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- Tyler Glasnow gives up three hits, two runs and strikes out 10 over six innings in the Dodgers’ 8-2 win over the San Francisco Giants.
- The Dodgers hit four home runs in the eighth inning, including a pair of back-to-back homers. Mookie Betts finished with two home runs.
- Rookie Josue De Paula is in the running to make the Dodgers’ postseason roster, manager Dave Roberts said.
With eight games left in the regular season, the Dodgers already have ticked off the most important boxes on their to-do list for the postseason.
They clinched a playoff berth for a record-tying 14th straight season and won the division title for the fifth time in a row. And with Friday’s 8-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants, the Dodgers (94-60) also have an outside shot at their fourth 100-win season in six years.
But that doesn’t mean they don’t have a lot of work to do between now and the playoffs — the most important task being determining exactly where and when they’ll open the postseason.
With Friday’s win and the Milwaukee Brewers’ victory in Baltimore, the Dodgers trail the Brewers by two games in the race for the league’s best record and home-field advantage that goes with it. They also lead the Atlanta Braves by four games for the second-best record, which would give them a first-round bye and an extra five days to get their sizable contingent of walking wounded healthy.
The magic is indeed missing, and after two seasons of conjuring up postseason greatness, these back-to-reality Dodgers appear headed for an early fall.
“To get one of these top-two seeds is important. And our guys understand that,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Winning the division is great, but I still think our best baseball is ahead of us.”
Achieving that, however, will require emptying an injury list that is almost as long as the starting lineup. If the season ended today, the Dodgers would have at least seven players who wouldn’t be ready to play.
The Dodgers are hopeful left-hander Blake Snell, who came out of Wednesday’s game after an inning because of groin tightness, will be healthy enough for one more regular-season start.
Center fielder Andy Pages, who shares the team lead in RBIs with Shohei Ohtani despite missing a month because of a fracture in his left hand, is expected to be activated for the series against the San Diego Padres, which begins Tuesday, while backup catcher Dalton Rushing is swinging a bat and will hit against a pitching machine this weekend.
Roki Sasaki threw 48 pitches in a bullpen session Wednesday and could come off the IL next week, but Edgardo Henriquez, second among Dodgers relievers in innings and strikeouts, will miss the rest of the regular season because of a back strain. He could rejoin the team for the playoffs.
Then there’s Ohtani, the four-time most valuable player. He’s dealing with injuries to his left knee and right biceps. He has resumed taking batting practice and is eligible to come off the IL on Wednesday. Roberts hopes to get Ohtani 10 to 12 at-bats before the playoffs.
“I’m just really waiting to hear when he’s going to get on the field, let alone take live BP,” Roberts said. “He’s not there yet. But everything I’ve heard, it’s been a really productive last three to four to five days.”
One player who did return was closer Edwin Díaz. Limited by injuries to 16 appearances in his first season with the Dodgers, he was activated Friday and threw 17 pitches in the ninth, giving up a single and striking out two.
For Roberts, the last month has looked like an episode of “The Pitt,” with medical crises piling up, one atop the other. Yet that’s hardly slowed the Dodgers, who opened their final homestand of the season having won 11 of their last 14 games.
Now the focus becomes continuing that momentum while getting as close to full strength as possible.
“They can go hand in hand,” Roberts said. “We have a lot of good players that are more than capable of helping us win baseball games, at the same time making sure we try to get our best players to optimum health when the postseason starts.”
The Dodgers got a big lift Friday from rookie Josue De Paula, who didn’t figure in their regular-season plans — much less their postseason ones — until a week ago when he was called up to take Ohtani’s place. In his Dodger Stadium debut, De Paula singled and scored on a Teoscar Hernández single in the fifth, then roped a double to the wall in right-center an inning later, scoring Kyle Tucker to put the Dodgers ahead to stay.
Tucker, Max Muncy, Mookie Betts and Will Smith all homered in a five-run eighth inning, turning a nail-biter into a comfortable win. Betts also hit a solo blast in the first.
“It’s crossed my mind,” De Paula said with a smile when asked if he’s in the discussion for a playoff roster spot. “But I try to focus on the now while I’m here and I’m enjoying every moment.”
“Yeah, he’s in the mix,” Roberts confirmed. “He’s certainly doing a lot of things well.”
All of the scoring helped Tyler Glasnow (5-1) earn his second win since April 23. Glasnow gave up just three hits in six innings, striking out a season-high 10.
Hernández, who had two hits, is batting .368 with 17 RBIs in September; Tucker, who also had two hits, is hitting .424 with five home runs and 13 runs scored in his last 10 games; Betts has six hits in his last eight at-bats, lifting his average to a season-high .254.
That’s helped make up for Freddie Freeman’s struggles. Freeman, who went hitless in four at-bats Friday, striking out twice, has just six hits — and 13 strikeouts — in his last 48 at-bats.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” Roberts said with a sigh before the game.
They have just over a week to get it done.
