*  *  *  UPDATED  June,13, 2017 at 12:00 pm PT  *  *  *  

It was one of those things that immediately made you say “Uh oh.”

When the Dodgers took the field in the top half of the seventh inning of Sunday afternoon’s game against the Cincinnati Reds at Dodger Stadium down 7-3, Dodgers left fielder Cody Bellinger took over at first base for Adrian Gonzalez and Kiké Hernandez, who had pinch-hit for Dodgers reliever Ross Stripling in the bottom of the sixth, replaced Bellinger in left field.

Why on earth would the Dodgers take AGon, their most prolific RBI man, out of the game in the seventh inning when down by four runs?

Unless…

This is a question that was undoubtedly on the mind of every Dodger fan on the planet and left them with one of those Star Wars-like “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” sensations.

Unfortunately, we would soon learn the answer to this question, and the news was not good.

There is no gentle way to say this, but AGon is obviously headed back to the disabled list, quite possibly for an extended period of time – especially if he needs back surgery.

“Adrian came to me in the middle of the game and said his back locked up on him and he took a couple awkward swings,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters after the game. “And so when I hear that from a guy like Adrian, I want to get him out of there, get him in the training room.

“I haven’t heard anything else but hopefully with the off-day and I know with flying so I don’t know how that’s going to do for his back, but we’ll keep an eye on him and obviously jockeying the equation if something does happen, but we’ll see.”

At the time of his postgame media scrum, the Dodger skipper was unaware that the news on his 35-year-old / 14-year MLB veteran first baseman was already well beyond the “we’ll see” stage. In fact, Gonzalez himself told reporters that he already had an MRI scheduled for Monday morning, so there would be no flight to Cleveland for the 6′-2′ / 215-pound San Diego, California native.

“I know what I have,” Gonzalez said succinctly about his herniated disk. “We’ll see if it’s gotten any worse.”

Although it apparently went unnoticed at the time, Gonzalez was in obvious pain after fouling off this pitch in Saturday night’s game against the Reds at Dodger Stadium. On Sunday afternoon, he could no longer continue and took himself out of the game after six innings. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Ironically, Dodgers center fielder Joc Pederson, who completed his third rehab game with the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers on Sunday, is the most likely candidate to be called up, not to replace Gonzalez at first base but to replace Bellinger in the Dodgers outfield. Bellinger, as you know, is a true first baseman by trade who also happens to be an outstanding outfielder (and a pretty good hitter). Should Pederson indeed get the call, he would return as the Dodgers center fielder, with utility infielders / outfielders Chris Taylor and Hernandez splitting time in left field, along with Dodgers back-up outfielder Franklin Gutierrez.

After three rehab games with the OKC Dodgers, Pederson is 3-for-9 (.333) with two home runs, four RBIs, no walks and one strikeout. He figures to be the guy to be called up to the Dodgers to fill soon-to-be DL’d Adrian Gonzalez’s spot on the team’s 25-man roster. (Photo credit – Jeremy Davis)

Although it remains to be seen how all of this plays, we certainly wish the very best for AGon for a complete and speedy recovery.

  *  *  *  UPDATED  June,13, 2017 at 12:00 pm PT  *  *  *  

On Tuesday morning, the Dodgers placed Gonzalez on the 10-day DL and recalled Joc Pederson from Triple-A Oklahoma City. There is some good news, however: