LOS ANGELES — A medical issue has knocked Tanner Scott out of the National League Division Series and the NL Championship Series if the Dodgers advance.
Scott was taken off the roster before Game 4 on Thursday and replaced by left-hander Justin Wrobleski.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts described it as a “minor procedure” that was performed Wednesday night.
“As I understand it, it was abscess excision, some type of lower body (procedure),” Roberts said. “I don’t know a whole lot about it, to be quite honest with you. But I do know that he’s recovering well. And it took place last night. That’s kind of where we’re at.”
MLB approved the roster move. But players taken off the roster with an injury in one postseason round are not eligible for the next round. General Manager Brandon Gomes said the recovery “sounds like anything from seven days to two weeks.” That would make Scott an option to rejoin the Dodgers for the World Series if they advance that far.
After a thoroughly disappointing first season with the Dodgers (a 4.74 ERA and an MLB-leading 10 blown saves), Scott did not pitch in any of the first five postseason games. He first started having problems during the Dodgers’ workout on Tuesday and did not come to the stadium at all on Wednesday.
“It sounded like it was uncomfortable,” Gomes said. “Then we thought he was on the other side of it. And then it got worse to the point of having to have the procedure.”
Despite Scott’s difficulties, the Dodgers did not make a roster move before Game 3 on Wednesday. That left the bullpen one man short after the Dodgers had already elected to carry just 11 pitchers (plus Shohei Ohtani) and led to Clayton Kershaw pitching in relief and giving up five runs in his second inning of work.
“Talking through what the replacement would’ve been – the other challenge is, a lot of our guys threw on the day off,” Gomes said of Wrobleski, Ben Casparius, Kirby Yates and Michael Kopech, who all threw live batting practice to hitters during Tuesday’s workout. “So guys who had pitched, (we were) not even sure they would’ve been available or all that fresh.
“I don’t think it would’ve been a factor (in using Kershaw to absorb two innings in relief). … We ended up going with Wrobleski, who had thrown 20-some-odd pitches in a live BP the day before, and he hasn’t really done back-to-back all that much. So not sure how it would’ve factored in.”
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Roberts pinch-hit for Andy Pages in the seventh inning of Game 3 – even though he would have been facing a left-hander, Ranger Suarez. And he dropped him to ninth in the batting order for Game 4 – against another left-hander, Cristopher Sánchez.
Pages hit .313 against left-handed pitching this year (though with only three of his 27 home runs and a .773 OPS). But he started the postseason 1 for 19 after finishing the regular season in a 4-for-32 freefall.
Roberts said the moves were based on the quality of Pages’ recent at-bats and not a reaction to a couple of poor plays on defense – a throwing error that figured into the Phillies’ three-run fourth inning in Game 3 and a poorly played triple during Game 2.
“It was more of how he looked at the plate,” Roberts said. “I think that Andy’s obviously very talented, had a really nice year. For me, just kind of the at-bats, the quality of the swings he’s getting off, the uncertainty and the look, his demeanor, all that plays into my decision.
“He’s back in there tonight, and my hope is that he comes in fresh and gets back to being the player that he is. But this postseason and even prior, I just haven’t seen the quality of at-bat that we’re used to seeing with Andy.”
Roberts said he thinks Pages “has been pressing” and is not “synced up, maybe, mechanically.”
“I think he’s just tentative,” Roberts said. “They’re bullying him with the fastball at the top of the zone. He’s underneath and he’s late. And he’s just not convicted in his at-bats. And then balls are in the hitting zone, and he’s just not getting off the swings that he needs to.
“(I’m) hoping that he can just kind of calm his nerves and know that he’s a piece of this, a good piece, but he doesn’t need to carry us, and I want to see just kind of those quality at-bats.”
BADER BACK
Phillies manager Rob Thomson indicated Harrison Bader is expected to have recovered enough to be back in the lineup for a Game 5 on Saturday – if the Phillies extend the series that far.
Bader suffered a hamstring/groin injury during Game 1 of the NLDS and has only been available to pinch-hit since then. Brandon Marsh has moved over from left field to take Bader’s place in center field.
ALSO
Six months after being hospitalized following a stroke, former Dodgers player and coach Manny Mota threw out the first pitch before Game 4 on Thursday.