Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news. From Jack Harris : Sometimes, the Dodgers will pull out all the stops to secure a win.
More often, however, the first-place club makes decisions with the big picture in mind. In a 7-6 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday night at Coors Field, the Dodgers stuck to that latter approach. In the interest of self-preservation, and ensuring their already banged-up roster doesn’t risk more losses, they entered the ninth inning without two potentially key players — rolling the dice in a game the Rockies walked off with a sacrifice fly.
The first key personnel decision came in the bottom of the seventh, when slumping utilityman Chris Taylor replaced streaking veteran Teoscar Hernández in right field. At the time, the Dodgers were only leading 6-4 — thanks largely to a three-run double from Shohei Ohtani in the second inning and a two-run double from Jason Heyward in the fifth. Hernández has been taken out of games early for rest before, but never when the score was so tight.
However, as manager Dave Roberts explained it postgame, the decision was based on more than just Wednesday. So far this season, Hernández has started all 76 of the Dodgers’ games. His body has held up, evidenced by his 18 home runs, .
255 batting average and team-most 54 RBIs. But Roberts nonetheless looks for times to “get him off his feet.” Wednesday was the ninth time he’d come out of a game early.
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