NEW YORK — A weekend set billed as a World Series preview was never that. The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees might very well be on a collision course for October, but this much is clear:
A 6-4 loss Sunday did not diminish a successful weekend in the Bronx for the Dodgers, who have spent much of the last month struggling to look like the juggernaut their offseason forecast. Nor does a series victory in June matter much for a club that will be judged by October. The three nights on 161st Street and River Avenue provided entertainment, a reminder of the excellence of slugger Aaron Judge and of what could come along with the margins that will separate them in the small, elite class of contenders this season.
Advertisem*nt
They needed to look no further than Sunday night, when a chance to sweep slipped away.
They can see the third inning, when rookie center fielder Andy Pages nearly made a spectacular catch to prevent a run but lost the baseball as he crashed into the wall, doubling an early deficit.
They’ll remember the sixth inning, when Tyler Glasnow saw an electric outing disintegrate when he left what was supposed to be an elevated fastball over the heart of the plate; Trent Grisham pulverized it for a go-ahead three-run home run, raising his season hit total to five.
“I just think a couple pitches tonight were left right in the middle of the zone,” Glasnow said. “Just wish I could have located them a little differently.”
They’ll think of the next half-inning, when they immediately put the tying run on base with a Pages walk and Gavin Lux single — only to not advance on Kiké Hernández’s bunt attempt because Pages’ slide into third base was poor, his front leg hovering over the bag rather than touching it.
“The little things are what wins games like these,” Pages said. “That’s something I have to get better at.”
And close to an hour after the final out, Mookie Betts was stewing over the final margin call. The Dodgers had strung together consecutive two-out hits to bring the former MVP to the plate in the ninth against Yankees closer Clay Holmes. Betts, who’d delivered a tying two-run double earlier in the night, struck out.
Clear the bases, Mookie! pic.twitter.com/0ByobSAnOP
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 10, 2024
Such are the slim margins. The ones you can live with in June, and that might define any team’s October.
“There’s obviously a lot of things that we have to fix,” Betts said. “I mean, situational hitting. I think that’s one of the main things. Just making sure (we’re) playing the game the right way. Doing everything the right way. Because come postseason time we’re going to have to execute those things.”
Advertisem*nt
Catching up to the fastball
An explanation for a Dodgers offense that has underperformed for much of the last month: They haven’t hit the fastball. It’s been a subject in hitters meetings dating back weeks, as Freddie Freeman was quick to iterate after a maddening sweep in Cincinnati two weeks ago.
The woes are, understandably, worse the harder the fastballs come in. They entered Sunday ranking 18th in baseball in batting average against fastballs thrown 96 mph or harder (.206); they ranked 28th with a .279 slugging percentage against such pitches.
“I think there’s a little bit of pause as far as making the decision and being a little too careful at times (at the plate), trying to see the ball a little too long,” Roberts mused earlier this week.
So that made Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Jared Jones a bad matchup as he tossed six scoreless innings Tuesday. It made Paul Skenes look dominant in stretches the next night. And it put extra focus on how this lineup would perform against Yankees rookie sensation Luis Gil on Sunday night.
Of the 96 pitches Gil threw, 51 were fastballs, the fastest of which registered at 98.8 mph.
The Dodgers, for their part, looked about as good as anyone has lately against Gil, who allowed three runs in a start for the first time since the end of April and exited with a deficit after Teoscar Hernández turned around Gil’s final pitch — a changeup — and drove it into the seats for his third home run of the weekend.
Roberts had said hours earlier he’d been encouraged by the steps his club had taken in its approach against high velocity. Sunday was an encouraging result. They will have more tests before October, where that velocity certainly won’t be going away.
Rest for the rest of the starters
For the Dodgers, the concept of regular rest has been anything but regular. No team in baseball had fewer starts from pitchers on four days’ rest than the Dodgers had before Glasnow took the mound Sunday night in the Bronx. This has been by design. Given their status, they can afford to play the long game.
Advertisem*nt
Yet as the calendar has flipped to June, so has some of the Dodgers’ thinking. A week ago Sunday, Gavin Stone started on regular rest. Wednesday, so did James Paxton. Glasnow joined them Sunday.
The Dodgers have not abandoned their plan. But they are starting to make regular rest a little more regular again.
“It’s intentional,” Roberts said. He has espoused the merit of bullpen games, citing the organization’s success with them in being able to prevent runs. There also is a cost; the Dodgers have already had to shuffle pieces of their bullpen.
The Dodgers will have a day of rest built into the schedule Monday. Then they’ll play 13 in a row. It likely won’t include a bullpen game.
“There might be a drop-in situation, something like that,” Roberts said.
That would likely be Bobby Miller, who will likely need at least one more rehabilitation start before he returns from the injured list. That will likely come Thursday. After that, there could be some difficult decisions. Gavin Stone has minor-league options but has pitched well enough that his seemingly temporary rotation spot feels much more permanent. Paxton starts again Tuesday, looking to right things; after succeeding in the face of unfavorable underlying numbers, he’s come back down to earth a bit. These two weeks could shape some things for the rest of this summer.
More decisions loom after that. Clayton Kershaw is scheduled to face hitters over three simulated innings his next time out. After that, the longtime Dodgers ace could start a rehabilitation assignment. His return from his first major arm surgery is not necessarily imminent, but it’s getting closer.
(Photo of Tyler Glasnow: Luke Hales / Getty Images)
Fabian Ardaya is a staff writer covering the Los Angeles Dodgers for The Athletic. He previously spent three seasons covering the crosstown Los Angeles Angels for The Athletic. He graduated from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in May 2017 after growing up in a Phoenix-area suburb. Follow Fabian on Twitter @FabianArdaya
