The Los Angeles Dodgers have secured a bye into the National League Division Series and can clinch home field for the NL postseason when they face the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night in Denver.
Los Angeles (96-64) leads Philadelphia by two games after Friday’s 11-4 win over Colorado but needs to finish ahead of the Phillies, who won the season series between the teams and holds the tiebreaker.
Philadelphia lost 9-1 to Washington on Friday, so a win by the Dodgers on Saturday night would give them the top seed in the NL.
Los Angeles will send Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-2, 2.96 ERA) to the mound against Colorado’s Antonio Senzatela (0-0, 3.38) in a clash of right-handers.
Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts, who has been at the helm for eight of the past nine NL West titles, isn’t as worried about the seeding as he is about being healthy and ready for next weekend. He sat a couple of position players on Friday night and will rotate a few more out throughout the weekend.
“It’s more of just the idea of letting things play out the way they’re going to and trying not to influence the wins and losses too much as far as hoping for one particular seed,” Roberts said before Friday night’s game.
Shohei Ohtani will play both remaining games, Roberts said, with a chance to win the NL Triple Crown. His .309 batting average is second to San Diego’s Luis Arraez (.314), but Ohtani leads the league in home runs (54) and RBIs (130) after going 4-for-5 with a homer and four runs driven in Friday night.
“Shohei, he put on a show,” Roberts said. “Now I’m personally invested in the Triple Crown. He’s cognizant of it. He’s close to 200 hits (194). Anything that’s attainable is on his radar.”
The National League hasn’t seen a Triple Crown winner since Joe Medwick of St. Louis batted .374, hit 31 homers and drove in 154 runs in 1937.
Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman won’t play this weekend after spraining his right ankle in Thursday night’s division-clinching win. He didn’t make the trip to Denver and is getting treatment to be ready for Los Angeles’ first playoff game on Oct. 5.
Yamamoto, in his first major league season, already has faced the Rockies twice this year. He is 1-0 with a 5.00 ERA in those outings and is set to make his first start in Colorado.
Yamamoto’s opponent against the Rockies last Sunday was Senzatela, who was making his second start in his return from Tommy John surgery. Senzatela allowed a run in five innings in a no-decision in his team’s 6-5 loss to the Dodgers and is 4-5 with a 5.68 ERA in 16 career appearances — 14 starts — against Los Angeles.
Senzatela missed more than a year after last having pitched in May 2023, so getting a few starts in before the end of this season was important. He pitched just three innings in his first outing, Sept. 16 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, and was able to go a little longer in his second start.
“It feels really good overall,” Senzatela said after last Sunday’s game. “My arm is really good. My pitches worked better than the last time. I kept more balls on the ground.”
Colorado (61-99) is trying to avoid another 100-loss season. The Rockies will have to take the final two games of this series to avoid that dubious mark for the second straight year.
–Field Level Media
