MILWAUKEE — Day after, the adrenaline hasn’t fully left. Blake Treinen smiled, a little tired, and walked through how he took the ball with the tying run looming and a full-throated crowd in his ear. One walk. One chase pitch to Brice Turang. One save that kept Game 1 in the Dodgers’ column. Simple on paper. Anything but simple in the moment.
“This year’s had its struggles,” Treinen said. “A lot of things. Trying to work through the elbow injury, trying to find myself again. I certainly haven’t been at the clip I believe I’m capable of, nor that the Dodgers think I’m capable of. But with a lot of the work that we’ve put in, and having the ability to get an out when Roki’s been so great and picked us up, it means a lot. I feel like I’m in a pretty good place, and I think a lot of us down in the bullpen feel really confident moving forward.”
He was asked what he’s seen from Roki Sasaki as the rookie has jumped into an October bullpen role. “Anytime somebody comes back as quick as he did and maybe just gets a handful of experiences under his belt before the playoffs in the bullpen, it’s pretty incredible what he’s done,” Treinen said. “If you keep the focus simple, we’re just getting outs. I know it sounds simple and kind of cliché, but when you keep it that simple, he’s narrowed his focus and executed. With his two pitches going strike one with both, even if it’s a two-pitch mix, maybe a third, it’s hard to sit on one or the other because they’re both 80-grade pitches. His ability to fill up the strike zone has been a huge testament on top of the stuff.”
How did experience play into those last two hitters? Treinen pointed to the prep that happens long before the phone rings. “A lot of it starts with the preparation the organization does for you,” he said. “It keeps the approach of a player a lot more simple. You trust the game plan, the way you want to attack hitters, and you don’t have to put a lot more thought into it. Experience is always a blessing. I’ve been very fortunate to be on a lot of winning teams, and being with this organization for six years has bred a lot of those opportunities.”
He still carries advice he got as a rookie. “Every out is magnified,” Treinen said. “Just take the outs when you get them. Don’t try to make a moment bigger than it is. As best as you can, which isn’t the easiest part, try to block out the crowd. We’re playing in meaningful games all year, but a place like this gets really loud. A place like Philly gets really loud. From here on out it’s just going to be loud, and sometimes you can feel that pressure.”
So what steadies him when the count slips or the noise swells. “If you can just keep the narrow focus, Will [Smith] does a great job back there, Ben [Rortvedt] has done a great job for us back there, and the game planning from the organization top to bottom really gives you peace to go out and execute your pitches,” he said. “I was just trying to execute.”
He circled back to the finish, that slider diving away for the final swing. “It was about execution,” Treinen said. “We had talked about what we were looking to do. A couple back-and-forth thoughts about pitch selection, and it worked out well.”
A night later, the takeaway stays small and clear. Get outs. Trust the work. Hand the ball back with a lead. “It was a great win,” Treinen said. “Snell threw amazing. Our offense did a great job grinding out at-bats and pushing across the runs we needed. Just a good team win.”
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