LOS ANGELES — When Kiké Hernández , not Miguel Rojas , ran out to shortstop to begin the fourth inning Sunday afternoon, it was enough to draw pause. The Los Angeles Dodgers have needed Rojas more than they could’ve imagined, bridging the gap at shortstop with Mookie Betts on the injured list nursing a broken hand. He’s delivered one of the best years of his career.
Given his production in Betts’ absence, it was worth at least a conversation about whether the 36-year-old veteran should remain there full time even when Betts came back. Advertisement Then Rojas exited the Dodgers’ 9-6 win over the Boston Red Sox , citing right forearm tightness. Rojas identified one-handed swings he took with a heavier bat as a hitting drill during the All-Star break as the culprit.
He felt “a little sharp pain” as he fielded a grounder in Saturday night’s win before exiting Sunday’s contest. The veteran waved away any potential concern, and won’t undergo an MRI. “Just want to be smart,” Rojas said.
“I’m not going to let myself go down badly if I can actually take my time and be smart about it.” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Rojas won’t be in the lineup Monday against the San Francisco Giants and possibly a couple of days after that to ensure it is taken care of. With less than 10 days until the July 30 trade deadline, a simple twinge is enough to change a club’s priorities.
Bottom of the order life The Dodgers have work to do to improve baseball’s most top-heavy lineup. And to that end, they got some encouraging signs this weekend. Miguel Vargas’ moment was noteworthy Friday.
Hernández delivered twice in the clutch Saturday. Then came Gavin Lux , who might be showing signs of life at the plate. His home run and double Saturday were old news by the time the back-and-forth affair was complete.
Then he dribbled a double in his first at-bat Sunday to knot things up before driving his second homer in as many nights (and one of the Dodgers’ season-high six on the day), this time out to the opposite field. He added a single by day’s end. Gavin Lux homers in back-to-back games and extends the @Dodgers lead 💪 pic.
twitter.com/9Af6Lp2B4U — MLB (@MLB) July 22, 2024 “Right now with Gavin, there’s more intent with his swing,” Roberts said. “I think there was a passivity, a carefulness, for the better part of this year.
But I think right now he’s getting loaded and he’s getting his A-swing off more.” Especially lately. Over the span of one weekend, he bumped his OPS from .
562 to .609. Advertisement “Obviously, I don’t think it’s been any secret,” Lux said.
“It’s been a little bit of a grind for me this year. ..
. Baseball is so much mentally. You get even a bloop hit you feel like, ‘Oh, I got a chance today.
’ And then you 0-fer with three punchies and you’re like, ‘Man.’ You stare at your ceiling all night like I might not ever get a hit again.” Starting pitching is a deadline priority At the top of the Dodgers’ shopping list is starting pitching.
Specifically, premium starting pitching. It will likely take plenty to extract the likes of a Tarik Skubal or a Garrett Crochet . That presents a conundrum for a Dodgers club that, while aggressive in deadlines past, has already had to count on so much of its upper-minors depth just to get to this point.
That reliance will continue Monday, when River Ryan makes his major-league debut. The Dodgers certainly didn’t expect to be in the position where they’d be calling up and counting on Landon Knack , Justin Wrobleski and Ryan at this stage of the season. Nor did they expect to be relying so heavily on the return of Clayton Kershaw , which is slated for Thursday.
What was expected to be a luxury is a day the Dodgers are eagerly anticipating. “I feel like we’re going to get the same guy, I really do,” Roberts said of Kershaw. “Just talking to Clayton about how much better he feels — last year he was pitching through some type of pain the entire season, so for him to be pain-free and building up the strength, I just don’t see why there wouldn’t be an uptick in stuff, and then you add the player and it should bleed into performance.
Not that he feels pressure, but my feeling is that it’s going to be good.” This is the world they’ve lived in, where Gavin Stone (far from a lock for the Opening Day rotation) and James Paxton (who was left off the travel roster for South Korea and has an extensive injury history) are the only Dodgers starters to make every turn through the rotation. Advertisement Sunday, Paxton became the first Dodgers starting pitcher to record a win since Stone did June 26 — 25 days — delivering five innings of two-run ball while showing some added velocity.
“I guess I had to start grunting to throw harder, I’m not sure,” Paxton said after throwing a pitch harder than he had all season (96.1 mph) in the win. Getting Kershaw and Tyler Glasnow back will help.
They still are hoping that Yoshinobu Yamamoto can enter that picture, too. But it would be unfathomable for the Dodgers to emerge from this month’s deadline without at least one external option added. The back end of the bullpen When Daniel Hudson , not Evan Phillips , emerged to record the final three outs of Friday’s Dodgers win over the Red Sox, Roberts said it was because Hudson was already warming by the time his club had rallied to take the lead — not the run of left-handed hitters that was due up.
Phillips’ recent struggles against lefties have emerged as a noteworthy trend as of late. Those recent struggles have extended in recent outings. Right-handed hitter Tyler O’Neill clobbered Phillips’ hanging sweeper for a two-run shot in extra innings in Saturday’s contest.
Sunday, right-handed hitter Cedanne Rafaela’s leadoff single set up what would be a two-run inning on lefty Jarren Duran ’s two-run double off the left-field wall. When Phillips subsequently loaded the bases, Roberts sprung from the dugout and had Hudson finish out the game. “Obviously, we’ve gotta get Evan right,” Roberts said.
Phillips has allowed runs in six of his last eight outings (nine earned runs allowed overall), increasing his ERA from 1.52 to 3.77.
“We’re trying to dig in on it,” Roberts said Saturday of Phillips’ recent struggles. “He says he feels good, but the execution isn’t what it has been and should be. And so whether it’s left-hander or right-hander, it just boils down to execution.
I don’t know ...
it’s not necessarily a role change because I have used him in different roles. But yeah, I mean, we need them and we need to get that execution dialed in.” Advertisement The Dodgers’ bullpen has already shown signs of wear.
And though reinforcements are on the way — Joe Kelly made his return this weekend, and Brusdar Graterol and Michael Grove are starting rehab assignments with Ryan Brasier not far behind — it serves as another reason for the Dodgers to seek out potential additions before July 30. (Photo: Jonathan Hui / USA Today).
