Cody Snavely
Well, we’re finally here, the final series of the 2024 Major League Baseball regular season. The Los Angeles Dodgers, fresh off clinching their eleventh National League West title in twelve years after Thursday’s 7-2 win over the San Diego Padres, will head to Colorado for a short three-game series before the eventual five off days until game one of the National League Division Series next Saturday, October 5th.
Despite clinching the division, the Dodgers still have one more “task”. They currently enter play with the best record in the National League, one game up on the Philadelphia Phillies, and their magic number to clinch home-field advantage through the NLCS is three games.
It is the second time this week that the Dodgers and Rockies are facing each other head-to-head after finishing a three-game series last weekend, which wrapped up with a walk-off win for the Dodgers during the series finale on Sunday.
The Dodgers have played the Rockies well this season, winning seven of their ten meetings (.700), hitting .282/.375/.479, and scoring fifty-five runs as a team, including winning three of their four games played in Coors Field.
The Dodgers have won seven of their last ten games and have won back-to-back-to-back series over the Miami Marlins, Colorado Rockies, and San Diego Padres and look to stay hot to close out the season.
The Rockies are in last place in the National League West, thirty-nine games back from the first-place Dodgers. They have been eliminated from postseason contention a few weeks back, having missed the postseason every year since 2018.
Colorado is struggling to close out its season, losing six of its last ten games and will also say farewell to a Rockies icon in, Charlie Blackmon, who officially announced his retirement from Major League Baseball after a great fourteen-year career with the Rockies.
Shohei Ohtani also has some reason to play all three of these games. Entering the series, he is two home runs away from creating the 55/55 club and leading the National League in two of the three categories for the Triple Crown.
As of today, Ohtani leads the National League in RBIs (126) and home runs (53) and is third in batting average (.305), just .07 points away from Luis Arráez (.312).
A great week from Ohtani could put him in prime position to become the first National League player to do so since Joe Medwick of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1937 and the first Major League player since Miguel Cabrera in 2012.
Pitching match-ups
Game One: Ryan Brasier (1-0, 3.33 ERA) vs Cal Quantrill (8-10, 4.72 ERA)
Game Two: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-2, 2.96 ERA) vs Antonio Senzatela (0-0, 3.38 ERA)
Game Three: (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs Ryan Feltner (3-10, 4.66 ERA)
Game Times
Game One: 7:10 PM PT, SNLA, Colorado Rockies TV
Game Two: 6:10 PM PT, SNLA, Colorado Rockies TV
Game Three: 1:10 PM PT, SNLA, Colorado Rockies TV
Who’s in & who’s out?
As the Los Angeles Dodgers enter their final week of play, they aim to stay healthy. This regular season can primarily be defined by injury as the team has had over twenty-five players placed on the injured list, hit especially hard in the starting rotation using seventeen starting pitchers this season and forty different pitchers across the rotation and bullpen combined.
Prior to yesterday’s game, the Dodgers activated veteran catcher Austin Barnes from the 10-day injured list and optioned rookie catcher Hunter Fedducia to Triple-A OKC. Barnes had missed the last two weeks due to a toe fracture but is ready to go for the final three games of the regular season and postseason.
Another move made before yesterday’s game was the Dodgers’ recall of right-handed pitcher Ben Casparius, who was optioned the night before after righty Brusdar Graterol was placed back on the 15-day injured list due to shoulder inflammation.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Graterol has been dealing with it since spring training. He said it was a day-to-day injury and did not entirely rule him out for the postseason, which begins next Saturday.
The Dodgers also activated left-handed pitcher Anthony Banda from the 15-day injured list prior to Thursday’s game against the Padres, placing journeyman relief pitcher Brent Honeywell Jr. on the 15-day injured list with a cracked fingernail.
Shifting to the starting rotation, veteran left-handed pitcher Clayton Kershaw is set to still be weeks away from being activated as his toe injury is not one hundred percent or even close. Kershaw stated that because he’s not able to throw one hundred percent, other small things have popped up in his body as he overcompensates for his toe. The best-case scenario is for Kershaw to help in the National League Championship Series or World Series if the team makes it that far.
The Dodgers will also be without veteran shortstop Miguel Rojas, who exited the game Wednesday with left groin tightness. Later that night, an MRI revealed a tear in his adductor, possibly forcing him to miss the rest of the regular season.
Rojas, however, is still optimistic that he’ll be able to manage the pain and play through the injury in the postseason after getting a cortisone injection yesterday and expects to play through it in the postseason.
The Dodgers will be monitoring the most significant injury: All-star first baseman Freddie Freeman‘s ankle, which was rolled trying to beat out a weak ground ball to Padres second baseman Jake Cronenworth.
Freeman was instantly removed from the game but was able to walk on his own. After the game, he was seen in crutches and a walking boot while the team celebrated their division title. An MRI revealed that there was no break, which was a colossal bullet dodged, but the lefty bat would stay in Los Angeles and rest.
For the Rockies, right-handed pitcher Ryan Feltner left his start early on Tuesday with a cramp in his right arm but will still start the series finale on Sunday against the Dodgers, according to Rockies manager Bud Black.
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