At a stadium where the most famous walk-up song was sung by The Outfield, the Dodgers find themselves ruminating about outfield issues of their own. Specifically, that of Teoscar Hernandez.
In Monday night’s game, in the bottom of the ninth, Ezequiel Tovar lifted a high fly to shallow right field. Alex Freeland came running out from second, but it was Hernandez who thought he had the ball. He had the ball in his glove. But then the ball popped out and by that time, Tovar was at second base.
Hernandez
had also flubbed a play when after getting a terrible jump on a single to right, threw the ball the third base instead of second, allowing runners to advance to second and third. The next batter up singled, allowing both runners to score instead of just the lead runner.
Those runs were the margin of loss for the Dodgers, falling 4-3 to the Rockies and ending their winning streak at three games. The loss negated a pretty good outing for Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who went seven innings of three run ball, a great outing at Coors Field. The Dodgers had also chased Rockies starter Kyle Freeman after four innings.
After the game, there was a closed-door meeting between Dave Roberts, Andrew Friedman, and Mookie Betts. Betts is a six-time Gold Glove winner in right field but has famously made the move to shortstop.
As the team is configured now, both Alex Freeland and Miguel Rojas could take over shortstop duties should Betts make the move back to right. And if Betts moves to right, where does that leave Teo?
Hernandez has the second most RBI on the team with 74, and is tied for second in homers at 20, so with the state of the Dodgers offense (read – not great) – one cannot justify taking his bat out of the lineup.
One outfielder that is not hitting well is Michael Conforto, who is in left field. While his defense is markedly better than Hernandez’s now, his batting average is just .190 and hasn’t been much higher at any point this season. Benching Conforto in favor of flipping Hernandez to the other side is an option at this point.
Other options include having Alex Call play more in the outfield or giving Justin Dean more playing time. Dean has more range in center, so using him in Coors for the next three days could be a good option. But neither of their bats are hot. Tommy Edman, who plays centerfield, is not expected back from the IL until sometime in September.
Also not to be lost in all of this is that Betts has lost speed he’s had prior, partially precipitating the move to short in the first place. Additionally, his bat has finally started to come around after struggling all season and who knows if another big move could set him back there.
“Defense is a big part of postseason baseball and winning baseball,” Roberts told reporters after the game. “He’s just got to continue to get better.”
Teo’s outfield defense or lack thereof is just another hurdle the Dodgers are going to have to clear to become repeat champs.
The Dodgers remain two ahead of the San Diego Padres in the division, as the Friars also lost their game on Monday.
On Tuesday, Emmet Sheehan will go for the Dodgers, while the Rockies send Austin Gomber to the mound.
Tuesday game info
- Teams: Dodgers at Rockies
- Ballpark: Coors Field, Denver
- Start time: 5:40 p.m. PT
- TV: SportsNet LA
- Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)
