Dodgers Territory - Shohei Ohtani to the IL, Josue De Paula Coming Up; How Did the Dodgers Let it Get to This?

Episode Date: September 10, 2026

Alanna Rizzo, Katie Woo, and Clint Pasillas react to the latest Shohei Ohtani injury news and the Los Angeles Dodgers decision to finally place him on the injured list. What changed with Ohtani and the Dodgers and what is the level of concern when it comes to him returning in time for the playoffs? Did the club wait too long? Also, the host discuss the call up of top prospect Josue De Paula and what his role could look like over the next few weeks. 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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Obviously, we've heard every day that Shoah O'Tani was not going to go on the IL. They didn't think it was necessary. This could be a rest and recover situation until it wasn't. And happy Thursday. Welcome to a brand new episode of Dodgers territory. I'm Alana Rizzo. That is Clint Paseas and Katie Wu. Of course, the three of us back together again talking about the Dodgers sweeping the

reds. But honestly, glad it was a laugh for yesterday. But today's show, we have turned the page. It is all about Joseo de Paula, the addition, Shohei, Toti, the subtraction, not necessarily in order of importance. But let's get into the big ticket. All right. So many people have said it. Dave has said it. Hosuette de Paula is coming up. And Katie, this is an interesting situation, too, as Alden Gonzalez with ESPN has reported, he's going to be with the team on Friday. You're already in Miami. So he's going to join you in Miami momentarily.

However, this is the first time that Andrew Friedman in the Andrew Friedman tenure has called up a kid from AA. What do you make of it? Yeah, it's clearly out of necessity. Obviously, we've heard every day, including up until yesterday, that Shoah Otani was not going to go on the IL. They didn't think it was necessary. This could be a rest of recover situation until it wasn't. We'll get into that. But Jose de Paula now on his way to Miami, he will make his major league debut as the team's designated hitter Friday against the Marlins.

Dave Roberts said, and he is the first position player to go straight from AA. Skip AAA entirely come to the big league. Emmett Sheehan did it as a pitcher, but that was a different situation. This one's clearly out of mead. And the Dodgers have long held this kind of, especially with this outfield core, that unless there was a spot for everyday playing time for a prospect to get significant run at the major leagues, they weren't going to bring them up. But with Otani out for at least, you know, the next 14-ish days, depending on when they backdate this stint.

And DePaul, needing to come on the 40-man roster anyway. to be protected before the Rule 5 draft. This just made the most sense. You're going to see him get the lion's share of reps as the DH, as Dave Robert said. Most importantly, though, we'll get to it. It means no show hey. This was not a move that the Dodgers were planning to do. This was one simply out of necessity.

And the silver lighting is Dodgers fans gets to see a prospect that they've been clamoring for all year long. Yeah, there's the excitement of the Paula, obviously. But it comes at a pretty massive cost here with Shohei Otani. If only anybody had been suggesting for literal months that something was very clearly wrong with Shohei Otani, that we wouldn't need to kick this can down the road where Shohei finally heads the IL after dealing with myriad injuries. We know the bicep is a thing. We know the knee is a thing that was very public that was affecting his pitches or his pitching and his hitting and was affected by his pitching. The neck was something that, you know, Dave threw.

in as a fun wrinkle this past week. How did we finally, Katie, how did we finally get to this point where the Dodgers, listen, let's call a spade a spade. They admit defeat. They have to concede here that they were wrong in keeping Shohei active for all of this time. I don't think anyone is blameless in this situation, not the Dodgers front office and not Otani. And as we kind of started the season, I remember having multiple conversations

with both the coaching staff and the front office where this is the first full season that they're going to have, ideally, a two-way Shohei. And there was going to be some trial and error on how to manage the workload of that because keep in mind, yeah, Joey Otani has been a two-way player before

for the angels who, you know, aren't exactly playing in October, and they know that in April. This team was about load managing and making sure that they have their best players and the best condition come October. and there was going to be some trial and error, some take and give in how they manage that. We've seen a lot more of the error on both sides over really the last two months,

as Shohei decided and the Dodgers decided to ramp him back up as a pitcher. We've seen the offense decline. We've seen the physical limitations increase. And now the Dodgers are staring at a reality where there's biggest concern is now possible, all of their own doing, where you have an Otani who is compromised heading into October because I think there was just there could have been. been better communication from both sides into how Shohei was feeling. Look, showy Otani can't just tell the front office, hey, I'm fine if things are bothering him. And I don't think this is necessarily

a case of I want to pitch so bad. I'm going to do whatever I can. I think this is the case of I want to be the best possible player in the world and help my team. So I'm going to keep going until you force me out of the lineup. And Dave Roberts, essentially, forced Otani out of the lineup and all things considered on the record conversations, things that we've heard behind the scenes. Otani has been agreeable to that. But the best players in the game are not going to go to their front office and concede that they're not playing well. It's on the front office to take a look at what they're seeing on the field and saying,

you know what? He's saying the right things. He's saying he's fine. We're seeing that he's not. And, you know, Brandon Goames was dismissive of the notion last week and saying, you know, hey, we don't really know what he's dealing with. Well, now they do. And I think going forward, it's a.

learning lesson on both sides on how to communicate better, more effectively, and realize that Otani is never going to take himself out of the lineup. And sometimes the organization has to step in. Also, Shohei needs to be more honest about how he's feeling and communicate more effectively so that this doesn't happen again. Because guys, now we're looking at a runway of three to four games in the regular season to, ideally, if he comes off the aisle on time to ramp him back up for October. And that's the thing with Shohei Otani. It seems like every new situation is uncharted territory because nobody's ever really had to deal with the player that plays on both sides of the ball as effectively as he does. That is the unicorn of

the league, the most important player in Major League Baseball in terms of face of the sport. But again, I've said this before. We said it earlier in the week that he has not bigger than the Dodgers. And he is a very important piece, of course, but he's not the entire puzzle. But that begs the question if he's going to come back for four games in the regular season, Katie, in your estimation, how hurt is he? Dave, Robert's already saying and he's not going to be 100%. So the storyline now is that, okay, does he come back for the postseason? What role is he in?

What are we dealing with in terms of the actual injuries here and how it might affect of moving forward? I think with with Shohei, that's the biggest thing is the compromise. We know that he's going to most likely come into the start of the postseason where he might not be as healthy as possible. and that is the sacrifice that the Dodgers and Otani have had to take because of where they're at in the situation.

Hindsight's always 2020. You can go back to really the all-star break and say, okay, he was not healthy enough to pitch. He got his knee drained. Could they just put him on the aisle now and just kind of see where things are at after a couple weeks?

Sure. But I guess with this situation, it's very valid to say, we don't know now what show he's going to look like. And the biggest thing that, that they've emphasized all season long was making sure that Otani was healthy to contribute offensively.

Their rotation can absorb not having him. They have a rotation of aces, and while obviously in a perfect world, they would want an entire staff with Shohei Otani, they're okay without him. I don't know if we can make that same argument offensively. And as we've seen,

this version of Shohei Otani, this unhealthy version is nonproductive. It doesn't help the team at all. So now the thing that the Dodgers are weighing is hopefully two weeks off, will give him back to some form of himself because if you're going to have this version of Otani in the playoffs, it sounds crazy to say,

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I'm Dr. Joy. Listen to therapy for black girls on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Yeah, and that's been the big thing. This is where I've been, again, yelling, screaming from the rooftops, been arrested a few times about it. Well, I've been saying, like, you need to address this at some point. The package you're getting from Shohei Otani offensively has obviously been declining

as the second half of the season has gone on and really over the last month, what? He's hitting 250 since the All-Star break, 809 OPS. Yeah, that sounds pretty good. He had just had the knee injection, started feeling a little better and all that kind of stuff. 237 since the start of August, OPS under 800. just a buck 37 with a 545 OPS since mid-August. It was clear that he had become compromised. And it was things that were, there were things that were altering the swing,

changing the swing. I had suggested maybe that knee is not letting his body get into certain positions to attack certain pitches. We hear on Monday the bicep is kind of now more of an issue. He felt something on a swing. So, Katie, I'll throw this to you. And it's probably something we've kind of already addressed. to a degree, but like, where did things change for Shohei and the Dodgers?

Like, did the Dodgers finally feel they could be, hey, look, bro, you're not right. Let's let us help you here. Help us help you. Well, I think that's part of the back and forth, right? Because we know this about guys like Friday Freeman, who's not going to go into the, to, hey, like, hey, Dave, I don't feel good today. Friday Freeman quite literally fell down the stairs and was in the starting lineup the next day. And with Shoah, you can't fault him for saying, I want to help the team. I can hit.

I can pitch. And I think it's fair, given where the Dodgers were in the standings early on in the summer to be like, okay, you know what? Let's ramp him down for a little bit specifically with the throwing program and see what happens when we can ramp him back up. But the second that we saw the offensive numbers start to slip while it was correlating with the throwing program ramp up, that should in hindsight been assigned to say, hey, I think this is being maybe compromising this player a little bit more than he is letting on.

And again, the trial and error of the first two-way season with Shohei makes sense. The Dodgers have to figure out how to manage him for October while also throughout the regular season. Now, essentially, it's past that. It doesn't do any good to go back and forth on what they could have done or what they should have done. What they have learned over the really the course of the last two and a half weeks is the communication on both sides has to be better. So going into next season, they avoid any of this possibly happening. The funny thing is they've won seven in a row and it doesn't even feel like it. You know, it's like this is a team that has the advantage in that they still have an 11 game lead in the division.

But obviously, Shohei being who he is, is garnering all of the attention, not only for us here on Dodgers territory, but from around the league because he's the biggest face in the game right now. So when it's handled in any sort of situation or ever you hear of a Shohei Otani I, L. It's going to make people pay attention. But let's not forget about the fact that, again, this is a team that is going to win the division. Everyone's paying attention right now to what Atlanta is doing. Obviously, Milwaukee has a chance to clinch tomorrow. Atlanta won again today.

So we're all worried about seating and, you know, what we're doing in terms of first round buys and all that type of stuff. But the point is the Dodgers are still sitting in a really, really good spot. So Katie is going to jump off because she has to do a bunch of stuff coming down the pike right now as far as breaking news is concerned. So Clint, why don't you and I go ahead here on our show. We're daughters' territory to come, but first a word about seat geek. Guys, what I would tell you is you have an opportunity here with our friends at Seekkeek to go out there and see Shohei Otani's replacement come up for the first time in Hosewe de Paula. And you can do that with tickets with our fine friends over at Seekek.

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But get comments in the chat, questions, things you want to talk about. I have something to bring up that's kind of fun. You know, I'll wait for Katie to return because I think it is pretty funny. She was on with our friends at Fowl Territory earlier, and A.J. Prisinski, had the big reveal that he walked into a booth and saw Dodgers officials watching us, watching Katie, watching Dodgers territory. So where did they miss the part that they were supposed to put Shohei on the IL all that time ago? I don't know that they're really paying attention to us for game planning.

I think it's more of what are they saying about us. They're very sensitive, those folks. I love them, but they're sensitive. Let's talk before Katie gets back, let's talk about a couple of other things in terms of the NL Wildcard Race. Thoughts on debacks and Padres. What say you, Clint? Things are getting a little interesting, a little, I don't know if you want to call it spicy or heated there in that particular race. But I think what? If the season were to end today, the Dodgers are playing the Diamondbacks and they are, well, sorry, not that. The Diamondbacks

are in the wild card they would be playing. I forget who I think the Phillies or something like that. But it's an interesting one. An interesting scenario. where the Diamondbacks are getting healthy. They're getting a bunch of pitchers back. They just got Corbyn Burns back for the first time, you know, since he injured himself, I think, last June. They got Zach Allen back, who's had a really, really bad season so far up to this point.

They also got, like, Michael Soroka back. So they're getting a lot healthy. As where you look at the Padres, as a team in the past, Riz, you know, we've had concerns about in the postseason. And there's always that. The Padres are always going to play the Dodgers hard. And we get to see, you know,

Dodgers Padres one more time here in the regular season. But as I'm sitting here right now, like, I'm not as worried. I think I'm not as worried about the Padres. By the way, the Padres are the one. They have a half game advantage right now. So right now, it's okay. It's okay. If the season ended today, the Atlanta Braves would be the three seed and they would host

the Padres who would be the sixth seed. The Phillies would be the fourth seed. They would host the Cubs who are the fifth seed. The Dodgers, of course, and the Brewers would have the. wild card buy and in terms of the National League bracket. That's the way it is. But there is so much jockeying for position, of course, in the Major League Baseball standings that it is interesting.

I love this time of year because there's so many people that are still trying to get in. And if you look at the wild card picture, as we were just talking about, Arizona is just a half a game out behind the Padres. So there's a lot to be said for that. The Padres have won four in a row. Arizona lost yesterday onto Texas. So here we go. But the Cubs are, excuse me, the Phillies and the Braves are making that incredibly interesting.

Because the Phillies right now, if I look at the actual regular season standings, the Phillies are only three and a half games behind the Braves in terms of the division lead. So they're six and four in their last 10. So it's a fun time. I like the fact that the Dodgers will get a buy. It gives them an opportunity to set the rotation a little bit better based on who they're going to be facing. Of course, I know that's always the conversation of rest versus rest. But I like the fact that they'd be able to kind of set their rotation the way that they want, give guys extra rest, all of the things. All right.

So what do you think about this Red series other than Ellie Delacruz, absolutely going scorched Earth with five straight home runs and throwing out Teo, who is hot, hot, hot, by the way, on 105.3 mile per hour fastball, if you will, out of the outfield to gun him down at home plate. Yeah, Ellie's a fun player. He's a really fun baseball player to watch. You're going to look really good in Dodger Blue in a couple of years. But what I like about the series for the Dodgers is it's a series that they need to sweep. And we've talked about this before, like through the lowest lows, through their biggest struggles that the Dodgers have been kind of going through for up until this hot stretch, you know, about the month, month and a half prior. They weren't necessarily beating the bad teams with regularity. Now you have back-to-back series where you have swept the bad teams in the Nationals and then, you know, here into this Red series.

And, you know, they did it facing like Chase Burns. Yeah, it wasn't fully built up or allowed to go pitch deep into a game, Chase Burns in the first game of that series. But they still eventually, you know, got to him and, of course, took advantage of a bad Cincinnati bullpen. But again, that's what the good teams are supposed to do, Riz. You know this. They got to beat bad teams. And the fact that they're doing that again. and you saw the vibes. Vives through the roof yesterday. You mentioned Teo, just continuing to drop multi-hit game after multi-hit game, hitting the ball, hitting the piss out of the ball.

Mookie has been hot for over a month now. Things are trending in the right direction, as we noted on Monday. Of course, he got some issues. Show Hay's hurt. Freddy's dealing now with the knee injury, which is, you know, at least an amount of concerning because he, I think he was like won for his last 17 or something. like that. But still, I feel good. I feel a lot better when the Dodgers are doing the things they're supposed to do. And then now- And Kike's heating up. Kike's heating up already. He's getting ready for Kektober. He knows that it's coming. His time to shine is about three weeks away for Kike Hernandez. Yesterday was a good game. It was just fun. It was an absolute beatdown. All right. So, Edwin Diaz, Clint, is set to return. Are we excited about this? Are we, is it good to shake things up to get him back in? Does he automatically get the closer roll? Does he get the ninth or does Dave

work him back into that situation? I'm throw right back. Are you excited to get Edwin Diaz? What we've seen out of him so far? You know, I was so excited. Honestly, I was like cheering from the rooftops when we signed him in the offseason. I didn't think there was anybody position player or pitcher that was more coveted than getting Edwin Diaz. And I was, I've been wrong at least so far in his short tenure as a Dodger. He's not been effective. He's not been that dominating closer. And I tell you, when you're coming out to the trumpets, and you and I and Katie joked earlier that the real trumpets belong to Edgaro Henriquez, because he has been so unbelievably underrated in really high-leverage spots with the minuscule ERA. And this is a guy that nobody but us in Dodger Land is talking about.

And he's been one of the better relievers in all of baseball, let alone the National League. So I hope that Edwin can come back and earn the spot, but also shove. And I don't want to have any, I don't want any question marks when he comes out there. I don't want to like, you know, grip my teeth and bite my nails and wonder. And he's got a lot to prove when he comes back. And I don't think he gets the ninth inning right away. I really don't. No, and Dave said as much, you know, he's, he's going to be put into lower leverage situations, which is plainly the right call here. Not so hot last night. He made his second appearance at AAA, walked a couple of guys gave up a hit two-thirds of an inning, gave it a run.

So just still, more of the inconsistency out of Edwin Diaz, but, you know, you know the talent is there. You know the ability is there. And honestly, I like, I know you're somebody that's pretty big on having a closer. You'd like this team to have a lockdown guaranteed ninth inning guy in October. I really love the idea of them kind of just being able to do whatever they want with that ninth inning, whether it be Diaz, whether it be Tanner Scott, Edgar O'Henriquez, Roki Sasaki, giving Dave like a whole drawer of cutlery to use

instead of just a, you know, one fork to figure it all out. What a dumb analogy. But still, giving him, I'll go back to clubs, giving him different clubs he use on the course, that I think Dave is at his best when he isn't beholden to somebody and their ego particularly in the ninth inning because over the 10 year, that's been the biggest bugaboo for him for a while. It was the bullpen. He's a lot better now,

so much better now than he was in 17, 18, obviously 19. Now he's in his bag, as long as the guys are going out there and doing their jobs, but anyways. I mean, that's the thing. I mean, look at 2024,

how he was able to manage that bullpen, you know, he's much better. I mean, Dave is grown in the game, too. I mean, he's still learning. He's a Hall of Fame manager. in my opinion at this point with what he's done. I mean, you know, three World Series championships as a manager and probably more to come in his tenure, correct?

So one other question I have for you before we move on here. Going back to Shohei for a hot second, what, if anything, do you think this injury situation means for Shohei's future as a two-way player? I have my opinion on it, but I'd like to know what you think first. I mean, I think it's still, if you have the ability to have a guy, one, if you have the ability as a player, as a person, you have the ability to pitch at the highest level as a major leaguer

and to hit at the highest level of a major league as a major league and do them both at the same time. You do everything you can to ensure that you do that. I think this doesn't necessarily change the plan moving forward. What it does do, I think, though, is alters the, plan a little bit. Maybe you don't view Shohei in, in 2027, knock on desk there is a season or a full season or something close to it. But in 2027, I don't think you have Shohei going out there and, you know, throwing 100 pitches, giving you whatever, you know, six or seven, eight

innings, whatever it may be. I think you're a lot more cautious with it. I think you explore giving him more days off after his starts. Let the body. recover, but that's the only way. He can't be somebody who DH is 155 to 160 games and then also starts 25 games. I just don't think that's realistic. And I don't think that's fair to Shohei or to anybody involved. I just remember when Shohei was posted and he had the ability to come out here, he didn't want to choose the Dodgers because he wasn't going to be a two-way player.

Remember? This was before the National League gave way to pitchers hitting, and we didn't have the DH. So Shohei chose American League specifically for that reason. I think if you want to see a very disgruntled player, you don't let Show Hay play both ways. And I think there is a world in which you may need to, to your point, scale the workload back on certain days and on, you know, certain ways, certain A, B, certain innings. But if you tell him that you can only choose one, I think you're going to have a very, very pissed off player. And that's not what you want when it comes to Shohei, just what he means to the team, what he means to the game, all of those things. So I think, you know, as we all get older, you know, as he ages, how realistic is it? I'm not certain. But you can't completely take it away from him because I think that that's his whole,

that's part of who he is, is the fact that he's the only one that can do it that successfully. So that's my opinion on that. And, and, you know, I mean, even Ken brought it up on fair territory earlier. It's like, look, he's 32 now. Yeah, it's still pretty young, but he's been doing this for a while. You know, been a two-way player for a while. Obviously, in Japan, into the big leagues, multiple surgeries, different injuries and all this kind of stuff. I mean, twice over, we've had Tommy John or some form of a surgically repaired elbow.

It's like, yeah, at some point, you need to be. just exercise a little more caution when it comes to Shohayotani. We got Wu back. We'll throw the question at her real quick. Katie, welcome back. Hope you had fun. I'm like negative 200 so far. Yeah, you are.

You're having yourself a day there. But Alana had just thrown the question out about show Hey Otani. Does this affect kind of the two-way status moving forward? What do you think? Like, could he be limited to? a regular dude next year. I think that it's a, it's a good question to,

to ponder right now. I don't think that's on the Dodgers radar at all. First, I think what's on their radar is making sure that they win the third straight world series and that everyone's healthy. But these conversations going into the second half, I don't think there's really been any

about shutting him down as a two-way player, certainly not from Otani. And when we talked to him earlier in the week, these were all learning lessons. Like where he said, I need to know going forward with my experience. I should be able to produce better even though I am limited.

how I'm managing my body now will help me next year, so we're not in this position again. I think there's every indication of Shohei being a two-way player again, just not this season. The Dodgers right now really need him to be just a one-way player at the plate and are hoping their fingers crossed. You know, the thing that they've said all season they didn't want to happen is now here. And now they have about two and a half weeks to ensure that they're going to get as good of an Otani as possible in the lead-off spot come October. Yep. Interesting, interesting spot. interesting question.

Riz, fill time while I fix something. Oh, okay, no problem. Katie, what title? What did I miss? Fill me in. I mean, everything. Oh, you know, nothing. What type of playing time do you anticipate Hosew DePaula getting?

I think he'll see most of the reps as the DH. The priority and what really excites the Dodgers is the bat, right? He's not going to go out there and be a gold glove outfielder in the corner. And when you look at how Teosca Hernandez is playing, there's no reason to take him out of the lineup. Finally got him going. Please don't mess that up. Kyle Tucker, they're hoping to find late season lightning in a bottle. And I don't think that it's going to be conducive for either of those corner outfielders

to be taken out of the everyday lineup, especially when DePaula doesn't profile to be as strong as an outfield corner. He does profile it to be one heck of a bat. Now if Teo needs a day or Tucker needs a day, then maybe he can slot in. But I'm seeing DePaula in the lineup almost every day. at least that's my understanding. As the DH, the Dodgers trying to give him as many reps as possible. This is an initial trial run.

And all of this is going on. And I think it's so easy to forget that the Dodgers are just one seven straight. You know, they can clinch this weekend. So they have games to, to burn necessarily here. They can do some more trial and error with DePaul. The ramifications aren't nearly as severe as trial and error with Joey Otani. I would expect to see him getting as many at bats as possible. Again, the Dodgers don't really promote top.

prospects, especially straight from AA. They've quite literally never done it, just to sit the bench. Yeah. He's got an opportunity. You know, it's not the opportunity you want, but it's the opportunity the Dodgers having the opportunity that the Paula has. And hopefully, I mean, man, what a

nice, easy landing strip here for landing strip. That's the wrong one. But anyways, here in Miami, let the kid come out hot and have some fun. Looking forward to seeing him. Now, we're taking another break. And we got a lot more to talk about after a word from our friends at foul. Cratt's football season is back and Fabletics knows all about it.

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F-O-U-L for 70 to 80% off everything as a new VIP. Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Crave Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on Internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. All right, guys, a little bit of a twist here on last licks. This is kind of silly, but we're going to do it anyway. I want to thank Ultimate Pastime Sports Collectibles for donating

an autographed bobblehead of me. So I'm not trying to be narcissistic here. Every single scent goes to the dogs. There's a lot of people that have bobblehead collections and we're interested in perhaps this. So it's a $10 bid to open up. It's not a big deal. 32 auctions.com slash bobble. H-10 lifts your bed a little bit and then you'll get this if you'd like it or you can burn it when you receive it. I don't really care. But it goes to the dog. So please go to 32auctions.com Bobble if you'd like to donate or bid on it rather. And like I said, it goes to pups in need. So I appreciate you guys letting me talk about that. All right, guys, we talked about it a little bit earlier. The Tampa Bay Rays have the opportunity to clinch today. They've basically led the

AL East wire to wire this season. They've done it again, despite being in a small market, the Tampa Bay Rays way. And the Brewers could clinch as early as tomorrow. And guys, we could clinch this weekend. Is that correct? And kind of like an early clinch miss. Katie, what do you think about that? So of my many flaws, magic numbers are probably the number one. I can't add or do math to save my life, but I'm very confident that the earliest they can clinch a postseason birth is Saturday. The earliest they can clinch the division is Sunday. That's going to take a lot of losses from the Diamondbacks for that to happen. It looks more likely that they're going to clinch in Cincinnati, but never say never. And for the Dodgers, this is just

checking box number one. The first goal of the off season is or of the season is to win the division. The second goal is to get the first round by. They have a four game lead over the Atlanta Braves. So I do believe they won today as Alana pointed out before the show. So that's what now three and a half math is hard. And as we've discussed on the show, the Dodgers don't have the tiebreaker over the Braves. Atlanta holds that spot. So they are going to be watching the Braves. They are going to be watching the brewers, but first order of business is to lock down that division win because for so many reasons, now even more, because it'll buy Shohei more time, they need the buy. If prioritizing Otani's health was number one in the Dodgers wish list, getting the

first round buy was 1A. And now, you know, one, you can cross that off the list. They would really like to ensure that first round buy so that, again, they can reset their rotation, they can rest their experienced, not old roster, and hopefully buy more time for Shohei to see some live at bats get his timing down, throwing some sim games. Yeah, and I'll say is I love that the boys are in control of their own destinies right now. Not only do you have a pretty decent lead, what, three and a half game lead, or whatever it is, over the Braves for that second buy, but you're also playing the Marlins. You got four more against the Reds in Cincinnati, where the Dodgers bats will probably continue to wake up at Great American Ball.

Park, which is just very fun place for people to hit. And then three at home against the Giants, which breaking news, bad team. Padre's interesting series and then the Giants again to end the season. Dodgers are in the driver's seat. Doesn't mean you take your foot off of the pedal, but they are in a great position to be in control of their destiny. So have a little champagne celebration this weekend when you clinch a playoff berth, when you win the division, you have a little bit of party.

It's going to be weird, Alana. It'll be the first time in, you know, what, it's 17 years. No Clayton in that, uh, that, uh, that, uh, the, and the, and the, and the, beard, the, the beard drenched, uh, dad bod with no goggles, let it burn, let it burn. He might still be there. Who knows? Who knows? Good show.

All right. Yeah, a couple of a couple of chats that we would like to get to. I always appreciate the super chats here. Uh, you guys support in the show. Thank you super very much. Richie Flores, 499. You got the super chat. Well, yeah, let's do this because we didn't probably.

We like, we like a little fountain. We also probably didn't talk about. I saw someone who kind of Paul's best comp is he's smaller, more athletic or, if, yeah, I wish he was Jordan Alvarez. I'm intrigued, but a jump from double A is not easy. It's not, by the way, Yordaun Alvarez is in the running for the triple ground. That is the only, only thing I can ever give Andrew Friedman grief on is that he let Yorda Alvarez go to the Astros and we got Josh Fields. Anyway, moving on.

I went something with some. Alvarez hadn't even played a professional game up to that point. Doesn't matter. Yeah. You got to have those eyes. You got to be able to see, man. You got to be able to see. All right, Richard Flores.

That's like the Sajor. Oh, hey. Yeah, exactly. Bonnie needs to understand. The human body can only go so far. He can do both, but it has to be in responsibly. Went to Benny Han a last thing. I'm so happy for you, Richie.

That's great. Is this a thing? He explained that. this is a thing that he told you or something, Katie? I don't know. Ritchie, I respectfully have no idea what you're talking about, but I do, I just realized that, like, my hand doesn't even in my jacket hole correctly.

You guys, I'm falling in part. Bertie, thank you for drying off my seat in the press box, though. That respect, you're back in my good graces, but you're going to have to remind me about the Benihada situation because I don't know. I don't know anything, you guys. Yeah, listen, that's what we're here for. We're here to not know anything.

I do know that we love Nancy Brown, not only because she's a great supporter of the show, but another $20 super chat. Alana Babelhood, what a good idea. I got, hang on my. You're the best. Where did you go? Where did you go? I'm over there somewhere.

I don't know. I'm probably yelling at you somewhere. Appreciate you, Nancy. Thank you so much. All right. So Clint and I are back on Friday for post-game. Katie, obviously, will be in Miami with the team. We will be back after Hosawet, the point.

Paula's Major League Baseball Day Do you. Join us after the game. Make sure you subscribe so you know when our show they're on. We appreciate it very much. Subscribe on YouTube. It costs you absolutely nothing. And don't forget, guys, check out the shop. Dodgers Territory Shop.com for all of the goods.

Get all the gear. We appreciate you guys. We will see you back on Friday. Go Dodgers. 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, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So like by Asia Redmond or so, at least 70% have a phone. I'm Dr. Joyce. And this is Therapy for Black Girls. We spend our surviving middle school run getting into what's happening inside your kids' brain, the group chat, and their friendships, and what you can do about it. Your child is not doing this on purpose. That's the kind of perspective we've been pulling from the psychologists and psychiatrists who studied this for a living.

Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Self-care September is your reminder to slow down, check in with yourself, get off your phone, and maybe ask, why am I like this? I'm Jemisbeg, host of the Psychology of Your 20s podcast, and this month we're helping you make sense of the person that you are becoming, from setting boundaries and navigating friendships to understanding anxiety, confidence, relationships, and attachment. Sometimes our biggest decisions, without us even realizing it,

aren't driven by what we truly want, but by what will prevent us from feeling lonely or being alone. Listen to the Psychology of your 20s on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.