Miguel Rojas and Alex Vesia left off Dodgers’ NLCS roster
The Dodgers will enter the NLCS without two key players on their 26-man roster.
Reliever Alex Vesia (intercostal) and shortstop Miguel Rojas (adductor) were both left off the team’s NLCS roster because of injuries.
Reliever Brent Honeywell Jr. and outfielder Kevin Kiermaier were added in their place.
Vesia got injured in Game 5 of the NLDS, after feeling cramping in his right side while warming up for the eighth inning.
Rojas has been dealing with his injury since late in the regular season. He was removed early from the Dodgers’ Game 3 loss in the NLDS, and did not appear in the series again.
Here is the Dodgers full roster:
Meantime, the Mets added Jeff McNeil to their NLCS roster. He had been out injured for New York’s wild-card and division series but now becomes one more left-handed bat for the Dodgers to account for with a bullpen that is down to just one left-handed reliever in Anthony Banda. Mets full roster below:
Bus rides, watch parties and a new mindset: The edge fueling the Dodgers’ playoff run
On the darkest night of their season last week, the Dodgers didn’t linger in their hushed home clubhouse.
The team had just been blown out in Game 2 of the National League Division Series. They’d lost their cool (and watched their home crowd do the same) in a 10-2 rout to the San Diego Padres. But rather than dwell on the disaster, they quickly packed team-branded duffel bags and boarded a charter bus waiting out in the parking lot.
With their season on the line, they were headed to San Diego.
And, this time, they decided as a team to all travel together.
“For as long as I’ve been here, we’ve never taken a team bus to San Diego, ever,” veteran third baseman Max Muncy said. “And that’s not a bad thing by any means. But us saying, ‘We’re all gonna ride a bus down there, no families, nothing else, just us on a bus,’ It was great.”
Dodgers’ starting pitching plan for NLCS vs. Mets remains a work in progress
The players’ voices were still hoarse. The clubhouse carpet was still sticky.
But, less than 24 hours after a booze-soaked National League Division Series celebration Friday night, the Dodgers were back at Chavez Ravine on Saturday, shifting their focus to Game 1 of the NL Championship Series against the New York Mets on Sunday night.
“We’ve got to play good baseball,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Come with the same intensity, focus and energy that we had this last series.”
Like their opening-round series against the San Diego Padres, the Dodgers’ biggest questions for the best-of-seven NLCS revolve around the pitching staff.
Playoff demons be gone! Dodgers outlast Padres to advance to NLCS
This time, they didn’t choke.
This time, they did the choking.
On a glorious night amid a roiling sea of joyful blue, the Dodgers wrapped their weathered arms around the San Diego Padres on Friday and crushed those brown jerseys like an empty paper sack, eventually exhaling with redemption, relief and a coveted spot just four wins from the World Series.
In the winner-take-all Game 5 of the National League Division Series, the Dodgers took all the criticisms of the past two postseason collapses and squashed them under a barrage of fastballs and two breathtaking long balls in a near-perfect 2-0 victory over the Padres at a shamelessly joyful Dodger Stadium.
Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen removes the stress from pressure-packed moments
In an age when everything on a baseball field can be quantified and culled into scouting reports that reveal the strengths, weaknesses and tendencies of pitchers and hitters, it’s almost refreshing to come across an old-school approach like that of Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen.
“The biggest thing for me is just getting ahead of guys, honestly,” said Treinen, a 36-year-old right-hander whose late-season dominance helped fuel the team’s run to the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets.
“I mean, it sounds so simple, but as much as the game changes, some things stay the same. You figure out where your success is, where you have margin for error, and then just trust it. You know, don’t think too much about it, just go execute.”
Dodgers and Mets lineups for Game 1 of the NLCS
Here’s the Dodgers’ lineup for Game 1 of the NLCS against the Mets:
And here is the Mets’ lineup:
Dodgers vanquish recent postseason frustrations in NLDS Game 5 win over Padres
Blake Treinen threw his hands in the sky. His teammates poured out of the dugout and swallowed him up near the mound.
Around them, the collective force of 53,000 fans all too accustomed to October frustration and heartbreak roared in delirious unison.
And not for the last time this fall, either.
Not after a nearly flawless performance from their ballclub on Friday.
Nine concerns the Dodgers should have about facing the Mets in the NLCS
In the postgame clubhouse following Game 5 of the National League Division Series, the expletives flowed as freely as showers of beer and champagne.
Actually, it started even before then.
What’s different about this year’s Dodgers team, Game 5 hero Kiké Hernández was asked during a postgame Fox television interview out on the field.
“The fact that we don’t give a f—,” Hernández grinned.
Dodgers vs. Mets: How to watch and betting odds for Game 1
The Dodgers continue the postseason Sunday when they face the New York Mets in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium. The game is scheduled to start at 5:15 p.m. PDT and will air on Fox and Fox Deportes. Radio broadcasts of the game will be on 570 AM and 1020 AM (Español) in the Los Angeles area.
Here are the betting odds for Game 1 of the NLCS:
Here’s the TV schedule for the remaining games in the best-of-seven series (all times Pacific):
Monday: Game 2 — New York Mets at Dodgers, 1:08 p.m. | Fox, FS1, FOXD
Wednesday: Game 3 — Dodgers at New York Mets, 5:08 p.m. | FS1, FOXD
Thursday: Game 4 — Dodgers at New York Mets, 5:08 p.m. | FS1, FOXD
*Friday: Game 5 — Dodgers at New York Mets, 2:08 p.m. | FS1, FOXD
* Sunday, Oct. 20: Game 6 — New York Mets at Dodgers, 5:08 p.m. | FS1, FOXD
* Monday, Oct. 21: Game 7 — New York Mets at Dodgers, 5:08 p.m. | Fox, FS1, FOXD
*—if necessary