Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The regular season comes to a close for both the Dodgers (99-62) and the San Francisco Giants (65-96) today, with the former prepping for their NLDS matchup next weekend, and the latter for a long offseason. With a win in the series finale, the Dodgers would reach 100 wins for the first time since 2023 (100-62), but have managed to win the World Series in back-to-back seasons with 93 and 98 wins respectively. Jack Dreyer will be on the mound to open today’s game, with the Dodgers’ primary focus to get out of this game healthy and head home while awaiting their NLDS opponent. The final NL Wild Card spot is still up for grabs between the Phillies (87-74), and the Diamondbacks (86-75). Whoever claims that last spot will travel to Atlanta (94-67) for the Wild Card Series, and the winner of that series will travel to Los Angeles for the NLDS.
 |  | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 12:05 P.M. | San Francisco | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | CF | Cox |
| SS | Betts | 1B | Harris |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | DH | Bericoto |
| RF | Tucker (L) | RF | Davidson (L) |
| LF | T. Hernández | C | Knizner |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | 2B | Mayer (L) |
| CF | Pages | 3B | Whitcomb |
| C | Feduccia (L) | LF | Bandura (L) |
| 2B | Edman (S) | SS | Koss |
| P | Dreyer (L) | P | Seymour (R) |
Hunter Feduccia starts over Will Smith in the season finale, but the team is mostly starting their “A” squad, likely with the hopes of closing the season on a positive note at the plate. Mookie Betts had one of the best months of September among all players, with a 208 wRC+ and an OPS of 1.136 heading into Game 162. Teoscar Hernández (175 wRC+, .998 OPS), Will Smith (160 wRC+, .948 OPS), and Kyle Tucker (147 wRC+, .918 OPS) have also all been excellent, with the heart of the order finally hitting how they should.
On the other hand, Shohei Ohtani is 1-for-9 with five strikeouts in his return from the Injured List, while Freddie Freeman has looked dreadful in September with a .501 OPS, a 44 wRC+, and has just one extra-base hit. Barring a great day at the plate, Ohtani (.890 OPS) will likely finish the season with an OPS below .900 for the first time since 2022, while Freeman (.796 OPS) is at risk of a sub .800 OPS for the first time since 2012. Nobody will start over those two in October obviously, so you can only hope the week off will do them both some good.
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Dreyer has had another strong season, with a 3.16 ERA, a 3.49 FIP, and a 1.10 WHIP entering today’s game. It’s no surprise that he’s very good against left-handed batters, but he’s running a ridiculous 34.5% strikeout rate against right-handed batters this year, filling an interesting role in the postseason bullpen. Alex Vesia and Tanner Scott both dominate left-handed batters and are slightly less effective against right-handed batters, so Dreyer fits in a more unique role as a lefty out of the pen that can mitigate platoon splits quite well.
Carson Seymour is a 27 year-old reliever who sits in the upper-90’s and has struggled for San Francisco this season. He has a 4.70 ERA, a 5.87 FIP, and a 1.53 WHIP in 30.2 innings, with just 22 strikeouts to 16 walks. He’ll look to close his season on a positive note before handing the ball off to someone else for San Francisco, looking to do the same thing.
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In other news,
OKC locked up the Triple-A title last night which is fun as the Major League club will look to do the same over the next month.
If you missed it, Blake Treinen injured himself warming up last night and is out for the remainder of the season. He hadn’t been all that effective when on the mound this season, but was still likely to find himself in big spots over the next few weeks anyway. Very unfortunate for him, and someone in the bullpen will have to step up and fill the role he was going to be in, even if it’s “lower leverage” postseason innings.
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First pitch is at 12:05 PT on SNLA.
