LOS ANGELES — Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was in good spirits as he sat at the podium beneath Dodger Stadium on Friday, Sept. 18. His team returned home as National League West champions for the 13th time in 14 years after their 8-2 rout of the Cincinnati Reds to end their road trip.
They also entered Friday's series opener against the San Francisco Giants with a four-game lead over the Atlanta Braves for the No. 2 seed in the NL and sat just two games behind the Milwaukee Brewers for the top seed with just nine games to go before October.
But perhaps taking priority over chasing playoff positioning, Roberts expressed confidence that the Dodgers could finish the season relatively healthy with both Shohei Ohtani and Blake Snell progressing well
in the final two weeks of the regular season.
"I think it's about winning games, all the while ... getting our players back to health. But I think they can go hand in hand," Roberts said. "We have a lot of good players that are more than capable of helping us win baseball games and at the same time, making sure we try to get our best players to optimum health when the postseason starts."
Ohtani, who has been rehabbing at home while the Dodgers were on the road, swung a bat for the second time since landing on the 15-day injured list on Sept. 8. The two-way superstar took another step forward in his hitting progression as he took batting practice off of coach pitch and came away feeling good, per Roberts. While the Dodgers' skipper acknowledged "he's not there yet" as far as facing live pitching, that would be the next hurdle for Ohtani to clear before returning to the lineup.
In an ideal world, Roberts said he'd like for Ohtani to take somewhere around 10-12 at-bats in live batting practice before he gets activated, but acknowledged that it's really dependent on Ohtani himself.
"It's been a really productive three-to-four-to-five days. He's in a good spot," Roberts said. "No matter what I say, it really doesn't matter in the sense of it's what he feels good with, what gets him ready."
Snell, who exited his last start in Cincinnati after pitching just one inning with left groin tightness, continues to feel good and the overall sense is that he avoided a serious injury. Snell threw 90 feet on Friday while wearing a wrap around his left groin area, and Roberts is "very hopeful" that the former Cy Young winner can make one more regular season start.
Roberts is not sure when exactly that would be but did say that it would be a full start to ramp Snell up for the postseason rather than an abbreviated one.
"It'd be more of a normal start, maybe not pushing him a ton given we don't know how the season's going to play out," Roberts said. "But this will be his last regular season start, so I think it'd be more of a regular start."
The Dodgers' depleted bullpen does get some reinforcements back with closer Edwin Díaz being activated from the IL. He's available to pitch on Friday night if needed, and Roberts didn't rule out using him in low leverage situations to try and get him into a rhythm ahead of October.
Roberts also said that he expects outfielder Andy Pages to be activated at some point in the final home series against the San Diego Padres and catcher Dalton Rushing has also been progressing well, though there's no timeline on his return just yet.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dodgers injury updates: Where Shohei Ohtani, other stars stand entering final stretch
