Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (90-69) clinched the NL West yesterday and are locked into the three seed in the National League, rendering the final series of the regular season pretty much meaningless for them. There’s no seeding to be determined for the Dodgers, as the only question for them is which of the teams alive for the final Wild Card spot will join them in LA on Tuesday. The Marlins, Giants and Cardinals are now officially eliminated leaving the Mets, Reds and Diamondbacks in contention. The Mets are in the drivers’ seat, with a one-game lead over the Reds and a two-game lead over Arizona. They also play the Marlins this weekend, while the Reds get a Brewers team looking to lock down home field advantage throughout the playoffs and the Diamondbacks get a Padres team looking to surpass the Cubs for the four-seed and play host in the Wild Card round.
Either way, the scores of this series in Seattle won’t really have any bearing on the Dodgers. It does matter a bit for the Mariners (90-69), who have wrapped up the AL West and a top-two seed but are only one game back of the Jays and Yankees for the top seed in the AL entering today’s games. Home-field advantage could be big for them, as they’re 51-27 at home and only 39-42 on the road. They’re the hottest team in baseball, winning 17 of their last 18 games including a three-game sweep in Houston last weekend to virtually give them the division. It also potentially matters for Cal Raleigh, whose record-breaking season has him squarely in the MVP conversation. Wouldn’t be so mad if the Dodgers gave him batting practice to really solidify his case. Seattle swept the Rockies to begin this week and now look to avenge a sweep by the Dodgers in LA last August.
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| 6:40 P.M. | Seattle | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | LF | Arozarena |
| CF | Pages | C | Raleigh (S) |
| LF | Conforto (L) | CF | Rodríguez |
| RF | T. Hernández | DH | Naylor (L) |
| SS | Kim (L) | 3B | Suárez |
| 2B | Rojas | 1B | Raley (L) |
| 1B | Rushing (L) | RF | Robles |
| 3B | K. Hernández | SS | Crawford (L) |
| C | Rortvedt (L) | 2B | Young (L) |
| P | Sheehan (R) | P | Kirby (R) |
Emmet Sheehan gets his fine tune-up for the postseason today. Sheehan’s been excellent this season with a 2.86 ERA/3.02 FIP and 0.968 WHIP in 72 1/3 innings over 14 outings (11 starts). He’s completed seven innings in three of his last five starts including last time out against the Giants, where he allowed one hits over seven shutout with 10 strikeouts and no walks (but did hit two batters). He only needed 84 pitches to complete those seven innings and is really making it hard to not see him as a huge piece this October. Who knows if it’ll be as a starter, but he has had success out of the bullpen this year in long relief. In two true long relief outings, Sheehan’s allowed only one earned run (three more unearned) and three hits in eight innings. The Dodgers also used an opener for Sheehan two turns ago, and he allowed one run and one hit over 5 2/3 against the Phillies. He would be lined up on five days’ rest to pitch in Game 2 of the Wild Card series next Wednesday, so he does figure to be on the Wild Card roster in some way.
George Kirby gets the ball for the Mariners for the 23rd time this season. It’s been a rough season for Kirby, who had shoulder inflammation in March and didn’t get his season started until late May. In his third start, he took a liner off the face but managed to make his next start. Kirby had a mid-3 ERA in each of his first three seasons, but he’s had a 4.24 in 121 innings this season. His 3.39 FIP is a bit closer to his career norms and he is running the best strikeout rate of his career (25.2 percent), but also has the worst walk rate of his career (5.6 percent which is still very good but up considerably from his 2.5 percent in 2023 and 3 percent last year). Kirby’s still shown flashes of being an ace this season. He’s coming off a pair of very strong starts against the Angels and Astros. He allowed two runs and three hits in 6 1/3 innings against the Angels with 14 strikeouts (his second 14-strikeout game against the Angels this season), and last time out he allowed five hits and didn’t walk anyone over six shutout in Houston.
Kirby’s throwing his fastball less than he ever has in career, but it’s still his most-used pitch at 28.6 percent. His slider and sinker are both up from his career numbers (27.5 percent slider, 26.3 percent sinker). His main offspeed pitch is a knuckle curve (12.2 percent usage) and he has a 37 percent whiff rate on it. He’s also mixed in some splitters and changeups. His 90.7 MPH average exit velocity is the highest of his career (22nd-highest in baseball among pitchers with 250+ batted balls against, somehow two other Mariner pitchers are in the top-20).
The Dodgers roll out about as much of a hangover lineup as you can get with the smaller expanded rosters. Andy Pages hits second with Michael Conforto hitting third. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman both get the day off, with Hyeseong Kim at short and Dalton Rushing starting at first with Ben Rortvedt behind the plate. Old friend Luke Raley starts at first for the Mariners.
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Brock Stewart‘s season is done.
Brock Stewart will have shoulder surgery, Dave Roberts said, which will end his season. Decision was made after he went back to LA to see Dr. ElAttrache.
— Sonja Chen (@SonjaMChen) September 26, 2025
He finished his rehab on Sunday and was still dealing with some pain. The decision was made for him to have surgery on the shoulder. He’s under contract for two more years so he should stick around, but it’s not great for the Dodgers to lose their lone bullpen deadline add. Fortunately, the rest of the bullpen has been excellent in Stewart’s absence and we all have a ton of faith in them heading into October. Haven’t seen anything about whether Stewart’s 2026 season could be in jeopardy with a late-season shoulder surgery, but hopefully it’s more on the minor side.
Some other injury notes regarding Tommy Edman, Max Muncy and Will Smith.
Other Dodgers injury updates:
— Jack Harris (@ByJackHarris) September 26, 2025
— Max Muncy is dealing with an unspecified lower-body issue, Dave Roberts said. They’ve given him a couple days to work thru it
— Tommy Edman is out again today to give his ankle some rest, but he’s expected back in the lineup tomorrow
— Roberts…
Muncy’s banged up and is off again after being out yesterday in Arizona. Edman also missed that game and is dealing with some ankle soreness, but should be in there tomorrow. It sounds a little less likely that Smith will be ready for the Wild Card round, and Rortvedt would be the primary starter if he’s not.
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First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 PM PT and will be on SportsNet LA.
