[jaa36]

AG: Welcome back to The Wheelhouse. I'm Aaron Goldsmith, and here once again is Jerry Dipoto. Jerry, thanks for being here.

JD: You betcha.

AG: Well, a tale of two series this week, with things starting off pretty well, a three-game sweep of the Angels, but then four losses in a row to the Red Sox.

JD: You said it. We really hit the wall against the Angels. We actually had three starting pitchers struggle with health issues this week, and I think it just caught up to us.

AG: The first of those was Erasmo Ramirez, who lasted just a third of an inning with an abdominal strain and had to come out after just two pitches. But that game actually ended up as a 5-1 win over the Angels. How did that happen?

JD: Really good bullpen management from Scott. Doug Fister got ready in a hurry and gave us three shutout innings. And Nick Rumbelow, Nick Vincent and James Pazos were all able to extend themselves and take us the rest of the way.

AG: Did you take any special pleasure knocking Shohei Ohtani out of the game in the fourth inning?

JD: (laughs) No more than knocking anyone else out in the fourth inning. It was a good day for our offense.

AG: Then a few days later, we saw Felix come out of a game in the fourth inning. I know his health has been a common topic of conversation. Any concerns for him missing his next start?

JD: We don't think so. For that matter, Erasmo should miss just one turn in the rotation and be back soon. Felix just tweaked his hamstring a bit, but he should be fine to pitch on Wednesday.

AG: The shoe was on the other foot on the game on Tuesday- no pun intended- when Matt Shoemaker had to come out of the game in the first inning. But the offense couldn't do much that day, except for Kyle Seager.

JD: Yeah, another great performance from Kyle, with two home runs, including a walk-off homer in the thirteenth inning. He's really been terrific in the first half of the season, now with 16 home runs, 45 RBI. We've got a number of guys, between him, Dee Gordon, Mitch Haniger, Jean Segura, Robinson Cano that all deserve to make the All-Star team this year.

AG: Thus far, none of them leading at their positions in the balloting, but hopefully a few of them will at least make the team as reserves. Well, I wanted to bring up the game on Friday. That was the game that Felix had to come out of early.

JD: Right. Well, things were going well until they weren't, I guess. Juan Nicasio and James Pazos held down the fort, then we asked a lot from Edwin Diaz, who ended up going 2 1/3 innings before Scott had to take him out of the game in the ninth.

AG: And that's when the wheels really fell off, wasn't it?

JD: Yeah, it was. A lot of things went wrong that inning. A couple errors, a wild pitch, then Mark Rzepcyznski gave up the home run to Benintendi, and that was that.

AG: And then the next couple days, you ran into a couple of buzz-saws in David Price and Chris Sale.

JD: Right, what is Price's ERA this year? 1.42? He's been unbelievable. And then Sale had 13 strikeouts against us on Sunday. Rough couple of days.

AG: A much-needed day off today, then a long east coast trip coming up, with a series against the Yankees, then the Red Sox and the Orioles.

JD: Yeah, it's a tough stretch. I'll be heading east with the club, looking forward to being out there and getting a chance to get the Red Sox back.

AG: Let's take a question here. This one is from George in Seattle. George asks, is there a chance that Dee Gordon breaks the single-season stolen base record this season? Dee's now at 58 stolen bases, 72 games into the season. So, on pace for 131 steals. The record stands at 130, Rickey Henderson, of course.

JD: Great question. The odds are obviously against him, it takes an incredible combination of a lot of opportunities, great speed and instincts on the basepaths, and not missing any time due to injury. I do think it's looking pretty likely that he'll get to a hundred, but 130 might be a tall order even for Dee.

AG: All right, Jerry. I should touch on some news with the draft. You've signed your first-round pick, Mike Siani, as well as your second, fourth, sixth and ninth round picks. It's sounding like third-round pick Luca Tresh and fifth-round pick Michael Burrows will not come to terms with the club. How do you feel about the draft class at this point?

JD: You know, I feel good. I'd love to have gotten Tresh and Burrows as well, but we knew going into the signing period that we weren't gonna be able to reel in everyone. We're actually really happy to get Jake Sweeney, our ninth-round pick, and Jack DeGroat, our sixth-round pitcher in the system as well, and we'll probably get one of the other high school draftees to come on board as well before all is said and done.

AG: Well, Jerry, appreciate you coming on the show, as usual. Good luck with the east coast swing.

JD: Thanks Aaron.

AG: And we'll see you next week on The Wheelhouse.