Dodgers Notebook: Playoff Rotation and Ohtani’s Postseason Preview
The Los Angeles Dodgers are gearing up for what they hope is a deep playoff run, and Shohei Ohtani is showing he's ready to carry the load.
Thursday’s win over the San Diego Padres secured the National League West for the Los Angeles Dodgers and took a load off manager Dave Roberts.
“I’m excited that tonight, it’s not like a do-or-die game,” he said before the Dodgers 11-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Friday night.
The division pennant is Los Angeles’ third in a row and 11th in the past 12 seasons. Despite this dominance, the team has only one World Series ring — which came in the 60-game pandemic-shortened season of 2020 — to show for it’s regular season success.
At 96-64 (.600), the Dodgers are 2.0 games ahead of the 94-66 Philadelphia Phillies for best record in the NL with a magic number of 1. The path to the World Series becomes easier as the no. 1 seed and when having home field advantage through the Championship Series, but Roberts isn’t actually concerned with that.
“I think it’s more of just the idea of letting things play out the way they’re going to and try not to influence the wins and losses too much,” Roberts said of pushing for the best record.
“The most important thing is to take care of our relievers, get them ready for the Division Series, get them out of (Denver) healthy, position players — as you see — I’ve rested a couple guys. I’ll do that tomorrow as well.”
The lack of pressure to post three wins in Colorado, which is at altitude and harder on the body, led Los Angeles to hold back a handful of players like Freddie Freeman, Miguel Rojas, Walker Buehler, and Jack Flaherty.
A short bench on Friday didn’t matter much during another game influenced by Shohei Ohtani, who recorded four runs batted in and finished a triple shy of the cycle.
Rojas likely would have been a defensive replacement at shortstop following two errors by Tommy Edman. Otherwise, no harm, no foul on the short bench.
Postseason Planning
Keeping back a quartet of players in Southern California is a luxury — not to mention a level of confidence playing without everyday players like Freeman and Rojas — that many teams do not have. Coupled with a three-game series against one of the worst clubs in the game allows Roberts and his staff to strategize with October in mind.
The plan is to give players two days off when the regular season ends as the Dodgers enjoy a bye during the Wild Card Series.
“Jack (Flaherty’s) going to be the only person that throws (on Monday). He’s going to be throwing to some minor league hitters. And then the second day is going to be completely optional,” Roberts said. “For me, I just want to encourage guys to stay away and then come back hungry, excited to get back to work.”
That timetable suggests Flaherty will get the ball to start the NL Division Series at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 5. From there, Roberts will go with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Walker Buehler and Landon Knack, in no particular order that’s been indicated yet.
The concern from those around the club is centered more on the offense in playing.
Los Angeles has lost their first series in the past two postseasons after averaging three runs over four games in 2022 against the San Diego Padres and only two runs per game in 2023 during a three-game sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Clayton Kershaw is on record as saying the first-round bye is more difficult on batters as they rely on regular at-bats to stay sharp. Simulating competition works fine for pitchers, but same cannot be said for hitters.
“I do agree with that, in a vacuum,” Roberts said of the theory. “I think that anyone that’s played, I think could agree with that, but that’s just the way it is… We just can’t use that as an excuse. We still got to do everything we can to get our hitters ready.”
Greatest Sho On Earth
Just when it seems there’s nothing left for Ohtani to accomplish in the final three games in the season, he finds another record to smash.
On Friday, he surpassed Ichiro Suzuki for the most stolen bases in a single-season for a Japanese-born player with his 57th steal. He went 4-for-5 with a home run, no. 54, a double and 4 RBI. Over his last 34 at-bats, he has a whopping .706 batting average.
“I think he really does, and I think he should,” Roberts said of Ohtani striving for more milestones. “He’s had a tremendous season. When you get to the one yard line on certain statistics — whether it be a potential Triple Crown, a 60/60, stealing 60 bases — you want to get there as best you can. So I’m sure he’s going to want to be available.”
Ohtani leads the NL with 54 home runs and 130 RBI. However, he enters the penultimate game of the season with a .309 batting average, second in the Senior Circuit to the .314 batting average of Luis Arraez.
As statistician Sarah Langs points out, Ohtani is the first player in a 12-game span with 25+ RBI, 15+ extra-base hits and more than one stolen base since the invention of the RBI in 1920.
Even more impressive: Othani doesn’t just have two steals, he has 13.
When asked what this hot streak shows about how Ohtani will perform in the postseason, Roberts doubled-down.
“I think it’s a preview,” he said. “These are very, very playoff driven games that we’ve played in. And you just don’t know how a player he’s going to react if they’re going to get overzealous, overanxious, but he has really balanced those emotions perfectly and performed remarkably. So I think that’s what we’re gonna see this postseason.”
Praise For The Purple
Ohtani may have received chants of M-V-P from the visiting Dodgers fans who helped sell out Coors Field, but Charlie Blackmon received multiple standing ovations from the 48,750 fans in attendance before each of his plate appearances.
After 14 years in the Majors, all of which came with the Rockies, the man known as Chuck Nazty is calling it quits after the final game of the 2024 slate.
According to Roberts, Blackmon has brought a level of authenticity and professionalism to the game.
“He’s everything I would want in a baseball player outside that big old ugly beard,” Roberts quipped.
“He runs balls out, he gets situational hits. He plays versus lefties and righties. He gives everything he has every time he plays. So for me, you look at the last 10-12 years, he’s probably up there with one of my top five players I’ve enjoyed watching.”
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