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Talking. Hike back David Vasse. Welcome to Dodger Talk David Vasse Live FP
and C Park in Pittsburgh where the Pirates defeat the Dodgers tonight by a final
score of ten to six. We are with you until eight o'clock tonight here
on AM five to seventy LA Sports. We have phone lines open at eight
six six nine, eight seven two five seventy. We will hear from Dave
Roberts. We also will get to my numbing trade talk. We will also
update you on Bobby Miller, Clayton Kershaw and Kyle Hurt. And we also
have a pair of tickets to give away to the June eleventh game against the
Texas Rangers. So a jam pack show leading you to the top of the
hour, live from Pittsburgh PNC Park. All right, Look, there was
a lot of talk about the Dodger offense, and rightfully so, I was
not sold that the Dodger offense was back. After their three game sweep of
the Mets, I was not sold that the Dodger offense had solved all its
problems after taking two out of three from the Rockies, and it was evident
last night. But tonight you have to tip your cap to the Dodger offense,
which obviously had a tall order in trying to manage this game and scrape
some runs against Paul Skeens, who is throwing one hundred plus miles an hour.
That's not an easy challenge. And kudos to them for being able to
get to get three runs off of Skeens Otani with a two run home run
in the third inning and then Andy paie Haz with a solo home run in
the fifth inning. So you know, if the Dodgers do that for Tyler
Glass now they win last night's game. Unfortunately, it was James Paxton on
them, and I have been telling you, whether it's on Rogan and Rodney
Petro some money or right here on Dodger Talk, James Paxton has been living
a very dangerous life on the mound, letting way too many baserunners on even
though he was stranding close to ninety percent of them. And that's part of
the reason why. Even though he wasn't pitching great. His record was undefeated,
his RA was around three or less, because somehow, some way he
was finding his ways out of those situations. But you ask anybody, you
can't allow that much traffic on the basis every five or six days out there,
and tonight it caught up to him. And the Pirates obviously had a
very good game plan against him because they were swinging first pitch. The first
five hitters of the second inning reached safely. All in all, they scored
seven runs against James Paxton. But as Hose Motive pointed out, and I
thought it was a great point, the Dodgers, led by Jason Hayward,
never gave up. Jason Hayward kept playing like this game was a one run
game, and I feel like that kind of set the tone in that dugout
to not give up on this game. And the Dodgers had a golden opportunity
against Skeens in the fifth inning, bases loaded two outs after Paz already had
hit his home run. In the fifth inning, they had a golden opportunity
with the man that leads the team in RBIs te Oscar Hernandez with thirty eight.
He swings at the first pitch and rolls over and he's out, forced
play at third base. Out inning over. Skiens out of the game after
ninety three pitches. So to me, that could have been a bigger inning,
and unfortunately it wasn't. But even after that, the Dodgers kept on
coming against that pirate's bullpen. Unfortunately, in the seventh inning, Ryan Yarborough
gave up two runs as he pitched the final three innings of the game.
So, you know, seven runs by your starter, it's gonna be tough
to come back. Before we head out to the phone calls, let's head
downstairs right now to the manager's office to hear from Dave Roberts. I thought
today was a really good offensive performance. I thought the bats were much better.
I thought we were on the fastball, taking some borderline off speed pitches.
I thought we did a really good job tonight of competing and hitting to
our zone. What did you think of Skeens Skeens, It's really good stuff,
you know, for us to get them out after five, I thought
it was a win. You know, the fastball has a lot of life,
he's got really good command. I just thought today we just did a
really good job of grinding them and getting to the pen, and so they've
you know, the silver lining I guess is when you lose two ball games.
They've used their leverage guys for the first two nights, so you know,
all of our leverage guys are locked and loaded for tomorrow. We got
Walker going, so I feel good about tomorrow. But he was impressive with
Paxston, like even when he was limiting runs, the swinging myths wasn't there
in their walks, Like has he come kind of fighting either his mechanics or
just kind of trying to find some sort of consistency command wise kind of all
year. Yeah, I think that tonight it sort of was one of those
things that as early on the first six weeks, call it the batting average,
ball in play was low, We're turning double plays, and tonight,
you know, when the ball gets in play, there's a chance for it
to find out field grass. And that's what happened tonight. All Right,
there's manager Dave Roberts, who I guess was finding the silver lining that Derek
Shelton used his high leverage relievers in the first two games of the series.
Uh, I wouldn't call that too much of a silver lining considering the Pirates
won the first two games of this series and are looking to sweep the Dodgers
for the first time in Pittsburgh since August of twenty fifteen. There's a reason
why Chapman and Bednar were used in this game. They were winning and they
wanted to win this game tonight. It's not like it was a six or
seven run lead. It was a four run lead and the Dodgers were chipping
away against every other reliever that Derek Shelton brought in, So you can understand,
even in a non safe situation, this was a game they wanted to
win because they've won the series already and are playing with house money going into
the final game of this three game series. So come on, we're a
little smarter than that. Eight six, six, nine eighty seven two five
seventy is the phone number. Let's go out to the phones, Michael and
Rancho Kuckamunga. You're on Dodger Talk. Hi, Michael, Hey David,
how are you. I've been better? I mean, uh so, not
great to come all the way to Pittsburgh and watch the Dodgers lose the first
two games of the series. Michael that's true. And you know what's worse
is sitting in the comfort of your home watching the same uh, watching the
same loss. So I tell you, at least you could turn the radio
off. Uh now when you're not when you bleed not when you bleed blue.
You can't. You gotta you got you know you. You roll with
the loans, you roll with the high My question, thank you. So
the question is, uh, you know, just I know you mentioned earlier
that you're going to kind of get to the trade talk aspect of it.
So that's kind of where my question is leaning. Just what do you want
to know given the roster that we have, Well, what do you want
who's on? Michael? I ran to Cuckamonga's list. Who would you trade
for to cure whatever issues you think the Dodgers have? You know what?
And I was ready for you to ask that question, Dave, and I
don't have an answer. That's why I didn't make any recommendation. You know
why, because there's not a lot of guys, Michael, there's not a
lot of guys that are going to make a huge impact. There is no
Manny Machado out there that can make a huge impact. I know you know,
with Jeff pass and reporting what I told you three weeks ago that the
White Sox were listening to trade offers for Luis Robert, everybody is now saying
that's the guy the Dodgers need to put them over the top. You heard
it here first, Luis Robert. Did you know, Michael, Luis Robert
has only played one hundred games once in his major league career, and that
was last year. This guy is always hurt, including right now he had
an hip injury. So you know, I like Luis Robert. I've talked
to teammates about him. They said he's a good guy, great player when
he's on the field. He's hardly ever on the field, Michael, I
hear you, Dave. So the question is then, okay, if no
one's worth trading man, And in the game of baseball, it's you know
you you you go through the process, You trust the process, and the
results will come. Uh clearly. Uh. You know, with like Ttka,
people that have been around, people that have been on the Dodgers for
quite some time. Uh, from your perspective, do you think that they
need to start tweaking their process given that you know the lack of performance is
just so evident. And I mean, I know it's so early, but
hey, you know it's June before we know it, you know, a
sneeze in a conference. Gonna know what, I believe, Michael, the
Dodgers have to make the pieces to the puzzle fit a little bit better.
And when you talk about what the Dodgers may need or may not need,
they've got to figure out their infield, specifically up the middle. Are they
going to continue with Gavin Lux at second base and Mookie Betts out of position
at shortstop or are they just going to say, you know what, thank
Gavin, we gave you an opportunity, but you're going to come off the
bench now and play against some righties and Mookie Betts is going to play second
and we're going to find a shortstop. And until we do, Miguel Rojas
is going to play shortstop. The thing is, and I've heard this from
multiple people within the organization, they believe that if they play Rojas every day,
he's not going to last all the way through October, which is the
most important thing to have him available for. And you know, when you
hear it from one person, you're skeptical. When you hear it from three
or four, then you know it's true. The legs have a lot of
miles on them. You don't want to wear Rojas down. But the Dodgers
have got to figure out what they're doing with the middle of the infield by
the time the trade deadline comes around. And I know everybody's talking about outfield
help, including myself, But if Jason Hayward is going to play the way
Jason Hayward played last year, and we're starting to see signs of that.
He's locked in against Righty's, ta Oscar Hernandez is going to play every day.
Andy Pajes has played really good center field defense, and he has made
adjustments. The great Mark McGuire text me watching the game from Mexico, of
all places, and he said he can tell Paz now is getting his front
foot down much earlier, which allows him to stay behind the ball to drive
it more. And we saw that tonight against Paul Skins. So he's making
the adjustments. Everybody that you talk to that has seen po Haz since spring
training believes his swing plays so the outfield pretty much. You know, maybe
you find a role player that can spell Paz, or maybe some depth out
there. I like what our caller Joe had to say yesterday about Lane Thomas.
I wouldn't be opposed to Lane Thomas being part of this roster. But
the Dodgers kind of need an infielder. They need either a third baseman,
a shortstop, or a second baseman. And I've brought up Taylor Ward in
the past, and the reason why I have is Number One, he's having
a really good year for the Angels and he's a really good player. Number
Two, the Dodgers and Angels came very close to making a trade for Taylor
Ward in their versatile infielder Louis Renhitho, who by the way, is hitting
three point twenty nine for the Halos this year. So you know, if
they came close for a ross strippling Jack Peterson, Andy Pajez for Taylor Ward
and Louis Renhipo when they had six years of service time available, why wouldn't
the Dodgers try to circle back and see if the Angels, who have an
organization that is depleted of talent, would revisit that trade or some close,
some sort of incarnation of that trade. Those two guys could really help the
Dodgers down the stretch eight six six nine eight seven two five seventy is the
phone number. Dodgers fall to the Pirates tonight, ten to six. Let's
go out to Eric in Hollywood. He always is positive. What do you
got for us tonight? Eric, god dured nay sho, Man David,
I am positive. I mean, I love seeing Otani whack that Paul Skiing
fastball out of the park. I get that part. But man, Dave,
I mean, I know. I think this is gonna be the first
time me and you are going to disagree on a calling, and I'm just
gonna hold on to it because I think I just need to say it.
Something's up in that clubhouse. We have the weapons to be the best team
in the Major League Baseball, and something is up. I get it.
I don't I don't know anything about trades. I don't want to get rid
of this man, that guy. I don't want to do any of that.
All I'm simply saying is that the weapons that we have are not doing
their job, and something is up. Either either somebody stole somebody chocolate chip
cookies during lunchtime or something like that, or there's something going on in there
because there's no way Otani could come in and all of a sudden he's not
killing it. Yes, everybody goes through slumps. Yes, teams go through
slumps. Yes, we are leading the n now West and we should be
fine. But this thing that I've seen is indicative of what I've seen for
the last couple of years, when we just fall off the face of the
arts. We don't get any hits, we don't do any of this,
we don't do any of that. And I'm worried. I'm really worried,
Dave, and I don't want to be worried. I want to root.
I bleed blue, like everybody that calls you here, I bleed blue.
And I don't have any animosity tools any of the players. I love them
all because they're Dodgers. When you wear a Dodger uniform, I love you
to death. But Dave, something is up and I don't know how to
and I wish you could tell me how we could fix this, because we
should be pounding the Pittsburgh Pirates. You should be killing these guys. We
should be killing these guys. These guys don't even hold a candle to where
we stand up. Dave, tell me if I'm talking off the precipice,
Dave, talk me off the precipice, talking off of it. Yeah,
well, Number one, the Dodgers are one of only four teams in the
National League, Eric, with a winning record. Even with their loss tonight,
there are still seven games ahead of the Padres in first place in the
division, and they still haven't played their best baseball. The Dodgers still have
not rattled off seven or ten wins in a row, so right now,
even without them playing their best baseball, they're still getting great pitching from their
starters, notwithstanding tonight from Paxton, and they're getting great bullpen pitching. They
just need the offense to catch up here, Eric, and I don't have
any doubts it will, especially since Otani coming into the game tonight, was
hitting two hundred in his last seventeen games, and let's face it, Mookie
Betts the power just hasn't been there either, and Freddie Freeman still hasn't gotten
hot and he's hitting two ninety five. So for me, I believe that's
really scary for the rest of the league that the Dodgers have a seven game
lead in their division and still have not played their best baseball and still have
certain players that have not gotten red hot yet, and I get it.
I just don't want to be the Atlanta Braves of this century. I don't
want to have one World Cherry's Ring and have twelve NL West titles. I
mean, I don't dave. I don't and I don't mean it sound pessimistic.
I'll always root, I bleed bloom, But I don't want that.
I don't want that. I know these guys are better than that. I
know they am, and I'm scruiting and I always will chare for them.
Man, but the day, man, come on, man, give us
some positive energy. Man, we need to turn this around. Baby.
All right, Eric, thanks for the phone call. Look, you're talking
about October. You're talking about right now. I can't tell you what's going
to happen in October or how the Dodgers are going to change what has taken
place the last three Octobers. All I can tell you right now is the
good news is last year this Dodger team offensively did not have any sort of
adversity the way this one is having it so far. But they've got to
look in the mirror, each one of them individually and then come back to
collectively, and the guys that are not the first four hitters have got to
find a way to help this team even when they're not. That's going to
be the difference between winning and losing in the postseason. When you're playing a
one run game, trying to just swing like you normally swing and not laying
down a bun to advance the runner to third base, that's not going to
work in the postseason. Not hitting the ball to the right side to get
the runner to third base is not going to work in the postseason. The
teams that do that, that make contact have run the table and won the
World Series the last couple of years, and the twenty twenty Dodgers that won
it, they also did that. They put together hits and they got big
home runs. That's how you win. So, like I said, man,
I cannot go from the here and now what's going on in the here
and now and then fast forward to what the Dodgers need to do in the
playoffs to run the table and avoid being knocked out in the first round.
It's just that's just too much. Eight six six nine, eight seven two
five seventy is phone number. Let's go out to see me Valley. Justin,
you're on Dodger Talk with David vasse Hi Justin, Hey Dave, thanks
for taking my call. Just a few quick things here. I think it's
the end of the road, uh, for Chris Taylor. I I don't
want to pile on him, but I think we've seen enough. As well
as with Gavin Lux, I think we we blew it when we should have.
We should have probably traded Lucks two years ago when his value was probably
the highest, and now we can't get anything for him at disappointed time.
Yeah, yeah. The one other thing, real quick, I don't understand
and awesome Barnes is going to catch a stray here. I don't understand why
we don't call up rushing just to see what he has. I know he's
not gonna get as many plate appearances up in the big leagues with Will Smith
behind the plate. I don't understand keeping Barnes in the in the on the
roster when he's obvious below two hundred experience, his experience, and he's hitting
better than he was last year. He's a better hitter right now than Chris
Taylor, and his experience is invaluable. You can't say that you want to
get rid of Austin Barnes and bring up a kid that has only been in
the system for a couple of years. So what is he going to add
to a veteran pitching staff that Austin Barnes doesn't. I mean, Austin Barnes
has helped Walker Bueller find a new spot on the rubber to be better.
He's a guy that you know, sees things that most guys don't see.
He's a great receiver. So I'm sorry, I disagree with that. If
you now, you would have gained some credibility with me. If you would
have said, you know what, I feel like, we're at the end
of the road with Chris Taylor and we should call up one of those kids
at Oklahoma City, like a Trey Sweeney who's tearing it up down there.
Then I would have said, all right, you know this guy makes sense.
But when you talk about saying goodbye to a veteran backup catcher that catches
once a week justin and you want to call up Dalton Rushing, what's he
going to do when he only plays once a week behind an all star catcher.
You have a point there. I just prefer thanks you give the younger.
I'd like to give Rushing it at least a shot to see what he
had. You would, but when would he play? I mean stick him?
Well, I guess we can't stick him in the deal. Stick them
somewhere, right, just stick him somewhere. You got me, You got
me, Dave. One last thing. As far as the trade deadline goes,
I agree with you, Ward and rangifo would be would be good.
I called a few weeks ago and was huge on Jazz Chisholm. I still
think, uh, we got to unload the farm for an impact that.
Like I said, I'm tired of losing in the Division series here. I
think we got to go all in this year. All right, Justin and
thanks for the phone call. Yeah, I'm a fan of Jazz Chisholm.
Miguel Rojas may not be. They would have to work that out. But
Josh Chisholm is a guy that played the infield and now plays the outfield.
He's a kind of a personality in alpha. The Dodgers kind of need some
swag like that. Also, another interesting player that could be traded and probably
will be by the Mets is Jeff McNeil. He's a guy that can play
second base and is a second baseman, could play a little bit of the
outfield. He's got some edge to him. I'm looking for some edge.
I'm looking for some Tommy fam edge. Not only a really good player,
but some edge, some playoff edge. Eight six six nine eight seven two
five seventy is the phone number. Let's go out to Covina. Al.
You're on Dodger Talk with David vasse Hi Al. Hey, so again,
like one of the things that make me suspicious when you say that, not
that, but one of the things that you said earlier about uh, just
you said the word adversity. That's something usually the Dodgers teams don't have something
that the Lakers didn't have early on, something that the Trojans. I mean,
you know usually when you get tested early and a lot of the baseball
teams that have won World Series, like the Nationals and and you know all
this stuff, these guys are like sub five hundreds. You know, they
are tests. They are you know, like you know, sculpted to adversity.
And like even though we're in first right quote unquote at the moment,
like, dude, this is this is one of the best things that could
happen in sports, just testing your metal, seeing what you're about, so
for sure, dude, like, let them figure this cred out. Let
them feel how it is to get snacked better now they get snacked in the
playoffs looking like you know, like you don't know what you're doing. So
you know, not saying we bosses, but you know what that that is
like, you know, an aspect that needs to be taken into account,
not just by fans, by them though, and hopefully somehow they hear us,
somehow you tell them by hey, like, just keep and you know
what it, be about it and and be about it. Look look at
those who've come before you, and and you know, let's move ahead.
You know the way champions? Do you know? All right? Al,
why don't you hold the line? And you've won a pair of tickets to
the June eleventh game against the Rangers. Congratulations out for a solid phone call
to win those tickets. Holy moly, holy crap. Yeah, thank you
man for give me back me up on the molley and give me a better
word I will hope. All right, Al, thanks a lot, hold
on and we'll get you those tickets. Compliments of AM five seventy LA sports,
you're home for Dodger Baseball. Another layer to all this is, don't
underestimate the loss of Max Munsey. Everybody just forgets about Max Munsey. He
was the Dodgers' cleanup hitter. He made this lineup a little bit longer,
and you there is no perfect player, right. Max Munsey was not a
perfect player, but he fit a function in this lineup and his defense at
third base was improving before he heard his oblique. Can you believe that the
Dodgers since Monsey went on the injured list or a mere nine to eight and
they're only averaging a little over three runs per game. Their batting average is
two thirty five, their ops is six ninety four since Mounsey went on the
IL. Do not underestimate how much Monsey means to this team and how badly
his bat is missed in the middle of the order, a left handed bat
to separate the first three from the bottom five six seven guys. Because Will
Smith would be hitting cleanup on certain days, Monthsy would be hitting fifth,
Tay Oscar would be hitting sixth, and then Jason Hayward would be hitting seventh.
Right, makes the lineup that much longer and his mere presence in the
lineup makes a huge difference as well, So don't forget about the loss of
Max Monthly. And unfortunately, when I spoke to him on Sunday, he's
still not allowed to do hardly anything. He's not allowed to swing the bat.
That oblique that kor muscle is debilitating and right now he has to wait
for it to heal before he can do anything. So I wouldn't expect him
back until maybe right before the All Star break. Eight six six nine,
eight seven two five seventy is the phone number we're gonna take our final time
out here on Dodger Talk. We had a big first segment right there,
Blue by it as the Dodgers fall to the Pirates tonight ten to six on
five seventy LA Sports on air at AM five to seventy, online at am
five seventy LA sports dot com, and available by podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Dodger Talk with David Bassan. He is a bright young pitcher
boy. He's got some right arm. Oh one pitch and Pie has hitch
the ball deep to left and is carrying near the track to the wall.
It has gone a home run. Andy Pie has with his sixth home run
of the season, and it's now a seven to three ball game. As
Pie haz leads off the fifth with a home run to the left Andy Pie
has starting to heat up again. That was off of Paul Skeins. Unfortunately,
not enough for the Dodgers, as they could not climb out of an
early seven to nothing hole that James Paxton put them in. They fall to
the Pirates for the second straight night, ten to six. Here at PNC
Park, Daniels Jewelers celebrates every home run. Celebrate Dad by stopping by Daniels
at the Glendale Galleria this Saturday to see my guy, Adrian Gonzalez at noon.
That's right, Baby, Adrian Gonzalez at the Daniels Jewelers at the Glendale
Galleria this Saturday. Visit Daniels Jewelers dot com slash Dad to RSVP eight six
six nine eight seven two five seventy is the phone number. We only have
a few minutes left, so I just want to give you that update on
three big time pitchers for the Dodgers that will be pitching on Friday. Number
one, Bobby Miller will make what is expected to be his final rehab start
pitching for Oklahoma City, and Dave Roberts said earlier today not only will Miller
start that game, but reliever Kyle Hurt will pitch in that game as well,
his first rehab appearance since he went on the sixty day il with right
shoulder inflammation. So that was as big a news as Miller possibly making his
final rehab appearance on Friday. If the Dodgers can get a Kyle Hurt back
in their bullpen, that would make it that much deeper because he was pitching
really well as a reliever, and that certainly would make that bullpen much more
not only deeper, but that much more devastating to shorten a game. Also
Friday, Clayton Kershaw will be pitching at Rancho kuckamonga hold On, not in
the game, but earlier in the afternoon. He is expected to throw a
two inning simulated games. So when Kershaw faced hitters at Dodgers Stadium last week,
Dave Roberts likened it to him being in his first or second day of
reporting for pitchers and catchers in spring training, meaning that the earliest he would
return to the Dodgers is six weeks from now, so that would put him
in the end of July August Range to return to the Dodger rotation. So
that's the update on that. Also, I just wanted to point out again
that the National League, Wow, it has really fallen off this year.
The Dodgers are only one of four teams in the National League with a winning
record. The Dodgers, the Phillies, the Braves, and the Brewers are
the only teams in the National League that have a winning record. The Pirates,
after winning the first two games of this series, are still three games
under five hundred. They're twenty nine to thirty two in the n now Central,
six and a half games back of the Brewers. The Padres, who
are in the NL West with the Dodgers, are a five hundred team and
also the same distance out of first place as the second to last place team
in the NL Central are. And that's the Pirates. So very weird National
League this year, It's not really it's probably the worst National League I've seen
since twenty eighteen. That's probably the weakest National League I've seen since twenty twelve.
And the Dodgers were not that great in twenty eighteen. The Brewers probably
should have beat them in the NLCS. But tip of the cap to the
NLCSMVP Craig Council for making horrible pitching decisions and the Dodgers were able to go
to the World Series. But really, this is the weakest National League I've
seen since twenty eighteen, and who knows, maybe a rematch of that nl
CS and twenty eighteen Dodgers Brewers. The Brewers are playing pretty good. Everybody
was thinking, you know, a council going to Chicago with the Brewers trading
Corbin Burns to the Orioles, their season was over and they would be sellers.
Well it's been the complete opposite. Willie Adamis has really carried that team
and they've gotten contributions from Joey Ortiz, who they acquired from the Orioles to
play third base in that Corbyn Burns trade. So they know what they're doing
when they trade some of these superstars that they can't keep or afford. All
right, Tomorrow, it will be Walker Bueller on the mound for the Dodgers.
He's one in three with an ERA of four point thirty two, going
up against Bailey Falter, who's a left hander out at Chino Hills High School
and I did some background check in on Bailey Falter. I love the local
kids, and my understanding is when he was in high school at Chino Hills,
because his dad was such a big Sandy Kofax fan, Bailey Falter did
multiple book reports and just school presentations on Sandy Kofax, And from what we
understand, we'll see it tomorrow. Bailey Falter's delivery as a left hander is
similar to the way Kofax used to have his delivery, so we'll see whether
or not how identical that is. Falter. This year is three and two
with an era of three p twenty two Marongo Casino. Dodgers on Deck begins
at two thirty tomorrow with first pitch at three forty. That'll do it for
us on Dodger Talk from P and C Park in Pittsburgh. Thanks to Colinie
Back at our Burg Bank Studios, Thanks to Dwayne McDonald out here in Pittsburgh,
and thanks to you for listening. In case you missed any of the
show or our pregame conversation with Gavin Stone, you can find it on the
iHeartRadio app. Once again, the final score from PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
The Pirates defeat the Dodgers ten to six. Have a great rest of your
knife. See you yes,