The Los Angeles Dodgers entered the 2024 season as World Series favorites thanks to an offseason that saw several star players join the club, including Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Teoscar Hernández.

However, the season did not go as planned for much of the year. The Dodgers were dealing with a slew of injuries, and then some.

The injury bug never stopped all year long, and perhaps the most devastating news for the team came when it was determined that the Dodgers would be without their ace for the rest of the year, as Glasnow was shut down for the remainder of 2024.

That lowered morale in the Dodgers clubhouse, leading to manager Dave Roberts calling a team meeting that ultimately changed the course of their season.

“It was one time when we saw a lot of fans, not from the team but from outside. Everyone panicked because we had a lot of injuries,” Hernández recalled. “We lost a lot of pitchers. It was one time when we felt like we were in trouble as a team.

“One meeting changed everything. That’s when we realized that we have the potential, that we have the players, that we are still the Dodgers and that we can do special things with the people that we have healthy all year round and that we just have an opportunity to make the team until those guys can. to come back and continue to help the team win.”

Hernández said the meeting took place while the Dodgers were playing the Atlanta Braves in mid-September. The Dodgers lost their first two games against the Braves before holding the meeting and coming back to win the next two.

“I just wanted to get the guys together,” Roberts said. “I’m not a big meeting guy. I just felt like at that point, I think we had lost two straight to the Braves, we got the news that Tyler was going to be done for the year. And I just felt like there was kind of a little bit of woe, and that’s just not who we are.

“I knew Walker was pitching that night and felt we needed him if we wanted to win 11 games in October. So I kind of wanted to have that meeting with him on the mound that night and challenged him a little bit. The message was actually: I can’t believe in them more than they believe in each other. They have to believe in themselves, right?

“And I just felt like we have enough talent in the room to do that. I just wanted to bring that to light. The most important thing was that those boys responded among themselves.”

Teoscar Hernández: Dodgers didn’t need much of a push

Although the Dodgers were still playing quality baseball at that point, the meeting was more focused on the future and looking ahead to the postseason.

“It was just a meeting to get everyone back on track and just keep going until we win everything,” Hernández explained.

So far, the meeting has proven to be successful, as the Dodgers are one win away from the World Series. They still have some work to do, but this club has the talent and mentality to get it done.

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