Ohtani's knee, an 8-2 loss, and the team with the worst record any of us can remember just outhit us in their own building. This is the Dodgers Daily Podcast, and I've been yelling about this injury list all week — today the scoreboard finally backed me up. So: Ohtani's knee, a six-man rotation argument that might've aged badly in twelve hours, and whether Friedman's patience just took another stress fracture. Stay with us. Let's get the opponent right. The White Sox are 36-31. This wasn't a gimme, and Chase Meidroth's three hits and two RBIs count. You don't just wave that away. 8-2, Kirk! To a team I spent all week telling you we couldn't sleepwalk against. Meidroth went off, and we looked like we'd rather be anywhere else. I'm not gonna pretend a depleted lineup losing to a surprise contender is the apocalypse. The standings and the injury report just picked the same day to show up. That's the thing — for years it was the injuries or the bad night. Last night it was both, all at once, in Chicago. That feels new. Here's the timeline: June 12, Roberts says the Ohtani concern is 'not high' — no timeline, no detail. Ohtani plays Thursday, then exits with left knee inflammation. That vague reassurance keeps coming with a roster bill attached. Every time. The public optimism never matches the body language on the field. A guy limps off and we're told the concern was 'not high.' Did he play through something he shouldn't have? That's a fair question now that there's an actual injury attached to it. Yesterday, maybe not. Today, yeah. Smith's neck, Glasnow's back, Wrobleski's arm, now Ohtani's knee — at some point, Kirk, the injury list is the story. And the timing's almost cruel — Just Baseball drops a piece today arguing the six-man rotation is working. The Dodgers have been quietly building that case all week. Working? Sasaki stumbles, the lineup's gutted, Ohtani's hobbling — you put that out after an 8-2 beatdown and it reads like a bad joke. It either looks prescient or it aged in twelve hours. I still lean prescient — that structure is exactly why one bad start doesn't sink you. The argument's been there; now somebody put numbers on it. Fine — six men can keep you upright when one breaks. But 'can work' on paper and 'worked last night' are two very different claims. Which brings us back to Friedman. The Skubal deadline math from earlier this week — Ohtani's knee only tightens it. The 'wait until August on Glasnow' patience has another crack in it. I've said don't mortgage the farm; sign the arm in winter. But Ohtani banged up, Smith on the IL, and a thumping on top of it? November feels really far away tonight. I remember the McCourt years, Joey. One Friday in Chicago is not a five-alarm fire. But I'm not telling you the depth question's closed, either — it isn't. 'It's fine, calm down' — that is the most Kirk sentence ever spoken. Ask me again when Ohtani's knee has a timeline. Here's theScore:
Chase Meidroth had three hits and two RBIs, and the Chicago White Sox beat the depleted Los Angeles Dodgers 8-2 on Friday night in a matchup of division leaders. Andrew Benintendi homered as Chicago improved to 19-3 in its last 22 home games. Miguel Vargas hit a tiebreaking RBI double, and Anthony Kay (6-1) struck out seven in five effective innings.
So the bounce-back spot turned into an 8-2 bath. Chase Meidroth had three hits and two RBIs, and the White Sox are 19-3 in their last 22 at home. A 36-31 club will do that to you if you treat it like a tune-up. Pummeled by the supposed doormat. Eleven hitters to the plate in the fifth, seven runs — Sasaki got rinsed. And we held Ohtani out — left knee inflammation. Espinal slides into DH, drives in two, and the lineup still looked exactly as thin as you'd expect. A guy hitting .400 over his last five with three homers — gone. And this is the offense behind Roki? Of course it falls apart. Here's SportsGrid:
The two-way superstar was unexpectedly removed from the game in the seventh inning with what the Dodgers described as left knee inflammation. The knee is particularly noteworthy because it is the same knee Ohtani underwent surgery on in September 2019. Ohtani had just thrown 102 pitches over 6.2 innings on Wednesday night, using that left leg as his landing leg throughout the outing.
They won the series, 8-6, improved to 44-25 — and everybody in that clubhouse forgot about it the second Ohtani came out in the seventh with left knee inflammation. And it's the same knee — the one he had surgery on back in 2019. That's the detail that turns my stomach a little. Here's the part that gets the eyebrow up: he threw 102 pitches Wednesday night, landing on that left leg all evening, then exits the next day. Roberts kept telling us the concern was 'not high.' Now there's an actual injury attached. Right! Smith's neck, Wrobleski's arm, Glasnow's back — and now Ohtani's knee. You can't treat the injury list like background noise when it keeps deciding the game. We saw the price tag last night against the White Sox. Same week, same problem — the win-loss column finally caught up to the injury report. And that's why the 'wait until November to sign the arm' patience gets harder to defend by the day. Friedman's math just lost another piece. From Bastille Post:
The Los Angeles Dodgers placed catcher Will Smith on the 10-day injured list Thursday with neck inflammation. The Dodgers made the move with the three-time All-Star before facing the Pittsburgh Pirates in the finale of a three-game series. The team purchased the contract of Chuckie Robinson from Triple-A Oklahoma City. The move with Smith was retroactive to Monday. The Dodgers expect him to return when eligible next Thursday.
So the Smith IL move is official — 10-day list, neck inflammation, retroactive to Monday. We flagged it Thursday when Roberts was hedging, and now there's the paperwork. Monday. They knew Monday. And we spent two days asking if they were just covering their bases — turns out the bad answer was sitting right there. Dalton Rushing gets the bulk of the work, Robinson comes up from Oklahoma City. Smith is eligible to return next Thursday — that's the part everybody skips when they're busy panicking. Panicking? Kirk, he's hitting .249 with 23 RBIs, and now we can't even pencil him in. That's a real bat off a lineup that just got pumped 8-2. A bat hitting .249. Let's not canonize him on the way out the door. From Noah Camras at Sports Illustrated:
Yoshinobu Yammaoto takes the mound for the Dodgers in the second game of the series, and he's been one of the best pitchers in baseball as of late. Yamamoto has allowed just three runs over his last four starts (27.1 innings), sporting a 0.99 ERA in that time.
So the official probables landed: Sasaki-Kay Friday, Yamamoto-Burke Saturday. The card looks fine on paper — the problem is everything that's happened to the bodies behind it this week. And those probables came out the same night they lost 8-2 to a 36-31 White Sox team. So forgive me if the pitching matchups aren't what I'm chewing on right now. Sasaki has earned the optimism — four earned runs over his last four starts, a 1.48 ERA in that stretch. He's been the one steady thing in this rotation. Sasaki's great. But Kay got tagged for six in four innings by the Phillies, and we still managed to look outmatched. That's the part that should scare people, Kirk. It's one game against a team that's better than the standings suggested back in April. I lived through the McCourt years — I'm not lighting the building on fire over a Friday loss in June. From Landon Baylon at Just Baseball:
At the forefront of the concept and the sole long-term success story, the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ rotation has produced a league-leading 2.91 ERA in the absence of stars Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, running out six starting pitchers per week. While Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani are leading the unit, Justin Wrobleski, Emmet Sheehan, and Roki Sasaki have kept the train going, as well as contributions from an unlikely source.
Just Baseball dropped a piece today calling the six-man rotation the Dodgers' quiet masterstroke — league-leading 2.91 ERA without Snell, without Glasnow. The numbers finally caught up to the case they've been making all week. Yeah, and it published the same afternoon Ohtani limped off with knee inflammation and we got pumped 8-2 by the White Sox. Twelve hours, Kirk. That piece aged in twelve hours. Eric Lauer is part of the headline, Joey. A guy who ran a 6.69 in Toronto has given up five runs in three starts here. Maybe the system's genius. Maybe we're one knee away from finding out Lauer was the duct tape. Exactly. A six-man rotation only works when you've got six healthy arms to feed it. Ohtani's the engine, and the engine's icing its knee. Counterpoint — the whole reason to run six is so you don't lean on any one guy's workload. Wrobleski, Sheehan, and Sasaki kept the train moving when Snell and Glasnow went down. That's what the depth is supposed to do. Sure, until Friedman actually has to decide whether to override the wait-till-November plan. The 2.91 buys him patience. Ohtani's knee just spent some of it. If Dodgers Daily Podcast is part of your routine, hit subscribe and leave us a review wherever you're listening. It helps other Dodgers fans find the show, and we really do appreciate you being here.
Links to every story we mentioned are in the show notes. If one of them grabbed you, that's where you can read a little deeper.
That's it for Dodgers Daily Podcast today. This is a Lantern Podcast.