In the hours leading up to the Dodgers’ Sept. 10 game against the Colorado Rockies, Dodgers catcher Ben Rortvedt was taking a nap.
After the previous week, it was a well-deserved rest.
A 28-year-old journeyman backstop who’d been traded from the Tampa Bay Rays to the Dodgers at the deadline, Rortvedt was called up from the minors and thrust into emergency duty in the middle of a tight division race. In the span of three days from Sept. 3-5, both Will Smith and Dalton Rushing had been injured. And in Rortvedt’s first three starts with the Dodgers after that, he’d twice helped take a no-hitter into the ninth while offering unexpected contributions with his bat.