It worked and nothing else worked. They might as well take it back.
The Dodgers must use their surprise ace again to save the season.
This is not Yoshinobu Yamamoto. This isn't Jack Flaherty.
This is to be determined – to be determined.
For the Dodgers, the deciding game in the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres on Friday should be a bullpen game.
Read more: The Dodgers show no panic and dominate the Padres to force a deciding Game 5 of the NLDS
What other options do they have after eight relievers shut out the Padres in an 8-0 victory at Petco Park on Wednesday night that tied the series at two games apiece?
“It's obviously a good idea,” Dave Roberts' manager said.
The Dodgers have a flawed rotation AND a reliable bullpen. It would be practical to remove the problematic part of the pitch equation.
Bullpen games are not a permanent cure for pitching problems because the reserves would quickly deplete if eight of them were pitching in every game.
However, the Dodgers may be concerned about how they will handle the New York Mets in the NL Championship Series once they get there. Right now, they need to win one game, and the obvious answer to how to do that is another game in the bullpen, especially since the shortstops who took the field in Game 4 will be able to recuperate with a day off on Thursday.
“We've been saying it all year: This bullpen is special,” said left-hander Aleks Vesia, who was responsible for five of the 27 outs the Dodgers recorded in the fourth.
Of the 21 runs scored by the Padres in this best-of-three series, 15 came against Dodgers starters Yamamoto, Flaherty and Walker Buehler.
All six runs scored for the Dodgers resulted in a 10-2 tie in Game 2, with four of those runs coming from Michael Grove and Edgardo Henriquez, who are not considered high-leverage hitters. Grove was removed from the active roster on Tuesday due to a shoulder injury.
There's something unsettling about watching Sandy Koufax, Fernando Valenzuela and Clayton Kershaw resort to bullpen plays at the most critical moments of the season, but Andrew Friedman's Dodgers are not Buzzie Bavasi's Dodgers or Fred Claire's Dodgers.
When asked about fans who are disgusted by bullpen games, Vesia replied, “I would say they haven't watched enough Dodger baseball games this year to be that way. I'd say if they were watching us, they would have a different opinion.
In eight bullpen games during the regular season – straight bullpen games, as opposed to games in which the starting pitcher got to the starting pitcher – the Dodgers were 5-3 with a 2.92 earned run average.
With Ryan Brasier logging the first four outs in the fourth as the designated opener, the Dodgers handled the early innings more effectively than with either of their starters.
Yamamoto was crushed by five runs in just three innings in Game 1a, his performance was so disturbing that Roberts believed he was tipping the scales. Flaherty gave up four runs in 5 ⅓ innings in Game 2 and Buehler gave up six runs in five innings in Game 3.
Yamamoto, Flaherty and Buehler have a combined ERA of 10.13 in this series. Sending either of them to the mound at Dodger Stadium in Game 5 would have been too much of a risk, especially considering Yu Darvish started 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, Padres hitters looked like Dodgers hitters against Darvish.
Read more: Plaschke: Move! Desperate, the Dodgers dump the Padres and return to Dodger Stadium for Game 5
The game went pretty much as the Dodgers had planned, thanks in large part to the performance of Vesia, Evan Phillips AND Daniel Hudson. Vesia retired the order in the fourth inning, throwing just 12 pitches, allowing him to return for the fifth time and score two more outs. Phillips recorded four outs in 10 pitches. Hudson threw nine pitches and the seventh was scoreless.
Roberts used his most reliable pitchers to attack the heart of the Padres and checked out Michal Kopech in the third inning, Phillips in the fifth and Blake Treinen in the eighth.
“Everyone was fantastic,” catcher Will Smith said. “Attacking the zone, keeping guys away, throwing nine zeros and that's what we needed tonight.”
The Dodgers will need that from their relievers again on Friday. This is their best and perhaps only path to the NLCS.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
