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 Talker. Like back, Tim.
Cats Ah, this feels a little bit better. This Dodger lineup, vintage Kershaw.
Equals a Dodger win.
Hi, everybody, and welcome to Dodger Talk here on a five to seventy LA Sports Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Thanks for being with us here until the top of the hour. Phone lines are wide open at eight six six nine eighty seven two five seventy eight six six nine eight seven two five seventy. As the Dodgers enjoy a win tonight in Milwaukee, Clayton Kershaw, his fourth start since coming off the injured lists and having off season
shoulder surgery, pitches into the sixth inning. He looked fantastic. He had command of three pitches tonight. He had pinpoint accuracy with his fastball. He got some swinging misses tonight, unlike he has in his last couple of starts, and you had to feel in it's just gonna take a few starts for him to get going after just you know, three minor league appearances, comes back, makes three starts for the Dodgers, and they were okay starts, and now tonight
maybe you feel he's turned a corner. Pitching into the sixth any his longest outing so far, six punch outs walked to three hits allowed through eighty three pitches fifty six for strikes to get the victory, and just how the Dodgers drew it up right. The Dodgers lineup when they started this season with Freddie Freeman and Max Munci and Tae Oscar hernandez Will Smith. We talked about the Big four and of course the two guys at the top of the lineup with Mookie Bets and show Hey Otani.
They've now reversed in the lineup, show Hey leading off and Mookie batting second. With Mookie coming back off the injured list tonight.
A lot of.
Questions about that year on Dodger Talk, whether or not Mookie Betts should have his starting spot at short and his lead off spot from injury. Well, Show Hey o Tani is the new leadoff hitter. Miguel Rojas is taken over at shortstop, so Mooki goes back out to right
field a more natural, comfortable position for Mookie Betts. He'll even admit that, and he did so on the pregame show with David Vase, talking about the pressure being alleviated, not having to worry the night before, an outing of whether or not you know where the guy's going to hit the ball in positioning. It's just easy for him to navigate in right field. But tonight Mookie Betts and Showy O Tani both go deep. Both hit two run
home runs. Mooki goes two for four in his return, the home run, the three ribbies, and a stolen base. Show Hey O Tani goes one for three, a walk on base twice, a home run, two ribbys, and a stolen base. The biggest example of what these two are going to do with hopefully the rest of the way at the top of the lineup is what happened in the seventh inning.
The Dodgers were up four to two. They had a four to nothing lead.
All of a sudden, it's four to two on the Wilson Cantrez home running the sixth inning. The Dodgers come back in the seventh inning, Milwaukee feeling the pretty good about themselves a little momentum after the Contreres two run home run and Joe Kelly walking that tight rope in the bottom half of the sixth inning and taking over for Clayton Kershaw. They face the reliever in Hudson, who comes in and gets two quick ground ball outs of
Keith a Hernandez and Kevin Kiermier. Took six pitches bet again, momentum for Milwaukee. They just cut the lead in half. Their reliever comes out and gets two ground ball outs and six pitches. Shoey Otani draws a six pitch walk and quite frankly, only one of the pitches was really in the zone. They were trying to get him to chase. They were trying to find show Hey to chase and roll over on the ball for the final out of
the inning. To his credit, shoey Otani disciplined in that at bat six pitches, draws the walk, He steals second base to get into scoring position with two outs, and Mookie bets up at bat. Mookie falls behind in the count Owen two fouls off of pitch, gets ball one fouls off two more pitches. The seventh pitch the bat is a ball low and away on a sweeper from Brian Hudson, a two to two count, two out Dodgers with a two run lead, and a cutter throw from Hudson,
it's a strike. Mookie puts bat on ball in the right field for a base hit, and because show Hate drew walk with two outs, and because show Hate stole second to put himself into scoring position, Mookie's able to put bat on ball, base hit to right. Show Hay scores easily, and just like that, momentum is snatched back by the Dodgers and they gain a run and go up three with.
A five to two lead.
Exactly how you want to answer a Milwaukee team who just got runs on the two quick outs in the top half of the seventh inning.
Squash it.
And it was the top of the lineup Otani and Mookie Betts who did absolutely a fantastic job of getting the Dodgers that insurance run to go up five to two, eight.
Six six nine, eight seven two five seventy.
I know there's been a lot of question the last week when it was official that Mooki was gonna come back on this road trip, and Dave Roberts talked a lot about, well, he's gonna go back to short they ran a sim game. Okay, that's gonna change. He's going back to right field, all right. Who's gonna lead off? Is it back to Mookie Bets? Who's been so good at leading off for the Dodgers this year and all those leadoff home runs, No show he has taken over
that role in the last seven weeks. With Mookie Bets out the broken hand, and even with the return of Mookie show heey was going to continue to bat lead off. And there was a lot of chatter about that Dodger fans here on Dodger Talk, on n FI seventy LA Sports, on social media, on the chat boards weighing in and didn't like the fact that Mookie didn't get the leadoff spot bat. I like it, and I don't just say that because it worked tonight. I like it for the
reason it's left right left. You get Showy Otani leading off, a non traditional leadoff hitter, left handed, and he's shown that he can produce, get on bass and steal bases. Mookie Betts has been really good runners in scoring position this year, good at driving the ball out of the ballpark like he did tonight, good at putting the ball in play to all sides of the field, a right handed hitter, and then you go to Freddie Freeman batting third. Oh, let's flip it around now, a left handed hitter.
Again.
It prevents the opener from opposing teams. And when you flip the lineup over in the middle of a game and you try to go to the bullpen, and all of a sudden you get back to the top of the lineup and it's a left hander and Otani a right hander, and Mookie Betts and a light left handed hitter and Freddie Freeman back to a right handed hitter, either in Taoscar or Will Smith.
It's difficult.
It's difficult to navigate this Dodgers lineup when you rotate left right, right, left right, like they've been doing. And when they get healthy with Max Muncy, they can even elongate that further into this Dodger's lineup.
So I think it's a good move by the Dodgers to do it.
And when you saw tonight with Shoeyo Otani's ability to get on base, draw the walk, not chase pitches out of the zone, and Colin he and I were talking about this here in the clubhouse during one of the breaks, Colin, He's absolutely right when Shoeotani zero's in on pitches, doesn't chase out of the zone, doesn't let the zone get too big on him, especially with a head in the count two to zero, three to zero like he was tonight,
and he hit his home run. When he finds his pitch in the zone, more times than not, he's putting that ball either out of the park or he's putting into play really hard somewhere. It's when he starts expanding the zone and chasing pitches, then he gets into trouble and he rolls over on pitches and he pops the ball up and he pops it into foul territory like he did a couple of times over the weekend against
the Pirates. Chasing pitches. Tonight though didn't chase pitches. Hit one out of the park on a three to zero count, and that was really good at getting on base with two outs in the seventh inning and giving show he Otani a chance to steal second, which he did, and allowing Mookie Betts then to put the ball in place. See what happens and what happened a single to write
Otani scores and the Dodgers get an assurance run. I like the makeup of this top of the lineup right now, and again when you get Will Smith going, which is hopefully soon, when you get Max Munsey back into this lineup, and you can go left, right, left, right, left, right and elongate this lineup even more.
Look out.
Oh and Gavin Lux, hottest hitter on the Dodgers since the All Star break. I mean we're talking about one through eight right now, just crushing it for the Dodgers. So panic time two weeks ago. Yes, for a lot of Dodger fans. But right now, and I told you this, wait, wait till they get healthy, Wait till the guys who are supposed to be in the lineup every day are back.
Clayton Kershock gets another start underneath his belt. He starts getting this muscle memory of positive results and seeing that, yeah, all right, my shoulder's good to go. Okay, I'm not worried about it anymore. I'm not worried about going out there and now touching ninety two to ninety three and going out there and working on my slider and having that curveball that's so devastating and pinpoint accuracy and getting the guys out.
He knows he could do it again.
He knows he's got the ability to go out and get out again on a rebuilt shoulder that's big, and with Max Munty coming back this lineup look out, look
out Colin. He and I were sitting here on our baseball card board where we've got all the Dodger players that we've collected baseball cards this year and put them up on the board of the injured list, guys who've been in sent down the bench, the bullpen, and the starting lineup every day, and it kind of just gives us a visual what's happening with this Dodgers team.
Who's in the lineup, where guys are.
Collectively every day Right now, the Dodgers are looking at Ryan Brasier potentially coming back, Bruce Dark Gratterol potentially coming back, Walker Buehler is going to come back and pitch on Wednesday. That's three, Okay, through the math, Yamamoto looking like September. He says he's good to go now, but they're playing conservatively here. That's four, Chris Taylor, that's five, and I got one more, Max Muncy. Six potential players currently on
the injured list. They're going to come back and help out this Dodgers team at different points moving forward. Look at the Dodger roster, Look at the bullpen arms, look at the bench, look at the rotation.
Right now, where do you see.
Six spots for these six players currently on the injured list that I just mentioned to come back and take. Like we've been mentioning it and we keep preparing you for it. There are guys on this Dodgers roster. Amedrozario is a prime example DFA today. They acquired him two weeks ago at the trade deadline to help this Dodgers team with depth in the infield, and he gets dfayde before they get on a flight and it's officially announced today.
Why not enough chairs in the game of musical chairs for this roster.
It's a great problem to have.
If you're the Dodgers and you got too many guys for twenty six spots, that's a great problem to have at this point of the season. That means you're getting guys back healthy and you're getting back some arms that you desperately need in the back end of that bullpen. Eight six, six, nine eighty seven two five, seventy again, six guys currently on the injured list that will come back at some point. Oh play Trenton seven. Seven guys on the injured list right now? Where do they fit in?
Bruce Dark Graderol, Ryan Brasier, Blake Trenton three reliever spots. Just think about it for a second, Dodger fans, if you're driving around, you're sitting at a home, you're podcasting the show, think of three guys in the bullpen right now. Who they're going to take their spots? Who whose spots are they gonna take? Who are the three guys of
the odd man out? If Brazier comes back healthy, Blake Trining comes back healthy, and Bruce Dark Graderol comes back healthy, the rotation wise, Walker Bueller is sliding right in to a spot that River Ryan was taken up, So it's not like you're having to take somebody spot in the rotation. Then think about Max Munsey and Chris Taylor, two position players. Want to starter Chris Taylor off the bench. Well, I mean, I hate to break the news to Nick on med but he could be the victim of this game of
musical chairs with this roster. All right, That frees up a spot, Let's say for Max Munsey when he returns next Homestand what about Chris Taylor where the CT three fit of this does he take a job of a Kevin Kiermeyer whose spot does he take off the bench? Tommy Evans not going anywhere? You need two catchers? Is Andy Pott has the odd man out? Maybe Jason Hayward's not going anywhere. So it's a good problem to have
for the Dodgers right now. Healthy guys back to this Dodger team in August, healthy arms position players joining this team during the stretch run going into September and October, at a time in which the Dodgers, even though they've now got the best record in the National League and tied for the most wins in all of Baseball, are only holding on to a three and a half game lead in the division over the Padres of the Diamonbacks. Eight six six nine seven two five seventy We'll take
a quick break, we'll come back. We'll get to your phone calls before we wrap things up. Joey ish manny is he, We'll get to you. Eight six six nine eight seven two five seventy two. Rogers get the win tonight in Milwaukee. They beat the Brewers five to two. Clayton Kershaw gets the win pitching into the sixth inning. Mookie goes deep, show Hey goes deep to win for the good guys. Dodgers now seventy and forty nine as
they beat the Brewers. Are here on AM fi seventy LA Sports Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
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Back to Dodger Talk on AM five seventy LA Sports swaying to drive deep left field, best ball, aheaded back toward.
The wall, and it is gonna be gone. A home run Bets.
Welcome back, Bookie Bets with us eleventh home run and the Dodgers lead it. Tune and up to run home run from Mookie Bett to the third inning. His eleventh of the season is first since June sixth, As the Dodgers also get a two run home run from Choeo Tani. The Mookie came back and delivered with an RBI single with two outs and the seventh to give the Dodgers a five to two lead, and they go on and win by that same final score, winning in Milwaukee tonight
to improve to seventy and forty nine. Daniels Jewelers, the official sponsor of the Trip around the Diamond, to stop by any Daniels Jeweler's location and say home run for your free team Bracelin and a fifty dollars gift card towards any purchase of ninety nine dollars or more. Daniels Jewelers own the Dream. Dodgers get the win tonight, four straight for the good guys. Dodgers now back atop the NL with the best record as the Phillies had the
night off. The Dodgers at seventy and forty nine and out tied with the Orioles, Yankees, and Guardians for the most wins in all of baseball eight six six.
Ninet eighty seven to two, five seventy.
Joey and Ontario start us off here on Dodger Talk after the Dodgers went in tonight in Milwaukee five to two.
How you doing, Joey good good.
Man, Thank you for having me on a positive note. The first thing, I just want to say, it was great to see who could come back tonight and just seeing the instant impact he has on this team. And it's still also amazing to me how we're tied to the best record in the league even after all the injuries and stuff that we've gone through for the past two three months. But I do want to bring up something and I want your take on it. Two things
really quick. The first is do you think with the bullpen management that we've seen in the past couple of weeks. I know we've had injuries, but this is about the fourth or fifth, maybe even more time this season where a starter's dealing and I feel like even though Kershall was hitting his fitchlan, I feel like he could have finished that inning. And we bring in somebody like.
Joe Kelly, who, yes, we want him to.
Build his confidence, but he's just been really bad every time he's been out, And do you think that that could be something that needs to be limited or something that could come to bite us in the button the postseason.
I appreciate it.
Joey, you heard Clayton Kershaw, maybe you didn't in the post game with the media talking about how the batter before his last batter, Garrett Mitchell, fell behind two to zero in the count and then got three straight strikes, including two strikes looking on a slider to strike out Mitchell, and that's what Dave Roberts came out and got him.
At eighty three pitches.
Wilson Contrero was up and with a runner on standing at second base. Two outs, and you go to Joe Kelly, who fell behind two on the count and then got two foul balls for a two to two count. He throws a ninety nine mile an hour fastball Joe Kelly did on the outside part of the plate. Now, if you're watching the stat cast, or if you're watching the k Zone on sports and at LA, or if you're following it online, it hit the corner. It touched the
outside part of the strike zone. And if we had robo ups, you could have made a case they probably would have challenged that strike three. But it's at the discretion of the home plate umpire who said it was outside for a ball. Okay, so what could have been strike three ending over at a four to nothing leave
still intact. Joe Kelly does the job instead it's a full count and Joe Kelly goes back to that same fastball, but instead of getting it on the outside part of the plate, he throws it down the middle of the plate and Wilson Contrere's hits a home run to make it a four to two Dodgers lead.
A game of benches is the game of baseball, and.
What could have been strike three on a pitch on the outside part of the plate instead's a ball in the next pitch. A four to nothing lead is all of a sudden four to two. That's how close Joe Kelly was to getting out of it without giving up any runs. Now, he then gives up back to back singles, and you've got, you know, the tie, the go ahead run at the plate in Hoskins, who he strikes out on a curver on a knuckle curve and gets out
of the inning. But yeah, you start seeing Joe Kelly get some traffic on the base pass and it gets a little dicey tonight. But that could have been different if he gets a strike three call on Contrere as it is, it's a two run home run on the very next pitch from Contreras to making a four to two game, Dodgers get out of it. The rest of the bullpen does their job. Michael Kopek and eighth inning. Before that, Alex Vesia was nasty, striking out three batters
on fourteen pitches. Kopek comes in, he looks nasty as well, hitting one hundred and one, and then Daniel Hudson a one, two.
Three ninth inning. I talked to Jose Mode about it earlier.
If this is the recipe every night for success for the arms, sign me up the rest of the way. A starter that can get you to the sixth inning, Yes, absolutely, because now you're asking the bullpen to get nine ten outs.
That's it. You shorten the game when you get a starter going deep. I know, old.
School baseball they did this all the time, right We saw pitchers go six, seven, eight innings all the time. Complete games were common every day in baseball. The game has changed. Pitchers don't go three times through a lineup anymore, meaning they don't get to this sixth thenning very often
unless they go quickly and have a low pitch count. Tonight, Clayton Kershaw pitched into the sixth inning and was one batter away from completing six to hand the bullpen that the Dodgers have right now, with a Copek down there, a Vessia down there, Hudson down there, and Evan Phillips down there. I like all four of those relievers to combine to get you nine outs in the case they
needed to get ten outs. Tonight, Joe Kelly struggled to get the one out, give up a two run home run, but the Dodgers are able to hang on for the win.
I like that recipe. It's old school. I love it.
A starting pitcher that could pitch in the sixth inning more time than that. I think you win baseball games when you got that recipe because you're limiting the amount of work your bullpen has to do. Let's go out to Ish in Riverside. It's next up here on Dodger Talk.
Ish. What's going on. How you doing?
Hey, I'm doing pretty good. Tim. I hope you guys are doing good out there. Listen. I just got two things. I'll be quick, you know, for Kershaw and then for Bets. Yeah, like you said, that vintage curse. It's good to see him back in form. I think he kind of found that fountain of youth with that art. Of scopas surgery. So again just looking forward to him, you know, continue to get those solid starts as far as Mookie. Yeah, man,
it is really really good. I'm so glad he really didn't get the beat picked up from where he left off. And I still stand by it.
Man.
I think we ain't still see nothing yet. So I'm really happy with this. Let's go ahead and finish out this road trip strong and start expanding our lead.
Thanks, that's all right, appreciate it, Thanks for the phone call.
Clayton Kershaw gets into the sixth inning, but early in this game he faced some adversity. In the second inning, Clayton Kershaw gives up a double to Wilson Contrere's on the first pitch, he gets ambushed by Contreres, a leadoff double. Okay, we are the wheels gonna fall off and we're gonna see this horror picture again that we've seen from Clayton
Kershaw late in his career. No, it's a Clayton Kershaw. Then, lead off, zero zero game, second inning and he gets Willia domis arguably their best hitter to ground out on one pitch, keeping a damas at second. Now he walks Sanchez to put runners on first and second with a one out, but gets out of it on a three
to two pitch. The ninth pitch of the avatterse Hoskins, who swings and misses on a fastball up in the zone and a great throw to Nail Contreras at third who was caught stealing a bang bang play double play, and the Dodgers get out of it. Clayton Kershaw gets out of the jam. Leadoff double nothing happens, Brewers can't score.
Clayton Kershaw, with his back up against the wall early gets the ground ball, a walk and a double play thanks to some great catching in defense tonight from Will Smith and of course to the third base Keith a Hernandez, and he gets out of the jam exactly what he needed. The inning could have spiraled out of control for him with the media to lineup up for Milwaukee. Instead, he gets out of it no runs. The Dodgers come back in the top of the third, and what do they do.
They get on the board to run home run. Kershaw comes back in the third with the momentum of the two run lead, has a one two three inning in the third on fourteen pitches. What does he doing the fourth still right? In that momentum, a one to two, three inning on eight pitches, he just seemed to get better and better and gain that confidence with that lead thanks to Mookie Betts's two run home run.
Is he?
It's gonna be our final call here on Dodger Talk on this Monday night high Is he?
Okay?
Before you get going?
I know you still upset from a game like three days ago, But the Dodgers have won four in a row. The Dodgers have seventy wins, most in baseball along with the Guardians and the Muriols and the Yankees and the Philadelphia Films.
Yeah, yeah, I know in the part and winning you never don't.
And it's okay.
Is the Dodgers just need to take care of business and they'll be fine.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You can't control what the Padres are doing against the Pirates or the Diamondbacks are doing against the Rockies who just blew a lead, let the let the.
Snakes come back. You can't. You can't worry about that.
I'm not even worry about that. The only thing I'm wiving about just.
Will be there.
Somehow, something's gonna happen. Maybe les. I don't know, but lit.
So pessimistic and negative.
What are you You're waiting for the other shot fall, You're waiting, You're you're waiting for an injury to happen.
No, pay, don't ca go to any more and you need this year.
You're the one thinking through that.
Okay. But yeah, hey they want tonight and I'm happy you you you're familiated this week with cl this you know, did you have to do load trip because they had they good road trip. But but it's so great to him. We'll keep back.
Yeah, great to hear your voice. As always, the Dodgers will be okay. This is a tough series. This is a Milwaukee Brewers team, folks, that isn't a bottom feeder in the division. This is a Milwaukee Brewers team that is in first place in the NL Central, that's just games behind the Dodgers in the Phillies for the best record in the National League. This is gonna be a tough four games. They win tonight, Yeah, feeling good about Otani and Betts going deep. A one to two punch
at the top of the lineup. David Vassay wearing a suit on TV tonight. Clayton Kershawt dealing into the sixth n Everything was right tonight. Yes, you gotta continue to put together and wins, especially in this series in Milwaukee with the Rockies in Arizona taking on the Diamondbacks the Rocky Stink, with the Padres playing host of the pirates, who are really in right now?
Watch out?
The Dodgers are facing the stiffer competition right now during this stretcher for next three games in Milwaukee. All right, that's gonna do it for postgame Dodger talk. Wow, that would have fast. Thanks for being a part of the show. Thanks for calling in, Thanks for listening wherever you're at on this Monday night. Thanks for podcasting all those on the iHeartRadio app or whatever platform you may use to download and listen to the show.
We appreciate it. We know you got a lot of choices out there.
We appreciate you being with us on this Monday night and talking some Dodgers baseball. Thanks to Colin ye number crunching during the break. Wow, the guy's a magician with numbers. I mean, the things he's got spinning in.
His head it is unbelievable.
Thanks to Colin. Again, thanks to you for being a part of the show. We'll be back at it tomorrow. Dodgers, Game two of this four game said in Milwaukee, Gavin Stone gets the ball against Colin Ray.
Two right handers going at it.
Rongo Casino, Dodgers on deck at four o'clock, first pitch at five to ten. Until then, have a great, safe rest of your Monday night. The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon is next right here on a five seven e LA Sports Live everywhere.
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