Dodgers News: Ippei Mizuhara, Gavin Stone emergence, Teoscar Hernández surge

It's been pretty quiet on the drama front for the Dodgers lately, but anything could be considered quiet after the stormy couple of weeks they had at the end of March into mid-April. The Ippei Mizuhara debacle was, to put it lightly, a mess, that threatened to tarnish the reputation of MLB's golden boy in Shohei Ohtani and put a huge asterisk next to anything he'd do over his next 10 seasons with the Dodgers.

Ohtani was eventually vindicated and Mizuhara somehow turned himself into the unequivocal, diabolical villain of the story. A bombshell complaint filed by the US Department of Justice revealed that he had a $40.7 million debt via sports gambling, stole $17 million from Ohtani over the course of three years (to pay off his debt, but also for personal expenses), and had jumped through some ridiculous hoops to deceive his supposed friend and partner.

Mizuhara was expected to plead guilty, but he did so officially on Wednesday. He could face up to 33 years in federal prison on an up to 30-year charge of bank fraud and an up to three-year charge of subscribing to a false tax return.

Translating duties have been taken over by the Dodgers' now-president of Japan baseball operations and former Kenta Maeda translator Will Ireton.

Dodgers News: Ippei Mizuhara pleads guilty, Gavin Stone continues to look strong, Teoscar Hernández crushing the ball

On the field, Gavin Stone made his seventh start for the Dodgers on Wednesday night and continued to look very good while doing it. His first two outings were rough, accumulating a 9.00 ERA, but he's bounced back significantly and seen that number drop slowly but surely. He pitched seven innings in the Dodgers' 3-1 victory to sweep the Marlins, giving up six hits but only one that mattered (a solo homer to Bryan De La Cruz). He's looking solid as a fill-in for Bobby Miller, who hit the IL with shoulder inflammation after three starts this season.

The Dodgers' offensive highlights of the night were all thanks to Teoscar Hernández, who had two RBI hits — a single to score Freddie Freeman in the first and get the Dodgers on the board quickly, and a two-run homer in the sixth (also scoring Freeman) to solidify the game for the Dodgers. He currently leads LA in RBI, over even Ohtani and Mookie Betts.

Wednesday's victory marked the seventh straight win for the Dodgers and their second consecutive series sweep. They'll go on the road to face two hated division rivals in the Padres and Giants, but their odds in both of those series look pretty good.