Jim Alexander: We are back at Dodger Stadium this afternoon for one last postseason baseball Audible, and also one last Audible (for now, anyway) where we’re both at the same site.
Before anything, I guess I should describe what’s going on: Dodgers infielders have just finished taking ground balls, and batting practice is about to begin. Meanwhile, lots of media members are on the field, and most are schmoozing with each other. Clubhouses are closed to the media before games during the postseason, so it’s possible to get a comment from a player beforehand, but the media-to-player ratio makes that unlikely.
(At least it’s easier to get down to the field from the press box at Dodger Stadium. In Toronto, it is a long, long walk around the perimeter of the field to reach the field access portal.)
Meanwhile, down the first-base line MLB Network’s commentators are on the air, on a portable stage with netting behind them just in case a batting practice drive heads in their direction. There will be a similar stage for the Fox pregame show commentators down the third-base line, but they won’t be there for a while.
As I write this, a little less than three hours from first pitch, we’ve already seen some interesting changes in the Dodgers’ batting order. Andy Pages and his sickly postseason batting average of .080 will start the game on the bench, and Alex Call will start in left field with Kiké Hernández moving to center. There are changes at the top, as well; Will Smith will hit No. 2 behind Shohei Ohtani, with Mookie Betts dropping to the No. 3 slot as he tries to shake his own slump.
Where is Brent Honeywell Jr. when we need him, Mirjam?
Mirjam Swanson: Ha! I’m saying! The Dodgers might need a BP cameo.
I like Roberts’ moves. I might’ve liked them more if they’d come earlier, but what do I know (except that the Dodgers have scored just three runs in the past 20 innings)? Because the fact that the guys who were sandwiched around Ohtani in the order were giving the Dodgers basically nothing – including going a combined 1 for 13 in the 18-inning marathon Monday. For the spectacle of it, it was fun. But with non-slumping hitters around Ohtani, who got on base nine times, that thriller could’ve (would’ve?) ended much sooner.
We’ll see what happens today, but one thing is for sure: The Dodgers need to get in the run-manufacturing business, pronto.
And the Dodgers know that. Freddie Freeman, pregame: “Obviously, as an offense, we know we got to score some runs.” Also: “We got to score more than two runs today.” And, yes, “we understand that we need to score runs.”
What are they going to do about it? “… today we have to get the ball up. If we are on the bottom of the zone and chasing down there, that’s not going to be good for us. So there is one – one plan today and it’s to get up, so maybe that will help us lock in on that one approach.”
Can the professional hitters up and down the Dodgers’ order figure it out? They’ll have to with the way the Blue Jays are hitting. They’re batting .259 to the Dodgers’ .214 and they’ve scored 23 runs through four games of the series so far to the Dodgers’ 17.
Jim: In this morning’s column about the night’s failures from the bullpen (and if that’s a recurring theme over the rest of this series, the Dodgers are in trouble), I made a reference to the Blue Jays’ offensive approach: Take what the other guy gives you. Rather than taking the big swing and going for the big hit – what would be referred to in the NBA as “hero ball” – the Jays’ approach is to keep the line moving, and out of that come such innings as the four-run seventh that decided Tuesday’s game. Sometimes just stroking the ball to the other field, as Andres Gimenez did to drive in a run, or rolling one through the hole as Addison Barger did for an RBI in that inning, works just as well.
As Freeman described it this afternoon: “We need to string some hits together. Just get some hits, get guys on, work the counts, get guys on, move ’em first to third, get ’em in. Kind of like what we did in the second inning yesterday. We just need to continue that over and over and over again. You got to put pressure on ’em. If we’re going up there just trying to hit home runs, it’s just not the name of the game.”
But this goes back to what Toronto manager John Schneider said at the beginning of the series, the philosophy that this isn’t a best-of-seven but a series of best-of-ones over a possible seven nights. Each game is its own separate specimen, and the old adage that momentum in baseball is tied to that night’s starting pitcher is quite true.
And in this format, the way a pitcher responds in his second start of a series can be critical. Tonight, Blake Snell gets his second try after a Game 1 start in Toronto where Dave Roberts’ intent was to try to get him at least through six innings, only to have the whole thing blow up when the Blue Jays sent 12 men to the plate in that sixth inning and scored nine off Snell and relievers Emmet Sheehan and Anthony Banda.
“I think that it’s easy to expect (Snell) to be markedly better than he was in Game 1,” Roberts said this afternoon. “So I do think that he was – he’ll never make an excuse for that layoff, and that’s just a circumstance we were in. But, yeah, I expect him to be much better with the fastball and the changeup today.”
Meanwhile, the Dodgers will get another look at Toronto rookie Trey Yesavage. In Game 1, he threw 80 pitches in four innings and the Dodgers nicked him for a couple of runs early, but I’m not sure they ever really solved him. How does he adjust, and how do the Dodgers adjust?
Mirjam: In theory, the Dodgers should be better this second meeting. But will they be better than the Blue Jays’ hitters?
I’ve been impressed with this Toronto team. Their two wins so far have been solid, convincing Ws. The Dodgers’ two wins were both rare species – another complete game from Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the 18-inning squeaker that could’ve gone either way.
I mean, who knows – but if I had to call my shot for just today’s game, it feels like the Jays have the upper hand and that they’re likely to go back to Toronto one game from winning this thing – of course, then they’ll have to face Yamamoto – so far darn near unsolvable – and in Game 7, anything and everything goes, including possibly seeing Ohtani out of the ’pen.
So it won’t be over – but 68% of the time, the Game 5 winner comes out on top, so …
Do you have a prediction, Jim, for today a few hours before the first pitch?
Jim: I picked the Dodgers in six to start with. I’m staying with that, because this team is capable of a better offensive approach – they’ve done it often enough this season – and I expect them to keep the line moving today. Although, as Freeman pointed out, it’s not as easy as turning on a switch.
“We can always talk about the offense isn’t doing good, but you got to realize that’s major-league pitching on the other side, and they’re really good, and they’re in the World Series as well,” he said.
If they can get this one in the final home game of 2025 – and their 177th game that counts this year, going all the way back to the two-game Tokyo Series in March – I fully expect Yamamoto to put the hammer down in Game 6 on Saturday in Toronto.
If they don’t? Uh-oh.