Dodgers clinch MLB’s best record as Shohei Ohtani continues triple-crown chase
DENVER — The Dodgers have often remarked this year that, with all their injuries and stretches of inconsistent play, they haven’t felt like the team with the best record in baseball.
Saturday was not one of those days.
Even before they took the field, the Dodgers clinched the best record in the majors this season, earning the distinction — and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs — for the fourth time since 2017 thanks to a loss by the Philadelphia Phillies.
Then, in the penultimate game of the regular season, the Dodgers played up to that status in a 13-2 rout of the Colorado Rockies.
“Tonight was a clinic,” manager Dave Roberts said. “They know that this is the last rehearsal before it matters. So they’re trying to lock in, which is good.”
Indeed, Saturday was the first time this year the Dodgers truly had nothing to play for in the standings. Yet, they kept their foot on the gas all the same.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched five solid innings, giving up just two runs in what Roberts described as a “great tune-up” ahead of the playoffs.
Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández mashed three-run homers, highlighting an 18-hit outburst in which Kiké, Chris Taylor and Gavin Lux all had three knocks.
Shohei Ohtani also continued his late chase of a potential (albeit long-shot) National League triple crown, going two for five, with his 58th stolen base of the season, to finish the day four batting average points behind Luis Arraez for the batting title.
“It’s really satisfying,” Roberts said of clinching MLB’s best record, with his club now 97-64. “So now, once we finish out tomorrow, we’ll regroup over the week. And I expect our guys to have that same focus, and more so than we’ve had these last few weeks.”
The most important item on Saturday’s to-do list was Yamamoto’s start, his longest since returning from a shoulder injury earlier this month.
Yamamoto’s first three starts back had gotten progressively less impressive, following up a pair of four-inning efforts earlier this month with a three-inning, four-run clunker against the Rockies in Los Angeles last week.
After that last appearance, Yamamoto started feeling “under the weather,” according to Roberts. Yamamoto described it as “just a regular cold.”
Whatever the case, there were few signs of trouble in the rookie Japanese right-hander’s four-hit, six-strikeout performance, the first of his career at hitter-friendly and high-altitude Coors Field.
What unfolded at loanDepot Park on Thursday transcended what many thought ever possible in the sport — even for someone like Shohei Ohtani.
He gave up one run in the first, after a couple of bloop singles and a sacrifice fly. Ezequiel Tovar took him deep in the third, on a first-pitch cutter Yamamoto left up in the zone. Outside of that, the $325-million offseason signing faced little stress, finishing his debut MLB season with a 7-2 record, 3.00 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 90 innings over 18 starts.
“It was not a perfect season for me due to my injury, because I was away from the team,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. “However, I learned a lot, I experienced great things and my teammates helped accumulate the wins, leading us into October. I really appreciate it and I will like to do my best to contribute.”
While the Dodgers haven’t yet finalized their pitching rotation for the National League Division Series, Yamamoto seems likely to go in Game 2 of the best-of-five set a week from Sunday.
Will Smith’s statistical regression has illustrated his struggles to hone in on his best swing — one the Dodgers are hoping has started to reappear in recent weeks.
Before Saturday’s game, Roberts said his best guess at the moment is that Jack Flaherty will start Game 1 next Saturday. Given the team’s preference to start Yamamoto on no less than five days’ rest — a routine he has followed all year after pitching roughly once per week in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league — that would mean the 25-year-old would only pitch once in the NLDS and be unavailable for a potential Game 5.
The Dodgers, of course, are hoping that Flaherty, Yamamoto and the rest of the pitching staff perform well enough to keep the series from going that long.
Before the Dodgers turn their attention entirely to October, however, there is one last point of intrigue entering Sunday’s regular-season finale.
Ohtani does still technically have a chance for what would be the National League’s first triple crown since 1937. However, it will take a monumental effort in Game 162.
While Ohtani finished Saturday with a .310 batting average — having raised the mark a whopping 24 points while going 26 for 38 in his last nine games — Arraez didn’t play in the San Diego Padres’ win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, getting a day off after they clinched home-field advantage in next week’s wild-card round.
Roberts didn’t ridicule the decision pregame, but noted he’d be “shocked” if Arraez doesn’t play Sunday.
Mookie Betts took about 300-400 swings before he faced the Padres on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, helping him finally break through at the plate.
“Hopefully he plays tomorrow and goes 0-fer, and Shohei has another 4-hit game,” Roberts said.
If Arraez does go 0 for four on Sunday, his final batting average would be .312 (or .3119 to be more precise). To top that, Ohtani would have to go three for four or better.
Not impossible. But, as Roberts noted, also “very unlikely.”
“I would expect Arraez to play tomorrow,” Roberts reiterated. “And we’ll see if Shohei can throw out another big day.”
Kiermaier hurts finger
Center fielder Kevin Kiermaier was already looking like the odd man out of the Dodgers’ postseason roster on the position player side. Then, while trying to stretch a single into a double in the fourth inning, he dislocated his left ring finger while getting tagged out.
Kiermaier left the game, then had his finger popped back into place by the training staff, according to Roberts.
“Now it’s just sore,” Roberts said. “I guess he’s in that day-to-day category.”
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