Dodgers 2026 season in thirds: Middle 54 games

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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 29: Shohei Ohtani #17 and Freddie Freeman #5 of the Los Angeles Dodgers talk in the dugout prior to the game against the Seattle Mariners at Dodger Stadium on July 29, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) | Getty Images

Tuesday night’s win over the Seattle Mariners was the Dodgers’ 108th game of the season. That means the 2026 campaign is officially two-thirds complete. Let’s look how the team has done comparing the first 54 games of the season to the middle 54 games

Split	W-L	Run diff.	BA/OBP/SLG	wRC+	ERA	ERA-
1st 54	34-20	+108	.258/.344/.427	113	3.10	74
2nd 54	34-20	+48	.265/.338/.438	113	4.08	97

The Dodgers had the same record in both 54-game stretches, even though they outscored opponents by two runs per game in the first 54 games and less than half that in the middle 54. The offense as a whole was mostly the same, scoring 279 runs in the first third of the season and 277 runs in the second third, with the same wRC+ in both sets.

Let’s delve into the offense first, beginning with the catchers.

Player	Starts	PA	2B-HR	R-RBI	BA/OBP/SLG	wRC+
Smith 1st	38	170	3-4	18-20	.242/.318/.342	85
Smith 2nd	7	31	10-2	5-3	.292/.452/.625	193
Rushing 1st	22	91	2-7	14-17	.263/.352/.550	146
Rushing 2nd	35	147	2-4	22-16	.254/.333/.423	109
Robinson 2nd	6	26	0-0	1-1	.087/.087/.087	-61
Alfonzo 2nd	6	16	2-0	2-2	.188/.188/.313	30
Totals 1st	261	5-11	32-37	.249/.330/.415	107
Totals 2nd	220	14-6	30-22	.233/.313/.399	95

*includes starts at other positions

Will Smith hasn’t played since June 5, so the bulk of the time behind the plate has been claimed by Dalton Rushing, in his first real extended run of consistent catching as a professional. The dropoff, especially offensively, is palpable, with 12 starts from Chuckie Robinson and Eliezer Alfonzo instead of Smith or Rushing.

Player	Starts	PA	2B-HR	R-RBI	SB	wRC+
Ohtani 1st	49	234	12-8	34-29	6	140
Ohtani 2nd	49	222	9-15	34-36	0	158
Freeman 1st	51	222	15-6	24-24	2	123
Freeman 2nd	54	233	12-9	32-29	3	155
Pages 1st	53	219	10-11	30-46	6	118
Pages 2nd	52	242	12-7	33-25	4	107
Betts 1st	19	87	2-4	11-10	0	55
Betts 2nd	51	218	8-9	31-24	2	101
Muncy 1st	47	190	6-12	36-19	0	140
Muncy 2nd	44	186	10-9	23-30	2	126
Tucker 1st	51	224	14-4	35-26	4	110
Tucker 2nd	48	197	4-5	21-25	2	84
T.Hernández 1st	48	200	8-7	29-31	2	118
T.Hernández 2nd	23	90	4-1	13-6	0	42
Freeland 1st	31	112	4-2	11-8	0	81
Freeland 2nd	28	111	3-1	13-11	2	71
Edman 2nd	27	121	6-2	18-18	3	147
Rojas 1st	19	89	3-1	7-8	0	79
Rojas 2nd	18	79	6-2	9-10	0	121
Call 1st	10	58	4-0	11-9	0	137
Call 2nd	17	83	1-1	8-7	1	64
Ward 1st	1	6	0-0	0-1	0	85
Ward 2nd	16	54	4-3	8-11	0	102
K.Hernández 1st	1	2	1-0	0-1	0	605
K.Hernández 2nd	1	2	1-1	2-1	0	990
Kim 1st	36	127	3-1	15-10	5	84
Kim 2nd	0	4	0-0	1-1	0	36
Espinal 1st	9	44	3-1	3-3	0	62
Espinal 2nd	3	16	0-0	1-3	4	110
Totals 1st	1,812	75-57	247-226	25	.260/.347/.422
Totals 2nd	1,857	80-65	247-237	18	.269/.341/443

Shohei Ohtani (.306/.385/.596) and Freddie Freeman (.340/.399/.529) paced the offense in the middle third of the season, with Ohtani finding his power after a relative down period in that regard over the first 54 games.

Corner outfield production was abysmal in the middle third from Kyle Tucker (.227/.315/.337) and Teoscar Hernández (.183/.244/.268), with Hernández missing a month with a hamstring strain. Max Muncy and Andy Pages stayed productive, and Tommy Edman’s return (.330/.403/.481) added another dimension to the offense.

Now, the pitching.

Pitcher	G-QS	W-L	IP	BB-K	ERA	WHIP	xERA
Yamamoto 1st	10-8	4-4	64	13-59	3.09	0.984	4.02
Yamamoto 2nd	9-7	7-2	61.7	15-59	2.34	0.809	2.47
Wrobleski 1st	9-5	6-2	55.7	14-31	3.07	1.114	4.31
Wrobleski 2nd	9-7	5-0	57	7-56	2.68	0.930	4.35
Ohtani 1st	8-7	4-2	49	13-54	0.73	0.837	2.52
Ohtani 2nd	6-5	4-0	36.7	13-41	3.19	1.091	2.97
Sasaki 1st	9-2	3-3	45.7	18-43	4.93	1.423	5.21
Sasaki 2nd	9-3	1-2	48	18-51	4.50	1.167	3.60
Sheehan 1st	10-4	3-1	51.7	14-59	4.70	1.239	4.08
Sheehan 2nd	9-1	1-6	41	15-45	5.27	1.268	3.45
Glasnow 1st	7-4	3-0	39.7	13-49	2.72	0.832	2.61
Snell 1st	1-0	0-1	3	2-5	12.00	2.667	3.91
Lauer 2nd	9-6	5-0	51.7	13-30	2.96	0.987	4.06
Totals 1st	53-30	23-13	308.7	87-300	3.29	1.089
Totals 2nd	51-29	23-10	296	81-282	3.38	1.020

The Dodgers were without Tyler Glasnow after his productive first third of the season, and didn’t have Blake Snell at all. But Eric Lauer filled in quite nicely, making for a surprisingly stable six-man rotation, even with Shohei Ohtani’s knee inflammation keeping him off the mound since July 3.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto was excellent in the middle portion of the season, averaging 6.85 innings per start.

The Dodgers used one true bullpen game in the first third of the season, and three such contests in the middle third. Lauer followed an opener on June 22 with six scoreless innings, so I counted that among the Dodgers’ quality starts total. On the season, they have 58 real quality starts (plus one relief appearance by Lauer), nine more than the next-best team.

Pitcher	W-L, Sv	IP	BB-K	ERA	WHIP	xERA
Díaz 1st	1-0, 4	6	5-10	10.50	2.333	4.65
Díaz 2nd	0-0, 1	1	0-0	9.00	2.000	—
Scott 1st	1-1, 4	21.7	3-25	1.25	0.600	2.92
Scott 2nd	0-2, 12	22	3-31	3.68	1.045	2.65
Vesia 1st	1-1. 2	18.7	9-25	2.41	0.964	2.55
Vesia 2nd	0-0, 1	18.3	16-27	2.95	1.418	3.26
Dreyer 1st	2-1	21.7	6-24	2.08	0.969	2.88
Dreyer 2nd	2-0	21	6-25	4.29	1.095	4.25
Henriquez 1st	2-0	19.3	8-18	3.26	1.034	2.68
Henriquez 2nd	2-1. 1	22.3	10-24	2.42	0.985	2.57
Treinen 1st	1-1, 1	16.7	6-16	3.24	1.320	6.62
Treinen 2nd	3-0	6.3	4-9	4.26	1.421	2.65
Klein 1st	1-2, 1	22.3	6-25	2.01	1.075	2.63
Klein 2nd	2-2, 1	18	14-21	5.50	2.056	4.34
Hurt 1st	1-0	16	4-19	1.13	0.875	2.45
Hurt 2nd	2-1, 1	17.3	14-20	7.79	1.846	4.99
Stewart 1st	0-0	2	1-3	0.00	0.500	1.62
Stewart 2nd	0-1, 1	12.7	4-11	2.84	0.789	2.16
Phillips 2nd	0-2	6.7	1-9	6.75	1.351	6.80
Casparius 1st	0-1	4.7	4-4	9.64	2.143	6.60
Gervase 1st	0-0	5	1-1	1.80	1.400	3.95
Gervase 2nd	0-0	2.7	3-3	3.38	1.875	3.89
Mills 1st	0-0	3.3	7-1	8.10	3.000	8.20
Mills 2nd	0-0	1	0-3	0.00	0.000	0.00
Barnes 1st	0-0	2	1-1	0.00	1.000	4.06
Barnes 2nd	0-1	8	3-4	7.88	1.875	8.70
McDermott 1st	0-0	1	0-1	0.00	1.000	2.01
McDermott 2nd	0-0	1.3	0-0	13.50	1.500	3.54
Hernández 1st	0-0	2	0-1	0.00	0.000	1.29
Hernández 2nd	0-0	15.7	12-14	9.19	1.979	6.65
Knack 2nd	0-0	5	2-4	9.00	1.600	8.47
Eder 1st	1-0	4	1-1	2.25	1.000	10.47
Rojas 1st	0-0	1	1-0	9.00	2.000	6.45
Rojas 2nd	0-0	3	0-0	15.00	2.667	10.42
Totals 1st	11-7, 12	167.3	64-179	2.74	1.094
Totals 2nd	11-10, 18	182.3	92-205	5.23	1.437

Relief pitching is the biggest difference in the first third and second third of the season, with a walk rate over 40 percent higher in the middle 54 games compared to the first 54.

Will Klein and Kyle Hurt were load-bearing members of the bullpen in the first third of the season, combining for a 1.64 ERA with 10 walks in 38 1/3 innings. But in the middle third of the season they had a combined 6.62 ERA and a stunning 28 walks in 35 1/3 innings. Walks ate into Alex Vesia’s middle third as well though his overall numbers were otherwise mostly fine.

Brock Stewart has been a stabilizing force since returning from the injured list. Evan Phillips is back too after Tommy John surgery, but has allowed four home runs in his seven appearances.

The bullpen in the middle third also allowed a combined 28 runs and 11 home runs in 28 2/3 mop-up innings from Jonathan Hernández, Charlie Barnes, and Landon Knack.

Two thirds of the season are complete. The final 54 games start Thursday night against the Mariners.

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