Saturday, August 23

Today's Dodgers Beat newsletter was written by MLB.com reporter Manny Randhawa

DENVER -- When the Dodgers were stunned by the Rockies in a 4-3 walk-off loss on Monday night at Coors Field, the postgame spotlight on the losing side of the ledger was on right fielder Teoscar Hernández.

Two hits that fell in front of Hernández proved costly, each leading to runs for Colorado, including the eventual game winner in the ninth inning.

While the first one, which came in the third, would have been tough to catch, Hernández’s decision to throw to third base to try to get the runner going from first to third enabled the trail runner to reach second and eventually score on a two-run single. 

Then in the ninth, a shallow fly ball off the bat of Ezequiel Tovar with an expected batting average of .060 tipped off Hernández’s glove and bounced away, with Tovar reaching second before scoring on a Warming Bernabel walk-off single moments later.

The tough night in the field led to questions about whether Hernández’s defense could be costly for the defending World Series champions come October, when the lights are much brighter and the stakes much higher.

Hernández entered Thursday with -9 outs above average, according to Statcast. That placed him 36th among 38 qualified right fielders in the Majors. It’s a far cry from what the Dodgers had at the position with six-time Gold Glove Award winner Mookie Betts on patrol through last season.

But Betts moved to shortstop full time this year, with Hernández going from left field to right. In light of recent events, might the Dodgers go back to the former arrangement?

“It’s a fair question,” said manager Dave Roberts. “I think right now, having Tommy Edman out, Hyeseong Kim out, Max Muncy out, just trying to manage playing time and not exposing [rookie infielder] Alex Freeland too much, I love the way Mookie’s playing short. Though I think that’s a fair question, I don’t think we’re there quite yet.”

Edman, Kim, Muncy and Kiké Hernández are all currently on the injured list, limiting what the Dodgers can do either on the infield or in the outfield right now. As a result, Betts remains at short, where he’s become one of the better defensive players in the game -- entering play on Thursday, he was tied for the National League lead at the position with 11 defensive runs saved.

Betts has worked hard to improve at his new position, but he said remaining there takes a back seat to his overarching desire to help the Dodgers become the first team in a quarter century to repeat as World Series champions.

So although Roberts hasn’t approached him about returning to right, Betts is ready if Doc comes calling.

“I don’t care,” Betts said of where he stands on the field. “I’ll play wherever. Whatever it takes.”

For now, though, things will remain the same defensively. And Roberts is counting on Hernández -- whose bat is too valuable to take out of the lineup -- to improve in right. While Hernández isn’t producing offensively at the level he was last year, when he hit a career-high 33 home runs, he has 21 homers with a .757 OPS in 2025.

“I just know that there have been times where he’s played a formidable right field,” Roberts said. “I think he’s going to get back to that. I really do. … You’ve still gotta score. 

“So, are we playing our best defensive lineup? No. But I would say there are very few teams in the big leagues playing their best defensive lineup. Even in the postseason, you’ve still gotta score.”

The Dodgers have often used the phrase “net sum” to describe the concept of getting the most out of their lineup day in and day out. Given the current state of the active roster, Roberts feels the net sum is greatest with Hernández in right and Betts at short, even if there are times like in Monday’s game, in which a certain area of relative weakness becomes more glaring than usual.

“That’s kind of the way the world works,” Roberts said. “When guys aren’t performing, it creates noise around them. And that’s the way it always goes.”

Dodgers great Eric Karros, who played first base for Los Angeles from 1991-2002, hit 270 of his 284 career home runs while wearing Dodger blue.

So it was oddly fitting when his son Kyle, who made his Major League debut earlier this season for the Rockies, hit his first big league homer against his dad’s former club -- with Eric in attendance at Coors Field.

On Tuesday night, the Dodgers beat Colorado, 11-4. But Kyle connected for that first Major League home run in the sixth inning, and he had one proud papa in the stands watching as he rounded the bases.

“Oh, I was excited,” Eric said. “I stood up and I’m screaming, ‘Yeah!’ -- you know, just as a father. It’s just good to see him have some success. Get that off his back.”

Eric had been sitting in different areas of the ballpark throughout the game, but it was when he settled on a familiar view of the field that Kyle’s big moment came.

“I found a nice spot, not quite the top level, looking right down at third base,” Eric said. “So that was my lucky spot -- that’s where I used to sit at UCLA.”

Like his dad, Kyle played at UCLA before being drafted into the Majors. Unlike his dad, he didn’t end up with the Dodgers -- though his brother, Jared, is a pitching prospect in the Dodgers’ system.

Well, you know what they say: If you can’t join ’em, beat ’em.

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