Dodgers News: Nine Up, Nine Down: Bullpen Ties Franchise Mark with 9 Straight K’s
SEATTLE — The Dodgers didn’t just close out a 5–3 win in Seattle on Saturday night—they authored a slice of franchise history. Blake Treinen, Alex Vesia, and Edgardo Henríquez combined to strike out the final nine Mariners to end the game, the most consecutive strikeouts by Dodgers pitchers to finish a contest in the modern franchise record book. Multiple outlets logged the feat in real time as a Dodger first. (Reuters)
The run began with Treinen in the seventh. Facing a dangerous pocket, he dispatched Cal Raleigh on a two-strike sweeper for the first of nine, then overpowered Julio Rodríguez before finishing the frame by punching out Jorge Polanco—his sharpest inning in weeks and a tone-setter for what came next. Vesia took the ball in the eighth and matched Treinen’s energy with a letter-high fastball attack: strikeout, strikeout, strikeout—Eugenio Suárez, Dominic Canzone, and another Mariner down in order. Nine batters remained in the game when Henríquez bounded in for the ninth; nine batters never reached base. He blew away Leo Rivas at 101 mph, outdueled Harry Ford through a full count, then elevated 102 to freeze the leadoff man for the final out. Nine straight K’s, handshakes all around.
How rare was that finish? Per MLB researcher Sarah Langs, the Dodgers are just the second team in the expansion era (since 1961) to strike out at least nine consecutive batters to end a game. The only other club to do it: the New York Mets on April 22, 1970, when Tom Seaver famously struck out the final 10 Padres to close a two-hit masterpiece at Shea Stadium.
Saturday’s streak also reframes a familiar entry in Dodger history. The previous “consecutive strikeouts” high-water mark fans typically cite belongs to Aaron Harang, who fanned nine in a row on April 13, 2012, to set the individual club record (surpassing Johnny Podres’ eight from 1962). Treinen-Vesia-Henríquez matched that number as a relay—and did it to end a game, something no Dodger combination had ever done.
Context matters here, too. The bullpen’s September had been uneven, and manager Dave Roberts has spent the final week of the season auditioning roles for the Wild Card round. That’s why Tyler Glasnow’s start was capped at three scoreless innings, and why the relievers’ ability to seize leverage pockets is so central to the October blueprint. Delivering nine consecutive strikeouts against a 90-win Seattle club chasing seeding wasn’t just a statistical oddity—it was proof of concept for the exact version of the Dodgers they want to take into Tuesday: a lineup that finds a late swing (Kiké Hernández’s go-ahead double) and a bullpen that turns the last three frames into a no-contact zone.
If you’re into time-capsule nuggets, file this away: the last time baseball saw a team close a game with at least nine straight strikeouts was that 1970 Mets-Seaver classic. More than half a century later, Los Angeles just joined the club—and did it with a three-arm relay that showcased everything Roberts has been asking for down the stretch: conviction, execution, and the kind of rising velocity that plays in October.
One more preseason-in-disguise game remains before the lights intensify. But for a franchise that’s been busy rewriting its strikeout ledger (they also set the club’s nine-inning team K record with 19 in August), Saturday’s finish was the clearest sign yet that the bullpen is finding its top gear at the perfect time.
Nine up. Nine down. And a brand-new Dodger record.
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