Welcome to the California Post’s weekly Dodgers recap, where we review the week that was, hand out very official awards and take stock of the state of the season.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Kyle Tucker (12-for-29 since Sept. 9; triple shy of the cycle on Thursday)
Off the bat, it appeared history was afoot.
Already on Thursday afternoon, Kyle Tucker had kicked his slow late-season turnaround into a suddenly more hopeful gear, hitting a two-run home run in the first, an RBI double in the second and a single that aided a three-run rally in the fourth.
Now, standing at the plate just a triple shy of the cycle in the eighth, he laced a line drive that made the feat feel possible.
With yet another squared-up swing, the $240 million slugger shot a ball into the left-center field gap. As two Reds outfielders converged on it, the entire Dodgers dugout rose in anticipation.
Alas, the 11th cycle in Dodgers history would have to wait.
The Reds turned a clean relay play. Tucker wisely — although, somewhat disappointingly, given the lopsided score — pulled up at second. And on the bench, all his teammates could do was razz him by mimicking send signs with their arms helplessly waving.
“I tried my best, but I don’t think I was gonna get there,” he told SportsNet LA afterward. “I probably would’ve been thrown out halfway.”
Oh, well.
For this year’s Dodgers, Tucker’s 4-for-5, three-RBI game was still hugely encouraging, continuing what is now a weeklong surge in which the four-time All-Star has finally looked like himself.
Even before this stretch, the Dodgers committed to keeping Tucker as a key part of their lineup.
They hoped a breakthrough he made with his mechanics could salvage something from an otherwise disastrous debut campaign with the team.
Well, in his last eight games, Tucker has batted .414 with seven extra-base knocks, 10 RBIs and more walks (five) than strikeouts (four).
He has hit five home runs in his last 13 games, after collecting just 11 in his first 132 games this year.
It is the version of Tucker that the Dodgers will need in the playoffs, especially with fellow left-handed bats like Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman battling ongoing injuries.
After a season that once seemed so lost, signs of revival have arrived just in time.
PITCHERS OF THE WEEK
Tarik Skubal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (seven scoreless innings from each)
We are going with a tandem honor this week, from a pair of pitchers who will likely have the biggest influence on the Dodgers’ World Series chances.
With Blake Snell battling a groin injury, and Tyler Glasnow entering a Friday start having recently regressed in his return from the injured list, the Dodgers’ rotation doesn’t feel quite as formidable as it once did.
Then again, if Skubal and Yamamoto keep pitching like they did this week — when they spun consecutive scoreless seven-inning outings in Cincinnati — those other question marks might not feel so daunting.
Both pitchers have sterling postseason track records: Yamamoto with a 7-1 record and 2.25 ERA in 10 playoff outings (including last year’s World Series heroics) and Skubal with a 2-1 record and 2.04 ERA in six October appearances of his own (all with the Tigers the last two years).
Either could anchor a pitching staff on their own capable of making a run to the Fall Classic.
Together, they give the Dodgers arguably the best 1-2 punch in the majors. This week, they delivered the club’s first pair of back-to-back scoreless seven-inning outings since 2022 when Tyler Anderson and Clayton Kershaw did it.
Granted, dominating the Reds in mid-September is not the same as producing gems in the playoffs.
But with so many other concerns mounting at the moment, Skubal and Yamamoto at least represent a pillar of potential pitching excellence to lean on, one that could compensate for other shortcomings in the Dodgers’ three-peat bid.
PROSPECT OF THE WEEK
The entire Dodgers’ minor-league system
The Dodgers’ big-league club hasn’t been the only one popping bottles in beer-soaked clubhouse celebrations recently.
This year, all four of the organization’s minor-league affiliates also clinched places in their respective playoffs, with Triple-A Oklahoma City completing the quad-fecta by winning the second-half title in the Pacific Coast League on Wednesday.
It marks the first time the Dodgers have had four affiliates make the playoffs since 2019 (and that year included their now-defunct rookie-ball outpost in Ogden, Utah).
It’s also the latest reminder about the strength of depth they boast in their highly touted farm system.
“I know people don’t care about minor-league win percentages, but we kind of do,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes told the California Post earlier this season. “I think it’s a good proxy of how well your farm system is performing and how to understand what it takes to win.”
Three of the club’s affiliates have already been eliminated, with Double-A Tulsa, High-A Great Lakes and Single-A Ontario all losing in their division championship series.
OKC, meanwhile, will begin its postseason push next week in the best-of-three PCL Championship Series against the Athletics’ Las Vegas affiliate. If they win that, they will remain in Vegas for the Triple-A National Championship Game against the winner of the International League.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Who should Dodgers hope to see in the first round of the playoffs?
With the NL West crown secured, the Dodgers still have work to do over the season’s final nine games.
Given their injury problems, they’ve never needed a first-round bye so badly.
The good news: They remain four games up on the Braves for the NL’s No. 2 seed, with their magic number down to six for securing passage straight to the NL Division Series.
And though they remain two games back of the Brewers for the best record in the majors — and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs — conventional wisdom in recent weeks has suggested that the playoff through the postseason might be better from the 2-seed anyway.
Now, however, the NL playoff field is getting muddied, with the red-hot Padres sitting just one game back of the Cubs and Phillies.
So, who should Dodgers fans root to see in a potential first-round matchup? Well, it depends on what kind of matchup you think suits the Dodgers best.
The Cubs and Phillies had seemed like tougher draws than the Braves or Padres, thanks to Chicago’s deep and homer-happy lineup and the Phillies’ powerhouse starting rotation trio.
But this week, Philadelphia lost one of its star pitchers, Jesús Luzardo, to a shoulder injury that has put his playoff availability in doubt. The Cubs, meanwhile, have seen their offense cool off and still face questions with an unimposing starting rotation.
The Braves have their own flaws (they’ve been a middle-of-the-pack offense since the All-Star break) but still boast Chris Sale at the top of their rotation.
The Padres, on the other hand, are making a familiar late-season surge and have a habit of playing the Dodgers tough in the playoffs.
It will all make for a fascinating final few days of scoreboard watching, with a slew of new postseason permutations now on the table.
The Dodgers, of course, won’t be overly worried about who they might square off against. Their focus is on continuing to play a better brand of all-around baseball — and making sure they avoid the best-of-three wild-card round.
