CINCINNATI — A few days off sounds pretty good right about now.
“I do think this team, as much as any team we’ve had, that week off is probably most beneficial,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of locking down one of the top two seeds in the National League in order to get a first-round bye and five days off before starting the postseason.
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Going into Thursday’s game, the Dodgers held a 3 ½-game lead over the Atlanta Braves for the second seed in the NL with a magic number of seven to clinch that first-round bye. The Dodgers trail the Milwaukee Brewers by three games for the top seed.
“It’s always helpful in the sense of giving your guys a break to reset,” Roberts said. “But given all the tax and where our guys are health-wise, to get that week would be huge.”
Blake Snell joined the long list of players with injury concerns when he left his start Wednesday after just one inning due to left groin tightness. The Dodgers also have questions about Shohei Ohtani (knee, biceps), Freddie Freeman (knee), Edgardo Henriquez (back), Andy Pages (hand), Roki Sasaki (blister) and Dalton Rushing (elbow).
Pages has been swinging a bat and hitting off the Trajekt machine this week, and it is “very likely” he will be activated from the IL during the homestand starting Friday, according to Roberts.
Ohtani has been “progressing” this week and is feeling “normal-ish” with no pain in his right arm or left knee, Roberts said.
“He’s doing everything he needs to do,” Roberts said. “I still don’t know when (his) time to return to play is. But everything that I hear is really positive.”
Snell could undergo an MRI to determine the severity of his groin injury. But he was optimistic after the game Wednesday that he had pulled back and left the game soon enough that it won’t be a serious issue and he might be able to make one more start before the end of the regular season.
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“It’s all contingent on how he feels and potential imaging,” Roberts said. “It doesn’t make sense to just shut him down until the postseason if he can pitch. But again, if he’s not 100 percent to pitch, then we have no problem kicking the can.”
DIAZ RETURN
Right-hander Edwin Diaz completed his rehab assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City on Wednesday and will join the Dodgers in Los Angeles this weekend with the expectation that he will be activated from the Injured List.
Diaz will be used in “low-leverage” situations, Roberts said, with a need to prove he can pitch well enough to assume a bigger role if he is on the postseason roster.
“I think, like anything, it should be a meritocracy,” Roberts said. “You have to earn the right of opportunities, but then you also have to perform, right? Eddie understands that. I think where we’re at now we just need guys to buy in, perform and go from there. That’s what he’s about.”
Roberts called Diaz’s final outing with OKC was “his best one yet.” Diaz pitched a scoreless inning, gave up a double and didn’t get a single swing-and-miss on any of 15 pitches.
“Quality of strike-throwing. Get guys out,” Roberts said of what he hopes to see from Diaz. “That’s probably it. As you get into the postseason, every inning’s leverage. So that’s kind of it. Quality of strike-throwing, and get guys out.”
UP NEXT
Giants (LHP Cesar Perdomo, 0-1, 3.68 ERA) at Dodgers (RHP Tyler Glasnow, 4-1, 3.50 ERA), Friday, 7:10 p.m., Apple TV, 570 AM
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