Hernández: The first-place Dodgers can't hide their flaws

Dodgers' Max Muncy (13) is greeted by teammates after his ninth-inning grand slam beat the Phillies on Wednesday.

Columnist

May 3, 2023 8:13 PM PT

A familiar scene played out Wednesday, the Dodgers coming back from a five-run deficit to win on a walk-off grand slam, the crowd roaring and the stadium shaking as Randy Newman’s voice played over the loudspeakers.

With a 10-6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, the Dodgers completed a perfect six-game homestand.

They’re now 19-13.

They’re in first place.

On the surface, everything was back to normal. In reality, it wasn’t.

“We’re still finding out who we are as a team,” said Max Muncy, who won the game with the Dodgers’ first walk-off grand slam since Andre Ethier in 2010.

As many games as they won over the last week and as much as manager Dave Roberts said he likes the personalities on his new-look roster, these aren’t the same Dodgers who dominated regular season after regular season in recent years.

Their lineup is top-heavy. Their infield defense borders on awful. Their bullpen is unreliable.

Their starting pitching has major gaps, enough to where they’re doing something they didn’t have to do last year: They reshuffled their rotation ahead of their three-game series in San Diego that starts Friday.

The Dodgers didn’t want Noah Syndergaard to pitch against the Padres, and who could blame them, the $13-million free-agent acquisition posting a 6.32 ERA in his first six starts.

The remedy was to call up 24-year-old prospect Gavin Stone to start the series finale against the Phillies.

Dustin May, who was in line to pitch that game, will instead start against the Padres on Saturday.

Clayton Kershaw will precede him Friday. Julio Urías will jump ahead of Tony Gonsolin in the rotation to pitch Sunday on his usual four days’ rest. Gonsolin is working his way back into shape from a sprained ankle that sidelined him in spring training. He gave up three runs in 4 2/3 innings in his most recent start.

Gavin Stone pitches in the first inning for the Dodgers against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.

Asked if the Dodgers wanted their best starters pitching at Petco Park, Roberts conceded, “I think there’s something to that.”

The reasons for the Dodgers to want to manufacture an advantage are obvious: They’re not as good as they used to be. The underperforming Padres might have the better team on paper for the first time since Andrew Friedman moved to Los Angeles.

At this point, the Dodgers can’t count on their farm system to fortify their rotation. Stone, who has a limited arsenal consisting primarily of a fastball and changeup, lasted just four innings Wednesday and was charged with five runs. Ryan Pepiot is on the 60-day injured list because of a strained side muscle. Top prospect Bobby Miller is still building up arm strength in triple A after sitting out the first month of the season because of a sore shoulder.

The lack of rotation depth has magnified the weakness of the relievers. The Dodgers started Wednesday with the eighth-worst bullpen ERA in the majors.

The team’s infield defense remains a problem. Muncy, who committed his fourth error Wednesday, is a liability at third base. Miguel Vargas is playing second base for the first time in his career. The absence of an everyday shortstop has forced the Dodgers to rotate Chris Taylor, Miguel Rojas and Mookie Betts at the position.

At least the offense is trending in the right direction, in part because of Muncy’s revival over the last three weeks. Muncy leads the majors with 12 homers.

Muncy could be a game changer for the Dodgers, as he and rookie James Outman could lengthen a lineup that was expected to be overly reliant on Betts, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith.

“You hate to say that one guy is sort of a key figure, but if you had to pick one guy who is going well, guys feed off, it’s Max,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers scored 36 runs in their three games against the Phillies and 50 over the homestand, which started with a three-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.

How much of that was a result of the Dodgers figuring out something? How much of that could be attributed to how poorly the Phillies and Cardinals are playing?

The Dodgers might not yet know what they are, but they know what they’re not. Even after a disappointing offseason, they’re not a bad team. They have Betts and Freeman and Smith. They have Kershaw and Urías. Those players alone will keep them in contention for one of the six playoffs spots in the National League.

The mystery is whether they can be more than that. They play the Padres six times over the next week and a half. They should know more after that.