It was like Orel Hershiser might hear what Dodger followers have been screaming at their TV.
As a result of, as slumping nearer Tanner Scott got here trotting right into a nightmare ninth inning in Baltimore on Saturday evening, the membership’s coloration analyst on SportsNet LA instantly tried to supply a rationalization for his entrance.
“You might be asking, why Tanner Scott tonight?” Hershiser mentioned, moments after the SNLA broadcast confirmed a clip of the left-hander getting walked off the evening earlier than, and moments earlier than he’d get walked off once more on a bases-loaded single to finish Saturday’s disastrous loss to the Orioles.
Nicely, Hershiser continued, “If the Dodgers are going to go deep into October, and go back-to-back as world champions, the people Dave Roberts is bringing in have to get it right.”
An unsatisfying reply, maybe. However one which displays the precarious actuality of the Dodgers’ bullpen state of affairs — with the crew feeling little selection however to depend on the high-profile relievers this yr’s crew was constructed round.
Granted, Saturday’s collapse epitomized simply how troublesome that religion has been to keep up.
It begins with Scott, the $72 million offseason signing who was presupposed to cement the backend of the unit — not require an evidence from crew broadcasters upon coming into video games in key conditions.
It’s been compounded by inconsistencies elsewhere, from equally scuffling offseason signing Kirby Yates; to Blake Treinen and the unreliable kind he has proven since getting back from an elbow damage, together with a meltdown earlier in Saturday’s ninth inning that compelled Scott into an unforgiving state of affairs.
Accidents have additionally hampered the continuity of the bullpen repeatedly this season. Onerous-throwing right-hander Michael Kopech has been restricted to 10 appearances due to arm and knee troubles. Left-handed stalwart Alex Vesia has missed the final two weeks with an indirect pressure (although he was set to be activated for this week’s homestand). The crew’s solely notable commerce deadline reliever acquisition, Brock Stewart, made simply 4 outings earlier than happening with a shoulder damage. Evan Phillips is already out for the yr with Tommy John surgical procedure. It’s unclear if Brusdar Graterol will return from a shoulder process in time to pitch in any respect this yr.
All of these names have been presupposed to make up the core of this yr’s reduction unit — the high-leverage items that the entrance workplace determined to spend money on, and Roberts anticipated he’d have the ability to belief.
As an alternative, they’ve been the largest culprits behind the bullpen’s 4.21 ERA on the season (which ranks nineteenth within the majors) and a spate of current painful late-game losses which have saved the Dodgers mired in a two-month stoop.
Transferring ahead, it has left Roberts and his membership dealing with a troublesome resolution: Proceed to belief that underperforming crop of supposed lockdown arms, or search for options from much less confirmed choices elsewhere?
For now, the previous seems to stay their most popular selection.
If the bullpen is to show issues round, they’ve determined, it would require their largest names to easily begin pitching higher.
“These are the guys we signed off on, we believe in,” Roberts mentioned Sunday. “Not to say that you’ve got to have blind faith forever. I understand that. But … I’m going to keep giving [opportunities] to them, until I don’t.”
Pitching coach Mark Prior echoed that very same message, reiterating that “those are our guys, and we believe in them,” even because the crew searches for late-season enhancements.
“The results haven’t been there. It hasn’t been good,” Prior added. “[But we have to] move forward with the three weeks we have left in the season and get on a run. Things happen very fast in this game.”
Prior pointed to final season, when the Dodgers confronted different — although a lot much less alarming — bullpen questions main as much as the playoffs. At the moment, they didn’t have a set nearer within the ninth inning. A number of key items have been both harm or scuffling within the second half.
Treinen, specifically, was one of many larger uncertainties, after lacking two weeks in August with a hip damage that additionally doubled as a reset amid a midseason stoop. As soon as he returned, nevertheless, the right-hander remodeled into the Dodgers’ most trusted late-game choice. “Next thing you know, he’s the MVP of our team in the playoffs,” Prior mentioned.
The soundness he offered additionally helped the remainder of the bullpen, which successfully carried the Dodgers to their World Collection title, flourish round him.
“If they see a guy having some success, things just snowball,” Prior mentioned, describing how successes (and failures) can usually really feel contagious amongst a bullpen at giant.
That’s the form of dynamic the Dodgers try to rediscover once more this yr.
It’s why Scott (regardless of his 4.56 ERA and 12 mixed blown saves and shedding selections) retains getting late-game alternatives. And why Treinen (4.26 ERA), Yates (4.71 ERA) and different disappointments within the Dodgers’ beleaguered reduction corps have been given continued leash to work to get again to the perfect model of themselves.
On paper, these are essentially the most veteran, most skilled, and most reliable choices on this yr’s crew. They’ve, as Roberts has repeatedly reiterated of late, the form of “track record” the membership continues to be keen to wager on. If simply a few them can determine issues out and get on a dominant run, extra unit-wide success may comply with of their wake.
“When you’re talking about winning 11 games in October, getting there [requires] guys that you can trust in that hot box of moments,” Roberts mentioned.
“[This] is who we have, it’s not like that’s changing,” Prior added. “So we just gotta keep getting there.”
That doesn’t imply the crew will endure extra struggles without end. The clock is ticking on the Dodgers’ anticipated leverage group to lastly discover a solution to understand their potential.
On Sunday morning, for instance, Roberts mentioned Scott could possibly be shifted out of his ninth-inning position as he tries to iron out command issues which have led him to constantly miss down the center. Later that day, the supervisor entrusted a late-game result in three rookies in Edgardo Henriquez (who escaped a jam however had shaky command), Justin Wrobleski (who struck out 5 over two scoreless innings in one in every of his greatest outings this yr) and Jack Dreyer (a gentle left-hander this season who now has three saves to associate with his sub-3.00 ERA) to shut out a skid-snapping win in opposition to the Orioles.
Come the playoffs, there could possibly be one other wild card. Two-way star Shohei Ohtani will probably be wanted within the beginning rotation, however Roberts acknowledged there have been “thoughts about” whether or not he might issue into some form of potential ninth-inning position as properly.
“I can’t answer that question right now,” Roberts mentioned. “But I think that we’re going to do whatever we feel is the best chance to give us a chance to win. And I know Shohei would be open to whatever. We certainly haven’t made that decision yet, though.”
However earlier than they get there, a lot will depend upon the precise relievers they anticipated to have the ability to rely on this season. For as ugly because the performances have been up to now, the Dodgers haven’t but deserted all hope for a turnaround.
“I live in a world of, what’s the alternative?” Roberts mentioned. “I just don’t feel that Edgardo Henriquez, for example” — who has 17 profession major-league innings — “is now the savior.”
“It’s not a knock on Edgardo, because he’s throwing the heck out of the baseball,” Roberts added. “But you look at our ‘pen, there’s a confidence thing right now that [other guys have] got to get over.”
Over the ultimate three weeks of the common season, the Dodgers really feel their greatest wager is banking on them to do exactly that.
“Look, it can turn really quick,” Prior mentioned. “This game is so much about feeling confident … Getting, and being able to stack good outings or quality at-bats. When you’re able to start stacking those things, you feel good. And like anything, if you feel good, you feel better about your stuff. You have more confidence. You feel that you can get anybody out in any situation.”
The Dodgers’ high relievers, after all, look like a great distance from that in the mean time.
However “at the core of it,” Prior insisted, even after the frustrations of the bullpen’s continued failures, “we believe in who we have.”
