Dodgers’ hot-hitting Corey Seager leaves game with back injury

LOS ANGELES – Corey Seager was removed from the Dodgers’ game against the Giants in the top of the third inning Friday with low back discomfort.

Austin Slater led off the inning with a ground ball to Dodgers second baseman Chris Taylor. Seager wasn’t involved in the play, but he was visited by assistant athletic director Yosuke Nakajima a moment later. The visit was brief. Taylor replaced Seager at shortstop and Kiké Hernandez took over at second base.

Manager Dave Roberts said Seager sustained the injury diving for a baseball toward his backhand in pursuit of a single by the Giants’ Chadwick Tromp in the second inning. In parts of five major league seasons, Seager has never gone on the injured list with a back injury.

Roberts said Seager will not play Saturday against the Giants and is day to day.

Seager entered the game leading the Dodgers in batting average (.347), on-base percentage (.396), runs (10) and tied for the club lead in home runs (3). He managed all this while striking out just five times in 53 at-bats – a lower rate than all but 10 qualified hitters through Thursday.

Seager attributed his success to a useful if not very creative approach: He reported to Dodger Stadium immediately after spring training was postponed in March.

While the season paused for more than three months, Seager said he continued working out, hitting, throwing and running the bases in his baseball cleats daily.

“A lot of things to emulate the game as much as possible without being in the game,” Seager said on a Zoom call with reporters Friday. “Just not stopping, not taking a break, and moving on through like a normal year.

“I tried to stay as baseball-ready as possible.”

The 26-year-old shortstop was limited to 26 games in 2018 due to injuries to his elbow and hip. Last season, he batted .272 with 19 home runs in 134 games – a solid season for most hitters, but below the standard Seager established when he won the National League Rookie of the Year award in 2016. That year, he clubbed 26 home runs while batting .308 as a 22-year-old.

Major League Baseball banned players from entering video rooms this season, effectively denying them a chance to review their at-bats in the middle of games.

Seager is a notorious video junkie. The rule was effected with safety in mind to limit group gatherings in enclosed spaces, but it’s forced Seager to change his game-day approach.

“It has a huge impact,” he said. “Whether you’re going good or bad, you like to see where pitches were, where you thought they were, where they actually are. Even in (the strike) zone you sometimes get confused. Just checking on little set-up things, little corrections you’d normally make during the game, you have to rely on feel a lot more during the year.”

MINIMUM MUNCY

Roberts dropped Max Muncy to the No. 6 spot in the lineup. The infielder carried a .176 batting average through Thursday. He had batted first or second in each of the Dodgers’ first 13 games.

Muncy solidified his role as an everyday major leaguer by hitting 35 home runs each of the last two seasons. So far in 2020, Muncy has hit more ground balls than fly balls, reversing the trend that resuscitated his career.

“I like the way he’s still taking walks, and there’s still some slug in there,” Roberts said of Muncy. “I think when Max goes right-center to left-center, he’s a considerably better hitter.”

Joc Pederson led off against the Giants, and Betts batted second in his return to the lineup after taking four days to recover from a swollen finger on his left hand.

SENSE OF URGENCY

The Dodgers’ recent lineup and roster decisions (pitcher Adam Kolarek and utility player Zach McKinstry were optioned to the team’s alternate site Thursday) were based on a sample size of 13 games. Kolarek hadn’t allowed a run in 3 2/3 innings across four appearances before he was optioned.

Thirteen games this season is equivalent to 35 in a normal year. Roberts said he’s treating decisions as if it’s game 35, not game 13.

“I’m not a typical overreacter,” Roberts said. “I don’t want to change that.”

Yet Roberts also recognizes that the Dodgers will have played one-quarter of their regular season by Sunday. They entered the weekend separated from the Colorado Rockies by half a game for first place. That matters.

So far, Roberts said, players have understood his more-urgent-than-usual approach.

“Regardless of a regular season, or this season, I have conversations with these guys every day,” he said. “It’s important for them to realize what I’m thinking, the coaching staff, the organization. There’s certainly no tension. We’re all here to win baseball games.”

ALSO

Optioning Kolarek was a “very difficult” decision, Roberts said. “We’ve challenged him on getting more right-handers this year,” he said. “Early on we were trying to get his arm up to get the right-handers and down below to get the lefties. It affected his command a little bit from down below. I think that going to ‘SC, now we’re going to get him try to stay down below vs. left and vs. right.” … Edwin Rios got the start at third base Friday,  with Justin Turner taking his second turn at DH. … Roberts said that Rios, from “spring training to now, he’s probably the most overall improved player we have.” … Rios had three hits and two home runs in his first 12 at-bats of the season.