Dodgers Territory - Dodger Magic is Back! Shohei's Break is Over; Weird Roster Decisions

Episode Date: September 7, 2026

Alanna Rizzo, Katie Woo, and Clint Pasillas are locked in for some Labor Day Dodgers talk and ready to dive into Mookie Betts, Tommy Edman, Teoscar Hernandez, and all the positives from LA's sweep of the Nationals. (15:08) In Behind the Seams, Katie shares the latest on Shohei Ohtani. Where is Sho after spending the last four games on the bench and what's his pitching status for the rest of the year? (22:13) Dalton Rushing returned to the injured list after reaggravating his elbow. Did the Dodgers miss the mark when activating him? The hosts discuss the strange series of roster decisions from the front office. (30:15) Plus, some much deserved love for Edgardo Henriquez. Go to Quince.com/foul for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns Shop now at Fabletics.com/Foul and get 70 to 80% off everything when you sign up as a new VIP Subscribe on YouTube!https://www.youtube.com/@DodgersTerritory  Follow our social media channels for more content!https://x.com/LADTerritory https://www.instagram.com/ladterritory/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578546105253  Check out DT merch at https://dodgersterritoryshop.com Support Guidry's Guardian at https://guidrysguardian.org Find Clint on YouTube at https://youtube.com/@alldodgers Follow Katie's work at The Athletic https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/author/katie-woo/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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and you're seeing a lot better Dodgers team trending in the right direction, as we all predicted they would after our first show last week. Welcome to this Monday Labor Day episode of Dodgers Territory. We are live. I am Alana Rizzo. That is Katie Wu and Clint Paseas. We're taking you through the next 30 minutes. And as we said on our Thursday show, September didn't fix anything. Guess what?

September has fixed everything. Let's get to the big ticket. All right, I don't even care. Katie Wu, that it was the Nats. I'll take it. Dodgers sweep them. Winners of four in a row. What's been the biggest difference?

You're seeing, I think, some of that late inning rally that has been missing, the Dodgers have played a lot of one-run games. But turns out if you play a series against a bullpen that's tied the Major League record for most Blount days in a season, you might see some luck turn around. So we saw back-to-back, three run homers from Tommy Edmund on Saturday, a three run homer from Muky Betts on Sunday, to propel these Dodgers to come from behind victories.

And it just felt like, to me, after the Teo walk off against the Cardinals on Thursday, that was like the big jolt that this Dodgers team had been looking for for roughly about a month. And the fact that it was Teo probably also helped just overall morale. It was a guy that really needed to start getting going. So they put that series against St. Louis behind him. They move into the nationals,

care of business, sweep them, really like the quality of a bats and the results later in games, because once you start feeling good about how you can rally, it doesn't matter when, and you're seeing a lot better Dodgers team trending in the right direction, as we all predicted they would after our first show later last week. Yeah, yeah, we never overreact on this show. That's not what we're here for. Now, this game, the series was fun. These last four games in particular were fun.

Show Hey, not in the lineup. We'll talk about that in a bit. But it felt like other people kind of maybe, you know, got the memo. They need to step up. They need to help this team out. We know Mookie has been pretty hot over the last month or so. Teo getting hot like Katie mentioned is massive for this team. And what you're seeing, I said this last night in my All Dodgers show,

you're seeing Dodgers baseball again. You're actually seeing late in the game. You're down by a run. You go back a week ago. It's like, I don't know if they got this. Now it feels like they are going to come back. They have the comeback, you know, in the arsenal again. So it just makes watching this team a lot more fun.

It makes covering this team a lot more fun. It's just something that had been missing. And Dave said after the game yesterday, everybody, every night, it's something, it's been somebody different. I thought we were going to break through. I really did. And that's what we're seeing. And it's going to be great, Alana.

It's going to be great. All right. So Jason Diamond 03 has a question. And I know that Katie said it's the worst bullpen in the league. and there is something to be said for that, but he wants to know, everything isn't fixed. It's still just the Nats.

Do we put any validity into that? Or did they beat them in ways that we are proud of? Would they have beaten other teams? And the way that we were playing Dodger baseball, as Clint said, is everything fixed or was it just a lower opponent? I think that's fair. I think it's a little bit of both. Again, the nationals have one of the worst bullpins ever

in terms of blown saves and keeping those late leads intact. but the Dodgers for most of August were not exactly beating up on any of their opponents, and they played a lot of one-run games, and how many times did we talk about the runners in scoring position and the lack of those transferring into actual runs? So

the fact that it's been a different guy each night, Teo Thursday, Tommy Saturday, Mookie on Sunday, and Mooki, I think, has had him and Teo some of the most collective bested bats over the last week. That to me is, I think, we can put more stock into than it just being the Nats. Yes, the Dodgers should beat

up on opponents that, you know, are much lower than them in the standings. But you look at these guys right here with our pal Jeff and the numbers. This is what you want, especially with Freddie Freeman, not having the slug he's looking for in the second half. We've had no show hay for four days. So when you're looking at guys taking up at the top of the order, no Andy Paa has still, this is important. And Will Smith, I know.

We'll get to him probably later in the show. It's been a little bit of a slow go that makes sense given how much time he's missed. So the fact that different guys are stepping up, especially late in games where you have a considerable more amount of pressure. That is the bigger takeaway from me, other than them just beating the Nats. It's the quality of bats and execution with runners in scoring position

that's really changed. Yeah, you're beating a bad team. But the thing is, they weren't doing that for a bit. You know, they weren't always beating bad teams. This is what a team needs to do. This is what a team like the Dodgers

needs to do. Go out there and beat the ass out of this bad team. That's what they did. I don't know how you beat the ass out of somebody, but, you know, That's just what I went with. Well, if you have a Cuban single mother, I know how.

It's fine. Moving on. Trauma dumping on a Monday. It's fine. Happy Labor Day. Is this the happy hour show? Am I cracking open the bottle? I'm teasing.

I did not get beat. Relax. We can tell. Oh. How dare you? Anyway, moving on. Oh, that would be me. Yeah, that would be you.

Yeah, that would be me. All right. So are we moving on to the fact that the pitching wasn't super great. I feel like we should not bag on Justin Reblessky. I feel like it's your first outing coming off of the IL. And remember, he was an all-star for us. So can we not just absolutely want to push him to the moon and keep him off of the postseason roster? Clint? Listen, I'm not I guess I am saying it because I wrote it in the rundown here. I think it is a fair question. Has he pitched his way out of the playoff, you know, the post-season?

season roster picture because it's been a struggle. It has been a struggle for our Guy Robo, friend of the show here in the second half of the season here. I'm going to pull up the Rebleski numbers as soon as I can here. Obviously was great in the first half. It was an all-star in the first half, but you start looking at the numbers. Now we're down to 380 or up to 385 on the ERA on the season. The recent action, last 10 appearances, ERA over five and a half. Actually, since his start against the Yankees, his first start out of the All-Star break, we have an ERA north of nine. He's been very hitable. He's been Homer prone, and that doesn't play well in the postseason. So I have some concerns. I love Justin. I love Justin, particularly in the

bullpen, somebody who fought for him to not be in the rotation early in the season. I was very much wrong about that, but now he's got to find something again, whether it's command, whether it's the league caught up to him and now he needs to find a way to adjust back. If he wants to be a part of this postseason roster, he has two weeks to show his wares and say, hey, I deserve to be there. But as of right now, he's a concern. Quint, I see the second half numbers, and I'm not going to argue with that. It certainly has not been the first half all-star Justin in Rebleski. We also knew coming in, he was approaching his major league innings limit and that wear and tear can catch up to guys. But I'm not on the fire Robleski to the moon train at all.

I think it's important. And this applies to really the whole roster, but specifically the bullpen. How we're seeing guys being used in relief right now and even in the rotation isn't how this club is going to use them in October. Yesterday, Dodgers just needed innings. And they were trying to ride Robleski for as long as possible. He looked really good in those first three innings questionable to send him out for the fourth. Even Dave Roberts said that, you know, just trying to get as many outs as possible, pitching him later than he has really in the last month or so, came back to Biden. So that to me, the numbers for yesterday are more of a just product of circumstance.

I do think there needs to be better execution overall. But I'm having a hard time looking at how this projected postseason rotation is playing out, even without Shohei, who we'll get to you later, seeing how Robleski is going to take a bulk of three or four innings in a postseason game. I still think we're going to see Roblesky take about one or maybe two innings, maybe an up down, and the stuff plays up as we've seen. So you can see the Bilo start to play. The stuff gets a little nastier.

Yes, the homers are concerned because the last thing you want to do in the postseason is give up a bomb. That's an instant adrenaline boost to the other team. And I'm not saying all is fixed here, but I do think how we're seeing Robleski being used right now is not how the Dodgers anticipate using him in October. And I think he'll be a lot more effective in shorter stints. And we'll just add him to the list of Dodger starters turned high. leverage relievers that go out and become really, I think, the most feared bullpen in the playoffs. And I do think you're just going to manage your bullpen and your rotation, the back end of

the rotation differently in the postseason based on matchups, based on who you're going to face early on, based on what you're going to need, the seating, all of the thing. I want to go back to our chat here for just a moment. And this is a question that Clint, I'll ask you first. And Katie, I want your opinion on it as well because you're there every single day. Craig Osterberg-O-O-7. Does he need another pitch? He believes Craig does that he does.

CP, I ask you because I know you're really into the pitching side of things. Does he need something else to be more effective? You put together an all-star first half. I feel like the stuff was there. The stuff is as good enough as it is. It feels more like, you know, Katie was saying, you know, there's a little bit in the execution side, a little bit of maybe just adjusting, again,

adjusting back to the league adjusting to you. Yeah, a third pitch or another pitch, a dominant pitch. we had this Roki discussion for the better part of two years. And look how much better Sasaki became with a true third pitch. I think that would go a long way. But his ability to manipulate a fastball, like it kind of acts as a third pitch because he can kind of two seam. He got a four seam in there. I should say sink it a little bit.

The sinker has been hit a lot for Robo, but couldn't hurt. Third pitch could not hurt. It's interesting because you look at just the breakdown of Justin Robleski, and he has a whole kitchen sink of an arsenal. He can throw up to seven pitches, but predominantly this season, it's really only been the fastball and the slider, and he'll maybe mix in the sinker every now and then. You can get by in relief with a steady, strong two-pitch arsenal. And to Reblesky's credit, he was able to do that mostly as a starter, which is even harder. Yes, he was working in the secondaries a little bit more consistently.

But I can see both sides of this. to me if you're looking at Robo for just an inning or four outs of work, if he can manipulate the fastball, like you said, Clint, and then use the slider to play off of it. I don't feel the need for a huge desire for a third pitch, but having something to throw hitters off the fastball and the sinker, or excuse me, the slider combo, maybe working the sinker in a little bit more consistently,

certainly doesn't hurt. Again, though, this isn't like the Dodgers are going to go into October and say, Justin Robleski, we need you for four innings and throw two pitches only. It's most likely going to be like Alana was saying, here's the matchup, here's where they are with, you know, this part of their lineup, here's who's available, here's who's not. Every game, obviously, is a must-win game in October, and Dave Roberts manages as such. So to me, it's less about adding to his arsenal right now and realizing, okay, these

pitches are working for him currently. Let's match him up when those best fit for us against our opponent. And maybe this is a discussion later in the off-season when they get there. All right. One other question before we moved to break here on this live episode of Dodgers territory. Are we ready to laud a bounce back, a Bobby bounce back for Bobby Miller, Clint? What did you see in his outing? I, some people got mad at me for appreciating what Bobby did last night.

I mean, talk about just a scenario to return to Los Angeles flooding on him in his, like, first inning back. You have all the way to the world, all these eyes on you. It's like, can this guy be the dude that we saw in 2023, where, where he arguably should have been the game one starter in that postseason. Very, very thin, very bad rotation. Nothing against Bobby there. But yeah, I mean, he's been just kind of through the ringer over the last two years. Ineffective, injuries, you know, battling back, 16 months, I think, between Major League appearances.

So for him to not only have that, to have it literally rain on his parade, and for him to battle back, only gives up the one-earn run, hat tip to Kyle Tucker, robbing a homer for him as well. Wind was weird there. That earned run probably maybe doesn't happen, or maybe it's worse if he pitches to James Wood, but James Wood is intentionally walked to load the bases. The hit by pitch, which was soft, soft hit by pitch, by the way. Ball pops out of your hand.

A wet baseball on a curve ball. Anyways, to the point here, it was an honestly impressive performance. And for a guy with Bobby Miller, we've talked about for the last two years, it's all for him. A lot of it is between the years. for him to not let that inning snowball in the rain, that was impressive. Now, do I think he is on the postseason roster from that? No, absolutely not.

He's probably the guy who gets sent down for the return of Emmett Sheehan today. But tip of the cat to him, way to battle back, way to bounce back. And, you know, good on big game, Robert there. I don't like calling it Bob. All right. We're going to talk about Emmett Sheehan coming up here in our series preview. will and how many bags that the Reds are going to try to steal with Emmett Sheehan on the hill. Let's try not to give up.

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This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The new Red Bull Dragonberry and Tropicberry Energizers, now at McDonald's, made with freeze-dried fruit and an electric burst of flavor. The all-new Red Bull Energizers, now at McDonald's. This product may not be right for you. High in caffeine, details at McDonald's.cai at participating Canadian restaurants, excluding Quebec. You know that we were going to get into this. Obviously, it's one of the bigger stories surrounding the Los Angeles Dodgers right now.

So let's get into it. No show. Show Hey. Katie, what is the latest in terms of Shohei Otani? And is he being shut down for the remainder of the season in terms of pitching? But moreover, it looks like he's ready for a return to the lineup. Yeah, Alana, all things pointing towards Shohei Otani returning as the designated hitter today, Monday. today, Monday against the Reds.

He was out, as we know, for the last four games, the longest time that he has missed in his Dodgers tenure. And it's worth noting that Otani was available to pinch it yesterday. And Dave Roberts said there was a scenario in which, you know, Mookie Betts wasn't the hero. Maybe the U.C. Showe had take that a bat. But, you know, I think there's a much bigger issue here than just getting him four days off. It was why was the messaging so jumbled up?

And a lot of this goes back to Shohei, who, again, has not talked to reporters since August 17. So happy three-week anniversary, everybody. But tell us how you really feel. Count down. Count the days. I think it's important to note that the number one priority for the Dodgers when it came to Otani was ensuring that his bat remained in the lineup and they were not compromising any of the offense, regardless of how much Shohei wanted to pitch.

And who can blame him? Like, this is not a knock on Shohei saying, you know, I want to be the best I can. course, obviously. But I think there was maybe, and this is again, my speculation here, maybe he wasn't showy wasn't as honest with how much discomfort he was in. And to be fair, Clayton Kershaw, Freddie Freeman, they're not going to do this either. They're not going to say, yeah, okay, I'll take the day I'm not feeling well. Dave Roberts had to physically send a text to show hey that said, you're not playing tomorrow for show hey to then say, okay, that's fair. Now, what the Dodgers need here, whether or not, we'll get to the pitching part in a second.

They need Shohei the bat at the top of the order. Dave Roberts said Otani will be back in the leadoff spot and they need better production out of him. Looking back right before, I think the last two weeks before he took this little break going back to August 19th, he was just six for 46 guys. That's a 595 OPS over that 12 game period. Did not drive in a run, struck out 19 times. All right. So clear he needed a recent.

set. Hopefully those four games off put him in a better place. What this means for him pitching, Dave Roberts said it, you know, they're not officially shutting down Otani, but we can all look at the calendar. We could also look at the calendar last week when they shut him down without a timetable to return, but I digress. Very unlikely that we'll see Otani pitch again this season, but the more important thing for this Dodgers roster that already has a Yamamoto, a scubal, a snow and a glass now in its rotation that can absorb no Otani as disappointing. as it is. Not sure they could absorb no Otani as the hitter. So the Dodgers are making the call to do what's best for him going forward. Hopefully we'll see him return to the lineup tonight.

Yeah, I mean, you add Shohei to what we're seeing out of Mookie, what we're seeing out of Teo, Tommy Edmund, getting Will some more at bats under his belt. It's going to be the Dodgers lineup we expected. The last four days, I guess really prior to Sunday, there was a lot of the conversation about could Shohei be placed on the IL? Are they going to make this a longer stint? What kind of changed between, let's say, Saturday night and Sunday's game to where we saw him grab a bat, grab a helmet in the eighth inning? And now he's going to be in the lineup. What changed IEL-wise? I think this makes sense from the organization's perspective. Because of Otani's status as a two-way player. If he's placed on the IL, it has to be for 15 days, not the 10. There are multiple

other IL stints, but if you're going to be without Otani for just 10 days and you can backdate retroactive IL stints, the question was, okay, we're not going to have him for three or four days. Is it worth just putting him on the IL and, you know, essentially losing him for about a week or so and just give him a chance to reset if he needs it. And the question, as it became clear over the last couple of days, at least from what we're hearing from the Dodgers, not from Otani himself, is that he didn't need it. Now, when you're thinking about 15 days instead of 10, that completely changes it because you can get by if you have to 10 days without showing Otani. Being without him for two weeks when he didn't need that entire allotment of that time

makes sense to just play short. And that's what the Dodgers were hoping to do with rosters expanding to 28 players. They certainly have more flexibility to have been able to do that this week. But it really came down to, okay, what's better for us long term? We don't want to be without Shohay for two weeks if we don't have to for obvious reasons. Can we give him a three, four day break and see his body responds? And if he feels good enough, we can avoid the IL altogether. We're comfortable playing short. It makes sense for them to do that this way because why be without Otani for two weeks if you don't have to? We'll see. Hopefully get a chance to talk to him today, fingers crossed, how he's feeling. But given the fact that he was, again, available to

pinch hit yesterday to me senses that the Dodgers are more comfortable getting him back in the lineup there. Katie, is there a scenario in which he begins a throwing program again because he was on a throwing program and then they shut it down. So it seems like it's kind of a moot point because we don't know if he's going to be pitching for the rest of the regular season or not. But is there a universe in which he starts a throwing program again and then can pitch kind of a one-two punch in terms of a later postseason option? I think with the Otani you can never say never, though Dave Roberts downplayed the idea of Otani being an opener as he works to build back innings. And again, there's no player more on baseball that I will definitively say anything about than Shohei.

That's what makes him show hey. But I think, again, the big priority for the Dodgers is making sure he's not compromising the offense. And when he started ramping up his initial throwing program in the beginning of August, it is very easy to connect the dots between him throwing up, throwing up his ramping up his throwing program, excuse me, and starting the offensive slide that we've seen. So he threw his first bullpen in the throwing program that has now been shut down on August 8th. And since then, he's hit 204 with a 704 OPS and he struck out over 30% of the time. So are those numbers correlated? So Dodgers Brassdown played that idea.

I'm more under the impression that they are. And if ramping Otani back up is going to impact his offense or, you know, the physical compromise that obviously brings being the only two-way player in baseball, I'm not sure that's a gamble the Dodger are willing to take at this time. So I don't see him starting a throwing program back up unless he can absolutely be sure it's not impacting him anymore physically. Right now, though, given what we just saw over the last week, I don't see that being high chances. Yeah, it's so tough. I mean, I just had the numbers on the screen there, how good he was, obviously, in the first half as a pitcher. But, yeah, the bad is just so much more important when you have all of those arms.

available to you in the starting rotation. Another thing, moving off of Shohei, we had Dalton rushing, returned to the IEL this weekend as his elbow, quote, got pissed off while he was beginning a throwing program behind the plate. My professional analysis of this is just sigh, like a very loud, exasperated sigh. Dave says they expect him back. I don't expect him back, but this one, whole thing, I mean, this is like such a big, feels like it could be a big conversation because we're

also looking at the decisions they made roster-wise to bring him back and it did not work out. And, you know, he goes 0 for four with the hit by pitch or something like that in his short return. But like, what happened with this rushing thing? Why did they rush rushing back? Why did they, you know, I guess you have to believe what the player is telling you? but I don't know what's what's kind of you know your pulse of how this rushing situation a roster situation came to be for the Dodgers yeah it's a fair question to to kind of bounce off this

level of the roster decisions where I think the Otani ones made a lot of sense in what they were doing the Dalton one not so much because there was no need to rush him back I know that that of all their options in AAA right now for a left-handed bat none of them are going to out hit Dalton rushing. He is, when healthy, their best left-handed bat off the bench, assuming he can't catch, which we knew he wasn't going to be able to. But the Dodgers believed that he could ramp up a throwing program while serving off the bench. And they brought him back without a rehab assignment, which I thought was particularly very weird, to be honest, because he hadn't played in a game in over a month. Yes, he's been taking live at bats. He's been hitting off the trajectory, but you can't

replicate game day action. This is a no fault to Dalton. Of course, if your organization goes, hey, can you help us? Of course he's going to say, yes, I can. And I think that's what you expect from a 25-year-old backup catcher, his first full big year in the majors trying to prove himself. That's exactly the mentality you want from a player. So there's no fault, I think, in my eyes, at least, for Dalton wanting to come back. It was, was there a better alternative? And the Dodgers felt like Dalton rushing as their left-hand of bench bat was their best option to balance out that bench and increase the offensive production, but you do run a risk in doing this when you're trying to ramp up a player also in Major League action.

Donne rushing was supposed to make that for his first start on Saturday. Before that game, he was on the field pregame throwing to bases. An hour later, we get a notification he's been scratched with right elbow discomfort, and you just kind of make those connections altogether. Like, yeah, that makes sense. And to be fair, to the Dodgers, rushing could have retweeted. to this UCL tear, right? It's not even a sprain, it's a tear.

At any point during rehab, whether he was active on the Major League roster or not, the fact that he did so, though, while being active and kind of set off this catching carousel of roster moves that they arguably didn't need to make, I think is fair to dissect to bring rushing back. They d-fayed warp bet, and he cleared waiver,

so he's back in AAA. But now Hunter Feduccia, who has taken good at bats, but he's now your left-handed bat off the bench, and Alfonso, the guy that you sent to AAA to trade for two other catchers because you weren't confident in his abilities behind the plate, is now your backup catcher again? It just seemed like a lot of scrambling for a front office that doesn't usually do that. And I think it's fair to question, if they were to go back in time, was this the right decision?

And would they have done this for Dalton's sake? Because we also now, guys, don't know what his future is going to look like. He's not going to catch again this season. We don't know if he's going to be available. Very fair to say the rest of his year could be in jeopardy. Yeah, that's the question too. I don't think we'll see him back certainly in this regular season. and then the ramp up to try to get ready for the postseason

and those types of things in terms of timing and all of that looks bleak. Why not Ryan Ward? What was the impetus? And I'm not trying to ask you to get in their heads. That's not fair to you. But he could have been an option as well. Why do you think they went the Dalton rushing Alex Freeland route

versus the Ryan Ward route? Or in this case, the Alfonso route. Why do you need a third? Well, yeah. Right. And it's difficult to explain because I have a lot of the same questions. I think it ultimately came down.

down to the Dodgers felt Dalton rushing was their best overall option, even though he wasn't 100% healthy. And they weighed the risks and felt they weren't as high as maybe they were. They ended up being at least. And also, we know how Andrew Friedman operates with his 40-man roster. Those are very coveted spots. And there might have been just an instance of trying to do too much there, you know, and trying to debalance the intricacies of a 40-man roster,

Brian Ward obviously on it. So that was an option there. But ultimately, to me, and they're not going to go out right and say this, they just felt like they didn't need or didn't like the options they had in AAA, other than what they did on Tuesday. But now you have to ask yourself, okay, this could cost rushing's availability for the rest of the postseason. I will say this if we're going to give the front office any kind of flowers here. Great trade for Hunter Feduccia.

That ended up being very, very valuable even more so. This is a guy that's come over since coming to Los Angeles or returning to Los Angeles, I guess, and has really been, I think, taking some of the best advantage. this team. Now the Dodgers are going to need him in a role besides backup catcher for at least the next few weeks. All right. Well, we know that the Dodgers front office tends to make better decisions than not. This one was a little bit peculiar. But as they've proven to us in the past, they seem to know what they're doing. But I do believe that Dalton Rushing's time with the Dodgers this regular season, perhaps this season in general, is over. All right. Much more to come. Let's

get to last Licks. First of the break. Cratt's football season is back. And Fabletics knows all about it. They just paired with the number one wide receiver in the NFL, Jamar Chase, on a new collection. Yeah, he's going to catch some footballs. You're going to catch some deals when you go to Fabletics because this is all affordable stuff, but the quality is through the roof. Comfortability, like, it is ridiculous. Go for it. Yeah, it's about feeling good all day and you need to feel more comfortable in your athletic clothing since you're wearing it all day. It's not just at the gym anymore. And Fabletics is spot on. with that theory. Shop now at fabletics.com

slash foul to get 70 to 80% off everything when you sign up as a new VIP. And yes, that includes the new Jamar Chase collection. Take a quick style quiz and be sure to select foul when prompted to unlock this offer. This is a limited time offer. So do not wait. Again, that's fabledics.com slash fowul for 70 to 80% off everything as a new VIP. The new Red Bull, Dragonberry, and Tropa. Epicberry energizers, now at McDonald's, made with freeze-dried fruit and an electric burst of flavor.

The all-new Red Bull Energizers, now at McDonald's. This product may not be right for you. High in caffeine, details on McDonald's.C.A. at participating Canadian restaurants excluding Quebec. All right. Now, last lick's. This is George, and he would look amazing in fabletics. George was found in the Altiloma Rancho Cucamonga area.

followed one of our current adopters, he followed them home. She was walking her dog and George kind of followed her and he needs a home. We have him on a 30 day stray hold because we are trying to find his owners. But based on our experience, the fact that he wasn't microchip, the fact that these dogs get used for breeding and then dumped, we're pretty sure he doesn't have an owner that wants him. So that being said, he now has been groomed. He went to the vet just for an overall wellness check.

He's approximately five years old. They think he's pretty healthy. We will be paying to get him neutered when the 30-day stray hold is up because God knows we don't need any more French bulldog glitters. He's a cutie. He's great with other dogs. He's very happy, very snugly. So if you're interested in learning more about George, the French bulldog,

please reach out and do your homework on this type of breed because they're a very specific breed. So please let us know. And we could always use donations to help with the vetting care and grooming costs. and all that stuff. So we appreciate your support very much. All right, baseball thought for the road. Katie, you had a great article, a great piece on Eduardo Henriquez,

and what he's been doing as far as that bullpen is concerned. Let's give him some love. Yeah, the Dodgers have another reliever that throws 100 plus, has one of the best fastballs in the game that literally no one knows about. And I think that just goes to show on Friday. Edgar Enriquez through his five fastest pitches of the season, all of them over 103.5 miles per hour.

And I couldn't really find any other information about it online. And I think the Dodgers would prefer to keep it that way. They can keep Enrique as kind of their secret weapon here. But nothing secret about how good Edgar has been for this club if you've been paying attention over the last, really, season. I think you can make the argument that he's been the most underrated reliever or pitcher, really, on this Dodgers squad. He's in the middle of nine consecutive scoreless appearances.

He has a minuscule 0.66 ERA over his last 15. He's whipped 23, and he threw a 104.5 mile per hour heater on Friday, the third fastest pitch this season. We might see him a little bit more in high leverage. Edmund Diaz is making a return soon. He just started his rehab assignment with AAA OKC yesterday through a scoreless ending of work. But talk to Dave Roberts last night, and he said, as we build closer to October, going to start giving guys some trial runs and higher leverage. Edgaros pretty much nailed down the high leverage spot,

but seeing him in the ninth was, I think, an even bigger step. So you're seeing guys like Evan Phillips start to turn the corner. You're seeing Alex Bessia, Jack Dreyer, Tanner Scott continuing to post. But I think Eduardo Enriquez could be a real valuable asset for this bullpen. He is one of the best fastballs in the game, and no one's talking about it. They're not. It needs more love. We are here to give Edgar some love.

And in your column, you had also mentioned, you know, some great quotes from him, from Dave. I guess mainly right here, we have quotes from him. But just about, you know, him mentioning some of the mechanical changes. You know, we have seen the slider get better. We knew the fastball. Even when he was called up out of nowhere in 23, it's like, oh, or 24, it's like, damn, this dude's got an elite fastball. But the slider has become an honest weapon.

Like, what are the things that he has really worked on to get him to this point? I think it's more fine-tuning the pitch selection with maybe knocking out. They're not seeing him throw the curve ball as much and the cutter is being played more, kind of plays more like a slider there. So having, I think, just fine-tuning that arsenal, obviously the fastball plays. But as we saw last year, the 100 was still getting hit. The fastball was still getting hit. You know, he wasn't missing bats.

It was getting barreled up. So it's a combination of fine-tuning the arsenal, maybe mixing in more of the fastball combo and ditching the curve ball. and not using it as frequently. And also just the conviction behind how he's using the fastball. He can throw 101, 102, what we saw in the postseason, didn't always know where that was going. Now he knows where he's going. He can pinpoint the command.

He can dot the fastball. And the conviction behind it makes it play up. So you're sitting 102. Do you know how talented and how crazy it is where you can throw 104, but to have to take some stuff off your fastball, you go down to 101? That's essentially what he did. Now that he's there, he can reestablish rampant back up. We're seeing a lot more high 102s, 103s, and a few 104s.

It's exciting, guys. It's exciting. I think, don't reach back too much. Just 102. Don't reach all the way back. Casual 1022. Casual 102. That's why they call him Baby Bazooka, because it does come out of the hand pretty damn easy.

I still will maintain the most impressive part of that. Just two walks over his last, what is it again, 13 and two-thirds innings? Like, for a dude throwing that hard and knowing where the baseball is going, it's a lot of fun. Yeah, that's a good combination, if you will. All right, guys, we appreciate you being with us on this Labor Day edition of Dodgers Territory. Please do not forget to smash that subscribe button on YouTube. Please rate and review the pod on Apple, Spotify.

Wherever you get your podcast as we continue to make our way to 20,000 subs, it helps us out a great deal. Don't forget to check out Dodgers Territory Shop.com for more cool stuff. We have a whole bunch of cool items on there. Some new things have been added as well. It helps myself, helps Katie. helps Clint. And you're wearing the shirt. Oh, I am wearing the shirt.

Yes. I have this one. I also have one that has a hoodie on it that's super soft and super great. So, all right, we're going to be back on Thursday. Oh, there you go. Katie decides not to wear our gear, which is super cool. All right. I have a yellow coat of shirt.

It's just on the floor. Sorry. Didn't even make it to the dresser. Do some laundry, woman. Do some laundry. All right, guys. Thanks for being with us. We will see you back on Thursday for sure.

And if we do a show before that, you will know if you subscribe. See you then. Bye. On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility.

Listen to Solita on the IHeart radio app. podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. In February of 2024, celebrated illustrator and children's book author, Patra Mathers and her husband Michael, mailed letters to dozens of friends and family members to let them know they had died by suicide. Dear honies, this is goodbye. By the time you get this letter, both Petra and I will be dead. Next stop, Wonderland.

Why did they do it? And what did it do to the people they left behind? Listen to Death of an Artist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Big Lives, we take a single cultural icon. People like Jane Fonda, George Michael, Little Richard. And we pull apart the story behind the image. Discovering forgotten interviews that change exactly how we see these giants of our culture. We're here for the messy, the brilliant, the human version of our heroes.

I'm Emmanuel Jochi. I'm Kai Wright. And this is Big Lives. Listen to Big Lives on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.