LOS ANGELES It has been difficult for the Los Angeles Dodgers to find separation for the first time in three years. The Dodgers have been able to consider the stretch run as a trial period for the better part of a decade, with only two games that have remotely approached actual stakes in September: a close NL West battle with the Giants in 2021 and Game 163 in 2018.
Cruise control has its advantages, but one cannot help but wonder how the last two Dodger teams, who won 211 games combined in the regular season and only one in the postseason, were undone by a month of essentially meaningless baseball.
“(Last) September felt like you didn’t have anything to play for,” Miguel Rojas said over the weekend of the Dodgers club that reached a double-digit division lead on August 16 last year and spent its September trying to line up their patchwork pitching. Then they got swept in the NLDS.
They will not have the option to wait for the group this year to get it together. As of Tuesday, the Dodgers held the record for most wins in the big leagues with 74. They also happened to be in the same division as two of the hottest teams in baseball, the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks, who were chasing them.
The Dodgers have decided to make the best of the situation. They have stated that having stakes will help them stay in the game instead of trying to force themselves into the postseason.
Jason Heyward hits a three-run home run in the eighth inning against the Mariners. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)
These were the stakes on Tuesday night. After falling behind early on, the Dodgers persisted. Clinging to a spot on the roster for yet another impending deadline this week, Jason Heyward came off the bench in the eighth inning and crushed a 99-mph Andres Muñoz fastball for the game-winning three-run home run.
“Shoot, that was probably the highlight for me of the season thus far,” manager Dave Roberts said.
The Dodgers extended their lead to three games with a 6-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners, giving them the best record in baseball and preserving their advantage for another day.
However, as their rotation is still mostly trying to work itself out, their margin is narrow and will only get narrower.
Gavin stays hot! pic.twitter.com/5sIUy6CjM6
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 21, 2024
Max absolutely crushed this. 😳 pic.twitter.com/wYtltI55zg
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 21, 2024
Tuesday night marked Walker Buehler’s tenth start for the Dodgers this season, and it went pretty much like the ones before it. The right-hander’s comeback from a second Tommy John procedure is still a work in progress. Buehler needed three pitches to get his first two outs, but he needed to face twenty-five more pitches to end the first inning. Two runs had been scored by that point. Before his night came to an end after just four fruitless innings, he had one altercation with home-plate umpire CB Bucknor for every strikeout he had. Another run was scored.
In the end on Tuesday, it made no difference. Buehler may see that as a plus. Even though he performed a better job of hitting first pitches, his command is still inconsistent. Instead, he was unable to imprison anyone. Buehler reached ten two-strike counts but only managed one strikeout against the Mariners, a team that leads all MLB in strikeouts. Despite having baseball’s lowest club batting average (.215), the Mariners managed seven hits off of Buehler.
It was another disappointing trip, but one that was expected. The Dodgers needed to keep rookie Ben Casparius around in case Buehler’s performance was short-lived, so they postponed their original plan to activate Blake Treinen from the injured list on Tuesday. Though the deficit was kept small enough that Casparius was never really used, their worries would turn out to be well-founded.
Still, Buehler insisted, there was progress made.
“I’m so tired of saying that I feel closer, but … that’s as close as I’ve felt to the me of old as I’ve felt this year,” Buehler said. “I’ve been saying this, but I gotta perform and gotta perform, but I feel like I can actually perform now.”
He claimed that the variances are invisible to the untrained eye and that Tuesday night’s outcomes were not always indicative of them. It seemed as though he was propelling himself down the hill, propelling his body ahead and producing force in response to it. After feeling “hopeless” at times during his return to the disabled list in June, he compared his outing to a crappy replica of what he was last when healthy in 2021. Even while the outcomes are still subpar, there is less of a gap between what his body is doing and what it is capable of doing.
“If I missed by two feet to the left, my hand told me that I had missed by two feet to the left,” Buehler said. “It wasn’t kind of this weird mystery that I’ve been dealing with for a long time.”
Those are conversations and ideas that are easier to swallow with a nine-game lead, or in the middle of the season, rather than amid a tight race.
The Dodgers are in a confusing situation right now. Buehler has not made a good pitch. Neither has Bobby Miller, who was demoted from the minors after Tyler Glasnow’s Friday injury. Even if the Dodgers’ margin is as narrow as ever, both are still part of their rotation for the time being.
“I don’t think we’ve put our minds there,” Roberts said Tuesday afternoon when asked directly how long Buehler would last in the rotation if things don’t improve. They didn’t on Tuesday night.
With a 3.00 ERA through 10 big league appearances, youngster Landon Knack has been largely limited to two passes through the opposing order, and the management has been hesitant to give him much leash. While Justin Wrobleski, another rookie, has shown glimpses of promise, he has also been vulnerable to long balls (seven home runs and a 4.68 ERA in 25 innings).
“So you also have to try to appreciate the alternatives. I don’t think there’s a set number of starts that you can look at (for Buehler) and honestly, we don’t have another alternative right now.”
But with the division still very much in the balance, the Dodgers’ decision is to give two underperforming starters a chance to prove themselves.
“It’s not ideal,” Roberts said.
“I need to go do it,” Buehler said. “That’s all there is to it.”
In the event that things do not improve, even if it means the Dodgers may send him to the bullpen or let him go.
“It’s not gonna be easy for me and I’m not going to go down lightly,” Buehler said. “I feel like I can compete in the major leagues and compete in big games the way I felt today. Now, it’s kind of honing that in.”
(Top photo of Walker Buehler pitching in the first inning against the Mariners: Kirby Lee / USA Today)
