PHILADELPHIA — The Dodgers spent greater than $125 million on their bullpen final winter. However after they wanted reduction late in Recreation 1 of the Nationwide League Division Sequence on Saturday, they turned to a few starters who spent a lot of the season on the damage checklist.
And it labored out — although simply barely — with Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki combining for eight of the ultimate 9 outs in a 5-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Alex Vesia acquired the opposite out, retiring pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa on a fly ball to heart with the bases loaded to finish the eighth. Sasaki then got here on to shut it out within the ninth, getting Bryson Stott, representing the tying run, to pop up in foul territory behind third base to finish the sport.
“What Glas did tonight, it’s not easy to do. And so for him to give us the innings he gave us tonight was huge,” third baseman Max Muncy stated.
The 4 pitchers the Dodgers used all hung out away from the mound this season.
Starter Shohei Ohtani, who didn’t pitch in any respect final season, didn’t pitch till June and hadn’t thrown previous the fifth inning till his remaining regular-season begin. He went six innings towards the Phillies, giving up three runs and three hits and putting out 9.
Glasnow missed greater than two months with shoulder irritation and different points. Sasaki went to the sideline in early Could with a proper shoulder impingement and wasn’t reactivated till the ultimate week of the season — as a reliever. Even Vesia missed a few weeks with an indirect pressure.
However they had been all prepared for the beginning of the NDLS. Properly, form of — Glasnow stated he was within the toilet when the decision got here down for him to start out warming up.
“The phone rang and they yelled my name,” he stated. “Here we go. It definitely felt weird, but fun. [With the] adrenaline, there’s not as much effort to get the same stuff and [get] warmed up.”
When Glasnow first started throwing the Dodgers trailed 3-2. However by the point he entered the sport they had been entrance 5-3 on Teoscar Hernández’s three-run homer. So his project modified from maintaining his crew near defending a lead.
“For them to trust me to go out there and throw some big innings, it was awesome,” Glasnow stated.
His first inning, the seventh, went fairly properly, with Glasnow setting down the aspect so as. The primary batter, J.T. Realmuto, reached on an error, however he was erased on a double play.
The eighth didn’t go as properly. Trea Turner walked with one out, and though supervisor Dave Roberts had Vesia, a left-hander, within the bullpen, the right-handed Glasnow was allowed to face lefty sluggers Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper.
He struck out Schwarber on three pitches, however Harper singled to proper. So when Alec Bohm walked to load the bases, Roberts lastly referred to as in Vesia, who acquired Sosa to come out, ending the menace.
“The coaches put the trust in him and he just kept telling me, ‘You’re driving me. Just tell me what to do’,” catcher Will Smith stated of guiding Glasnow via his first reduction look since 2018. “He’s put trust in me and I put trust in him. And it worked out tonight.”
Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki celebrates after the ultimate out of a 5-3 win over the Phillies on Saturday.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Occasions)
It labored out as a result of Sasaki got here out of the bullpen throwing gasoline, topping 99 mph on seven of his 11 pitches, together with the ultimate one, which hit 100. Sasaki, who earned the save, additionally pitched the ultimate inning of the wild-card sequence towards the Cincinnati Reds and has thrown two scoreless innings, putting out three.
In actual fact, three pitchers who spent many of the season as starters — Emmet Sheehan, Glasnow and Sasaki — have mixed to throw extra innings out of the bullpen within the playoffs than the Dodgers’ common relievers. That wasn’t the way in which the entrance workplace drew it up after they spent wildly on the bullpen over the winter. However it’s working.
“One real strength of this roster is our starting pitching,” Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, stated earlier than the sport. “It speaks to that depth. Those guys are really talented.
“And I can see it factoring in and helping us.”
It already has.
