LOS ANGELES — What was supposed to be a fresh start for the Los Angeles Dodgers was looking like a dud. That is, until Miguel Vargas showed off his arm.
The Dodgers, lifeless through seven innings and just six outs away from getting shut out coming out of the All-Star break, have looked like a team in need of something for months. A few days off were supposed to provide a reprieve. Instead, that break seemingly extended into Friday against the Boston Red Sox.
But when Rafael Devers hit a shallow fly ball to Vargas in left, Vargas noticed Tyler O’Neill jogging slowly back to first base.
“Maybe I got him,” Vargas thought to himself. In his brief time as a major-league left-fielder, he has rarely thought of trying to turn that kind of double play. This time, he did. Almost flat-footed, Vargas whipped in the throw.
It got him, ending the inning and sparking the explosion that followed with a leadoff walk at the plate. The Dodgers loaded the bases in the bottom of that eighth inning and unloaded them on Freddie Freeman’s go-ahead grand slam. A 4-1 victory certainly struck a more encouraging tone.
“I think the crowd was waiting for something to happen,” Freeman said. “I think that’s why Vargy throwing that guy out kind of helped.”
It was needed.
¡Miguel con el tiro a primera y consigue los dos outs! pic.twitter.com/O6cpHhA31U
— Los Dodgers (@LosDodgers) July 20, 2024
“Obviously last week going into the All-Star break was not ideal,” Freeman said.
The Dodgers entered the break playing miserable baseball. They’d lost six of their last seven, playing essentially like a .500 team for two months. Their pitching was in tatters, their offense inconsistent and their lapses frequent and painful.
One of those lapses found Vargas in the seventh inning. As Dominic Smith lofted a fly ball toward the gap, the Cuban prospect — up here for his bat after dalliances at third base and second base before moving to left field — floated toward it. His eyes remained fixated on the ball as Andy Pages called him off, then waved him off, from center field. Vargas didn’t hear him, and stuck his glove out. The ball squirted out for what was ruled a double. After Alex Vesia got out of the frame unscathed three batters later, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sat alongside his young left fielder. He stressed Vargas’ relative inexperience at the position, reassured him and reminded him of the finer teaching points of the play.
“I wanted to make sure that we keep that confidence and (he) doesn’t start to get some anxiousness when he’s out in left field,” Roberts said.
“We still had a game going on,” Vargas said, “so I’m trying to keep my focus on the next ball.”
Vargas’ rise to prominence as a Dodgers prospect came with outward displays of confidence. When he stole third in his major-league debut, he explained it was because he felt no one could stop him. Be it the numerous position changes, injuries or simply a lack of playing time, he’s had few moments of note to demonstrate such aplomb since. When they’ve come, it’s been with his bat. Not this time.
Then Vargas made the best defensive play of his outfield career an inning later.
Freddie Freeman catches Miguel Vargas’ throw to double up Tyler O’Neill. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)
Vargas could hardly wipe the smirk off his face as he led off the following frame, drawing an eight-pitch walk off reliever Zack Kelly. He struggled to stop himself from scoring when Shohei Ohtani’s fly ball bounced into the stands for an automatic double. After the Red Sox intentionally walked Will Smith — a “pick your poison” decision for Red Sox manager Alex Cora, Roberts said — Vargas leaped into the sky when Freeman drove Brennan Bernardino’s 0-1 slider into the Boston bullpen.
Freeman got the curtain call. But “it started with Vargy,” Roberts said.
It was an encouraging moment. With each passing day before the July 30 trade deadline, big moments like this feel like they carry more weight. The Dodgers need to upgrade, this much Roberts agreed with Friday afternoon. What that looks like remains unclear.
If the Dodgers’ approach to the last two months (that their woes will largely be fine once they get healthy) comes off as pollyannaish, it’s because the club — for its vulnerabilities and clear roster flaws — still boasts some of the best top-end talent in the sport. That will win games and secure the Dodgers’ place back into October.
There is confidence to derive from that. But succeeding there and beyond will involve correcting the clear issues that stuck them in this rut in the first place. It will involve bridging the gap in baseball’s most top-heavy roster. Vargas — a promising prospect who is still just 24 years old — provides a potential solution to a roster that could look very different after the deadline than it does right now.
(Top photo of Miguel Vargas, Will Smith and Shohei Ohtani congratulating Freddie Freeman on his grand slam: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)
