DENVER —
The Dodgers have usually remarked this yr that, with all their accidents and stretches of inconsistent play, they haven’t felt just like the workforce with one of the best file in baseball.
Saturday was not a type of days.
Even earlier than they took the sector, the Dodgers clinched one of the best file within the majors this season, incomes the excellence — and home-field benefit all through the playoffs — for the fourth time since 2017 because of a loss by the Philadelphia Phillies.
Then, within the penultimate recreation of the common season, the Dodgers performed as much as that standing in a 13-2 rout of the Colorado Rockies.
The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani nonetheless has a faint probability of profitable the Nationwide League’s triple crown.
(David Zalubowski / Related Press)
It was the primary time this yr they honestly had nothing to play for. But, they saved their foot on the gasoline all the identical.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched 5 strong innings, giving up simply two runs in his ultimate regular-season outing.
Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández mashed three-run homers, highlighting the workforce’s 18-hit outburst.
Shohei Ohtani additionally continued his late chase of a possible (albeit long-shot) Nationwide League triple crown, going two for 5, together with his 58th stolen base of the season, to complete the day 4 batting common factors behind Luis Arraez for the batting title.
Dodger Tommy Edman congratulates Kiké Hernández as he crosses dwelling plate after hitting a three-run dwelling run in opposition to the Colorado Rockies Saturday in Denver.
(David Zalubowski / Related Press)
Crucial merchandise on Saturday’s to-do record was Yamamoto’s begin, his longest since getting back from a shoulder damage earlier this month.
Yamamoto’s first three begins again had gotten progressively much less spectacular, following up a pair of four-inning efforts with a three-inning, four-run clunker in opposition to the Rockies in Los Angeles final week.
After that final look, Yamamoto began feeling “under the weather,” based on supervisor Dave Roberts, with an sickness that left him with “a little weakness” main as much as Saturday.
But, there have been few indicators of hassle within the rookie Japanese right-hander’s four-hit, six-strikeout efficiency, the primary of his profession at hitter-friendly and high-altitude Coors Discipline.
He gave up one run within the first, after a few bloop singles and a sacrifice fly. Ezequiel Tovar took him deep within the third, on a first-pitch cutter Yamamoto left up within the zone. Outdoors of that, the $325-million offseason signing confronted little stress, ending his debut MLB season with a 7-2 file, 3.00 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 90 innings over 18 begins.
Whereas the Dodgers haven’t but finalized their pitching rotation for the Nationwide League Division Sequence, Yamamoto appears prone to go in Recreation 2 of the best-of-five set per week from Sunday.
Earlier than Saturday’s recreation, Roberts mentioned his greatest guess in the intervening time is that Jack Flaherty will begin Recreation 1 subsequent Saturday. Given the workforce’s choice to begin Yamamoto on at least 5 days relaxation — a routine he has adopted all yr after pitching roughly as soon as per week in Japan’s Nippon Skilled Baseball league — that may imply the 25-year-old would solely pitch as soon as within the NLDS and be unavailable for a possible Recreation 5.
The Dodgers, after all, are hoping that Flaherty, Yamamoto and the remainder of the pitching workers carry out nicely sufficient to maintain the sequence from going that lengthy.
Earlier than the Dodgers flip their consideration solely to October, nonetheless, there’s one final level of intrigue getting into Sunday’s regular-season finale.
Ohtani does nonetheless technically have an opportunity for what could be the Nationwide League’s first triple crown since 1937. Nonetheless, it should take a monumental effort in Recreation 162.
Whereas Ohtani completed Saturday with a .310 batting common — having raised the mark a whopping 24 factors whereas going 26 for 38 in his final 9 video games — Arraez didn’t play within the San Diego Padres’ win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, getting a break day after they clinched home-field benefit in subsequent week’s wild-card spherical.
Roberts didn’t ridicule the choice pregame, however famous he’d be “shocked” if Arraez doesn’t play Sunday.
“Hopefully he plays tomorrow and goes 0-fer, and Shohei has another 4-hit game,” Roberts mentioned.
If Arraez does go 0 for 4 on Sunday, his ultimate batting common could be .312 (or .3119 to be extra exact). To high that, Ohtani must go three for 4 or higher.
Not unattainable. But in addition not very doubtless.
