It's been a bit of a struggle recently for the Los Angeles Dodgers, even though they are still firmly entrenched in first place in the National League West Division. The Dodgers have not been able to put some space between them and the second-place San Diego Padres.
They had a chance to get it done on Wednesday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates, but ended up on the wrong end of a 3-0 loss. What's worse, though, is that Dodger starting catcher Will Smith had to leave the game after two innings.
Smith had a foul ball slam into his right hand. He finished the second inning behind the plate, but left the game after getting checked out by a Dodgers trainer.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, after the Wednesday night loss, was hopeful that Smith wasn't hurt too badly. "We’ll know more tomorrow when he wakes up. See if the swelling dissipates," Roberts said, according to Dodgers beat writer Sonja Chen of MLB.com. "But we can’t afford to lose him. I guess we’ll know more in the coming days."
July was a great month for Smith, who led the NL with a .325 batting average. But he really cooled off in August, hitting just .159 with a .630 OPS. He'd also been pretty reliable in connecting for key hits when Los Angeles needed them desperately.
Noah Camras (@noahcamras) on X
Will Smith just hit a pinch-hit walk-off home run to give the Dodgers a much-needed win.
Wow.
The Dodgers are back up 2 games in the NL West over the Padres.
It's not like the Dodgers didn't have chances to score and possibly get the win over the Pirates. Los Angeles ended up going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, never a good stat when trying to secure victories late in the season.
"Obviously, we had good at-bats getting on-base today. We just didn’t get the hit today," Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said. "The game of baseball is hard. The concept is easy. Hit the ball, catch the ball, get the hits when you need to. We obviously didn’t do that tonight. Just gotta move on to tomorrow."
What's even more concerning is the fact that Shohei Ohtani was supposed to start Wednesday's game against the Pirates. But Roberts scratched him from his scheduled start due to Ohtani dealing with a chest cold and not being in good shape.
Ohtani, on Tuesday night, slammed his 100th home run as a Dodger. That ball left his bat at 120 mph, the hardest-hit ball of his career.
"When you’re sick and potentially dehydrated," Roberts said, "[we were] just feeling like the tax of pitching in a game, it wasn’t worth it." Some type of bug might be making its presence felt at this time as Roberts intimated that other players aren't feeling too good.
The Dodgers will head to Baltimore for a three-game weekend series against the Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Look for Ohtani to take the mound in one of those games.