Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts was attempting to play the lengthy sport Monday evening.
Which is why, when his workforce entered the ninth inning with a three-run lead in Sport 2 of the Nationwide League Division Collection, he gave the save alternative to Blake Treinen as an alternative of Roki Sasaki.
If all issues had been equal, it’s probably that Roberts would have turned to Sasaki to begin the inning. In simply two weeks since coming back from a shoulder damage and being moved to the bullpen, the transformed rookie starter has change into the membership’s most dominant aid choice.
However, for as a lot of a revelation because the 23-year-old right-hander had been in that point — posting 4 scoreless outings with a 100-mph fastball and unhittable splitter — the workforce remained conscientious about managing Sasaki’s workload, which included one look in Sport 2 of the wild card sequence, then one other in Sport 1 of the NLDS simply days prior.
Thus, with Roberts feeling assured sufficient in Treinen (the veteran right-hander coming off a career-worst season but additionally some not too long ago improved outings) to guard a three-run cushion that felt comparatively comfy, he left Sasaki sitting within the bullpen regardless of the save state of affairs.
He tried to make the most of a chance to present his ace reliever relaxation.
“He hasn’t gone two out of three [days] much at all,” Roberts mentioned after the sport. “So I didn’t want to just kind of preemptively put him in there. I felt good with who we had.”
That plan, after all, nearly backfired in disastrous trend. Treinen gave up two runs with out retiring a batter. Alex Vesia wanted his protection to show a wheel play on a Bryson Stott bunt to restrict the harm from there. And in the long run, Sasaki entered the sport anyway to report the ultimate out.
Transferring ahead, Roberts confirmed on Tuesday, Sasaki is “definitely the primary option now” for any future save conditions — the closest the workforce will come to calling him their outright nearer, since they might additionally select to make use of him in high-leverage spots earlier than the ninth.
“Obviously what Roki has done, has continued to show, has been very encouraging on a lot of fronts,” Roberts mentioned.
The query, nevertheless, stays precisely how arduous the Dodgers can journey him the remainder of these playoffs; and the way delicately they’ll should steadiness the burden they place on a younger pitcher who has by no means earlier than pitched in a aid position.
“He’s not going to close every game, it’s just not feasible,” Roberts mentioned Tuesday. “This is something he’s never done. And you’re expecting to go a few more weeks [in the postseason]. So all that stuff has to play in, that a lot of people don’t have any appreciation for.”
The deeper the Dodgers go within the playoffs, the extra tough this calculus will get.
For now, the workforce’s desire can be for Sasaki to have at the least at some point of relaxation earlier than every of his outings. And whereas Roberts didn’t rule out utilizing him back-to-back days, he described it as “the next graduation point” for the offseason Japanese signing (who had made solely eight MLB begins originally of the season earlier than initially getting harm and lacking the subsequent 4 months).
“There’s no guarantee what the stuff’s going to be like [in a back-to-back sequence],” Roberts mentioned, including that any potential utilization of Saskai on consecutive days would require conversations beforehand with pitching coaches about how Sasaki appeared in pregame catch classes.
“I would love to have Roki throw every single day if he could, but that’s just not feasible,” Roberts reiterated. “Again, we have a lot of conversations, and then I make my decision.”
In different phrases, Sasaki will get nearly all of save alternatives shifting ahead. However he probably gained’t be the one one to deal with such spots.
Sheehan responds in set-up position 
Emmet Sheehan reacts after closing out the eighth inning towards the Phillies in Sport 2.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Occasions)
After a promising common season through which he posted a 2.82 ERA in 15 outings, the Dodgers appeared to Emmet Sheehan to be a multi-inning set-up man for his or her beleaguered aid corps.
His first playoff outing was troublesome: Giving up two hits and two walks whereas recording just one out in Sport 2 of the wild-card sequence towards the Reds.
However on Monday evening, he bounced again with two innings of one-run aid to maintain the Dodgers’ lead intact coming into the ninth.
The most important second of Sheehan’s outing (through which he retired the facet within the seventh, earlier than giving up a down-the-line triple to Max Kepler and RBI single to Trea Turner within the eighth) got here after he’d yielded that lone run. The Phillies had left-handed sluggers Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper due up subsequent. The Dodgers had Vesia, their high left-handed choice, warming within the bullpen.
For a short second, as pitching coach Mark Prior got here to the mound and Sheehan fidgeted together with his PitchCom gadget throughout an prolonged pause, it appeared the Dodgers had been simply stalling for Vesia to get heat.
However Roberts in the end stayed put and let Sheehan pitch to the Phillies’ star duo. His religion was rewarded with two outs that ended the inning. Sheehan struck out Schwarber with a 97.6-mph fastball on the within nook, tied for his third-hardest pitch for a strikeout this season. Then he bought Harper to fly out on a changeup, pumping a fist into his mitt as he skipped off the sector.
“I think it just showed some adjustments that I made compared to that previous game [against the Reds],” Sheehan mentioned.
The most important one?
“Definitely controlling your emotions,” Sheehan acknowledged. “It’s a big piece of coming out of the bullpen. I’ve talked to a lot of guys about that, especially after Cincinnati where I wasn’t as comfortable out there.”
That Reds outing, after all, was a significant crimson flag for the Dodgers’ bullpen plans. Given the struggles from the workforce’s conventional relievers coming into the playoffs, Sheehan was alleged to primarily be a set-up man out of the bullpen able to bridging the hole from the beginning pitcher to the ninth.
Sheehan mentioned, in that wild-card outing, he felt he was “trying to do a little too much, trying to be a little too fine with my pitches at the corners.”
“That’s not really my game,” he mentioned in hindsight. “So I think just getting back to the approach and the game plan that’s been working for the past couple months was big. Trying to just go right at them and attack in the zone.”
Roberts gave Sheehan the leash to do this Monday, and can probably maintain calling upon him in high-leverage spots shifting ahead, maybe making Sheehan and Sasaki his most well-liked mixture to shut out the ultimate innings of video games.
“I just felt that his stuff was still real good [and that] he wasn’t going to run from those guys at the top,” Roberts mentioned Tuesday of letting Sheehan face Schwarber and Harper (who’re a mixed one for 14 within the NLDS with two walks and eight strikeouts).
“I trusted him. I felt in that moment he was the best option. And it proved to be right.”
Treinen missing ‘edge’
On the different finish of the reliever belief spectrum is Treinen, who not solely didn’t retire any of the three batters he confronted in Sport 2 but additionally, at the least in Roberts’ estimation, additionally didn’t appear like somebody assured of their stuff.
“I just didn’t see that edge last night,” Roberts mentioned Tuesday, “that I know I’ve seen it many times over.”
Certainly, Treinen was the Dodgers’ most trusted reliever throughout their World Collection run final 12 months, when he was credited with three saves, two holds and two wins and punctuated his October with 2 ⅓ scoreless innings of aid in Sport 5 of the World Collection.
This season has been a distinct story, with Treinen stumbling to a career-worst 5.40 ERA after lacking a lot of the primary half with a forearm drawback.
Regardless of that, Treinen had entered Monday on extra of a excessive, after placing out three batters in his regular-season finale earlier than making two scoreless appearances within the wild-card sequence.
The Phillies, nevertheless, took benefit of his lack of ability this 12 months to get as a lot swing-and-miss, fanning on simply considered one of eight swings whereas stringing collectively a single and two doubles (the final one on a half-swing from Nick Castellanos towards Treinen’s trademark sweeper).
“I felt that he was getting some momentum before that last one, so I’ll check in on him,” Roberts mentioned. “But there’s ways of how you go about an outing, successful or not successful, and how a player carries himself matters to me.”
On Monday, Treinen didn’t verify that field. And whether or not he shall be thrown into such a high-leverage state of affairs his subsequent outing stays to be seen.
