Dodger Talk is sponsored by La Care Health Plan, providing affordable healthcare insurance to millions of Angelinos for over twenty five years. And now your voice for Dodger Talking like back, David Basse. One of the most disappointing losses of the season for the Dodgers today as they blow a five run lead in the ninth inning, as the Tigers come back to tiet and then win it in the bottom of the tenth inning on a two run walk off home run by former
Yankee Geo Urschella. Welcome to Dodger Talk. David Vasse, with you until three o'clock, taking your phone calls at eight six, six, nine eighty seven, two five seventy. We have a couple of lines open already, some of the usual suspects on hold. After a Dodger loss eleven to nine, the final score today in ten innings at Comerica Park, and certainly not
what you expected. When the Dodgers were going into the ninth inning with a nine to four lead, you thought that Ricky Vanasko would be able to handle mop up duty. He was not able to do so, but give Dave Roberts credit. He did have Evan Phillips starting to throw lightly behind Venasco and not be a fire drill type of scenario, so he kind of saw that
this was not a sure thing. He had Phillips warming up in case things went sideways the way they did for Ricky Vanasko and Evan Phillips came in and was one out away from being able to secure the second win in a row
in Detroit. Unfortunately, after retiring Riley Green and striking out Jake Rogers, it was Colt Keith who hit a game tying two run home run off of flat cutter from Evan Phillips the first pitch of the bat and I had the sports Net LA broadcast on in one year and I heard Oral Herscheizer say, be careful on the first pitch to this guy. He was exactly right, Evan Phillips not careful enough. It got a big part of the plate and
Evan Phillips gives up the game time to run home run. And from there it was Johann Ramirez to try to somehow, some way send the game to the eleventh inning. It was not to be, as Geo Urshela hits the walk off to run home run off of Johann Ramirez. Let's head back to Detroit right now to hear from manager Dave Roberts. It's just not it's not
us. It doesn't happen, and this certainly happened today, but you know where you're backed up against pitch as far as usage and trying to figure out how to get through the game today and win the game and then be able to cover the game the next day to potend to win the next day. You know, we had a five run lead and there's just no excuse for us losing that game, and we just got to be better. When you
think about just I guess what the last week has looked like. Did you see I guess little examples of kind of the mishaps and moments that I think
I've been missing in that inning. You know, I think that there's a there's some predictability with us that that I know hitters are privy to, and then there's some lack of execution, and you know, we just's you know, today it was certainly the pitching part of it, but you know, overall, there's some things that we just got to keep being better at, and you know, we got doubled up earlier that ended up costing us. You know, those are things that little things that affect games, and they
don't show themselves until something like this happens. So we yeah, this one stings. It's maybe a little bit too predictable there, and that's about to keep because that's how you noticed them gets the lefties in the past. The less will stretch it. Yeah, absolutely, he throws a cutter to lefties and you know, guys start to hunt, hunt the zone, and even if it's a good pitch, they have a better chance if that's what they're
hunting, the pitch and the location. So Evan has a lot of different weapons, but you know, you know the guy, you got to give him credit though he put a good swing on it, but you know he's got a lot of different ways to get guys out. I'm jarring is the sequence, especially after like Evan comes in and gets a couple outs, Like, are you feeling pretty safe even at that point? Absolutely? I mean we had two run lead, with the man on first base with two outs,
I felt great. You know, you don't want to use him in a back to back game with a five run lead, so just having him get the fourth hitter, just to kind of minimize the damage. Was you know what the thought was, because he was going to be down tomorrow, so but you're still trying to win the game today, so you got to deploy him, and you know, unfortunately we just couldn't finish the game. All right, there's manager Dave Roberts. Thanks to sports in at LA for
going inside the manager's office after a very disappointing loss. You can hear a pin drop in that clubhouse. After the Dodgers give up a five run lead in the ninth inning and fall in ten eleven to nine. I would have loved to have somebody ask Dave Roberts in a very fancy way, the way Jack Harris asked him about losing the game in the ninth inning, what his thought process was not putting the double play in order in the bottom of the
tenth inning. I'm not saying things would have turned out differently, but me, you give yourself a little bit more of a chance to send the game into the eleventh inning by walking Geo Orshella and putting runners at the corners with
one out and having the double play in order. I'm not saying Johann Ramirez gets the next batter out, but certainly you give your chance, your team a better chance of ending that inning with Matt Vierling coming to the plate not really a fast runner, and Orshella at first base, but Dave Roberts opted to go with the five man infield, no left fielder, and Orshella hit say walk off two run home run. Don't get me wrong, don't get
it twisted. I'm not second guessing pitching to Urshella because he hit the two run home run. I'm just wondering, why not do what aj Hinch did in the top half of the tenth inning, load the bases and have a double play at any base. I'm not saying Dave Roberts should have loaded the bases, but obviously it's desperation time with a five man infield, and even Jose Mota mentioned forget about the five man infield walker Shella, and have a
left fielder so you don't get beat on a flare. But it was not meant to be, and this game was lost not in the tenth inning. It was lost in the ninth inning. And even bigger concern for the Dodgers is how Evan Phillips has looked very normal over the course of not just the last seven games, but basically the last month. He has looked very normal. Eight six, six, nine seven, two five seventy is the phone number. Let's go out to Temecula. Rex. You're on Dodger Talk with
David vasse Hi Rex. Tough day for US Dodger fans. Thanks again for your show, because I feel like the Dodgers are suffering spiritually right now. Is there any chance, any chance at all from your viewpoint, that they could call on show high Otani to pitch late in this year or in the playoffs, even if it was a stunt or intended to give this team an inspirational lift. Is there any chance of that? Absolutely not. Andrew Freeman
and Dave Roberts have been asked about that. Rex. He's throwing from about ninety feet right now. They are not going to have showy Otani just step into the pressure cooker in September and start pitching. This is a long term contract. They are not going to have a knee jerk reaction to have Otani pitch this year, even if it was a stunt or designed to be an inspirational lift for the team. You don't feel that that could be a possibility. No, I don't, and I'm not sure you know. If you
don't get out how inspirational is it. That's a big risk having a guy that's coming off of second Tommy John surgery all of a sudden put it into another gear to start pitching well. I would like to see Mookie Bets or perhaps even Clayton Kershaw be more of that inspirational presence, not in the broadcast boot but in the dugout in the locker room. And I don't know if you have any visibility to that, but I feel in summary, I feel
like the Dodgers are suffering spiritually as well as mechanically. In any thoughts on Mookie or Clayton stepping up and helping out Dave Roberts on that inspirational front, I'd love to hear your opinion on that. Thanks again for your show.
Thanks, Rex, appreciate it. If there's going to be a guy that is going to be more of a vocal leader, it's going to be a position player, and usually you would love to have one of your best players be that guy instead of a role player like Jason Hayward or Miguel Rojas. Jason Hayward is one of the more respected guys in that clubhouse. But yeah, I would love to see Mookie Bets take more of that leadership role. He does it by example, but sometimes you need your best player to be
that guy in the clubhouse, and I'm not sure that's Mookie's personality. We haven't seen it so far, but I remember in spring training of twenty twenty, he stood up in front of the entire team the first day of spring training and challenged everybody to bring their A game into practice every single day in spring training, to be their best and also started somewhat of a kangaroo corp jar where whatever mistake you made in the field or in drills, you put
some money that was going to be donated at the end of spring training. I would love to see Mookie Bets do something like that when he comes back, But hard to be that guy as well when you're injured. Eight six six nine eight seven two five seventy is the phone number. Let's go out to Ken in Newport Beach. Ken not surprised you call in today? Well, you know me. Where were you yesterday? I was busy, busy, Yes, I'm sure you were. What do you have today? Where
did this go wrong today? Ken? All right, there's three things that moves that I questioned. You already talked about two of them. Besides them being three and seven, I'm losing five out of six. The first one was I don't think you need to have bonds, But in that position number one, he's hitting the ball and you've got Smith sitting on the bench, you could have pinched hit. Who's the third best hitter? Second thing that kind of confused me. And if i'm the manager and you know, I
maybe call him a little different. But when Freeman was up and he's your best club hitter, they just walked the guy and they hit a batter. How about letting the hive the single to let him throw one pitcher over the plate with the bases loaded instead of swinging at the first one, which happened to be below the knees. And then the third thing I had to do with why didn't they walk the runner first instead of letting the guy swing. So if there's three things, and you know you brought him up too,
and they're just a little confusing for me. All Right, thanks for the phone call, appreciate it, Ken, And look, I'm not going to second guest Freddy Freeman, and he felt like he had the pitcher on the rope's bases loaded one out, and just like he did yesterday, he was trying to get the ball through the hole up the middle. Unfortunately, the Tigers have a Scott and Report as well, and they were able to double
off Freddy Freeman to end the top of the ten thinning. I'm kind of with you in that at bat by Austin Barnes, his final at bat of the game. What was he trying to do because it didn't seem like his heart was in it when he showed bunt, And I just didn't understand that when in the top of the ten thinning he shows bunt when he already has a strike on him, he ends up striking out looking. I just didn't
understand that. I'm not really sure about that at bat. Well, here from Austin Barnes in a little bit, but first let's head back to Detroit to hear from Evan Phillips. You know, I think initially came in and did a good job of managing that momentum. I think I did a good job getting those al thrill to with the quickly and you know, keeping them run around base and then you know, made a couple of bad pitches back to back. You know, I feel like I went to my strengths and
maybe could have executed a bit better. But at the end of the day, I'm gonna trust what I do the most, and you know, maybe it's time to look at, you know, doing something else, just to keep those guys honest a little bit if they're gonna, you know, expect you know what I'm anticipating on throwing, right, so frustrating to get beat on what you feel like is your best stuff. You know, I certainly
wish I would have finished the game. So you feel like, especially on the home run, Boston was saying, you know, it wasn't in a bad spot necessarily, but is that one you kind of feel like he's maybe sitting on a little bit, right, That's kind of what I'm talking about. I think, you know, put in the vacuum, right, I can't throw a better pitch. Yeah, I don't think he hit it all that hard either. It sounded like I got I jammed him just a little
bit, but you know, home runs or home run. So that's kind of my point though, is if he's expecting it, then maybe we need to start, you know, zigzagging a bit more, keeping these guys honest and you know, keeping that as a strength instead of just a crutch. You know what, you're especially to go more and more around the league? How much of that sort of just figuring out like what when the wh Yeah, we've we've seen it here and there with some you some good left handed
hitters, especially against me. You know, I think we've done, you know, an all right job so far. If you're mixing back in, you know, you sinkers have left these and you have four teams, more sliders, whatever it is to keep them off balance. And we still believe that, you know, my cutter versus lefties are is you know, one of my best options. So it'll still continue to be a piece for me. But you know, we just got to do a better better job of
keeping these guys off balance. As a closer, like when that inning starts, you have a five run lead, like, are you thinking at all, like okay, I got to be ready coming in or is it as the ending kind of you know, I don't. I don't see it more of like as a closer thing. I just it's a me thing. I'm I feel like I'm always ready to go whenever situation is called upon them. I got ask the pitch on the sixth inning yesterday and I felt great about it, and you know, do whatever I can help the team win,
right. But you know today five run leading the ninth rie k. He goes out there and tries to do what he can. You know, I was ready on the phone, rang that's it. Yeah, And Dave Roberts had Evan Phillips up and warm up. So I'm not sure if the writers saw that, but Phillips was warm. It was in him get up real quick and warm up and come into the game. He was warming up in case things went sideways in the ninth inning the way they did on Ricky Vanasko.
And you know, Evan Phillips is one of the more smarter guys baseball wise in that clubhouse, and he self examines quite a bit and understands a lot of what's going on with him. He obviously knows himself better than a lot of pitchers do, and that's part of the reason why he has become this guy in Major league baseball. So he's going back to the drying board with Connor mcguinnis and Mark Pryor to figure something out that can be more effective
against lefties. And I'm not sure about Blake Tronon against lefties either. I know he's getting out from time to time, but Trinen's been hurt by lefties as well. And when I asked Dave Roberts about Trinon, he said it's more about pitch sequencing than it is execution or mechanics. I wonder if it's the same thing with Evan Phillips. Eight six six nine, eight seven two
five seventy is the phone number. Dodgers fall to the Tigers today, eleven to nine in ten innings, blowing a nine to four lead in the ninth inning. Let's go out to downy. Frank, You're on Dodger Talk with David Van Say, Hi, Frank, Hey, what's up? Man? What's up? They've had a couple of questions, UH, maybe about uh Dave Roberts bringing in the rookie to uh to start the bottom of the ninth Uh. It made no sense to me whatsoever. That's just my opinion.
I think he had Evan Phillips, Yohan Ramiritt, Peterson, even Hudson, they all have four days off after tomorrow. What what is gonna hurt them to start that bottom of the nine instead of bringing that Brookie. It open up the floodgates cost of the game. Uh, that's just my opinion. Man, all right, well don't go anywhere. Number one. I appreciate you coming up with what you would have done and instead of just saying that, I wouldn't have brought in Ricky Venasko. But it's not just about today,
right, It's about tomorrow as well. And they used Daniel Hudson yesterday. He threw a lot of pitches in that ninth inning, so he stayed away from him today so he can use him tomorrow. The Dodgers are going to have to piece together a bullpen game. So it's not just about managing today, it's about managing tomorrow. And Frank, these are major league pitchers. If you have a nine to four lead, you should probably win the game or at least get two outs. So this is not on Dave Roberts.
It's on the guys that weren't able to protect a five run lead. You don't bring in a high leverage reliever when you're winning nine to five in the ninth inning, against the team like the Tigers. Yeah, but I think you have to bring an experience pitcher. He's been using them virtually every day. Have you been watching how long the starters have been going. These guys have been running to the ground, Frank, All Star breaker, no, all Star break. Yeah, I understand, man. It sucks that
we lost. You know, that's what I would have done. But it's just a tough loss. Man. We had this game in the bag. I think he thought the game was over, and you know we all did. That's what we all thought it was over. We all thought it was over. And you're right. It was a disappointing loss, maybe the most disappointing of the season. Frank. The Dodgers have not blown a lead in the ninth inning like that since last September to the San Diego Padres. But
I think you're emotional right now and rightfully so. But you don't bring in a high leverage reliever that's been used a lot in a nine to four game in the ninth inning. Ricky Vanasko needs to get at least two outs in that inning, and he wasn't able to do it. I think taking my call, man, all right, Frank, Thanks a lot for the phone call. Eight six six nine eight seven two five seventy is the phone number.
We're gonna take a time out here on Dodger Talk. When we come back, you'll hear from Austin Barnes and Justin Robleski, who is just three
ounce away from earning his first major league win. Instead, it's a disastrous loss for the Dodgers as they give up five runs in the ninth inning and in the bottom of the tenth inning, g o Orchello walks it off with a two run home run to give the Tigers the eleven to nine victory and extra innings on the Los Angeles Dodgers Audio Network SE Dodger Talk is available on AM five seventy, LA sports dot Com, hand on the iHeartRadio app.
Back to more Dodger Talk with Dodger insider David Basse. Scratchler two to one from Riverez, swung on. That's the ball game, fly ball to left and this ball aw that's a walk off homer. Yeah, it is. G o Orshella a walk off two run a home run in the bottom of the tenth inning off of Johan Ramirez to give the Tigers the eleven and nine come from behind victory against the Dodgers. Welcome back to Dodger Talk. David
Vasse with you until the top of the hour. We have two lines open at eight, six, six, nine, eighty seven, two five seventy. Austin Barnes got the start at catcher today. Will Smith will catch tomorrow. Barnes extended his hitting streak to eight games in the sixth inning, but also had a very interesting bat in the ninth inning where he kind of showed bunth and pulled the bat away. Never seemed like he was really going to bunt with the runner at second base in that extra frame there. So let's
head back to Detroit right now to hear from the Dodger catcher. Yeah, they put pressure on us, plus some balls over the plate. Then watching the ball he hit was it wasn't too bad of the pitch, honestly, but yeah, this just kind of happened. We have a lead five e lead in the ninth especially with the way you know we had been rolling. We need to we need to win that game. Evan, what did you was there something whether it was missing or I just kind of left it over
the plate for you, for him to get that one. Now I put swing on it. We went cut her up and in and he just got to it. But yeah, we we just had to close that game lot sooner, you know, mixing different pictures probably and shouldn't have been in that situation. So we see that hitting starts to building. How difficult is it sort of stayed off the momentum there from them? Is the short building it up? Yeah, I mean obviously they had momentum and they carried it through.
I mean, they tied the game on a big swing and we just can't put him away. Super frustrating over the course of the season, these kinds of losses, like how tough is it pronounced back from? How important is it especially going into the break to try to regroup tomorrow. Yeah, you know, after the way we played yesterday, at that we were playing, we were playing pretty good at early in the game, and it would have been real nice to uh get those get this win today too. Obviously
we can't do anything about now. I mean, yeah, it doesn't feel good here. It's it's I think it's it's a game we have to win, especially just the way things were wrong. As much as you guess if you don't comb that bol Homost didn't a little. They were cracked at some point. No, I mean I think you know those guys a bullpen gets used throughout the season, you know, extensively, you know, and then, uh we just didn't make enough visious day. Either it was sinclising or
just leaving play balls over the play. They had some good at bats and then uh we just didn't put them away. A five run the lead in the ninth, you know, that was hurt obviously to give that up and not to be able to get them through. That's that sucks. It's justin early in the game. What did you see from him? And how has he just been you know, a positive in the rotation, and yeah, yeah he might have ahead of him. Yeah, he's been good. You
know, he's prepared as well. And those ball wall are getting fastball, got a little sliders here, so you know, it's a couple of pitches we want back with him. And so, yeah, he did the ball well. He gives a shots win. Nobody wanted to ask about Austin Barnes at bat in the top of the tenth inning, where the ghosted runner was at second base in the form of Cavin Bigio and Barnes didn't bun him over and made a feeble attempt to show bunt on the third pitch of that at
bat for strike two. To me, that has to be asked after the game. And you can obviously hear the frustration in Barnes's voice. And look, when you're in the clubhouse in a situation like that, as a reporter, number one, you're in the player's house. You have to be respectful and a lot of times there's a lot of things that go on in the
game that you forget about in the moment. So I've been there. I'm not going to criticize any of those guys, who I all like and respect, but that's one of the biggest wonders of what happened in the tenth inning. Eight six, six, nine eighty seven, two five seventy is the phone number. Let's go out to Bill and Whittier. You're on Dodger Talk with David Vasse. How you doing Bill, I'm doing great, How you doing well? You know, obviously this is a little frustrating for the Dodgers.
Bill a little embarrassing, I would imagine as you heard Austin Barnes say yes, okay, but I'm gonna I'm gonna just I want to preface this that I'm a total Dodger fan. I've been a Dodger fan my whole life. I saw Fernando Pitch's first game. I was at the back to back to back to back to back home run game. I saw the Amerciser win
the game against the Mets. So anyways, but you look at a game like this and the Dodgers are gonna be okay, And I love underdogs and for Detroit to them back from a nine to four deficit in the ninth, pats off to him, and you know that they're They're a team that's not going to affect us anyway in the playoffs. But when you see for baseball, just for baseball, everybody watching this game on the highlights, not on ESPN are gonna go, wow, what a great game for Detroit. And
it doesn't matter who's on the mound. When you're winning ninety four and the ninth, they're going to win ninety percent of time. Pretty yeah, you're right, and you're I know Detroit's feeling good after a game like today, and yeah, it will be shown on the highlights with the Dodgers giving up five runs in the ninth inning and then a two run walk off home run by Geo Urschella after the Dodgers were ahead nine to four going into the ninth
inning. So the Dodgers have been on both ends of this type of game this season. If you remember a few weeks back, the Dodgers were down nine to four in the eighth inning at corps Field and they scored seven runs. Excuse me, they were down nine to four in the ninth inning at Corsfield and they scored seven runs in the ninth inning. Remember Jason Hayward's grand Slam in Taioscar Hernandez's game winning or go ahead to run home run. They
won that game eleven to nine and nine innings. So they're on the opposite end today. So that's that's just the way it goes. And look, things have not been going well for the Dodgers since the end of May. Since May twenty first, they essentially have been a five hundred team and getting swept in Philadelphia, losing a game like today, this is more adversity and more bumps in the road than the Dodgers ever had during the regular season last
year. So I guess the only hope is that they take it in stride and understand that, you know, they can be beat and they can't take any of these games for granted as they get closer to October. But the All Star break cannot come soon enough for the Dodgers. After a very rough road trip to date, they're looking to salvage it tomorrow in Detroit. Let's go out to Hawaii. Dana, You're on Dodger Talk. How you doing,
Dana Aloha? A bit frustrated, but the last caller I just basically said just what I wanted to say, was, you know, sometimes the underdogs just got to win, and maybe that's good for the Dodgers. Give him a little kick in the pants. I mean, I can't question any of the moves today. I mean some of them, certainly, But you know, good on the Detroit Tigers. They fought hard and they won, and you know, good for them. But I have another question. I
got a Freddy Freeman question. Okay, is he Okay, I'm no doctor, but he looks like he's always walking, like he's got a hip issue or something. That's the way he wants. He waltks with some bad bunny swag. Dana, Okay, well, that's good to hear, because I was watching him going god it. I hope he's all right because we certainly want to keep him healthy. Yeah, no doubt. I will say this, that's the way he usually walks. But I have noticed that he has
been a little bit slower foot speed wise the last couple of weeks. So I'm joking about that part of it. But I have noticed that he has looked a little bit slower. But he's still one of the best and smartest base runners, so he can make up for it. And I think we all take for granted as great as he is, he's thirty five years old, so at different points in time in the season, I'm sure the wheels are not as fresh as they are different points in time in the season.
Yeah, okay, well, I appreciate it, Thank you very much, and let's go get him tomorrow, all right, Dana, thanks a lot for the phone call. Daniel's Jewelers they are the official sponsor of the trip around the Diamond. Stop by any Daniel's location and say home run for your free team bracelet and fifty dollars gift card toward any purchase of ninety nine dollars more Daniels Jewelers owned the dream. You would expect that type of call from Hawaii. I mean, how bad of a loss can it be when you're
living in Hawaii? Right? I think we all would love to be there. Eight six six, nine eighty seven, two five seventy is the phone number. Tigers roar back to beat the Dodgers eleven to nine and ten innings. Let's head out to Fresno. Philip, you're on Dodger Talk. How you doing, Philip David? I got a question. I've been hearing this on the media outlets when it comes to trades. Any truth to the rumor a Rose Arena is available because I don't think he's available. It's I feel
like it's no he's available. The Rays are listening on offers for a Rose arena. The problem is he's not played well the first two months of the season, and uh, who knows. Maybe it's going a little stale out there. I'm sure teams are trying to buy low on a Rose arena and the Rays are not selling at that price point. But yeah, his name has been talked about, and who knows, who knows where he'll be on
July thirtieth. Yeah, and then I want him in this lineup. But I would take any trade that will light a fire in this ball club because you know, this bench has been you know, hit and miss. You know, even though Kik did pretty well today, but you know it's just yeah, I hear you when the I mean they scored nine runs today, Philip, So I think the offense did their job. I mean, they did score nine runs, They did have twelve hits, they homer twice,
including Otani's two hundredth career home run. So I'm not sure what else you would want from the offense today. They did a pretty good job. Yeah, even Gavin Lutz had a big base it with two outs. So see, there you go. There's from one spectrum to the end. You heard how depressed Philip was calling from Fresno, and you heard how happy, go lucky Dina was calling from Hawaii. Let's go out to West La, a happy medium between Fresno and Hawaii. How you doing, Trey, You're on
Dodger Talk. Well, I got one word for any Anglo files out there, gobsmacked. I mean it really was inconceivable to me at the beginning of the season, that I'd be looking at this close to you know, dumpster fire. What's going on? Well, wait a minute, a dumpster fire would be ten games under five hundred. The Dodgers still have the second best record in the National League. Tray, It's it's true, but you know that's a bad description. Let's be can we just start over? Can we
take that back? Fifty six wins, forty losses. I'm just saying the current state of play, we have high expectations. I'm a little disappointed. So yeah, I apologize, but let's go out on a good note. I did try to get through one Thursday. It would have been very apropos if i'd gotten in. You were speaking about Vinnie's book perfect eloquence, So I appreciate the compliment. And you gave me a laugh when you asked if I had a prepared statement. I can assure you I didn't. And lastly,
I did want to thank you. I received the Austin Barnes babble head from you. Thank you very much, sir. I got something from your collection that's now in mind. I got a great story to go along with it, and I just wanted to say thank you, and I apologize to all the fans out there. No, you don't have to apologize. I just feel like you have to describe the season a little bit more accurately. And I appreciate you listening. And yes, enjoy the Austin Barnes babblehead out
of my prize closet. I really appreciate it. Thank you all right, Trey, thanks a lot for the phone call. Eight six six nine eighty seven two five seventy is the phone number. Yes, the Dodgers have been very average the last three or four weeks. I try to tell a few of the Dodger players that, and they resisted and pushed back on that notion. But hard to look at the way they've been playing and not realize the reality that the fact is their starting pitching has not been great. They have
a lot of injury. They just sent Bobby Miller down to the minor leagues to recalibrate his season. Good news is Clayton Kershaw is going to be making a start in about ten minutes fifteen minutes from now for Oklahoma City. Kershaw is expected to throw three innings today for Oklahoma City from there, if all goes well, and that's a big if, it's not something you should take
for granted. If all goes well, he'll make another rehab start that will last four innings, and from there it feels like the Dodgers and Kershaw may come to the agreement that, yeah, our pitching's a little thin right now and we need you back. But that's a lot to put on a guy that's coming back from major shoulder surgery. And don't forget, the last time he made a rehab start, Kershaw came out of it feeling a lot of
soreness in his left shoulders. So hopefully these three innings today go well for him, and tomorrow when he wakes up he feels just as good and just as normal soreness after a start. Let's go out to Huntington Beach. Paul, you're on Dodger Talk with David vasse Hi. Paul, very thanks, Dave, appreciate it. Man. You know, I think the frustration is that you come into the season and they're absolutely loaded, and you look up and we've been treading water for a month now, and really longer than that.
It feels like, and I mean, there's sixteen games over five hundred. That's great, but at the end of the day. They are not playing like a championship team. We all see that. For me, you know, they just don't have the horses. They don't have the guys on the mound. The bullten has thin. The lineup is thin, and this is what you got. It's very frustrating. And as I looked at when Mounsey went down, Dave, the whole lineup really shifted. Not to put
a whole lot on Monsey, but the grinding out it. That's the power threat extending the lineup. And that's not saying anything of BET's not being there right now either. But as it relates to Munsi, I know it's been rough and that injury is terrible for baseball players. Is there any talk about finding a corner back, and if so, anyone they've identified that you could share with us. I mean, it's frustrating. Hopefully this sends out well, but it's it's been a rough go of it and you know, hopefully
pull this thing together. See But all right, Paul, thanks a lot for the phone call. Yeah, I mean, that's another one of these holes until we get some certainty on when Munsey is going to return, and you hope that he's going to come back this year. But what version of Max Munsey are you going to get after he's missed a lot of times since he's been on the il since May fifteenth. You're not sure about that.
But they sorely miss Max Munsey, they sorely miss Mookie Betts, and look, they need to figure some things out as we get closer to July thirtieth.
I think we all can agree that starting pitching is the first and foremost priority for the Dodgers, and not just any starting pitching, a starter that can make a playoff start Game two or Game three behind a tyler glass now, and I'm a personal believer that they need a closer and Tanner Scott from the Marlins, I feel like Evan Phillips has turned into not a pumpkin, but he could be better used outside of the ninth inning and be a guy
that can compliment Joe Kelly and Blake Trinan and Daniel Hudson. I feel like the Dodgers could use a fresh arm, and Tanner Scott is one of the toughest, most uncomfortable at bats of any closer that is going to be available
at the trade deadline. And then you think about an outfielder. They're maybe in need of an outfielder that can play every day with Taoscar Hernandez out there, or are the Dodgers going to try to patch this together with any sort of combination of James Outman and Andy pa has the second half of the season, So there's a few holes that the Dodgers could patch up now and the end of the season. I will say this, there is no perfect team
out there. There is no perfect player, but right now it feels like the Orioles and Phillies are the two closest teams to being the most complete. As we get closer to July thirtieth, that'll do it for us. On Dodger Talk today Tomorrow. Tim Katz will be with you on Getaway Day,
but I'll be back for the All Star break. We'll have off Day Dodger Talks Monday through Thursday at seven o'clock, and we have a lot of big name guests from around Major League Baseball that will join us, including Jake Peevee, John Smoltz, Buster Only, and you'll hear our full conversation with America's pitcher Rich Hill, who planned taking off the first half of the season, and then looking for the right team to sign with that has playoff aspirations and
look no secret about it, Boston and La would be at the top of his list. So you'll hear from all those guys coming up Monday through Thursday during the All Star break on off Day, Dodger Talk thanks to Calling Ye at our Burbank Studios, thanks to Dwayne McDonald out at Kamerica Park, and thanks to you for listening. In case you missed any of the show,
you can find it on the iHeartRadio app. Tomorrow, the final game before the All Star Break, the Dodgers are going to have to piece it together, with their bullpen Ryan Yarborough more than likely going to be a big part of it. Morongo Casino Dodgers on Deck begins at nine thirty tomorrow, with first pitch from Coomerica Park at ten forty coming up next Fox Sports Radio.
Have a great rest of your Saturday. Aloha means goodbye once again. The final score the Tigers roar back and beat the Dodgers eleven to nine ten. We'll talk to you tomorrow. See you