The Dodgers clinched their 14th consecutive postseason berth Monday night, and they did it with a rental ace throwing seven scoreless innings.
Tarik Skubal struck out nine over seven shutout innings in a 4-1 win over Cincinnati. Los Angeles managed only three hits all night: home runs from Kyle Tucker and Teoscar Hernandez, plus an RBI single from Enrique Hernandez. Elly De La Cruz hit his 27th homer in the ninth for the Reds’ only run.
Fourteen straight playoff appearances. The Braves’ 14-year run in the 1990s and 2000s is the reference point, and Los Angeles is now there.
The Skubal trade looks even better now
The Dodgers acquired the two-time reigning Cy Young winner from Detroit in early August for outfielder Zyhir Hope and right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith.
He is a pure rental. Skubal hits free agency after this season, ending a nine-year Tigers run that started when Detroit took him in the ninth round of the 2018 draft.
The acquisition also produced a piece of trivia that explains everything about this franchise: the Dodgers became the first team in MLB history to have a reigning two-time MVP and a reigning two-time Cy Young winner on the same roster in the same season.
They spent a top prospect package on two months of a pitcher. Nobody in Los Angeles is second-guessing it after Monday.
Ohtani cannot come back until Sept. 26
The MVP half of that equation is still on the 15-day injured list and will not be eligible to return until Saturday, Sept. 26, against the Giants. That is the penultimate game of the regular season.
Dave Roberts said Monday that Ohtani would hit off a tee Tuesday. Reported issues include the biceps, knee and neck, and he landed on the IL after a setback.
Top prospect Josue De Paula had his contract selected from Double-A Tulsa and is expected to take most of the DH starts in the meantime.
Two regular season games of at-bats before the playoffs is not much of a runway for a hitter coming off a multi-week layoff. The Dodgers will take it because they have to.
The rest of the National League is playing for second
Los Angeles is 91-59 with a magic number of 4 in the NL West. Milwaukee leads the league at 93-57.
Sporting News framed the NL field as a battle between David and Goliath, with 11 Davids and one Goliath. That is about right. The back-to-back champs enter October with the best rotation in baseball, the deepest lineup, and a two-time MVP who might be rounding into form at exactly the right moment.
Everyone else gets to hope the Ohtani timeline does not work out.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.