Hernández: Don't overthink it, Dodgers. Game 5 should be a bullpen game

Columnist

Oct. 10, 2024 3 AM PT

SAN DIEGO — This worked, and nothing else has. They might as well run it back.

The Dodgers have to call on their surprise ace once again to save their season.

That’s not Yoshinobu Yamamoto. That’s not Jack Flaherty.

That’s TBD — to be determined.

For the Dodgers, the deciding game of their National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres on Friday should be a bullpen game.

What other options do they have after eight of their relievers shut down the Padres in an 8-0 victory at Petco Park on Wednesday night, which tied the series at two games apiece?

“It’s a good thought, obviously, clearly,” manager Dave Roberts said.

The Dodgers have a defective rotation and reliable bullpen. They would be practical to remove the problematic portion of their pitching equation.

Bullpen games aren’t a sustainable remedy for their starting-pitching problems, as the relievers would be quickly spent if eight of them pitched in every game.

But the Dodgers can worry about how they will pitch to the New York Mets in the NL Championship Series once they get there. At the moment, they have to win a single game, and the obvious answer for how to do that is with another bullpen game, especially since the relievers who pitched in Game 4 will be able to recover with a day off Thursday.

Dodgers reliever Michael Kopech reacts during the third inning Wednesday against the Padres.

“We’ve said it all year: This bullpen is special,” said left-hander Alex Vesia, who was responsible for five of the 27 outs the Dodgers recorded in Game 4.

Of the 21 runs the Padres have scored in this best-of-five series, 15 were scored against Dodgers starters Yamamoto, Flaherty and Walker Buehler.

All six of the runs charged to the Dodgers bullpen were scored in a 10-2 blowout in Game 2, and four of them were the responsibility of Michael Grove and Edgardo Henriquez, who aren’t considered high-leverage arms. Grove was removed from the active roster Tuesday because of a shoulder injury.

There’s something unsettling about watching the franchise of Sandy Koufax, Fernando Valenzuela and Clayton Kershaw resorting to bullpen games in their most critical moments of the season, but Andrew Friedman’s Dodgers aren’t Buzzie Bavasi’s Dodgers or Fred Claire’s Dodgers.

Asked about fans who feel repulsed by bullpen games, Vesia replied: “I would say they haven’t watched enough Dodger baseball this year for them to be like that. I would say if they watched us, they would have a different opinion.”

In their eight bullpen games in the regular season — straight bullpen games, as opposed to games in which they deployed an opener before a starting pitcher — the Dodgers were 5-3 with a 2.92 earned-run average.

With Ryan Brasier recording the first four outs in Game 4 as the designated opener, the Dodgers navigated the early innings more efficiently than they did with any of their starters.

Yamamoto was crushed for five runs in just three innings in Game 1, his performance alarming enough to where Roberts was convinced he was tipping his pitches. Flaherty gave up four runs in 5 ⅓ innings in Game 2 and Buehler six runs in five innings in Game 3.

Yamamoto, Flaherty and Buehler have a combined ERA of 10.13 in this series. Sending any one of them to the Dodger Stadium mound in Game 5 would be too significant a gamble, especially with Yu Darvish starting for the Padres. Darvish has a history of success against the Dodgers and limited them to a run in seven innings in Game 2.

Against the Dodgers relievers, the Padres hitters looked like the Dodgers hitters against Darvish.

The game unfolded more or less how the Dodgers planned, in large part because of the efficiency of Vesia, Evan Phillips and Daniel Hudson. Vesia retired the order in the fourth inning on only 12 pitches, which allowed him to return for the fifth to take down two more outs. Phillips recorded four outs on 10 pitches. Hudson threw nine pitches in a scoreless seventh.

Roberts used his most dependable pitchers to attack the heart of the Padres lineup, calling on Michael Kopech in the third inning, Phillips in the fifth and Blake Treinen in the eighth.

“They were all fantastic,” catcher Will Smith said. “Attacking the zone, putting guys away, putting up nine zeroes and we needed that tonight.”

The Dodgers will need that again from their relievers Friday. That’s their best, and perhaps only, route to the NLCS.