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Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he would be scoreboard watching on Sunday afternoon.
But he insisted he didn’t care how things played out.
His team, of course, had already been locked in as the National League’s No. 3 seed, set to host a best-of-three wild card series starting Tuesday.
What wasn’t clear until the end of play on Sunday, however, was whether the Dodgers would be facing the Cincinnati Reds or New York Mets to open the postseason.
“I honestly don’t really care, I really don’t,” Roberts said. “I think the way we’re playing right now, it doesn’t matter who we play.”
In a photo finish for the NL’s final wild card berth, all the Reds needed was a win against the Milwaukee Brewers, or a Mets loss. The Mets needed a win and a Cincinnati defeat.
Turned out, the Reds got a Mets loss as the Marlins knocked off the Mets, 4-0, in Miami after Cincinnati dropped its finale to the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-2.
Thus, it will be the Reds coming to Chavez Ravine this week.
Here are nine things to know about the Reds ahead of Game 1 at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday at 6:08 p.m. (ESPN):
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Tito magic
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On Sept. 5, the Reds appeared left for dead. They were a game under .500. They were trailing the New York Mets by six games for the final NL wild card spot. They had two other teams to catapult in the standings.
But then, they reeled off 13 wins in their next 21 games, including an 8-3 run to end the year. They clinched a playoff spot on the final day of the season, their first in a full campaign since 2013.
And they did it, first and foremost, by following the lead of their veteran manager.
At 66 years old, two-time World Series champion and three-time manager of the year Terry Francona came out of what appeared to be his managerial retirement to take another crack at contention with upstart Cincinnati.
His first season wasn’t easy, with a young pitching staff and a patchwork offense struggling to find consistency for much of the year. But over the last month, the Reds hit their stride while the Mets quickly collapsed. Now, Francona is back in the postseason for the 12th time in his 24-year career. His 44 career playoff wins are seventh-most all-time, one spot behind Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
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Electric Elly
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The Reds do not have an overpowering offense. They rank just 15th in scoring, 20th in batting average and 21st in home runs and slugging percentage. They have just two qualified batters with an above-league-average mark in OPS+.
One of them, however, is Elly De La Cruz.
And even at just 23 years old, he has become the biggest threat in their lineup.
In just his third MLB, De La Cruz earned his second All-Star selection while batting .264 with 21 home runs, 85 RBIs, a .774 OPS, and 37 stolen bases. In each of the last four categories, he leads the team.
A 6-foot-5, 200-pound switch-hitter, De La Cruz is prone to strikeouts (he has 178 this season) and is not hitting the ball as hard as he did last year. But he is also one of the game’s most intriguing and exciting up-and-coming talents, and will now get his first crack on a postseason stage.
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Old friend alert
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Nine months after being traded from the Dodgers to the Reds this past offseason, Gavin Lux will be playing October baseball at Dodger Stadium again.
Now in his sixth MLB season, Lux has still not realized the top-prospect potential he came up with in Los Angeles a half-decade ago. While he has hit a team-best .269 during his first season in Cincinnati, he has just five home runs, a .725 OPS, and a negative mark in wins-above-replacement according to Baseball Reference.
What Lux has provided to his new club, however, is some World Series-winning experience. He has gone from a young role player on the Dodgers, to something of a veteran leader with the Reds.
Lux, whom the Dodgers traded away after signing Hyeseong Kim in January, has served in a utility role this year, getting starts at second base, left field and as the designated hitter. He didn’t have a great postseason with the Dodgers last year, when he hit just .176 during the team’s title run. But now, he has a chance to help upset the team that dealt him coming into the season.
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Hunter Greene homecoming
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Eight years ago, the Reds drafted right-handed pitcher Hunter Greene second overall out of Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks.
Now, after being a key part of their rebuild, the 25-year-old will get the chance to make his postseason debut at Dodger Stadium.
The strength of the Reds is their starting rotation, which ranks seventh in the majors in ERA this season and fourth during their surge since Sept. 6. Greene has been a key piece of the puzzle, going 7-4 with a 2.76 ERA and 132 strikeouts in 19 starts despite missing more than two months in the middle of the year with a groin strain.
Greene is one of the hardest-throwing starters in the majors, with a fastball that averages 99.5 mph and a slider that clocks in at almost 90 mph. He’s one of the sport’s best at getting chase, whiff and strikeouts, ranking fifth among pitchers with 100 innings with a 31.4% K-rate.
Greene will also be lined up for a potential Game 1 start, having not pitched since Wednesday. The start before that was perhaps the best of his career: A one-hit, nine-strikeout shutout of the Chicago Cubs on Sept. 18.
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The rest of the rotation
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Greene might be the most gifted Reds’ starter, but others in their rotation have been even more productive this season.
Andrew Abbott, a 26-year-old left-hander who excels at limiting hard contact, is 9-7 with a 2.80 ERA in 28 starts. Nick Lodolo, another left-hander with an excellent curveball/changeup combination, is 9-8 with a 3.30 ERA, also in 28 starts.
The team’s wins and strikeout leader is Brady Singer, a lengthy 6-foot-5 right-hander who went 14-11 with a 3.95 ERA. Zack Littell is the other member of the Cincinnati rotation, though the trade deadline acquisition hasn’t been as good with the Reds (4.39 ERA) as he was with the Tampa Bay Rays earlier this season (3.58 ERA).
The real question for next week is which of those arms are available. Abbott and Singer pitched on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, to help the Reds clinch their playoff berth. Lodolo and Littell last threw the two days before that.
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Red(s)-hot closer
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Emilio Pagán was no stranger to the ninth inning before this year, having recorded 33 saves in his first eight MLB campaigns.
But this year, the veteran righty has been among the most dependable closers in the majors, as one of just six relievers with at least 30 saves (he has 31) and a sub-3.00 ERA (his is 2.93).
With his fastball/splitter/cutter mix, Pagán has been especially good down the stretch, having converted five consecutive save opportunities and thrown nine consecutive scoreless innings since Sept. 8.
The Reds’ talent might pale in comparison to the Dodgers at most spots on the roster. But the reliability of their closer is one place where they have a clear edge.
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Ohtani killers?
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The Reds finished the season with just one left-handed pitcher, Brent Suter, in their bullpen.
But when it comes to matching up with Shohei Ohtani, they do have a couple righties with successful personal histories against him.
Set-up man Graham Ashcraft and multi-inning swingman Nick Martinez have both faced Ohtani 10 times in their careers. The soon-to-be four-time MVP is 0-for-nine in both matchups, having drawn only one walk against each.
For reference: There are only seven other pitchers against whom Ohtani is at least 0-for-nine in his career (one of them, coincidentally, is a current teammate: Clayton Kershaw).
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A deep bullpen
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The Reds have two other relievers to know — and they might be the best two on the team.
Right-hander Tony Santillan not only led the majors with 80 appearances this season, but did so while posting a 2.44 ERA and allowing hitters to bat only .200 against him.
Another right-hander, 24-year-old Connor Phillips, has only been a full-time fixture on the Reds’ big-league roster since mid-August. But in that time, he has allowed only three runs in 18 ⅔ innings while striking out 26 batters and giving up five total hits.
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Wild-card wackiness
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The Reds will be the lower-seeded underdog in next week’s series. But recent history suggests that could work to their benefit.
In three postseasons since MLB expanded its playoff field in 2022, road teams have won in eight of the 12 best-of-three wild card series — a reminder that with such a small sample size, anything is possible in the crapshoot of October.
This year will be the Dodgers’ first time playing in the new wild card round, after they secured byes to the division series in each of the past three seasons.
The post Nine concerns the Dodgers should have about facing the Reds in the NL wild-card series appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
