‘This is step one:’ After clinching again, do Dodgers have the pieces to do more?

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LOS ANGELES — As the bottles started popping Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, Clayton Kershaw and Tyler Glasnow ditched their T-shirts, Shohei Ohtani let the champagne burn his eyes, and Freddie Freeman stood on the periphery taking in the scene. He wanted to hear the speeches, to be part of the jubilation of another division clinch at the end of an especially taxing season, but he could only do so much with his body supported by crutches and his right foot encased in a walking boot.

The victory that sealed the National League West crown for the Dodgers also served as a microcosm of a season defined by a litany of injuries and the club’s ability to triumph despite them. To finally hold off the surging Padres and claim an 11th division title in the last 12 seasons, it meant withstanding one more.

Toward the end of a raucous go-ahead, five-run seventh inning on Thursday that solidified their place atop the NL West standings, the Dodgers held their collective breath. A hush enveloped the sold-out crowd of 52,433 fans in attendance for the club’s regular season home finale as Freeman sat on the ground in pain behind first base after rolling his ankle while trying to beat out a throw.

Unlike most of the players on the team’s season-opening rotation, and many of the pitchers the Dodgers hoped to rely on come October, their All-Star first baseman believes he’ll be available when the postseason begins. X-rays on Freeman’s ankle, which had ballooned after the game, were negative.

“It’s swollen,” Freeman said. “It’s like a grapefruit. But they’re pretty optimistic that I should be able to go by [next] Saturday in the playoffs. That’s what I’m banking on. I’ve never rolled an ankle, so I don’t know.”

Freeman said he asked to stay in the game, but head athletic trainer Thomas Albert told him that wouldn’t be happening. So he hobbled off the field under his own power. He will not travel to Colorado for the club’s regular season finale, but he now gets eight days to rest before the Dodgers host the first game of the National League Division Series.

“I’m not too worried about it,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “We’re gonna be cautious. There’s no reason to play him this weekend. We could have, potentially, if we needed it. We don’t need it.” 

Their comeback victory against the Padres team that was chasing them in the standings ensured that.

Considering the money the Dodgers spent this offseason adding Ohtani, Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Teoscar Hernández to an already formidable roster, perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that one of baseball’s most expensive ball clubs will get a chance to avenge their shocking back-to-back first-round exits in their last two playoff appearances.

On the other hand, this year was unlike any of their recent roads to October.

“They all feel sweet,” manager Dave Roberts said. “But I’ll tell you, man, with what we’ve gone through this year, this feels a tick sweeter.” 

The Dodgers dealt with significant losses in the starting rotation last year, but the volume of absences this season stands alone. Only Yamamoto, who missed nearly three months with a rotator cuff strain and has yet to go more than four innings since returning from injury earlier this month, is left standing from a season-opening rotation that included Glasnow, veteran James Paxton and rookies Bobby Miller and Gavin Stone.

Glasnow’s All-Star year was derailed by a season-ending sprained elbow. Paxton was designated for assignment and traded to Boston. Miller was ineffective in a follow-up campaign to a tantalizing rookie year. Stone was a stabilizing force in a rotation decimated by injury and would have earned a playoff start until he, too, eventually broke down, succumbing to a season-ending shoulder issue.

In Thursday’s postgame celebration, Kershaw sought out Stone, who finished the year 11-5 with a 3.53 ERA and a team-leading 25 starts.

“I told him, ‘Hey, you were as big a part of this as anything, and you need to enjoy this,'”Kershaw said. “This is special. Whether it’s your first or your 50th, it’s the best.” 

Unlike last year, it doesn’t seem likely that Kershaw will be able to grit through injury in time to help, either, though he has not given up all hope of returning at some point in the postseason from the big toe injury that has held him out since the end of last month.

Myriad injuries wiped out not only the team’s expected starters but also much of the depth behind those players. Young starters River Ryan and Emmet Sheehan needed Tommy John surgery. Dustin May was on the recovery trail from elbow surgery when he suffered an esophageal tear, further depleting the group. More hits arrived in the division-clinching series. Starting shortstop Miguel Rojas aggravated an adductor tear on Wednesday. Before Thursday’s series finale, relievers Brusdar Graterol and Brent Honeywell Jr. were placed on the injured list. Then Freeman got hurt.

And yet, here the Dodgers are again.

“It would’ve been easy for us to make excuses,” Roberts said. “You lose three, four, five, six, seven starters, write the season off. But not one person in this clubhouse did that.”

Various ailments, plus second-half surges from their top division foes, prevented another 100-win season and early clinch for the Dodgers; still, they prevailed. The trade deadline provided a necessary boost, giving the Dodgers another starter in Jack Flaherty, a closer in Michael Kopech and a versatile position player in Tommy Edman. 

After going 11-13 in July, a 19-8 month of August and a 13-10 start to September put the Dodgers in a familiar place. Despite all the injuries, the Dodgers enter the weekend with the best record in baseball.

“We like high expectations,” Friedman said. “We relish them. It beats the s- out of the alternative and people just not caring. People care, they’re passionate about the Dodgers. They have high expectations. So do we. We think that’s a great thing. And for us, this is step one.” 

For the first time since a tiebreaker Game 163 in 2018, the Dodgers got to celebrate clinching a division in front of a full crowd at Dodger Stadium on Thursday night. Just like that game six years ago, it was Walker Buehler on the mound again. 

Over the last half decade, Buehler built a reputation for delivering in the highest-pressure moments. A second Tommy John surgery threatened to prevent him from earning those chances again. Unable to miss bats or command the baseball the way he did prior to the elbow surgery that wiped out his 2023 season, his return to the mound in a contract year has been more of a slog than a dashing success. He took a 1-6 record and a 5.63 ERA into this week’s start.

But when the Dodgers needed him Thursday, he stepped up again.

“This is what I live for,” Buehler said after holding the Padres to one run in five innings.

“He’s the guy you want on the mound in a big situation,” Max Muncy added. “I don’t care what his numbers say.”

Over the last month, those numbers have looked more serviceable.

Buehler has a 4.44 ERA since the start of September — far from his usual dominance, but likely enough, given the Dodgers’ circumstances, to be the team’s third starter this postseason behind Flaherty and Yamamoto. Over his last three outings, Buehler held the Braves to one earned run in six innings, struck out nine Rockies, then delivered the Dodgers another division title.

He was not the only scuffling Dodgers veteran who found his form when it mattered most.

The Dodgers had yet to score against Joe Musgrove entering the seventh inning on Thursday when Will Smith, relegated to the sixth spot in the order after watching his OPS drop more than 100 points since the beginning of June, sent a 95 mph fastball down the heart of the plate out 426 feet to center field. He flipped his bat in the air and let out the emotion as he neared first base. Later in the breakout frame, Mookie Betts did, too, after padding the Dodgers’ lead with a two-run single.

Betts entered Thursday hitless in eight at-bats during the series and was batting .170 over his previous 13 games. He sought to change that through extra work in the cage before the game. Some of his teammates watched him hit for more than an hour. He finished with two hits and recorded just his second walk in the last 13 games.

“We’re going to fight,” Betts said. “Win, lose or draw, we’re gonna fight.”

If the Dodgers are to fulfill the expectations they had when they made their offseason spending spree, it will be this offense carrying the way — including a player who hasn’t been there for the Dodgers’ past couple playoff disappointments.

Amid the bounceback performances was another standout day from the steadiest force in one of the most dangerous lineups in the sport. The night prior, Ohtani tried to pump his dugout up after delivering the game-deciding RBI single.  At the most important time of year, Roberts is witnessing “the right energy” from Ohtani — urgent, but not pressing — the kind that can productively trickle throughout a roster.

“Your best player is playing with emotion,” Roberts said, “everyone follows.”

On Thursday, the two-time MVP was back at it again, providing the go-ahead hit in the seventh inning to become the first major league player with 400 total bases in a season since 2001. More importantly, he became part of a division winner for the first time.

“It was an awesome feeling,” Ohtani said through his interpreter, “and I’m hoping to continue being able to pop more champagne.”

This is all new to Ohtani, but he feels the environment of his first ever playoff push has elevated his performance. The numbers would suggest the same. He has delivered a hit in 10 of his last 11 at-bats with runners in scoring position. In those clutch spots, Ohtani said, he is too focused to think about the nerves.

Overall, he is 20-for-29 with five homers, five doubles, 16 RBIs and seven steals over his last seven games.

“It’s something that I know Shohei’s dreamed about ever since he was a young kid, and now he’s living it right now in real time,” Roberts said. “He’s put on a show the last couple weeks, and obviously what a year he’s having. We’re going to ride that horse, that thoroughbred, to a championship.”

For that to happen, the Dodgers could use some positive news on the health front. Injuries have impacted but not yet eradicated the Dodgers’ chances of winning their first World Series title since 2020 and their first full-season championship since 1988.

Rojas hopes to return for the regular season finale in Colorado and be ready for the postseason.

The bigger question, now, is if Freeman will be ready to do the same.

“We worked really hard to overcome a lot of adversity, and it never ends, it seems like, this year,” Freeman said. “I’ll do everything I possibly can to be ready.”

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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