As we head into a big series this week against the NL leading Philadelphia Phillies, I got just one question in my head…

Do our young guys have “it”?

For now, our scheduled starters for this series are Bobby Miller, Gavin Stone, and Landon Knack, while the Phillies will be rolling out Zack Wheeler, Chris Sanchez, and Aaron Nola.

Tall task.

BUT I believe in our young dogs. I think they all have something to prove based off their last outings respectively, and a big series against the Phillies is the perfect place to show both the Dodgers front office as well as potential rival executives what they are made of. Now I’m not saying I would want to trade any of these guys, I love all three of them and hope they are Dodgers for a long time, but it’s nut-crunching time and we need to figure out what this roster is going to be heading into the post season.

So what is the expectation?

Well, it’s not to shut down the Philadelphia lineup, which is always good and just recently added Trea Turner back. BUT, I think it’s to make sure the games stay close, eat up some innings, and have us in a position where the bullpen can close the door. Now that bullpen is a whole other story…but let’s give them another shot against a likely playoff atmosphere before we go total fire alarm (I’m looking at you Ryan Yarbrough).

And, it’s also not all on the young arms, we NEED to get our offense going more consistently if we are even THINKING of going to the WS. Which leads to…

What else can be done?

Just get some hits. Not to be reductive, but we either need to get more hits, or work more walks and let the top of our order get as many cracks as possible. Again, what Will Smith did on Friday was just covering the fact that our offense is NOT good, and Milwaukee should feel remiss about dropping the series against us this past weekend. I know we have a number of guys on the IL including Mookie, Muncy, and Heyward again, but we are still going to need bats that can come in during the post season for a big pinch hit, and I don’t know if we have that guy on our roster right now.

Maybe it can be a guy like Miguel Vargas who steps up big time, or maybe James Outman can find his groove from his rookie season. But for stakes as high as they are, I don’t feel particularly comfortable leaning on that.

That being said…

I’m excited for the series against the Phillies and believe that we will come out with a win! I believe in Bobby, I believe in Gavin, I believe in Landon, and mostly I believe in Shohei to lead the team. Let’s get a win boys!