SEATTLE — If the Dodgers needed a sign that their bullpen can flip the October switch, Blake Treinen provided it. On a night the relief corps finished the game with nine consecutive strikeouts, Treinen lit the fuse, delivering his sharpest inning in weeks and helping turn a tight contest into a statement.
You could feel the collective edge creeping in. Treinen did, too. “We’re just obviously getting closer to the playoffs and you can kind of feel these last two weeks,” he said. The road hasn’t been perfectly smooth, but against a run of postseason-caliber opponents — the Giants pushing for a spot, the powerhouse Phillies, and now one of the hottest teams in the American League — Treinen sensed a shift. It wasn’t panic or overhaul, just a purposeful narrowing of focus. “Trying to heighten your senses of execution,” he said, adding that the group carried “a little bit more focus… maybe just another added sense of intensity.”
That focus showed up in the simplest way: strike one, then strike two, then finish. Treinen didn’t claim some magic midweek fix. “It’s nice to smile after a game,” he allowed, but he kept his breakdown grounded. “The stuff’s been good. It’s more or less getting pitches to the right spot. And tonight we did, so we’ll just build off it.”
That last part is the key. Bullpens run on momentum and memory. One crisp outing can become two; two can become a week. Treinen’s been around long enough to recognize the pattern. “Anytime anybody gets on a run, it’s because you’ve had a couple things go your way and you’re executing,” he said. “Success breeds more confidence, which breeds more success, and then you just ride it as long as you can.” If Saturday was step one, it was a big one — not just for his line, but for the communal belief that the group can shorten games when it matters.
Part of that belief was forged in the fire. Treinen referenced last October, when the Dodgers’ relievers learned how to compress the moment against a familiar division foe. “We were at a place of desperation,” he said. “You don’t really want to go home… it allowed us to see how focused you can get for situation, how to minimize the surroundings.” That experience, measured in pitches and not headlines, carries forward. Having seen what their best version looks like against top-tier lineups, they know how to get back there.
It helps when the offense does its part, too. Treinen made a point to credit the bats for “getting big hits when we needed it,” which let the bullpen slam the door without chasing the game. That is the Dodgers’ postseason formula at its most distilled: opportunistic runs, then wave after wave of power arms throwing to precise lanes.
For Treinen, the blueprint is uncomplicated now. Keep the stuff where it plays, live on the edges, trust the defense when hitters do make contact — and, when the out is there to be had, finish the hitter. He and the group did that to close this one, in emphatic fashion. If the bullpen’s identity in September was “finding it,” the identity in October needs to be “owning it.” Saturday looked and felt like the handoff.
“We’ll build off it,” Treinen said. If they do, that ninth-inning roar won’t be a one-night echo. It’ll be the soundtrack of October at Chavez Ravine.
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