Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — Everybody could see the roster at the beginning of this series. Sure, we had Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jack Flaherty, but after that things got mighty thin: Walker Buehler‘s comeback has been inconsistent, Landon Knack is a rookie, and every other available starter is on the IL. We knew that if the Dodgers were to advance past the second-half darlings, the San Diego Padres, they would have to get a huge effort out of the arms in the bullpen.
So, when Dave Roberts announced that the win-or-go-home Game 4 in San Diego was going to be a bullpen game, it made sense. The pen wasn’t used much in the blowout loss in Game 2, and Walker Buehler survived some defensive shortcomings to deliver some much-needed length in Game 3. With an offday on Thursday, it made sense to just roll the dice, empty the pen, and see what happens.
What happened was glorious. Nine stellar innings of shutout baseball. Every time the bullpen door opened, the reliever who emerged onto the field was more than up to the task. The opener, Ryan Brasier, who had gotten hit around a bit earlier in the series, quieted the potent Padre bats at the top of the lineup including a strikeout of uber-hot Fernando Tatis Jr. and for good measure, retired Manny Machado for the first out in the second.
Anthony Banda then navigated through a bit of traffic to pitch a scoreless second. Then, in a bit of a surprise move, usual back-end guy Michael Kopech came in to face the top of the lineup again in the third. He hung a zero on the scoreboard, working around a two-out double from Tatis. Then, it was Alex Vesia‘s turn. After a 1-2-3 fourth inning, he gave up a couple of baserunners to start the fifth, but got a strikeout and a flyout before giving way to Evan Phillips. In probably what was the biggest at-bat of the game, Phillips got Tatis to fly out to Mookie Betts to end the inning. Phillips then mowed through the lineup in the bottom of the sixth on just five pitches, and the Dodgers were on to the later innings with the shutout intact.
So far, Dave Roberts and Mark Prior‘s plan was working perfectly. But you could see that the bullpen was emptying out quickly. Ben Casparius and Edgardo Henriquez weren’t really options in an elimination game. That left just Blake Treinen and Daniel Hudson, as well as the originally projected starter Landon Knack. Daniel Hudson gave up a two-out triple to Jake Cronenworth, but stranded him at third in a scoreless seventh. Luckily, the Dodgers’ offense showed up big time in his one, so by the time Treinen took the mound in the eighth, they led 8-0 and the outcome wasn’t really in doubt. So it was more of a tuneup outing for Treinen, who showed a little rust after being down for three days. After a couple of singles, Treinen retired the side, and Landon Knack finished off the shutout with a scoreless frame in the bottom of the ninth.
It was a masterpiece. Coming into the series, the Padres’ bullpen was getting all the love, some pundits even going so far as to say that it would give the Friars the edge in the series. But the Dodgers bullpen showed that they came to play as well. Indeed, if we put aside those ugly mop-up innings at the end of Game 2, the Dodger relievers have been practically perfect in this series. Ryan Brasier is the only reliever who has an ERA among the Dodgers’ high-trust arms. He has given up two earned runs in his three appearances. Everybody else: 0.00. In contrast, the numbers for Dodgers’ starters are unslightly: 15 earned runs over 13.1 innings of pitching (I’m not including Brasier in this stat). That pencils out to a 10.31 ERA.
So, when Dave Roberts hinted that they might throw another bullpen game in Game 5, could you blame him? Even when you factor in the atrocious innings of Michael Grove and Edgaro Henriquez, the Dodgers’ pen is competitive with the vaunted Padres: their ERA is 2.66 compared to the Padres 2.50. So while there’s no guarantee that Kopech, Treinen et al will deliver an identical performance in Game 5, I know this: whoever gets the start for the Dodgers on Friday night will be on an EXTREMELY short leash. The first whiff of trouble, and that bullpen door is coming open.
The Dodgers’ season may just depend on it.
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