The Dodgers played two last-place teams on the road and lost five of six games to the Pirates and Orioles. They lost both catchers to injuries, had two pitchers scratched from their starts and somehow turned a near-no-hitter into a devastating loss in what had to be the low point of the season to date.
They escaped Baltimore with a win on Sunday to avoid a totally winless week.
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Batter of the week
Shohei Ohtani homered three times, including twice on Sunday, and also doubled three times, had five walks, and posted a 1.334 OPS. Honorable mention goes to Mookie Betts, who homered twice in Baltimore, lead the team with six RBI for the week, and tied Ohtani for the team lead with eight hits.
Pitcher of the week
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was one out away from a no-hitter, but settled for a dominant 10-strikeout performance in which he allowed one run in 8 2/3 innings. Despite leaving with a two-run lead, Yamamoto did not get the win, because the Dodgers are committed to not providing him enough support. Usually it’s lack of runs scored by the offense, but this time it was the Dodgers bullpen at its collective lowest point in years.
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Honorable mention goes to Justin Wrobleski and Jack Dreyer, the rookies who pitched the final three innings of Sunday’s win and for the week totaled a convenient 11 strikeouts in seven scoreless innings. And to Shohei Ohtani as well for filling in for a scratched Tyler Glasnow Friday with 3 2/3 scoreless innings and five strikeouts.
Week 25 results
1-5 record
19 runs scored (3.17 per game)
25 runs allowed (4.17 per game)
.377 pythagorean win percentage
Year to date
79-64 record
719 runs scored (5.03 per game)
624 runs allowed (4.36 per game)
.564 pythagorean win percentage (81-62)
Standing: 1st place in NL West, one game up on San Diego
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Miscellany
Century man, power edition: Shohei Ohtani on Tuesday in Pittsburgh hit his 46th home run of the season, and his 100th since joining the Dodgers. It took him only 294 games to reach triple digits in home runs for the team, 105 games faster than the previous franchise record held by Gary Sheffield.
Century man, speed edition: Dodgers minor league outfielder Kendall George had an incredible finishing kick for High-A Great Lakes. On Thursday he was named Midwest League player of the month for August, then later that night stole four bases to become the fourth player in Dodgers organizational history to steal 100 bases in a season. The Loons wrapped up their season on Sunday, and George finished with 101 steals.
“Oh no, disaster!”: After Yamamoto left his one-hitter with two outs, nobody on base, and a two-run lead, the Dodgers turned to Blake Treinen, who faced four batters and retired none of them, then to Tanner Scott, who allowed the walk-off single to his lone batter faced. It’s just the third time in franchise history the Dodgers used multiple relievers in a game and none of them recorded an out. On August 9, 1930 in St. Louis, Fred Heimack allowed a single to start the ninth inning of a 3-3 tie. Then Dazzy Vance came in and allowed a double, followed by an intentional walk, and a walk-off single. On June 13, 1936, Brooklyn was in Cincinnati for the first game of a doubleheader. After Ed Brandt pitched the first 12 innings of a 5-5 tie, Watson Clark allowed a double to open the 13th inning, then committed an error throwing to third base on a fielder’s choice. In came Max Butcher to allow the walk-off single.
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Bunts in bulk: Other stuff happened in Saturday’s game before the ninth inning. Among them was fill-in catcher Ben Rortvedt laying down a pair of sacrifice bunts. The first one, in the third inning, led to a run. Rortvedt was the first Dodgers non-pitcher to have two sacrifice hits in one game since first baseman James Loney on September 3, 2011 at Atlanta.
Transactions
Monday: The Dodgers September roster additions weren’t prospects, but rather a pair of players getting activated off the injured list. Hyeseong Kim and Michael Kopech rejoined the team in Pittsburgh.
Thursday: After Will Smith took a foul ball off his right hand, Ben Rortvedt was called up as catching help. Alex Freeland was optioned, and pitcher Alexis Díaz was designated for assignment to make space on the 40-man roster.
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Saturday: Dalton Rushing was placed on the injured list with a right shin contusion after fouling a ball off himself the previous night. That necessitated callup another catcher from Triple-A, Chuckie Robinson. To make room on the 40-man roster, pitcher Matt Sauer was designated for assignment.
Game results
Player
AB
R
H
2B
HR
RBI
SB
BB
SO
PA
BA/OBP/SLG
OPS
Ohtani
23
3
8
3
3
5
0
5
6
28
.348/.464/.870
1.334
Smith
6
1
3
0
0
1
0
0
0
6
.500/.500/.500
1.000
Betts
26
2
8
1
2
6
0
1
3
27
.308/.333/.654
.987
Rojas
18
4
6
2
0
1
1
2
0
20
.333/.400/.444
.844
Rushing
7
0
2
1
0
0
0
1
4
8
.286/.375/.429
.804
Freeman
24
3
5
0
1
1
1
2
3
26
.208/.269/.417
.686
Conforto
15
1
4
0
0
0
0
3
5
18
.267/.389/.267
.656
Call
12
0
3
0
0
0
0
1
2
13
.250/.308/.250
.558
Rortvedt
8
2
2
0
0
0
0
0
3
10
.250/.250/.250
.500
K. Hernández
12
0
2
0
0
0
0
2
3
14
.167/.286/.167
.452
Pages
20
1
3
0
1
2
0
0
8
20
.150/.150/.300
.450
T. Hernández
18
1
3
0
0
1
0
2
4
20
.167/.250/.167
.417
Kim
10
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
3
10
.100/.100/.100
.200
Freeland
7
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
7
.000/.000/.000
.000
Dean
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
—/—/—
—
Offense
206
19
50
7
7
17
2
19
48
227
.243/.307/.398
.705
Pitcher
G
Record
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
ERA
WHIP
Ohtani
1
0-0
3.7
3
0
0
1
5
0.00
1.091
Yamamoto
1
0-0
8.7
1
1
1
2
10
1.04
0.346
Sheehan
1
0-1
4.7
5
2
2
2
6
3.86
1.500
Kershaw
2
1-0
10.7
8
6
6
5
11
5.06
1.219
Snell
1
0-1
5.0
9
5
5
3
6
9.00
2.400
Starters
6
1-2
32.7
26
14
14
13
38
3.86
1.194
Wrobleski
2
0-0
4.0
2
0
0
0
7
0.00
0.500
Dreyer
3
0-0, Sv
3.0
1
0
0
1
4
0.00
0.667
Casparius
2
0-0
2.0
2
1
1
1
0
4.50
1.500
Yates
2
0-0
2.0
1
1
1
1
4
4.50
1.000
Banda
2
0-0
1.3
0
1
1
2
0
6.75
1.500
Kopech
2
0-0
1.3
1
1
1
1
2
6.75
1.500
Scott
2
0-1
0.7
2
1
1
0
2
13.50
3.000
Henriquez
3
0-1
1.7
2
3
3
2
1
16.20
2.400
Treinen
3
0-1
1.7
3
3
3
2
3
16.20
3.000
Bullpen
21
0-3, Sv
17.7
14
11
11
10
23
5.60
1.358
Totals
27
1-5
50.3
40
25
25
23
61
4.47
1.252
Previous reviews: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 | Week 13 | Week 14 | Week 15 | Week 16 | Week 17 | Week 18 | Week 19 | Week 20 | Week 21 | Week 22 | Week 23 | Week 24
Up next
The Dodgers are back home but only briefly, running the Yorvit Torrealba gauntlet three games against the Rockies in Los Angeles before heading to San Francisco for three games against the Giants. Pitching matchups for the weekend are a guestimate.
Mon, 9/8
Tue, 9/9
Wed, 9/10
Thu, 9/11
Fri, 9/12
Sat, 9/13
Sun, 9/14
Rockies
Rockies
Rockies
OFF DAY
at Giants
at Giants
at Giants
7:10
7:10
7:10
7:15
6:05
1:05
Glasnow
Sheehan
Snell
Ohtani
Yamamoto
Kershaw
Dollander
Márquez
Freeland*
Verlander
Teng
Webb
SNLA
SNLA
SNLA
SNLA
SNLA/MLB
SNLA