From Comfort to Crisis: Dodgers Blow 9-Game Division Lead to Padres

From Comfort to Crisis: Dodgers Blow 9-Game Division Lead to Padres

Let’s start with the Dodgers, right? Cuz we you like to start with the panic mode and how they’ve really fallen apart to let the Padres’s jump back into this spot. What do you think? I mean, it’s it’s it’s a prolonged stretch of bat for them. I mean, you look at July July 3rd, they had a nine-game lead in the NL West. Since then, they are 12 and 22. Do you know who has a 12 and 22 record since July 4th along with the Dodgers? It’s the Colorado Rockies. That’s how the Dodgers have been playing. And I think the biggest thing right now, and it stood out in this series, especially the last two nights, on any given night, Dave Roberts doesn’t really have a high leverage reliever to turn to to hold leads. Blake China hasn’t looked right since coming back off the IIL. And there are six high leverage guys on the injured list right now. And the last one was Brock Stewart, the one guy that they got for their bullpen. Uh he’s out now with shoulder inflammation. And obviously the natural question is why didn’t the Dodgers go do more? They were in on other high leverage guys. They weren’t willing to give up their best prospects to get them. And that was with the thought that they were going to get a bunch of guys back. And they are. Kirby Yates, Michael Copek, Tanner Scott. Those guys should be back before the end of the month. The problem is that there’s urgency right now. And over these next few weeks, nobody has any idea who’s going to be closing games for the Dodgers, let alone uh bridging the gap to the ninth inning in the seventh and eighth. Um, and when you couple that with an offense that has been better lately, but still not as good as it should be, uh, what you get is this. And it’s a club that hasn’t really spiled like this in years. And it’s um, it’s it’s pretty insane to watch on a nightly basis. all the odds. They don’t have a closer like you said, but there was a ton of closers available at the trade deadline. Have you heard anything that the Dodgers were getting asked higher prices because everybody sees the Dodgers as, well, we want to win the World Series, if they’re calling about our closer, we’re going to ask more. We’re going to do that. Like is there is there any of that or was it the Dodgers lack of willingness to say well we need help when reality was they’ve been drowning and they needed help at the trade deadline. I I I think Eric it’s more the latter. I I think when you’re a team that’s trading away these these big time relievers like your focus is just to get the best return as possible. And I think that the the interesting thing about the Dodgers, basically every trade deadline is when you match up their farm system and the guys that they can give up because of the talent they have on the major league level compared to all the other teams, they could beat out practically anybody at the trade deadline. The question always comes down to their willingness. And you know, their front office is const and they talk about this a lot. Um they’re constantly and they’re no different, but they’re constantly weighing the now versus the later. Uh, and it’s a calibration that they have yet to fully figure out. And so you saw what they did this off season, they were as aggressive as anybody. That was largely, and they said this often because they didn’t want to have to go out and buy at the trade deadline. And but the other part of it too is what they did this off season is spend money. They have money. They’ll spend money. uh what they’re not willing to do as much is give up young players for players that they feel are only going to give them maybe like a very minuscule advantage for the stretch run of the season. Now, you could definitely argue that and it would be very valid. I’m just telling you that that’s kind of their calculus this time of year. And so when they looked ahead, their thought was, okay, it looks bleak now, but look at who we have coming back. we’re gonna have COPEC and Yates and Tanner Scott and you know and we’ll just get Brock Stewart. He’s been great against right-handed opposing right-handed hitters. He could fit in nicely. Um and that’s great in theory, but I think when you look at it now, it’s not only about how are they covering these next few weeks. Um but it’s also a lot is going to have to go right for all these relievers coming back in order for them to show up as the strength that the front office thinks they will be. Yates and Scott haven’t been good all year. Michael Copek has made eight appearances this season. I’m not saying those guys aren’t going to be good. I’m just saying they can’t afford any more hiccups. So, the margin for error on this season is it feels incredibly small right now. Wait, hold up, Alden. I I got to know this. They were supposed to go 162 and 0. They were supposed to be the greatest team ever assembled, and now you’re saying they have a tiny margin for error. What changed? Because remember this off seasonason everyone’s saying, “Oh, the Dodgers are unbeatable. They’ll never lose. They’re going to win everything. They’re going to do this. They’re going to do that.” Like just be are the injuries that bad that they can’t cover them because people said, “Oh, they have 10 starting pitchers and they have 25 relievers.” What happened to all that? Yes, I know injuries, but the narrative has changed so quickly from the greatest team ever assembled to, “Holy crap, this team is not in first place.” AJ, that’s the beauty of baseball, isn’t it? that you never thought but I thought every expert said oh it’s so bad for baseball every fan the Dodgers are like see you just never know and AJ I think and you could definitely speak to this but I also think outside of just what baseball is um there’s a reason why there hasn’t been a repeat champion in Major League Baseball in 25 years and it’s not just the randomization of adding extra playoff rounds which might be real too but it’s that when you’re playing deep into October and sometimes November, um there’s a price to be paid. Um there’s a price to be paid, especially with your pitching. And when you look at just when you take a step back from this season, um look look at the injuries that they’ve suffered in their bullpen, a bullpen that they rode really hard last October to win a championship. I think a lot of that has shown up. It’s not the only reason why they are where they are right now. I mean, you look at like uh Freddy Freeman slumped for a while. Mookie Betts is not having the year that you would expect to Oscar Hernandez, Tommy Edmond, they just haven’t been right. That’s certainly part of it. The rotation early on was very injured. It is now healthy, but it was very injured early on in the year. That taxed the bullpen even more so. But I mean, talk to the members of the 2023 Rangers and how winning the World Series spilled over into 2024. talked to members of the current Dodgers about just the toll on the body, not just playing deep into October last year, but then opening up, remember mid-March in Japan. Um, I think that has a lot to do with it as well. Uh, and and it’s just it’s hard and I I will I didn’t think they were going to go 162 and 0 obviously and I didn’t I didn’t even think that they might I I thought maybe they’ll have a chance at setting the regular season wins record, but I knew that was unlikely. Um, I thought they were as well set up to be a repeat champion as maybe anybody this century because of how they fortified that roster in the offseason. Um, but it just goes to show how difficult um, winning back-to-back champions is. Dodgers for years have not allowed their starters to go deep in the games especially in the postseason and then the bullpen just slowly but surely gets worn down worn down worn down and that’s kind of what you’re talking about a lot of starting injuries so they don’t trust guys to go as deep right then the bullpen gets used then you get the bullpen injuries is this just a combination of the philosophy of what the Dodgers have been for years and years and now it’s this is the year it’s finally really kind of catching them I I think that’s certainly Valid point, AJ, and I would say that that is an industrywide um issue, uh where starters are not going deep, bullpens are being taxed. Um and and I’m I’m sure the Dodgers are guilty of that as well. What they will tell you as a counter is that they feel like every year they’re going to be riding their starters in October and they got to save them for that. I mean, look, Yoshino Yamamoto, I think, is a good example. He’s made every turn through the rotation, but his innings are very manageable. Uh partly because uh he’s part of a six-man rotation most of the time, partly because to your point, AJ, he doesn’t go super deep in the games because they want him healthy for the stretch run. I think that’s part of it, but I’ll go back to what I said before. I think the bigger part of why that bullpen was taxed is because they were just really hurt. I mean, the Dodgers got to a point early in the year up until like July, they were staging bullpen games twice a week. Um, and they were also suffering injuries to their bullpen, a bullpen that, as I said, had been taxed in October. It’s just not sustainable. And Dodgers, I haven’t checked recently, but I’m almost certain I’m correct, that Dodgers relievers lead the major leagues in innings. They’ve led the major leagues in innings basically all year. And yes, that could be a function of where the game is going with the usage of starting pitching, but I think it’s more pronounced for them that they’ve just had a lot of pitching injuries. And by the way, it’s a second consecutive year in which they’ve had a lot of pitching injuries. All right, I got one more Dodgers cue for you. Is there a team that needs to have the wild card by like miss the wild card round more than the Dodgers? A team that they’ve been mitigating injuries. You even talked about Yamamoto like ah you know another extra round does not set the Dodgers up very well. So they almost have to win the division. You know, I I think I think you’re right about that, Eric. Um, and I think the thing about the Dodgers, and we’ve seen this in recent years, um, as and maybe that’s not the case this year because they might be a little bit more flawed, but the Dodgers annually are deeper than any team in baseball, right? Like from a when you look at the totality of like a 40-man roster, a 26-man roster, they have the most depth. And so the thought with the Dodgers has been if you’re going to beat them, you got to beat them in smaller sample sizes, right? Look at what the Diamondbacks and the Padres’s did in back-to-back years in the division series. If it’s in the wild card round, probably even better. When you stretch to a seven game series against them, usually their depth can really show up. Um, and they can get the better of you. I mean, we saw that during the 2020 COVID playoffs, right, when they were no days off. like that was an advantage for them because they were deeper than the teams that they faced. Um and and there was a huge narrative about the Dodgers when they lost those back-to-back division series to Diamondbacks and Padres’s that like maybe they just need to play the wild card route. And the thought with them was always no. Um we’d rather have the days off. We would rather set our pitching staff. I know it hasn’t gone well, but we would much rather prefer to get the buy. And that’s why honestly this is why I like this playoff format. like there’s a real incentive to uh get one of those top two seeds in each league because teams see it as an advantage and I think the Dodgers are foremost among them. And then we have the Padres’s. We only got a minute left here, but take everything that you just said and then reverse it, right? Hey, the Dodgers need a closer. The Padres’s have five of them. Yeah. Yeah. Um it’s uh it’s funny because the Dodger strength is in their rotation. I think it’s a legitimate strength, too. I mean, when you go into a playoff series and you could run out, Yamamoto, smell glass now, and Otani with Kershaw also there, that’s huge. And the Padres’s strength is in their bullpen. It’s it’s five guys, maybe six, uh, that could they could cut games in half uh, in the playoffs. And that’s been their formula the last two years with AJ Peller, right? Last year, he went out and got Ted Scott and Jason Adam to a bullpen that did need reinforcing. Uh, and he sees that as a clear pathway uh, to win a World Series. But I so when you look at last year with the Padres’s, they didn’t really round into form until the last two months of the season and it was right after the trade deadline, AJ Pller sort of completed that roster and they became one of the deepest, most menacing teams in the sport and that’s what they are right now. Um, Udarish coming back and being effective is huge for them. Michael King rejoining the rotation even though his return was spotty, huge for them, right? like the fact that they could run now they have four guys that they could run in the playoffs. But you couple it with that bullpen and a lineup that now at least in my view looks as deep as it did last year with Freddy Fer mean and Ramon Lauraniano and Rhino Hearn like that’s that team is as good as last year’s team and I thought last year’s team was the best team in baseball going in the playoffs. Yep. Hey, they they finished basically one win short. They would have dusted the Yankees in the World Series. Almost everybody thinks that. Alden, you’re the man. Thank you for joining us. Obviously give Alden a follow. He’s got to go. He’s got another show. I know. Yeah. Do the Dodgers or Padres’s win the West? One one word answer. Dodgers or Padres’s win the West? At this point, I’m going Padres’s. There you go.

ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez joins Foul Territory to break down the Los Angeles Dodgers’ stunning collapse in the NL West and the Padres’ late-season surge. We dive into L.A.’s bullpen crisis, trade deadline decisions, and the injuries that have derailed their repeat hopes — even with Shohei Ohtani back on the mound and dealing. Plus, why San Diego’s deep relief corps and improved lineup could make them the team to beat. Can the Dodgers still take the division, or will the Padres finish the job?

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Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/live/xjSo47G9iuM?feature=shared

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0:00 Dodgers collapse
1:44 Didn’t get a closer
4:37 What has changed
8:23 Starters don’t go deep
10:20 Must win the division
12:05 San Diego Padres