Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — Baseball’s not just a funny sport. Sometimes it’s insane. The Los Angeles Dodgers, whose pitching staff was riddled by injuries and designated a weakness going into October, has just gotten a share of history. With their third straight shutout on top of six scoreless innings at the end of Game 3 in the NLDS, the Dodger hurlers have now strung together 33 scoreless innings in the postseason, matching the mark set against them by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1966 World Series.
In that series, the Dodgers were worn down from a late season battle for the pennant with the Giants, so once they reached the series they had nothing left in the tank. They pushed across a couple of early runs in Game 1, but nada thereafter. The Orioles accomplished that task with a much more classic approach: lots of complete games. In Game 1, Dave McNally started, but was lifted after surrendering two runs in 2.1 innings. He was relieved by Moe Dabrowski, who pitched the rest of the way in a 5-2 win. Then came the shutouts: in Game 2, a 20-year-old Jim Palmer shut out the Dodgers and Sandy Koufax to extend the scoreless streak to 15 straight innings. Then, back in Baltimore, there were two 1-0 nailbiters to finish the series. Wally Bunker outdueled Claude Osteen in Game 3, and then Dave McNally finished off the Dodgers with a 4-hit masterpiece in Game 4, besting future Hall of Famer Don Drysdale.
For the Dodgers, the 33-inning journey was more of an adventure. After perhaps the worst inning in Dodgers’ postseaon history, in which sloppy defense and timely Padres hitting led to six earned runs off of Walker Buehler, the Dodgers went into beast mode. After the horrible second, Buehler pitched three scoreless innings to finish his day. Then, Anthony Banda, Daniel Hudson, and Michael Kopech pitched the final three innings, holding the Padres scoreless (since Padres won that game, there was no ninth inning at-bats for the home team).
Then, with their season on the brink, the Dodgers pitched a masterpiece of a bullpen game in which every pitcher played his role to perfection. Ryan Brasier started things off as an opener. Anthony Banda got the final two outs of the second inning. Michael Kopech was lights out against the top of the Padres batting order in the third. Alex Vesia and Evan Phillips combined to take down the middle three innings. Daniel Hudson pitched the seventh, Blake Treinen handled the eighth, and Landon Knack pitched a scoreless ninth to secure the victory and send the series back to Los Angeles.
Game 5 of the NLDS featured a clutch performance from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who had been knocked around in Game 1 of the series. He went five scoreless before handing it off to the team’s most trusted arms. Phillips, Vesia, Kopech, and Treinen finished things off to secure the win and send the Dodgers to the next round of the playoffs.
With the scoreless string now at 24 innings, the Dodgers came into Game 1 of the NLCS full of confidence in their pitchers. Jack Flaherty was masterful in his seven innings of shutout ball, giving up just a couple of hits and a pair of walks in a stellar performance. Then, Daniel Hudson was a little shaky in the eigth, but kept the streak alive. In the ninth, seldom-used Ben Casparius retired the Mets in order for the Dodgers third straight shutout.
Twelve pitchers. 33 innings. No runs. It was a streak as remarkable for its consistency as it was for its completely unexpected nature.
To quote ESPN stats maven Sarah Langs, baseball is the best!
