s a unicorn. He’s a once in a generation type of player. And I have trust that he’s going to be able to figure everything out and get back to that level that we’re used to watching him play because he’s still a threat when he’s out there at the batters box. He’s still a guy that the pitchers are going to try to avoid as much as possible pitching in the zone. He’s going to get his walks. He’s also going to get strikeouts because he’s a big risk versus reward kind of player. But like I said, I have a feeling Shi Otani sooner rather than later is going to get his axe rate and he’s going to get back to that show Otani that we’re used to watching on the field for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now, what’s worse for the team right now is that the pitchers that were getting the bulk of the innings after Otani opens games had a bad weekend. Justin Robleski, he allowed five runs, four of them clean on Saturday. and Ben Kasparius. He allowed six earned runs on Friday for his second outing in a row with that amount surrendered to the other team. Both rookies have done a better thanex expected job for the Dodgers in a time of need with so many pitchers injured. Fortunately, reinforcements might be coming for the starting rotation as soon as this week, but the lineup might be taking a hit with multiple injuries. I’ll tell you all about it coming up next on Lockdown Dodgers. Don’t forget to follow Locked On Dodgers not only on YouTube, but also on X, Instagram, and Tik Tok. You can also find me on social media, Harry Ruiz onx, Harry Ruiz on Instagram, and Harry Ruiz on Tik Tok. I’m closing the show with both good news and bad news. Most of the times when you ask someone what they prefer hearing first, they say bad. So, let me start off with that. Maxy will be out for at least six weeks with a left knee injury. He took a helmet to the knee late on Wednesday night’s game against the White Socks when Michael A. Taylor tried stealing third base. Fortunately, it’s a bone bruise. That means it’s the best case scenario because there’s no structural damage. If you were watching that game, the series finale against the White Sox, the night that Clayton Kershaw got to 3,000 strikeouts, you saw that hit. You saw how Michael A. Taylor’s helmet went straight at Maxy’s knee. And I’ll say this personally, but I have a feeling a lot of you guys and gals thought the same way. I felt that Maxy was done for the year. I saw that and I I I I felt bad, man. I didn’t like it. Fortunately, there’s no structural damage and Mad Max said 6 weeks. Now, let’s see if it’s that time lapse or if it ends up being more. Now, the question is who will fill in for my Dave Roberts said it’ll be a combination of these three players, Miguel Roas, Kika Hernandez, and surprise Tommy Edmond. Kika and Mickey, we expected them to be options because they’ve played at third base for the Dodgers in the past during their long tenures with the team. Tommy Edmond, on the other end, he hasn’t played third base since 2022 when he was a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. I understand he did play 55 games in the hot corner for the Cardinals his rookie season in 2019, but that’s a while back. That was even before the pandemic, and that feels like a lifetime ago. The big question is after seeing Miguel Roas and Kika Hernandez, which by the way, he has a shoulder situation going on right there and he’s not 100%. It doesn’t affect his fielding, but it does affect his swinging. That’s what Dave Roberts said. After what we saw from Kik and Mickey this weekend and Tommy Edmond taking ground balls at third base for the first time in a long time. Is that what the Dodgers should be rolling with for the next six weeks or should they be looking at outside options? The trade deadline is July 31st. If we count six weeks from the moment Maxy got injured until 6 weeks ahead, that means mid August. That’s when we’re looking at it. Would you be comfortable with the Dodgers rolling the dice and going with the guys they got in that locker room right now? I don’t know. I like Tommy Edmond. I like Mickey. I like Kika Hernandez. But there’s injuries all over the place. And you never know if that timetable that they have right now where they say 6 weeks, if it’s going to be exactly six weeks or not. What if it ends up leading into September? What if it ends up going into October? What if Maxy can’t come back and you don’t end up pulling the trigger for another player that could be available to come help you in that position? Or even this question, what if Maxy comes back and he’s not playing the same way that he did when he was playing right now for the Dodgers and he was killing it? It would be good to have a backup option right there at third base. We saw a couple of errors for Miggy Row this weekend or well one counted as an error. The other one was a bobble that because he bobbled the ball he wasn’t able to get a double play and it just the out at first. So that’s the big question mark right now for the Dodgers. Let’s see if they end up staying put with the guys that they have already in that in that locker room in that clubhouse or if they end up going with an outside option or option C, Alex Freeland, the third round pick in 2022 for the Dodgers out of UCF. Right now, he’s batting 267 with 10 home runs, 61 RBI’s, and 14 stolen bases with the OKC Comets, but he has mostly played at shortstop since being called up to the AAA level late last season. So, it could be a situation where he doesn’t have that experience at third base, but you could look at him like a project and be like, “All right, learn right here. Learn on the job. You might get burned, but you’ll learn it. learn it that way. There’s been guys who have in the past come up and helped the Dodgers. Look at the case of uh James Alman. Look at all these guys that are coming into the bullpen to the from the OKC team from Triple A because of all the injuries. And some of them have been successful, some of them haven’t. But the only way you find out is giving them a shot. So, let me know in the comments what do you prefer? Playing it with the three guys that you have already, Tommy Edmond, Max uh Tommy Edund, Kika Hernandez, and Miguel Roas. looking for a trade with another team for a third baseman or giving a guy like Alex Freeland a shot right now with the Dodgers. So, one starter from the lineup is out at least until mid August. Now, two guys who are less than 100% and that didn’t get any better on Saturday are right fielder to Oscar Hernandez who has been dealing with a groin injury and in the second game against Houston took a foul ball off his left foot. He got the day off on Sunday. Same case with second baseman Tommy Edmond, who was hit by a pitch on his right foot on Saturday after a stint on the IIL with a right angle ankle injury. Man, you can’t catch a break right there, right? Fortunately, tail scans came back clean, but he has soreness in his left foot. Edmmond has a hairline fracture in his right pinky toe. That doesn’t sound good, but it doesn’t seem like he has to go back on the IIL. The situation here is that Tommy Tanks can be playing and that will depend on his pain tolerance. Not the best case scenario. The good thing is that the All-Star game break is coming up right around the corner next week and the team will have multiple days to rest these guys and hopefully get better for the second half of the season. And I’ll say this, in a game like Sunday’s where the Dodgers were missing three of their regulars in the lineup like Muny, Edmund, and Tio Oscar, they need their three MVPs on the top of the lineup to deliver. And they didn’t do so in a consistent manner. If they don’t do that this week in their series in Milwaukee and San Francisco, that divisional lead that’s at seven games over the Padres and Giants at this moment, that could shrink big time before the All-Star break. Well, that’s enough for bad news. I promise some good news, and here it is. The two pitchers with six figure contracts the Dodgers currently have on the injured list might be coming back very soon. Tyler Glass now made his third rehab assignment last Thursday. My his third rehab assignment starts last Thursday, striking out eight over four in the third innings here in Las Vegas. and his return to the majors is projected to be during this road trip either Wednesday in Milwaukee or Friday in San Francisco. That’s very good news for the Dodgers. Blake Snell, he threw a live batting practice session on Saturday, his second of the week, and he is now cleared for a rehab assignment with the OKC comments and is targeting a potential return to the big leagues after the All-Star break. He has only pitched twice for the Dodgers since signing for them during the 2025 off season. Those were big signings that the Dodgers had, Tyler Glasnau and Blake Snell. And they haven’t been able to contribute big things for the Dodgers this season. Like I said, Blake Snell barely two games this year. One of them the home opener and one of them right after that and nowhere to be seen having an injury. Now, if we’re able to get them back, this is great news for a Dodgers rotation, which at the moment features Yoshi Noyamoto and Clinton Kershaw Kershaw, which by the way, both were selected as all-stars. Congratulations to them. Yoshi, his first all-star game. Kersh his 11th. He was one of those legacy players, those legends that was selected by Rob Manfred in the past. He did that with Miguel Cabrera and Albert Puho in 2022. Now, Kershaw gets to be an all-star in 2025. Will it be his final all-star game? Is he gone after the season? That’s a topic for another day. But we hope that Kersh enjoys this one out there in Atlanta. Going back to what I was talking about, besides Yoshi and Kersh, LA has Dustin May, Shi Otani as an opener, and EMTT Shein to complete the rotation at the moment. The potential returns of glass now and Snell would have this rotation in position to have the Dodgers in a great spot. How would that rotation be? Yamamoto, Kershaw, Otani as an opener and potentially Shien the bulk guy behind Shi. Then add Snell and Glass. Now that’s a pretty damn good lineup for the boys in blue for pretty good rotation for the Dodgers having solid guys like Kasparius and Robleski they would be shifted to the bullpen. Blake Trinan he will have a rehab assignment in Rancho Kukamonga and is expected to be available later this month. Tony Gonelin, he is targeting a return in August. And there the pitching could be set up in a good position to have the batters now without all that pressure of having to score a lot of runs to win games. Like you look over at Friday’s game, you would have had to score 19 runs to win that game. Look at Saturday’s game, you would have had to score seven runs to win that game. You look at Sunday’s game, you would have needed seven six runs to win that game. If this rotation ends up being in that position that I just mentioned where you have Yamamoto, Kershaw, Otani, sheen potentially being the guy with the bulk innings behind him, Snell, and Glass. Now, that would leave the Dodgers in a great spot for the second half of the season and the postseason. The big key here, just stay healthy. Will they be able to do so? We still got a lot of season to go. July, August, September, October. Four months left of Dodger baseball. Let’s see if that rotation is able to stay healthy once Tyler Glass now and Blake Snell come back. Thank you everybody for making Lockdown Dodgers your first listen today. For your second listen, check out the allnew Lockdown MLB game nights. Every game, every night, all season long. Get local analysis on a national scale. Find MLB game nights on Locked on MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. I’ll be back tomorrow to talk LA kicking off their last road trip before the All-Star break with a three-game series in Milwaukee. I hope you enjoyed the show. Take care and go blue.

The Dodgers just got swept at home by the Astros, and we’re breaking down what went wrong. Is Shohei Ohtani’s return to the mound messing with his swing? We dive deep into his recent struggles at the plate. Plus, while the injuries keep piling up for L.A.’s lineup, they might actually be helping the rotation with pitchers potentially returning soon.

🎙️ In this episode:
– Astros expose the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine
– Is pitching again hurting Ohtani’s offensive rhythm?
– Injury report: big losses in the lineup, surprising gains on the mound

0:00-2:01 Intro
2:01-10:22 Astros expose the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine
10:22-18:16 Is pitching again hurting Ohtani’s offensive rhythm?
18:16-30:20 Injury updates for Muncy, Edman, Teo, Glasnow & Snell
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