Kike Hernández scores in the fourth inning of a 15-6 blowout, says nothing, and Dave Roberts finds out mid-game that his newly activated third baseman is hurt. Again. I let myself feel good for exactly one day. One day. Welcome to Dodgers Daily — I'm already in a bad place. We've got the oblique, a patched-up lineup that still hung 15 on Colorado, and a Double-A injury landing at the worst possible time. It's all of it, right now. From The Athletic:
LOS ANGELES — Kiké Hernández’s return to the Los Angeles Dodgers following offseason elbow surgery lasted all of four plate appearances. As it turns out, he injured his left oblique before he even made it back to the field. When Hernández saw manager Dave Roberts in the dugout after scoring in the fourth inning of Tuesday’s 15-6 romp over the Colorado Rockies, he finally revealed the truth: Hernández’s side was aching with each step.
So that Kike story from Monday — the whole 'buffer acquired, Muncy covered' thing — yeah, that's gone. Four plate appearances. The oblique was already an issue when Roberts activated him Monday, Kike just didn't say anything until Tuesday when the pain got unbearable in the fourth. Roberts found out after the fact, mid-game, from his own player. That's not a depth story anymore, that's a communication gap. He hit a home run feeling awful, ran out a double grimacing, and said nothing until he physically couldn't hide it anymore. That quote — 'I feel pretty defeated right now' — that's the whole week in five words. And now Alex Freeland is on a plane to Los Angeles. Alex Freeland. The front office has spent this whole week telling us there are options. Muncy's swelling, Kike's oblique, Kim already out of tonight's lineup per SI. At some point 'we have depth' has to survive actual games, and so far this week it hasn't. And Kendall George leaves a Double-A game the same day this surfaces. It's cracking from both ends. I let myself feel good for about 36 hours after Tuesday's final score, and here we are. Noah Camras, writing in Sports Illustrated:
Left-handed pitcher Eric Lauer is making his Dodgers debut on Tuesday night. The Dodgers acquired Lauer in a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays earlier this month. He was designated for assignment after sporting a 6.69 ERA across 36.1 innings of work. Lauer is coming off a 2025 season in which he had a 3.18 ERA over 104.2 innings in the regular season.
So the final score Tuesday was 15-6, Dodgers. Mookie dropped in the order, Hyeseong Kim was already out of the lineup, and they still hung fifteen on Colorado. That part is real. That lineup looked like a whiteboard with half the names erased, and they scored fifteen runs. Against a bad team, sure, but I'll take the evidence in front of me — Teoscar and whoever else just dismantled the Rockies while management was playing lineup Jenga. And then Kike scored in the fourth inning of that same blowout, limped back to the dugout, and apparently told Dave Roberts about the oblique after the fact. Roberts activated the guy, put him in the game, and found out mid-game that he was hurt. That's not a depth question — that's a communication breakdown. Kike said 'I feel pretty defeated right now.' That quote is sitting in my chest. We spent all week treating his activation as the answer to Muncy, and it was four plate appearances. Four. I let myself feel good for one day and here we are. Which means the question we were asking Monday — Espinal or does the front office go shopping — just lost one of the named options entirely. Kike was supposed to be the buffer. The buffer has an oblique. Yahoo Sports, with Emmet Sheehan:
Behind a gritty outing from Emmet Sheehan and a momentum-shifting return from Kiké Hernández, the Dodgers erased a late deficit and stormed past the Rockies 5-3 Monday night, improving to 34-20 on the season and 10-2 over their last 12 games. With the Padres losing ground again, the Dodgers now hold a 2½-game lead atop the NL West.
So the final score Monday was 15-6 over Colorado — and Yahoo Sports led with 'gritty start' for the pitcher. When you hang fifteen runs, apparently any outing qualifies as gritty. I was ready to feel good about this week. Kike comes back, Sheehan takes a 103-mile-per-hour comebacker off his arm and stays in — genuinely gutsy stuff. And then Kike scores in the fourth and tells Roberts he's hurt after the fact. Four plate appearances. That's it. That's the whole return. Here's what actually bothers me about that sequence: Roberts activated him, played him, and found out the oblique was a problem mid-game from Kike himself. That's not a medical evaluation — that's a player deciding what to disclose and when. Who cleared him to play Monday, and what did that process actually look like? Kike said 'I feel pretty defeated right now.' That quote is doing a lot of work. He knew something was off, scored anyway, said nothing until Roberts caught him in the dugout. All week we were told Kike was the buffer while Muncy was out — and the buffer lasted four plate appearances. This is exactly the kind of thing I couldn't shake before 2020. Things were always one oblique away from unraveling. The front office has been running the 'we have options' line every time a name goes down this week. Muncy's swelling, Kike's oblique, Kim already out of tonight's lineup, and now Kendall George leaving a Double-A game the same day. At some point 'we have depth' stops being a reassurance and starts being a thing you say because you have to say something. True Blue LA writes:
Easton Shelton, first baseman for the Class-A Ontario Tower Buzzers, powered his way to winning California League player of the week. Shelton had at least one hit, one RBI, and one run scored in all seven games last week at Inland Empire (they played a doubleheader on Wednesday), and hit.419/.424/.774 with three home runs, two doubles, 12 runs batted in, and 12 runs scored.
Kendall George leaves a Double-A game with an apparent injury the same day Kike's oblique surfaces. Two directions, one day. The 'we have options' line from the front office is getting stress-tested at every level of this organization right now. And Kellon Lindsey just got back from the IL himself — he's 15 for 33 since returning, which is great, but even the good news this week comes with an asterisk that says 'also recently hurt.' I let myself feel good for like one day and now it's just injuries all the way down. To be fair — Easton Shelton is hitting .419 in a seven-game stretch with 12 RBI at Class-A, so the system isn't collapsing. But George at Double-A is a different conversation than Shelton at Ontario, and conflating the two is exactly how depth gets oversold. If you follow the Dodgers and California's bigger daily storylines, try California Governor's Race — daily 2026 race coverage on candidates, polling, debates, fundraising, and policy for voters who want more than horse-race takes. Find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
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