Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas expects to play in NLCS vs. Mets

Mike DiGiovanna, Los Angeles Times on Oct 12, 2024

Published in Baseball

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LOS ANGELES — Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas said he will "be ready to go" for Game 1 of the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets on Sunday after missing the final two games of the division series against the San Diego Padres because of a left-thigh strain that he aggravated in Game 3.

"I didn't take another [cortisone] injection because I don't think it's going to make my leg feel better," Rojas said after Friday night's series-clinching 2-0 win over the Padres. "I think the rest for a couple of days is going to make my leg feel better, and hopefully, I don't have another setback."

But even if Rojas is deemed fit to start, he may not be in the lineup for Sunday's series opener against Mets right-hander Kodai Senga, not after what the man who replaced Rojas did in the final two games against the Padres.

Kiké Hernández had two hits, including a single in a two-run second inning, in Wednesday's 8-0 Game 4 victory in San Diego, and he hit a solo home run in the second inning of Game 5 at Dodger Stadium.

Hernández, a career .238 hitter with a .713 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in 11 seasons, has shined brightest on baseball's biggest stage, with a .277 average and .899 OPS, 14 homers and 30 RBIs in 75 postseason games,

Manager Dave Roberts said before Game 5 that "I was just going to find a way to get [Hernández] in there" against San Diego right-hander Yu Darvish, and he may take a similar approach against Senga by starting the right-handed-hitting Hernández in center field and switch-hitter Tommy Edman at shortstop.

But with the Mets expected to start left-handers Sean Manaea (Game 2) and Jose Quintana in the series, the right-handed-hitting Rojas could start those games, with Hernández, a versatile utility man, replacing the left-handed-hitting Gavin Lux at second base, Max Muncy at third or Edman in center.

Vesia in limbo

The Dodgers on Saturday were awaiting MRI test results that could determine if left-hander Alex Vesia, one of the team's key relievers, will be available for the NLCS after he felt cramping in his rib cage while completing his warmups for the eighth inning and was pulled from Friday night's game.

Vesia, who went 5-4 with a 1.76 earned-run average in 67 games this season and gave up one hit, struck out four and walked one in three scoreless innings of three division series games, struck out Jackson Merrill to end the seventh inning before returning for the eighth.

"I was sitting for a little bit too long, I guess, and my right side cramped up," Vesia said Friday night. "I didn't want to risk pitching through something in such a close, important game. We'll take it day by day, but right now, I'm all right. I plan to keep going."

Short hops

This will mark the fourth time the Dodgers and Mets meet in the postseason. The Mets won a five-game division series in 2015 and swept a three-game division series in 2006, but the Dodgers won a memorable seven-game NLCS in 1988, a series that turned on Mike Scioscia's game-tying two-run homer off Dwight Gooden in the ninth inning of Game 4 at Shea Stadium. The Dodgers won 5-4 in 12 innings to even the series and went on to beat the Oakland Athletics in the World Series, which started with Kirk Gibson's famous Game 1 walk-off homer off Dennis Eckersley. … Friday night's division-series clincher was the eighth winner-take-all game Roberts managed, breaking a tie with Bobby Cox and Joe Torre for the most in major league history.

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