3 takeaways as Dodgers prep for postseason

This story was excerpted from Juan Toribio’s Dodgers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ATLANTA -- It’s hard to believe there are only 12 games left in the regular season. The postseason is right around the corner and the Dodgers still have some business to take care of the rest of the way.

The first order of business is to win the National League West for the 11th time in the past 12 seasons. The Dodgers (89-61) have a 3 1/2-game lead over the Padres (86-65), but the two rivals play a three-game set from Sept. 24-26 at Dodger Stadium that could ultimately decide the race.

Along with settling the division, Los Angeles is hoping to secure a first-round bye by finishing as one of the top two seeds in the NL. All of that is still in front of the Dodgers with two weeks to go.

But let’s look back for a second and analyze an interesting four-game set against the Braves at Truist Park. It was a strange series between two teams that are very familiar with each other -- and could meet again in a couple of weeks. Here’s a look at three things that stood out.

1. Buehler and Yamamoto provide encouragement
After dropping the first two games of the series on top of finding out that Tyler Glasnow will be out for the season with a right elbow injury, the Dodgers desperately needed some positives from their starting rotation.

Walker Buehler delivered just that, allowing two runs (one earned) over six strong innings on Sunday night. Despite an uneven season, Buehler will now have a chance to play a significant role in the Dodgers’ rotation. As things stand, he could be set to start Game 3 of a potential postseason series.

Buehler tentatively has three more starts before the end of the regular season. If he looks like he did on Sunday, Los Angeles will gladly take that.

As for Yoshinobu Yamamoto, he didn’t have his best command on Monday, but he still limited the damage, which is another encouraging sign for the Dodgers. Yamamoto, along with Jack Flaherty, is going to have to lead the way for the rotation.

2. Change in the order
Over the weekend, Los Angeles introduced a new wrinkle to its lineup against left-handed pitching.

With the Braves set to start southpaws Chris Sale and Max Fried, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called Freddie Freeman into his office after Friday’s game to discuss the possibility of sliding him down to the cleanup spot against lefties when the postseason rolls around.

The idea is essentially to combat opposing teams automatically going to a left-handed pitcher against Shohei Ohtani by sliding the right-handed-hitting Teoscar Hernández up to take the left-handed Freeman’s spot in the three-hole. The right-handed-hitting Mookie Betts remains second behind Ohtani. After a quick conversation, Freeman suggested they should roll out the plan as early as Saturday against Sale to get some test runs.

“Obviously, I was all for it,” Freeman said. “Whatever we can do to win games and to do it the last couple of weeks [of the regular season] and not just doing it in Game 1 or Game 2 in the postseason, I embraced it. … It’s tougher matchups we’re trying to create throughout the course of a game to make it harder on [opposing] managers.”

On Monday, the plan came to fruition as the Braves turned to left-handed reliever Aaron Bummer against Ohtani with one out and the bases loaded in the seventh inning. Ohtani reached on a fielder's choice and, after Betts hit a sacrifice fly, Hernández came through with an RBI single. Freeman followed with a three-run homer. The new lineup against lefties is expected to stick through the postseason.

3. Glasnow update
After not going through a simulated game on Friday, it became pretty clear Glasnow was going to be done for the season. On Saturday, he got word that he has a sprained right elbow and will be shut down from throwing. Glasnow flew back to Los Angeles the next day.

Though Glasnow left the team, Roberts made it clear that it was something the team and the right-hander talked through. Roberts acknowledged that Glasnow, who thought his elbow issues were behind him, was disappointed with his most recent setback.

Roberts also made it clear that Glasnow will be at Dodger Stadium when the team returns home on Friday against the Rockies.

“I exchanged text messages with him. Basically, I knew he was going to be gone,” Roberts said. “I just don’t feel it needed to be public information where he’s going. It’s certainly an excused absence. Obviously, he’s very disappointed and frustrated. I supported the fact that he needed to be away and that’s OK.”