Having previously clinched the National League West for a seventh consecutive season, the Los Angeles Dodgers secured home-field advantage through at least the NL Championship Series on Tuesday night.
They did so via an Atlanta Braves loss, but the Dodgers then guaranteed themselves the best record outright in the NL by defeating the San Diego Padres. Prior to that, it was possible for the Braves and Dodgers to finish with identical records.
As the Dodgers remain in pursuit of potentially overtaking the Houston Astros and New York Yankees in the standings, they also are juggling getting players healthy ahead of the postseason beginning.
That was at the forefront of their minds with removing Corey Seager in the bottom of the third inning on Wednesday because of left hamstring trouble, according to Alanna Rizzo of SportsNet LA:
Corey Seager removed from the game with hamstring tightness, per the #Dodgers.
— Alanna Rizzo (@alannarizzo) September 26, 2019
Seager went 1-for-2 with an RBI double prior to his early exit. It came after flying out to right field in the top of the third. Seager didn’t do much running on it but his jog down the first-base line and to the dugout did not reveal any cause for concern.
With the double — his 43rd of the season — Seager extended his hitting streak to a season-best 10 games. He previously hit safely in nine consecutive games from June 2-11.
The 25-year-old was named NL Player of the Week for the first time in his career, earning recognition after a productive stretch during the period of Sept. 16-22. Seager went 10-for-20 with two doubles, one triple, one home run, seven RBI and a 1.000 slugging percentage over five starts over that span.
“The last week and a half to two weeks, I just see (Seager hitting to) the middle of the field,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said this week. “Whether it’s right-center to center, hitting the flat groundball or the left-center double, he’s covering a lot of different pithes.
“He hit a homer a couple nights ago on a breaking ball, today left-on-left, took a couple good breaking balls down below and then got a pitch he could handle and hit it to right-center. He’s just taking really good at-bats.
“When guys stay to he big part of the field a lot of good things can happen. We’ll really riding him.”
Including Wednesday, Seager started each of the Dodgers’ 20 games thus far in September. He spent one month on the 10-day injured list this season because of a strain in the same left hamstring.
