The Marlins. The Marlins just took a series from us. Welcome to Dodgers Daily Fancast — I am already in a bad mood and it's not even noon. We've got the offensive drought, Ohtani's two-way workload management, and Blake Snell looking sharp in rehab — so there is actually light at the end of the tunnel today. Snell better be throwing flames, because something has to explain away losing to a team with a payroll smaller than Freddie's signing bonus. Yeah, Dodgers Territory put it pretty bluntly:
This is an embarrassing game. This was a pathetic game. Another futile effort from this Dodgers offense. Yeah, I mean on paper we knew it was going to be uh tough to put put points on the board. Alcantra has had himself a really nice season.
Dodgers drop the series to the Marlins — the Marlins — and the conversation coming out of it is all about the offense going quiet again. Dodgers Territory had Katie Woo in the clubhouse for the postgame, which, credit to them, they're doing the work. Glasnow on the mound, Freddie in the lineup, Tucker in the lineup — and we're losing to Clayton McCullough and the Miami Marlins? I'm sorry, that is embarrassing. That's a pathetic loss. It's game 31. I'd pump the brakes on 'pathetic.' But the timely hitting thing is a real pattern worth watching. And Reddit did not miss the payroll angle. Over on r/baseball, 1,041 upvotes:
The combined salaries of Kyle Tucker, Freddie Freeman and Tyler Glasnow is $100m
A hundred million dollars in three players and they can't scratch out runs against a team that's basically a AAA roster. That number hurts more, not less. One bad series doesn't indict a roster. It's April. That said — yeah, you want to see that investment show up in the clutch. Then this one from r/baseball, 293 upvotes:
All my homies hate the Dodgers.
But secretly we just want our ownership to do the same.
There it is. Every Giants and Padres fan typing 'all my homies hate the Dodgers' while their front office is out here duct-taping a roster together. Envy is a hell of a drug. And, of course, the salary cap comment showed up too. Over on r/baseball, 108 upvotes:
No salary cap needed as this series proves!
One series loss against the Marlins is not a salary cap argument. Come back to me in October. Right, because the teams that DO have salary caps are absolutely thriving out there. Hard pass. Alright, on the Ohtani management piece — from The New York Times:
In an attempt to preserve Ohtani for a full season, they restricted him to just pitching duties for the second time in his last three starts. An Ohtani-less offense mustered just one run in a 2-1 loss to the Miami Marlins. The Dodgers’ situational at-bats were putrid on a night where they had little margin for error.
Dodgers dropped a 2-1 decision to Miami Tuesday, and the story is less about the Marlins and more about how the team manages Ohtani's workload — sitting him as a hitter for the second time in three starts to keep his arm fresh for a full season. One run against the Marlins. The Marlins! Look, I trust the long game here, but losing to Miami because you rested Ohtani's bat is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night. It's April. He hasn't given up a home run all season on the mound. If Roberts is threading this needle correctly, you bank the wins when you need them and you still have a healthy Ohtani in October — that's the whole point. I know, I know. I've seen enough Dodger Octobers go sideways to be allergic to the phrase 'save it for the playoffs.' But fine — zero home runs allowed, arm feels good? I'll sit on my hands for now. Okay, now for the good news. From AP News:
Snell struck out the side in the first inning, then allowed a leadoff double in the second but struck out the next three batters. He needed just five pitches to complete a perfect third inning with a flyout and two groundouts.
Snell threw 39 pitches, 29 for strikes. He retired nine of the 10 batters he faced.
Blake Snell's second rehab start: three innings, six strikeouts, zero runs. Struck out the side in the first, then fanned three more after giving up a leadoff double in the second. AP News has the line. Six strikeouts, 39 pitches, retired nine of ten — that is not a guy who looks broken. That looks like a guy who was just bored in the first start. First start was rough — two runs, one inning, no strikeouts. One week later he looks like a completely different pitcher. Credit where it's due, the progression is encouraging. When Snell gets back to that rotation, it's honestly not fair to the rest of the league. This team just keeps reloading. We’ll have links to every story we talked about today in the show notes, so if something caught your ear, you can go read the full piece.
That’s Dodgers Daily Fancast for this Thursday. Thanks for listening, and we’ll be back next time. This is a Lantern Podcast.