#dodgers

#dodgers

Andrew Friedman and the Los Angeles Dodgers front office have proven themselves to be resourceful, flexible, shrewd, and highly effective. Friedman leads the charge in aiming to improve the roster year after year. There are many different ways to achieve this goal, and Friedman's group has mastered essentially every single one in some shape or form. This year's group of free agents isn't overly strong whether it be high-end talent or depth.

If there's a correlation between spending the most money and winning a championship, I still think it's a weak correlation. Sample size of data, not very big. But they earned every bit of it. I mean, they struggled with injuries throughout the season. But they got healthy at the right time. The rotation got healthy, and when that rotation is healthy, they're tough to beat.

Dodgers fans will never forget those baseballs hit by Miguel Rojas in the ninth inning and Will Smith in the 11th flying over the left-field wall and into the first row of seats beyond the Blue Jays' bullpen. John and Matthew Bains - sitting side-by-side - will never forget the balls ending up in their hands. John, 61, caught Rojas' 387-foot home run in his glove on the fly. Two innings later, Matthew, seated next to his dad, saw Smith's blast land in the bullpen and bounce directly into his hands.

The Los Angeles Dodgers made a roster move on Tuesday, adding left-handed pitcher Ronan Kopp to the 40-man roster, protecting him from the Rule 5 draft. He had a 3.43 ERA across 49 relief appearances in Double-A and Triple-A last season. In other news, the Dodgers have a few key free agents this offseason, one of them being longtime fan favorite Kiké Hernandez.

After last winter's failed $72-million Tanner Scott deal, the Dodgers seek another closer but could be hesitant on long-term commitments for an area as volatile as relief pitching. The team shows interest in two-time All-Star Devin Williams and others, but may prefer shorter deals despite potential multi-year offers from competitors. With returning arms like Brusdar Graterol and Evan Phillips, the Dodgers could add internally or pursue a proven closer if the market aligns.

The Dodgers should have plenty of financial flexibility to play with in the coming months, with more than $60 million in salary from last season set to come off the books (resulting from Clayton Kershaw's retirement, the expiration of contracts for Michael Conforto, Kirby Yates, Michael Kopech and others, and the team's decision to designate Tony Gonsolin for assignment last week).

What they bring night-in and night-out, the passion that they show for the Dodgers - now, this is my 11th season and even on the road, the number of Dodger fans that are there and just the love that they have for this team, our job is to pour ourselves back into it and try to give them a team that can compete for championships, and that they can be proud of.

They said we ruined baseball," Johnson said. "Well, I guess we didn't.

That slump had prompted manager Dave Roberts to acknowledge Sunday that moving Pages out of the lineup was "still on the table." During that night's workout, Kiké Hernández also spent a noticeable amount of time fielding fly balls in center. However, the Dodgers decided against the change for now, keeping Hernández in left, Pages in the No. 9 spot playing center, and their only other outfield alternative, Alex Call, on the bench.

The Blue Jays are turning to their only starting pitcher with the World Series experience entering this postseason in 41-year-old Max Scherzer. While the biggest question surrounding the game is, " Will the Blue Jays win tonight?", the second biggest question is arguably, " What does Max Scherzer yell at John Schneider when he goes to take the ball from him tonight? " Tonight will mark Scherzer's second start this postseason.

For those guys to do that, it's incredible. They're trying to win a World Series, but they understand that this is - life is bigger than baseball, and baseball's just a game. For them to do that with the stakes - where we were at with the stakes, hat's off to them, and I want them to know that we appreciate 'em. Regardless of what happens tonight, we appreciate what they did.

It started as it would end, with Freddie Freeman, and then it just kept happening: Dodger after Dodger in extra innings would smoke a potential walk-off home run off of Toronto Blue Jays near-hero Eric Lauer, almost directly to center field, the stadium would roar, and then the ball would die just at the warning track, snagged, inevitably, by Daulton Varsho. It was funny, and then it was funny, and then it was ... funny? And then it was the bottom of the 18th inning.

They were not eliminated from the World Series. If they play another defensive game like this one, they just might be. After a sluggish 6-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in this year's Game 5, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked what disappointed him the most about the game. It could have been his team's disappearing offense. The Dodgers have scored three runs in their past two games, and they're batting .201 in the series. On Wednesday, the top four batters - Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman - went a combined 1 for 15 with eight strikeouts.

The biggest play was the last one. With one out in the ninth and Toronto's Addison Barger at second base, representing the tying run, Andrés Giménez sliced a broken-ball liner to left field. The Dodgers' Kiké Hernández got a great jump on the ball and made a running catch, followed by a poor throw to second in an attempt to double off Barger. The ball took a tricky hop but Rojas stuck with it, catching the ball behind his left knee and hanging on as the retreating Barger knocked him to the ground. Rojas rolled on his back and pumped him right arm three times in celebration.

More travel challenges for #Dodgers after Game 5 in LA, players' plane this time. Delayed 2+ hours before takeoff due to mechanical issues. Meant they arrived in time for morning traffic, long ride from airport- Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) October 31, 2025 Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be on the mound on Friday coming off consecutive complete game outings for the defending champions. In those two outings, he has gone 18 innings, allowed just two earned runs and one walk, and struck out 15 batters.