The Dodgers and Padres squared off this week in their first of four 2025 regular-season series and the first rematch since the Southern California foes faced off in last year’s NLDS. With the Dodgers holding a one-game lead on both the Padres and Giants atop the NL West entering the series, the stakes were readily apparent.

The back-and-forth series opener — an 8-7 Dodgers victory in 10 innings — was an appropriate reintroduction to this rivalry, offering a much more elevated and dramatic contest than what you’d expect on a Monday in June. The second game Tuesday was far less compelling, as L.A.’s bullpen game went awry in a hurry and San Diego cruised to an 11-1 blowout. A more competitive atmosphere resumed in Wednesday’s rubber match, with a three-run homer from Teoscar Hernández in the sixth providing the necessary cushion for a 5-2 Dodgers victory.

Here are four takeaways from the first edition of Dodgers-Padres in 2025:

Dodgers’ rotation carousel continues

The ever-evolving enigma that is the Dodgers’ rotation provided its latest round of plot twists this week. Dustin May, one of just two L.A. starters along with Yoshinobu Yamamoto to take the ball every turn through the rotation, scuffled Monday, surrendering six runs across five innings and mustering just one strikeout, tied for a season low. On Tuesday, veteran reliever Lou Trivino became the 14th pitcher to start a game for the Dodgers this season, putting Los Angeles atop a leaderboard on which it surely would prefer not to be featured. Sure, Trivino took the ball as an opener, but his joining the list of L.A. starters is emblematic of what the Dodgers have been navigating with pitcher injuries this season — for the second straight year. Last season, the Dodgers used 17 starting pitchers, which was tied with the White Sox and Brewers for third-most in baseball, behind only the Marlins (20) and Angels (18).

In Game 3, the Dodgers pivoted from their originally announced starter, Justin Wrobleski, and gave the ball to another rookie in Ben Casparius, whom, manager Dave Roberts revealed before the game, the organization is considering stretching out as a starter to help cover the missing innings on the injured list. Casparius has excelled as a reliever since getting called up late last season, including in multi-inning stints, but he was developed as a starter in the minors, making him an ideal candidate to transition back to a rotation role. Casparius allowed one run across four innings Wednesday; his 54 pitches were tied for the second-most he has thrown in a game this season.

Of course, the Dodgers’ most important developments on the mound this week did not take place during any of the games at Petco Park, but rather, in the hours before Tuesday’s contest. The Dodgers received a pair of encouraging updates on two of their highest-profile pitchers working their way back: Blake Snell, who signed a $182 million free-agent contract over the winter and made two starts before going on the injured list due to a shoulder issue, and Shohei Ohtani, who hasn’t pitched in a big-league game since Aug. 23, 2023, but has 23 home runs as the Dodgers’ DH. You know, those guys.

Snell threw his first bullpen session since April on Tuesday and came out of it feeling great, seemingly marking the first substantial step toward his return to the rotation amid what has been a frustrating and prolonged absence from his new team. Then Ohtani participated in another live bullpen session and looked sharp enough to warrant an intriguing suggestion from Roberts that the international sensation could perhaps resume his two-way exploits for the Dodgers before the All-Star break.

It’s still unclear when Snell or Ohtani will take the mound again in an official capacity, but any notable progress toward their returns counts as major news for L.A. as the team continues to search for enough innings on a nearly daily basis.

Dylan Cease delivers his best start of the season

With ample run support from the Padres’ bats against the Dodgers’ wayward bullpen game, Dylan Cease didn’t need to be perfect to secure the win in Tuesday’s 11-1 victory. Nevertheless, the 29-year-old right-hander turned in an especially excellent outing. He struck out a season-high 11 across seven scoreless innings while allowing just three hits, albeit with a season-high five free passes.

With some of the nastiest stuff in the league, Cease has been the epitome of effectively wild for much of his career, with his ability to rack up whiffs counterbalancing his occasionally shoddy control. Tuesday represented the good version of this genre of pitching, as Cease coaxed a ridiculous 24 swing-and-misses from Dodgers hitters to stifle run-scoring opportunities even when the walks enabled some traffic on the bases. Cease is one of just two pitchers to tally at least 24 whiffs in a game multiple times this season; Tarik Skubal is the other.

It was a refreshing showing from Cease, whose value to San Diego this season has been rooted more in durability than dominance. A complete clunker on April 8, in which he allowed nine runs in four innings in Sacramento, has sullied his overall season statline — remove that start, and Cease’s ERA would be 3.39, not 4.28 — but we also haven’t seen that many impressive pitching lines from the righty this year. Tuesday was Cease’s first scoreless outing of the season, which makes this showing against a stellar Dodgers lineup very encouraging. He remains a pivotal character for the Padres in their quest to dethrone the Dodgers atop the NL West and make serious noise in October. And on an individual level, each Cease outing carries weight considering his status as one of the best starting pitchers scheduled to hit free agency this winter.

Manny Machado’s days as an MVP candidate are not over

For the first month of the season, Fernando Tatis Jr. appeared to be the likeliest Padre to be included in NL MVP discussions, with his power, speed and defense contributing heavily to San Diego’s success. But Tatis has quietly faded recently, while Machado has reemerged as the undisputed face of the franchise and is once again producing like one of the best players in baseball, right when it seemed his decline might’ve begun.

Over the previous two seasons, Machado’s 6.9 fWAR and 118 wRC+ ranked eighth and seventh, respectively, among third basemen. Those were respectable marks but hardly commensurate with the MVP-caliber production he demonstrated from 2020 to ’22, when Machado’s 14.2 fWAR and 140 wRC+ ranked second among third basemen, behind only José Ramírez.

This year, Machado has reclaimed his rightful spot in the inner circle of hot corner excellence, once again ranking second in WAR behind Ramírez and currently boasting a 154 wRC+, which would be the best mark of his celebrated career. With two hits Monday, plus another three hits and five RBI on Tuesday, Machado has 24 multi-hit games this season; only Aaron Judge, Jacob Wilson, Freddie Freeman and Ramírez have more.

It took a few years for the Padres to start winning after Machado’s landmark signing in 2019, but there is no doubt that his steady and constant presence at third base has fundamentally defined this golden era of Padres baseball. That reality is as true as ever in 2025.

Where does Michael Conforto fit on this Dodgers team?

“There’s no such thing as a bad one-year deal,” the saying goes, but it’s difficult to deny that Michael Conforto has been a downright disappointment since joining the Dodgers on a one-year, $17 million pact this past offseason. A strong first couple of weeks suggested that the veteran outfielder could provide a boost to the bottom of the L.A. lineup, but he faded fast: Conforto registered as many extra-base hits in his first eight games as a Dodger (6) as he did over his next 52, with his 80 wRC+ ranking 151st out of 174 hitters with at least 200 plate appearances. This extended cold streak serves as valuable context for what we saw from Conforto this week against the Padres, as the series offered reason to be modestly optimistic about Conforto’s role moving forward.

On Monday, Conforto did not start against Padres starter Nick Pivetta, marking just the second time this season that he didn’t start against a right-handed pitcher. Instead, the Dodgers started Andy Pages in left field, with rookie Hyeseong Kim in center and Tommy Edman at second. With the emergence of Kim, the return of the versatile Edman and Pages proving that he belongs in the lineup every day, the Dodgers have three seemingly superior options to Conforto at their disposal.

Then again, Conforto was right back in the lineup Tuesday and Wednesday, and he launched his fourth homer of the season in the series finale, so perhaps it’s too early to assume the Dodgers are ready to relegate Conforto to bench bat duties. Still, these four players and how they fit into three lineup spots (LF, CF, 2B) are certainly a roster-construction subplot worth monitoring.

There was a one-handed finish. A slow stroll out of the batter’s box. And a leisurely, long-awaited trip around the bases.

It’d been a while since Teoscar Hernández last admired such a momentous home run ball.

It was a sight the struggling Dodgers had come to sorely miss.

Ever since returning from an adductor strain last month, Hernández had endured one of his coldest stretches at the plate since joining the Dodgers last year. He was batting .171 over 20 games since his mid-May return to the lineup. He had just three hits in 38 at-bats over his last 10 contests.

Read more:‘Very awkward.’ Dodgers wave the white flag historically early in rout to Padres

That slump, which also included only one home run since April 28, finally reached a tipping point ahead of Wednesday’s series finale against the San Diego Padres, with manager Dave Roberts moving Hernández out of his customary cleanup spot in the batting order in favor of hot-hitting catcher Will Smith.

“I love him in the four [spot] when he’s right,” Roberts said pregame. “But clearly the last few weeks, he’s been scuffling.”

With one swing in the top of the sixth, however, Hernández finally started to look right again.

In what was a tie game at Petco Park, on a day first place in the National League West was up for grabs, Hernández delivered the decisive blow in the Dodgers’ 5-2 win over the Padres, belting a three-run home run to straightaway center that sent the club a pivotal series victory.

“It was a big hit,” Roberts said. “The last few weeks, he’s … felt like he hasn’t contributed. But he has a knack for getting big hits. And that’s as big as they get, so far at this point in the season.”

Hernández’s sixth-inning at-bat was everything his recent trips to the plate hadn’t been during his weeks-long slump.

Read more:Dodgers-Padres lives up to the rivalry hype as L.A. prevails in 10th inning

He finally got ahead in a 2-and-0 count — something Roberts had noted was a rarity for the 32-year-old slugger of late, in large part because of his inability to punish mistakes in his hitting zone.

“Balls that he should move forward, he’s not,” Roberts said. “And with that, there’s more chase, because he’s getting behind.”

And when Padres reliever Jeremiah Estrada did serve up a mistake over the plate, Hernández didn’t miss it, clobbering a 2-and-1 fastball down the middle for a 420-foot drive that broke open the game.

“[It felt] really good, especially because I put the team in front,” said Hernández, whose home run was his 11th of the year and extended his team lead in RBIs with 47. “I’ve been working really hard, every at-bat, trying to get good pitches to hit … trying to get back the feeling that I had before I got injured.”

The Dodgers (41-28) got other heroics in Wednesday’s rubber-match triumph, one that gives them a two-game lead in the division over the Padres (38-29).

Ben Casparius gave up just one run in a four-inning start, replacing originally listed starter Justin Wrobleski in what could be a permanent move to the starting rotation for the rookie right-hander (or, at least, until the rest of the Dodgers’ banged-up pitching staff gets healthy in the coming months).

“He obviously came up as a starter … [and] where we are at now currently, he’s certainly showing that he’s one of five,” Roberts said of Casparius, who had a 2.93 ERA as a swingman out of the bullpen to start the year. “The next time he’s on the mound, it will be as a starter.”

Andy Pages saved Casparius from another run along the way, throwing out a runner at home plate in the second inning with a 99 mph strike from center field. It was Pages’ fifth outfield assist of the season, tied for fifth-most in the majors.

“He’s been doing it all year,” Casparius said. “I haven’t seen anybody play in the outfield at a level he has this year. It’s honestly, at this point, something that I think we all expect. And he picked me up big time right there.”

Michael Conforto, meanwhile, got the game tied at 1-1 with an opposite-field homer in the fifth, marking just his second long ball since April 5.

Read more:‘Big brother, little brother.’ How Teoscar Hernández, Andy Pages bond is helping Dodgers

And even at the start of the sixth inning, the Dodgers did some little things right to set up Hernández’s go-ahead blast. With one out, Freddie Freeman legged out an infield single, despite playing through not only his gimpy right ankle but also “a little quad thing” Roberts said he has been dealing with in recent days. Then, Smith reached base for the first of three times on the day by drawing a key one-out walk.

The Padres didn’t go away down the stretch. A Hyeseong Kim throwing error led to one run in the sixth, trimming the Dodgers’ lead back down to two runs. Then in the seventh, the command problems that plagued recently activated reliever Michael Kopech during his minor-league rehab stint last month reared their ugly head, with the right-hander issuing three-straight one-out walks in the seventh to load the bases.

Recently surging left-hander Anthony Banda, however, escaped that jam with the help of an impressive play by Mookie Betts at shortstop, who got to Manny Machado’s 3-and-0 grounder in the hole and made an on-time, one-hop throw to Freeman at short.

“Securing it, being able to throw from different arm angles, that’s something he just didn’t do well last year, given the lack of reps,” Roberts said. “But that’s a play that, in a big spot, time of game, the stakes right there, to make that play was huge.”

Tanner Scott and Alex Vesia then took care of the eighth and ninth innings, ensuring the Dodgers left San Diego in first place in the division.

“It’s fun playing these guys,” Roberts said of the Padres, who will make a return visit to Dodger Stadium next week for a four-game series. “They know they’re talented. We know we’re talented. It’s a fun series. It’s a big series. It’s not the end-all, be-all in June. But it was fun.”

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Detroit Tigers right-hander Jackson Jobe entered 2025 as the top pitching prospect in baseball and will exit the year as a Tommy John surgery patient.

The rookie, already on the 15-day IL due to a flexor strain, will undergo surgery on his right UCL and miss the remainder of the 2025 season, the team announced Wednesday. The timing of the injury makes it likely that Jobe will miss a large chunk of the 2026 season as well.

The Tigers hold the best record in baseball at 44-24 entering Wednesday, but Jobe’s injury is a significant blow for the team’s present and future. He was a unanimous top-five prospect entering the season and the top pitching prospect if you don’t count Roki Sasaki, who played at the top level in Japan for years before joining the Los Angeles Dodgers.

MLB Pipeline grades Jobe, the third pick of the 2021 MLB Draft, as having four plus pitches, anchored by a fastball that can touch the high 90s. He made the Tigers’ big-league club out of spring training and held a 4.22 ERA in his first 10 starts.

Jobe’s rookie season was put on hiatus at the end of May, after a start in which his fastball velocity was noticeably down. He was shut down and placed on the IL due to what was called a Grade 1 strain of the flexor tendon in his right elbow. Further testing apparently revealed more damage.

Jobe shares a last name with Dr. Frank Jobe, the inventor of Tommy John surgery, but there’s no relation.

Without Jobe, the Tigers’ rotation has been anchored by Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty and Casey Mize, with promising right-hander Reese Olson also on the IL.

Detroit Tigers right-hander Jackson Jobe entered 2025 as the top pitching prospect in baseball and will exit the year as a Tommy John surgery patient.

The rookie, already on the 15-day IL due to a flexor strain, will undergo surgery on his right UCL and miss the remainder of the 2025 season, the team announced Wednesday. The timing of the injury makes it likely that Jobe will miss a large chunk of the 2026 season as well.

The Tigers hold the best record in baseball at 44-24 entering Wednesday, but Jobe’s injury is a significant blow for the team’s present and future. He was a unanimous top-five prospect entering the season and the top pitching prospect if you don’t count Roki Sasaki, who played at the top level in Japan for years before joining the Los Angeles Dodgers.

MLB Pipeline grades Jobe, the third pick of the 2021 MLB Draft, as having four plus pitches, anchored by a fastball that can touch the high 90s. He made the Tigers’ big-league club out of spring training and held a 4.22 ERA in his first 10 starts.

Jobe’s rookie season was put on hiatus at the end of May, after a start in which his fastball velocity was noticeably down. He was shut down and placed on the IL due to what was called a Grade 1 strain of the flexor tendon in his right elbow. Further testing apparently revealed more damage.

Jobe shares a last name with Dr. Frank Jobe, the inventor of Tommy John surgery, but there’s no relation.

Without Jobe, the Tigers’ rotation has been anchored by Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty and Casey Mize, with promising right-hander Reese Olson also on the IL.

Hunter Dobbins inserted himself into the New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox rivalry in a bizarre way this week. It did not work out well for him.

The Red Sox pitcher made his first start against the Yankees last weekend but made more headlines with what he said going into the game. The right-hander, a Red Sox fan growing up, certainly said what his fan base wanted to hear, claiming that he would retire rather than sign a contract with the Yankees. 

But then he added a couple of other claims, via the Boston Herald.

Dobbins mentioned that his father, Lance Dobbins, was “really good friends” with Yankees great Andy Pettitte and had a short career with the team before becoming a die-hard Sox fan:

“He was actually drafted twice by the Yankees,” his son said. “Signed with them his last year, and then he got traded over to the Diamondbacks.”

That story went off the rails Tuesday after some fact-checking by the New York Post’s Joel Sherman. The Post could not verify any of Dobbins’ claims, with no record of a draft pick under that name. 

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who has held the position since 1998 and has been with the team’s front office since 1986, said he has no memory of drafting Lance Dobbins, and a check with the amateur department revealed no record of such a pick.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

There appears to be a Lance Dobbins who played professional baseball, but only in the independent leagues in 1996 and 1997, according to Baseball Reference. B-Ref’s database of draft picks also contains nobody by the name of Lance Dobbins, and a scan through the website of Alabama baseball, where Dobbins claimed his father played before going pro, reveals no mention of a Dobbins since 1995.

With all of this flying around, Hunter spoke with the media Wednesday and didn’t directly repudiate his father but admitted he didn’t double-check any claims, either:

“The whole backstory is stuff that I had heard growing up and seeing pictures from my dad. At the end of the day, it’s just from my dad and what kind of grew my love for the game. At the end of the day, I don’t go and fact-check my dad or anything like that.”

When asked how the fallout of the Post’s story affected him, Dobbins dismissed it:

“Doesn’t phase me. Doesn’t bother me. I love working with the media and everybody here. Everybody’s been great, so my focus is performing for the guys here in the locker room, for the fans of Boston. Something that’s a few hours away doesn’t phase me.”

While Dobbins said he doesn’t mind what New York is saying, he is scheduled to make another start against the Yankees on Saturday, the day before Father’s Day.

One other oddity of the story is that while Lance Dobbins’ apparent narrative didn’t hold up, there is record of a Chris Dobbins who was drafted by the Yankees in the 28th round of the 1999 MLB Draft, from a community college in Alabama (though not the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, as the Herald story indicated). It could be nothing, given that Hunter didn’t correct any part of the record Wednesday, but it’s at least quite a coincidence. 

The Red Sox drafted Hunter Dobbins out of Texas Tech in the eighth round of the 2021 MLB Draft. He made his MLB debut this year and holds a 4.20 ERA in 49 1/3 innings so far in his career.

Hunter Dobbins inserted himself into the New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox rivalry in a bizarre way this week. It did not work out well for him.

The Red Sox pitcher made his first start against the Yankees last weekend but made more headlines with what he said going into the game. The right-hander, a Red Sox fan growing up, certainly said what his fan base wanted to hear, claiming that he would retire rather than sign a contract with the Yankees. 

But then he added a couple of other claims, via the Boston Herald.

Dobbins mentioned that his father, Lance Dobbins, was “really good friends” with Yankees great Andy Pettitte and had a short career with the team before becoming a die-hard Sox fan:

“He was actually drafted twice by the Yankees,” his son said. “Signed with them his last year, and then he got traded over to the Diamondbacks.”

That story went off the rails Tuesday after some fact-checking by the New York Post’s Joel Sherman. The Post could not verify any of Dobbins’ claims, with no record of a draft pick under that name. 

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who has held the position since 1998 and has been with the team’s front office since 1986, said he has no memory of drafting Lance Dobbins, and a check with the amateur department revealed no record of such a pick.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

There appears to be a Lance Dobbins who played professional baseball, but only in the independent leagues in 1996 and 1997, according to Baseball Reference. B-Ref’s database of draft picks also contains nobody by the name of Lance Dobbins, and a scan through the website of Alabama baseball, where Dobbins claimed his father played before going pro, reveals no mention of a Dobbins since 1995.

With all of this flying around, Hunter spoke with the media Wednesday and didn’t directly repudiate his father but admitted he didn’t double-check any claims, either:

“The whole backstory is stuff that I had heard growing up and seeing pictures from my dad. At the end of the day, it’s just from my dad and what kind of grew my love for the game. At the end of the day, I don’t go and fact-check my dad or anything like that.”

When asked how the fallout of the Post’s story affected him, Dobbins dismissed it:

“Doesn’t phase me. Doesn’t bother me. I love working with the media and everybody here. Everybody’s been great, so my focus is performing for the guys here in the locker room, for the fans of Boston. Something that’s a few hours away doesn’t phase me.”

While Dobbins said he doesn’t mind what New York is saying, he is scheduled to make another start against the Yankees on Saturday, the day before Father’s Day.

One other oddity of the story is that while Lance Dobbins’ apparent narrative didn’t hold up, there is record of a Chris Dobbins who was drafted by the Yankees in the 28th round of the 1999 MLB Draft, from a community college in Alabama (though not the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, as the Herald story indicated). It could be nothing, given that Hunter didn’t correct any part of the record Wednesday, but it’s at least quite a coincidence. 

The Red Sox drafted Hunter Dobbins out of Texas Tech in the eighth round of the 2021 MLB Draft. He made his MLB debut this year and holds a 4.20 ERA in 49 1/3 innings so far in his career.