Freddie Freeman will not start for the Dodgers in NLDS Game 4
After initially saying first baseman Freddie Freeman would start in Game 4 of the NLDS against the Padres on Wednesday night, the Dodgers have reversed course.
The Dodgers released a new starting lineup less than two hours before first pitch with Freeman’s name off the card.
Freeman managed to start in each of the first three games of this series despite playing through a badly sprained ankle and apparent side issue (Freeman had a wrap around his torso in the clubhouse following Game 3).
However, Freeman evidently failed to complete his pregame routine without issue.
Without Freeman and Miguel Rojas, the Dodgers will start Kiké Hernández at third base (with Max Muncy shifting to first) and Chris Taylor in center field (with Tommy Edman shifting to shortstop)
The Dodgers feel confident about facing Padres starter Dylan Cease for the second time this series, especially as he took the mound on shortened three-days rest.
It’s happening again. Dodgers on verge of another ugly October encore
SAN DIEGO — Gulp. Sigh. Damn. It’s happening again.
For the second time in three postseasons, the Dodgers showed up at San Diego’s Petco Park on a cool October night brimming with confidence, riding on emotion, stung by skepticism, ready for revenge.
And once again, they’re eating it.
This wipeout is not yet as spectacular as the stunning crush of two Octobers ago, but give it time.
Once again, after losing Game 3 of the National League Division Series to the San Diego Padres, 6-5, the Dodgers find themselves on the brink of an all-too-familiar fate.
Padres bullpen acquisitions making an impact vs. Dodgers
As important as the Dodgers’ trade-deadline acquisition of hard-throwing reliever Michael Kopech was, Padres general manager A.J. Preller added three impact bullpen arms over the summer, acquiring left-hander Tanner Scott and right-hander Bryan Hoeing from Miami and right-hander Jason Adam from Tampa Bay.
Scott went 3-1 with a 2.73 ERA and four saves in 28 regular-season games and did not allow a run in 2⅔ innings of three NLDS games against the Dodgers, striking out the dangerous Shohei Ohtani in each of the first three games, including his eighth-inning whiff in Tuesday night’s 6-5 Game 3 victory.
Adam went 3-1 with a 1.01 ERA in 27 regular-season games and did not allow a hit in 2⅓ innings of two NLDS games. He retired the side in order in the seventh inning of Tuesday night’s game. Hoeing went 1-1 with a 1.52 ERA in 18 regular-season games and retired two batters and walked one in Game 1 of the NLDS.
Preller also acquired veteran left-hander Martin Perez from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Perez went 3-1 with a 3.46 ERA in 10 starts and is expected to serve as a swingman in the playoffs.
“A.J. is putting together a team that is looking to be built for winning a World Series, which is where we’re heading, and bullpens are a big part of that,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said before Game 4 Wednesday night.
“I think you can look at any successful team that makes a deep run in the playoffs and you’re going to have a deep bullpen. So to A.J.’s credit, he recognized that. He also picked up a starter in Perez who has helped us win some games. But the bullpen in close games against good teams … that’s a separator a lot of times.”
Shohei Ohtani was supposed to fix the Dodgers’ postseason woes. So why hasn’t he?
SAN DIEGO — This year would be different.
This year would be about winning a postseason series.
This year would be the year the best player in baseball made sure of it.
Or not.
Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers are on the verge of elimination from the National League Division Series. The San Diego Padres beat the Dodgers on Tuesday, 6-5, so the Dodgers either win two straight games or lose in their first round for the third straight season.
Bullpen will be tasked with saving battered and bruised Dodgers in Game 4
SAN DIEGO — Their starting shortstop, a defensive whiz who is having one of the best offensive seasons of his 11-year career, left Tuesday night’s game in the third inning after aggravating a left-adductor strain not once, not twice, but three times in the first three innings, and he appears doubtful for Wednesday night.
Their first baseman and No. 3 hitter, an eight-time All-Star and the 2020 National League most valuable player, was pulled for a pinch-runner in the eighth inning, his severely sprained right ankle hurting so much he could barely jog to first base after his two-out single, and he is questionable for Wednesday night.
Their rotation is so thin through just three playoff games that, faced with a win-or-go-home game in the National League Division Series on Wednesday night, they will employ a bullpen game.
Dodgers’ miscalculations with starting pitching have put their season in peril
SAN DIEGO — The point again feels redundant at this stage, but it’s nonetheless worth repeating because it’s the reason why the Dodgers are on the verge of another divisional-round elimination: Their starting pitching is atrocious.
The suspicions of the winter, which became legitimate fears in the regular season, have turned into a full-scale disaster in these playoffs.
Incredibly, the problem everyone saw coming is somehow even worse than imagined. In this National League Division Series, their starters have registered a combined earned-run average of 10.13. The Dodgers are behind in the best-of-five series to the San Diego Padres, two games to one.
The Dodgers’ starter in their elimination game on Wednesday?
TBD.
As in, to be determined.
Game 3 rewind: Dodgers can’t overcome disastrous inning in loss to Padres
SAN DIEGO — In the run-up to this week’s National League Division Series, it was the quietest player on the Dodgers roster who delivered the most profound speech.
This series, soft-spoken veteran Chris Taylor told his teammates in a hitter’s meeting before Game 1 on Saturday, would be all about intensity.
“Every time we play these guys,” Taylor said of the San Diego Padres, “they always have high intensity and a lot of energy.”
So, he implored the club, “We need to match that.”
Three games in, it isn’t happening.
Dodgers vs. Padres: How to watch and betting odds for Game 4
The Dodgers continue the postseason Wednesday when they face the San Diego Padres in Game 4 of the National League Division Series at Petco Park in San Diego. The game is scheduled to start at 6:08 p.m. PDT and will air on FS1 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 4:
If the Dodgers force a Game 5, it will be played at Dodger Stadium on Friday at 5:08 p.m. PDT (Fox).