Hi and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell, and that was an exciting Game 1.
—Two great teams, making it interesting every inning. That was a great game.
—The Dodgers should think about signing every player who has Hernández as a last name.
—Or, should I say, Super Kiké.
—Shohei Ohtani has one rough inning, but then seemed to say “Enough!” After J.T. Realmuto‘s triple, he retired the next 10 batters. And he could have given up only two runs, but Teoscar Hernández seemed particularly slow in right field and let Realmuto’s ball get past him, allowing Realmuto to take third, where he scored on a sacrifice fly.
—Then, in the fifth, Ohtani retired a batter, then hit Harrison Bader with a pitch and gave up a single to Bryson Stott, putting runners at first and second. Dave Roberts stayed in the dugout, which he might not have done in a regular-season game. Ohtani got Trea Turner to line to short and struck out Kyle Schwarber on a full-count pitch. It felt like a momentum shift.
—“I think it might have been a scene that decided the direction of the game,” Ohtani said.
—The only drawback: Ohtani struck out four times at the plate.
—“I use the word compartmentalize a lot, but this epitomizes compartmentalizing,” Roberts said of Ohtani. “To go out there and give us six innings, keep us in the ball game, I just don’t know any human that can manage that, those emotions. How do you not take [the hitting struggles] to the mound?”
—The Dodgers scored two runs in the next inning when Freddie Freeman walked, Tommy Edman singled and Kiké doubled.
—Then Teoscar hit his three-run shot in the seventh, and that was enough.
—“When you can hear a pin drop in the stadium, that’s the ultimate feeling in baseball,” Max Muncy said of the home run. “I felt like the people in the upper deck could hear us cheering in the dugout.”
—That Dodgers bullpen we were all worried about? With Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki out there, it looks a lot better. Glasnow won’t be available the next two games because he will start Game 4 if it is needed.
—Sasaki wasn’t quite as dominant as he was against the Reds, but he is facing a much better team.
—By the way, TBS announcers Brian Anderson, Jeff Francoeur and Lauren Shehadi are much better than the ESPN crew.
—But let’s not get carried away. The Phillies will not go down quietly. This will be a fight to the finish (Gee, how many cliches is the writer going to use?)
The NLDS roster
There were only two changes for the Dodgers on the NLDS roster. Clayton Kershaw and Anthony Banda were added, while Edgardo Henriquez and Justin Wrobleski were removed. Justin Dean remains on the roster and Michael Conforto remains off the roster.
Counting the postseason, Dean has appeared in 21 games with the Dodgers and has only two at-bats. He’s 0 for 2 with a stolen base and a strikeout.
In the history of baseball, there have been only three players to appear in at least 21 games and have two or fewer plate appearances. They are:
Gary Cooper, 1980 Atlanta Braves. Cooper went 0 for 2 with two stolen bases and three runs scored. He was used as a pinch-runner and for late-inning defense.
Allan Lewis, 1973 Oakland. Lewis appeared in 40 games (counting the postseason) and had no plate appearances. He was used as a pinch-runner and scored 16 runs while also stealing seven bases. He appeared in five postseason games and scored two runs.
Herb Washington, 1974 Oakland. Washington appeared in 92 games, all as a pinch-runner. As you can tell, having a pinch-runner on the team was an obsession of A’s owner Charlie Finley. Washington stole 29 bases, was caught 14 times, and scored 29 runs. In track, he still holds the record for the fastest 50-yard and 60-yard dash. That’s why Finley wanted to sign him, thinking he would be an unstoppable base stealer. He wasn’t, since there’s more to base stealing than just being fast. In his short career, Washington played in 105 games without batting, pitching or fielding.
Money talks?
Where the 12 postseason teams rank among team payrolls this season:
1. Dodgers, $350,300,236
3. NY Yankees, $300,187,616
4. Philadelphia, $290,286,320
5. Toronto, $255,380,936
9. San Diego, $216,835,142
10. Chicago Cubs, $211,947,613
12. Boston, $200,904,575
15. Seattle, $164,517,201
17. Detroit, $157,566,294
22. Milwaukee, $121,674,704
23. Cincinnati, $119,523,192
25. Cleveland, $100,365,031
Teams ranked in the top 15 for payroll that did not make the postseason:
2. New York Mets, $342,377,486
6. Houston (no relation), $232,884,232
7. Texas, $226,026,491
8. Atlanta, $218,842,260
11. Angels, $206,688,366
13. Arizona, $178,987,367
14. San Francisco, $178,312,152
Numbers provided by spotrac.com.
Poll time
We asked, “Who do you think will win the Dodgers-Phillies series?”
The results, after 8,632 votes:
Dodgers in five, 49.8%
Dodgers in four, 32.9%
Phillies in five, 8.2%
Phillies in four, 7%
Dodgers in three, 1.7%
Phillies in three, 0.6%
Up next
Monday: Dodgers (*Blake Snell, 5-4, 2.35 ERA) at Philadelphia (*Jesús Luzardo, 15-7, 3.92 ERA), 3 p.m., TBS, truTV, HBO Max, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio
Wednesday: Philadelphia (TBD) at Dodgers (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 12-8, 2.49 ERA), 6 p.m., TBS, truTV, HBO Max, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio
x-Thursday: Philadelphia (TBD) at Dodgers (TBD), 3 p.m., TBS, truTV, HBO Max, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio
x-Saturday: Dodgers (TBD) at Philadelphia (TBD), 5 p.m., TBS, truTV, HBO Max, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio
*-left-handed
x-if necessary
In case you missed it
Shaikin: ‘I try to put it in the trash.’ How Teoscar Hernández’s mindset delivered October magic
Hernández: Dodgers save Shohei Ohtani, not the other way around, in monumental Game 1 NLDS win
NLDS Game 1: Dodgers steal home field advantage
Tyler Glasnow talks relief pitching in NLDS Game 1
Clayton Kershaw added to Dodgers’ NLDS roster as expected, Will Smith remains active
‘Better late than never.’ How Mookie Betts salvaged the worst season of his career
And finally
Game 1 highlights. Watch and listen here.
Until next time…
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