Reliever Baez will sit out for a few days
PHILADELPHIA — After losing Tuesday night for the fourth time in three weeks, Dodgers reliever Pedro Baez informed manager Dave Roberts that he could pitch Wednesday.
Roberts made a counteroffer.
“I asked him to sit with me in the dugout for the next couple days,” Roberts said before the Dodgers faced the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. “He’s going to hang out with me. We’ll talk about things. Just to get him away from the ’pen, ease his mind a little bit.”
Baez gave up four runs in Tuesday’s loss.
His earned-run average in September is 20.77.
He may have pitched his way off the playoff roster.
Roberts stopped short of condemning Baez on Tuesday. He stressed the importance of carrying the team’s best 25 players in October. It is hard to fashion an argument for Baez being a member of that group.
He has a 6.14 ERA since the All-Star break and a career-worst 1.97 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
The Dodgers are sifting through a handful of righthanded relievers to join Kenley Jansen and Brandon Morrow on the playoff roster. Josh Fields looks like a safe bet.
Baez is competing with Ross Stripling and rookie Walker Buehler. “We’ve got some good arms,” Roberts said.
Roberts insisted that Baez was not being punished for his performance.
“Absolutely not,” Roberts said. “If [Yasiel] Puig was down, and wasn’t playing, and he had to sit with Puig for a couple days, that might be a punishment.”
Playoff sellouts
The Dodgers announced all games in the National League division series and the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium have sold out.
If the Dodgers maintain the top-seeded team in the National League, they will host the winner of the wildcard game for Game 1 of the NLDS on Oct. 6. The NLCS starts Oct. 14.
Short hops
The Dodgers set their rotation for this weekend’s series against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium.
Rich Hill will start Friday, Hyun-Jin Ryu will start Saturday and Clayton Kershaw will start Sunday. Roberts has said that Ryu will get a chance to audition for October as a reliever, but it appears that chance will not come until the final week of the season.