Dodgers LAST-MINUTE News & Rumors Before NLcS Game 4 vs. Brewers

This will define everything as we have some last-minute news and rumors ahead of game number four of the NLCS in what is a must-win game for the Los Angeles Dodgers to continue their quest for a three-peat and to continue their 2024 MLB season. Welcome to Dodgers Digest, everybody. I'm Jace Andrews. I hope you're having a great day wherever you might be. I want to say a quick thank you to everybody who joined the stream last night. We're going to be live pregame for the game today. Probably maybe do the first couple of innings potentially, probably just do the pregame. So make sure you join us for that as we talk the latest news and rumors coming out of L.A. just moments before the game goes live. But before we get into that, obviously lots of stuff to talk about and break down. So let's get right into it and talk about the elimination game. And that's what it is. It's going to be four games that the Dodgers will need to win in a row to avoid being eliminated. And of course, continue that quest for the three-peat. So let's get into what this game consists of and kind of all the stakes at hand for this Dodgers team. Now, we know that the season series for the Dodgers and Brewers, it was four to three. So, you know, this is a situation where they played seven games in the regular season and the Brewers actually ended up coming into L.A. to win three or four. So now you've got a chance to come out here and just try and get one. I think it's kind of in a lot of ways, always the hardest one to get. Dave Roberts kind of talked about it here in the latest video, talking about, you know, kind of what to expect, but saying our guys have been battle tested. I think the mindset has to be you just have to win tomorrow. And I'm not going to say, obviously, there's any similarities to the 2020 or 2004 Boston Red Sox, the only team to come back from 3-0. But you have Dave Roberts who started that. You've got a lot of good things on this team. And if there's any team that can do it, it's 100% this team. But the first thing you must do is win tonight. And the offense has been struggling, and that may be a generous way to say it. Extra base hit, one of them, in three NLCS games. And it was the double from Will Smith last night that was off the wall. They have to figure out something to get this offense going. The Brewers have hit three home runs in Game Number Three, they hit three home runs. The Dodgers have had no home runs in this series. There are no extra base hits. There are problems all over. And I think in a lot of ways, you have to fix your approach to the plate. You have to fix the at-bats that are going on. Dave Roberts even said it, saying, we're not running good counts. We just can't be too anxious to have that at-bat over. You've got to go through the pain of the at-bat, the grind of it, to ultimately have those guys make a mistake. We are still waiting to see what the Brewers' pitching plan is for tonight. In a lot of cases, it's going to be a bullpen game. There's a potential we'll see Dustin May. I saw one report that maybe the Brewers just say F it and throw Jacob Mizellowski this game as they try and get that. But it's going to be a tough one for sure. And the home runs, they've eluded the Dodgers. If they can get that going, there's no telling where this series can go. And that's where I want to go to a comment here from one of our recent videos saying, time to manage public. When we had Vesia, also Milwaukee is playing baseball, meaning bunting, stealing, hit and run, hitting behind runners, et cetera. while the Dodgers are playing long ball, meaning they're keep uppercutting and trying to hit home runs regardless of the situation, count, matchup, defensive position. I said it last night during the stream, I'll say it again. The Brewers are playing small ball, and you had opportunities last night where you could have played small ball and put the Brewers in tough positions. Instead, you chose to bat Tommy Edman three times and have him have one-pitch fly outs to the center fielder, Garrett Mitchell, and then when it had the two outs from runners at second and third, he just struck out. I'm a little concerned about just him in general, But you have a pitcher on the bump that will supersede anything the Brewers throw at you, and that is Tyler Glasnow. So he's going to start in the elimination game tonight. Glasnow's good, and we know what he can do. We know the stats and the things that he has done this season. Here's a look at his pitching arsenal for four-seamer, Sinker, Knuckle, Curve, Slider, and Curveball. Uses every pitch pretty evenly. Obviously favors the fastball and the curveball. It is a very small part of his game, but it's the right decision to put him out there. If you can get this win tonight, you have Glassnow, then you get Schwellenbach back in game number five. You then have Yoshinobu in game number six, and there's no telling what could happen in game number seven when you'd have Blake Snell back, who was pitching a tremendous game until the seventh inning in game number three. Roberts, obviously, is very excited about Tyler Glassnow pitching tonight, and knows that he has got the experience to do what this takes to go out there and get the win. In fact, here is the quote from Roberts saying he's fresh, he's got a lot of arm talent, He's got experience letting him do what he does, have guys behind him and trying to catch a lead. That's something the Dodgers have struggled with. And the few times they've had the lead and the few times they've scored, the Brewers have every time it seems like come and scored the next inning they possibly could. In fact, the last four times the Dodgers have scored the next half inning, the Brewers have scored to then take back any momentum the Dodgers had. And the Brewers have done a fantastic job at doing everything. Glassnow, in terms of the scouting for the Brewers and their offense, says they don't seem like all or nothing, home run type of team. They put contact, a lot of ABs, you know, things like that. We saw it from Bowers last night. He had the, what, 20, what, pitch at bat or whatever it was, 12 pitch at bat for Yoshinobu Yamamoto that ended up getting out of the game on the walk. He had the 11 pitch at bat yesterday that had the homer that really kind of started it, and it's been kind of that way, and I'm not going to represent any of the cheating arguments that we're seeing out there on Twitter, just because There's nothing proven, but it is a little weird, I'll say that. And you don't really have much to look for with the Brewers pitching staff. In fact, we see it here. You can't compare last year's starters as the Brewers' starters from last year to this year. And only one remains. There's a lot of different players on this team for the Brewers. And you can see that. Dodgers hooked them last year. Now it's 3-0 here for the Brewers in this season. So where does that go into this game? Well, Dave Roberts has got to make some better decisions. And that starts with the bullpen in some ways. I think you've got to be able to understand that this is an actual win-now game. You cannot lose this game, so you have to be able to put the right guys out there. And you've got your big guys rested. Only Phillips, Sasaki, and Robleski pitched last night. So you've got Edgardo Henriquez, you have Tanner Scott, you have Vessia, you have Edwin Diaz. And you've got to be able to put them out there at the drop of a hat. I think that's something that is very much a known thing. But you cannot allow for yourself to say, well, let's try it out for this inning. You have to be certain that this pitcher is going to get it done. Now, Dave Roberts did give us an explanation as to Blake Snell and kind of what transpired putting him in the seventh inning and, of course, then maybe leaving him in for that extra at-bat for Grant Mitchell to hit another changeup out. But he said, I felt good with where his stuff was at was the explanation. I don't disagree with putting him out there in the seventh inning. That's not something that I'm going to sit here and say that was the wrong decision. I disagree with him allowing him to stay in after the homer that gave up the lead. And it should have immediately been a mound visit and should have been immediately taking him out. But, you know, it is what it is, and you've got to figure out a way to kind of navigate it this time. Scooble and Yamamoto will not be available today. They said tomorrow, but that's today. So you don't have them. We know that Scooble will pitch tomorrow in theory, but you have nothing to, you can't lose tonight. High leverage bullpen plan. Edwin Diaz have had zero NLCS appearances. Put him in. You don't have Robleski, and then, of course, you don't have Scubal and Yamamoto. You've got to be willing to go out there and put in the right guys right away. And so we'll see what happens, but one thing to note is, you know, the bullpen, whatever, if the offense doesn't score, it doesn't matter. And that's where we go back to the key question, Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers stars. They're facing pressure, and they have not looked good as an offense. It's looked terrible. And we can talk about the stats going into the postseason and seeing that Betts, Pages, and Tucker are all hot. Tucker's been really consistent throughout the postseason. But Ohtani, Muncy, Freeman, Teoscar, they just haven't really done much the postseason, just as they did when they were in the regular season. So we'll kind of wait and see. Ohtani does know the slump is here, and he's trying to take full responsibility. He says right here, the results. I take full responsibility. That's all I can say. Why the results haven't been what I wanted. It could go a couple ways. Focusing on the rhythm systems and getting rid of the pain. for making sure I'm moving well. Betts obviously is very much supportive of his teammates, saying, I feel for him. I know he's grinding. And it's going to be a big decision this game with multiple choices. I think that Jose De Paula should get an opportunity to start in some ways. I would not be afraid to put Jose De Paula in for Teoscar Hernandez. I wouldn't. I'm going to be so honest. But you've got to make some decisions here. You've got to be able to go out there and compete. And so I want to know in the comment section what the key is for game four for you. Is it that Glasnow dominates? Is it that the offense and the Stars wake up? Or is it Roberts managing of the bullpen and managing in general? What's the biggest game four key for the Los Angeles Dodgers? A for Glasnow, B for the offense, C for Dave Roberts. Let us know in the comment section down below. For me, it's the Stars to wake up. We can talk about the pitching all we want. At the end of the day, the only game that I'm going to put on the pitching staff is game number two, seven runs. It just can't happen. But four runs yesterday, five runs technically, but four runs is when it fell over. and then game one, you have two, your offense should be better than what they're doing out there and you should be able to do some more effective things, have a better contact with runners in scoring position. Don't be striking out as much and stop forcing the engine on the home run. Let us know what you think though on which one you think is the key. I just hope we can get this win because if we can get this win, anything can happen after that. We appreciate you watching. Hope you have a great day and we'll see you next time. Peace out.