The Dodgers won two out of three games against both the Padres and Giants last week, which strengthened their hold on first place.
Finally playing their longtime rivals asburdly far into the season, the Dodgers were also playing their closest pursuers in the standings. That made for a potential playoff preview, which makes sense considering the Dodgers have played a National League West team in the NLDS in each of the last five postseasons.
But the week was also a playoff review, as the Dodgers’ pitching usage mirrored that of last October. Once a game got out of hand, the Dodgers pivoted to innings-eating mode, saving the higher-leverage arms for use in a more competitive game. The most extreme example was Matt Sauer wearing it on the mound on Tuesday to the tune of nine runs and 13 hits over 4⅔ innings, and Kiké Hernández appearing in the sixth inning (!!) and recording the final seven outs, the longest pitching outing by a Dodgers position player since World War II.
Justin Wrobleski, passed over for a start during the Padres series, instead ate the final 13 outs of Friday’s loss to the Giants, Hernández even got into a game the Dodgers were winning, getting two outs in the ninth inning on Saturday.
They’ll add another fresh arm on Monday as well, perhaps you’ve heard of him.
Batter of the week
Shohei Ohtani homered twice in Saturday’s win and led the regulars in hits, extra-base hits, and OPS during the week. He also led with seven runs scored, and on the season has more runs scored (73) than games the Dodgers have played (72). Dating back to last August 9, Ohtani has scored 135 runs in the Dodgers last 135 games, including the postseason. Oh yeah, and he’s also pitching on Monday.
Honorable mention goes to Teoscar Hernández, who drove in seven runs and snapped out of a slump by homering in three straight games from Wednesday to Saturday.
Pitcher of the week
Clayton Kershaw had his longest start since 2023, pitching seven scoreless innings on Saturday, lowering his ERA against the Giants to 2.0033 in a tidy 404⅓ career innings. We’ve done 420 of these weekly reviews dating back to 2009, and Kershaw has won pitcher of the week 114 times (27.1 percent).
Week 13 results
4-2 record
32 runs scored (5.33 per game)
35 runs allowed (5.83 per game)
.459 pythagorean win percentage
Year to date
43-29 record
399 runs scored (5.54 per game)
328 runs allowed (4.56 per game)
.589 pythagorean win percentage (42-30)
Standing: 1st place in NL West, two games up on San Francisco
Transactions
Monday: Veteran pitcher Chris Stratton, who was designated for assignment for a second time on June 7, cleared waivers, was sent outright to Triple-A, and elected free agency instead.
Tuesday: Right-hander Matt Sauer was called up for a bulk outing, and ended up taking one for the team in extreme fashion. José Ureña was designated for assignment.
Tuesday: Right-hander Ryan Loutos, who was designated for assignment on June 6, was claimed off waivers by the Nationals.
Friday: Ureña cleared waivers and elected free agency.
Saturday: Left-hander Garrett McDaniels, who was selected by the Angels in the Rule 5 Draft in December, was returned to the Dodgers.
Game results
Week 13 batting
| Player | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | PA | BA/OBP/SLG | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | PA | BA/OBP/SLG | OPS |
| Rojas | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .500/.500/1.250 | 1.750 |
| Ohtani | 23 | 7 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 27 | .348/.444/.739 | 1.184 |
| T. Hernández | 21 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 25 | .238/.320/.667 | .987 |
| Edman | 14 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 15 | .286/.333/.500 | .833 |
| Conforto | 14 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 16 | .214/.313/.500 | .813 |
| Muncy | 17 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 22 | .294/.455/.353 | .807 |
| Smith | 15 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 19 | .267/.316/.467 | .782 |
| Freeman | 23 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 27 | .261/.370/.304 | .675 |
| Kim | 10 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 12 | .200/.333/.300 | .633 |
| Pages | 23 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 25 | .217/.200/.391 | .591 |
| Betts | 21 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 26 | .190/.346/.238 | .584 |
| Rushing | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 8 | .167/.375/.167 | .542 |
| K. Hernández | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 10 | .000/.000/.000 | .000 |
| Offense | 201 | 32 | 49 | 7 | 1 | 10 | 32 | 29 | 43 | 236 | .244/.335/.438 | .773 |
Week 13 pitching
| Pitcher | G | Record | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pitcher | G | Record | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA | WHIP |
| Kershaw | 1 | 1-0 | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0.00 | 0.571 |
| Casparius | 1 | 0-0 | 4.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2.25 | 1.250 |
| May | 2 | 1-0 | 11.0 | 12 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 6.55 | 1.818 |
| Yamamoto | 1 | 0-1 | 4.7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 9.64 | 2.357 |
| Sauer | 1 | 0-1 | 4.7 | 13 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 17.36 | 3.429 |
| Starters | 6 | 2-2 | 31.3 | 37 | 24 | 23 | 19 | 21 | 6.61 | 1.787 |
| Vesia | 3 | 0-0, Sv | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0.00 | 0.000 |
| Scott | 3 | 0-0, 2 Sv | 3.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0.00 | 0.333 |
| Banda | 3 | 0-0 | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 | 0.000 |
| Trivino | 2 | 1-0 | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 | 0.000 |
| Kopech | 2 | 0-0 | 1.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0.00 | 2.250 |
| Dreyer | 1 | 0-0 | 0.7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 | 3.000 |
| Wrobleski | 1 | 0-0 | 4.3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2.08 | 0.923 |
| Yates | 3 | 1-0 | 2.3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3.86 | 0.857 |
| K.Hernández | 2 | 0-0 | 3.0 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 15.00 | 3.667 |
| Bullpen | 20 | 2-0, 3 Sv | 22.7 | 13 | 11 | 7 | 10 | 23 | 2.78 | 1.015 |
| Totals | 26 | 4-2 | 54.0 | 50 | 35 | 30 | 29 | 44 | 5.00 | 1.463 |
Previous reviews: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12
Up next
The Dodgers run the Nate Colbert gauntlet to finish the homestand, with four more games against the Padres before the Nationals come to down. The order below is an educated guess, but the rotation this week will include Shohei Ohtani’s pitching debut on Monday, a fully-stretched-out Ben Casparius (possibly following Ohtani on Monday), and the return of Emmet Sheehan.
Week 14 schedule
| Mon, Jun 16 | Tue, Jun 17 | Wed, Jun 18 | Thu, Jun 19 | Fri, Jun 20 | Sat, Jun 21 | Sun, Jun 22 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon, Jun 16 | Tue, Jun 17 | Wed, Jun 18 | Thu, Jun 19 | Fri, Jun 20 | Sat, Jun 21 | Sun, Jun 22 |
| vs. Padres | vs. Padres | vs. Padres | vs. Padres | vs. Nationals | vs. Nationals | vs. Nationals |
| 7:10 p.m. | 7:10 p.m. | 7:10 p.m. | 7:10 p.m. | 7:10 p.m. | 7:10 p.m. | 1:10 p.m. |
| Ohtani v. | TBA v. | Sheehan v. | Yamamoto v. | Kershaw v. | May v. | Casparius v. |
| Cease | Vásquez | Kolek | Bergert | Gore (L) | Irvin | Soroka |
| SNLA/MLBN | SNLA/TBS | SNLA/MLBN | SNLA | SNLA/MLBN | SNLA/MLBN | SNLA |
MLB Network and TBS telecasts are available out of market only
