Think about if the Dodgers hadn’t scored a gazillion runs.
Shudder.
Think about how nearly all of spectators would have tensed up when supervisor Dave Roberts trudged to the mound to take away Alex Vesia if the sport was truly shut.
Hoo-boy.
Think about the devastation the Dodgers would have skilled if Jack Dreyer’s bases-loaded stroll legitimately endangered their probabilities of profitable.
Barf.
The postseason began for the Dodgers on Tuesday evening, and their pumpkin of a bullpen didn’t magically remodel into a sublime carriage in a 10-5 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in Sport 1 of their Nationwide League wild-card sequence.
On an evening when the hitters crushed 5 residence runs and starter Blake Snell accomplished seven innings, the relievers continued to be as horrible as they have been over the past three months of the common season.
The Dodgers technically moved a win nearer to defending their World Collection title, however that final purpose instantly appeared additional out of attain due to a surprising 30-minute prime of the eighth inning by which three of their arsonist relievers almost created a save state of affairs out of an eight-run recreation.
Can a workforce presumably win a World Collection with such an unreliable bullpen?
Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia reacts through the eighth inning of a 10-5 win over the Cincinnati Reds in Sport 1 of a Nationwide League wild-card sequence on Tuesday evening at Dodger Stadium.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)
Earlier than the sport, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman mentioned he thought so.
“It’s not a talent issue,” Friedman mentioned, however who is aware of if this was an sincere evaluation or a disingenuous effort to persuade his viewers that he hadn’t wasted tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on a bunch of no-chancers.
Friedman continued, “We’ve seen it time and time again with guys who have scuffled and all of a sudden found it and they roll off a heater.”
That’s not what occurred in Sport 1.
If something, the troublesome eighth inning eradicated sure relievers from consideration to pitch in within the highest-leverage of conditions.
Suspicions about rookie fireballer Edgardo Henriquez have been confirmed, as Henriquez walked a batter to load the bases, walked in a run and gave up a run-scoring single.
The wishful considering that Dreyer might be a late-inning possibility was dented, as Dreyer entered the sport and walked in one other run.
Most disconcerting was the efficiency of Vesia, the workforce’s most trusted reliever.
Vesia began the inning, with the Dodgers main, 10-2. The usage of Vesia in such a lopsided recreation spoke to how little Roberts needed to make use of any of his different relievers in a recreation of this magnitude, however the fiery left-hander appeared like a rubber band that had been stretched out too many instances. Vesia, who pitched a career-high 68 video games within the common season, retired just one batter. He gave up successful and a stroll.
So what now?
Roberts sounded as if the one relievers he trusted have been his starters. He mentioned Tyler Glasnow and Emmet Sheehan can be within the bullpen for Sport 2.
Glasnow was final used as a reliever in 2018. He’s by no means pitched out of the bullpen within the postseason.
Sheehan has pitched in aid in solely 5 of 28 profession video games. He has just one profession save, and that was in a four-inning look in a blowout.
The Dodgers have contemplated deploying Shohei Ohtani out of the bullpen. They might additionally produce other beginning pitchers similar to Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Snell pitch in aid as a substitute of throwing scheduled bullpen classes between begins.
The workforce’s highest-ceiling late-inning possibility might be Roki Sasaki, who struck out two batters in every of the 2 one-inning appearances he made within the remaining week of the common season.
However outdoors of Ohtani, who closed out the championship recreation of the latest World Baseball Traditional, can any of those starters actually be counted on to carry out in unfamiliar roles?
Will Yamamoto and Snell actually be unaffected of their begins if additionally they pitch in aid?
It’s unclear.
However what is evident is the Dodgers can’t wait round for the likes of Tanner Scott or Blake Treinen or anybody pitched within the eighth inning on Tuesday to magically spherical into kind as Friedman envisions. They should attempt one thing new.
