Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts did not know how many healthy and rested relievers he would have at his disposable with his team facing elimination in Game 4 of the National League Division Series on Wednesday night.
“It’s essentially all hands on deck,” said Roberts before the game. “It’s a bullpen game. You can't be afraid to fail. It's win or go home and that kind of fight or flight mentality. I think that mentality is the start of it. But, again, you still have to play a good baseball game.So I feel good just kind of throwing a bunch of arms at these guys [the Padres] today, giving them different looks.”
The Dodgers gave the San Diego Padres eight different looks in Game 4, as the bullpen combined for nine shutout innings, saving the season with an 8-0 win to stave off elimination and force a Game 5 at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.
"The bullpen were the most valuable players of the game," said Dodgers utility player Enrique Hernandez to MLB Network after the game. "Even though we gave them a lot of runs, they kept us in the lead and they held them down and put us in a good spot now."
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Los Angeles lives to fight another day thanks to their bullpen which has carried them all season. The Dodgers bullpen had the fourth best ERA in the Majors in 2024, and the second-most innings pitched overall. So it was only fitting they bore the responsibility as the role of the Dodgers' life preserver in Game 4.
"As a group we take it personally when we get days like this to come out and give our team the best chance to win and show everyone that even though we've pitched the most innings, there's a reason for it," said reliever Ryan Brasier, who started the game for the Dodgers on Wednesday night.
The Dodgers couldn’t have done it without a little Mookie Magic, soon-to-be MVP Shohei Ohtani, or a Will Smith homer, his first of the postseason.
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Mookie Betts, who entered Game 3 at Petco Park in an 0-for-22 slump at the plate in the postseason. Homered to start the game for the second straight day.
"I think I just needed to see one fall, man. I think I just need today see one fall and get a little confidence," said Betts' of his slump before the back-to-back homers in Games 3 and 4. "I know my team did an amazing job. My teammates did an amazing job trying to put confidence, instill confidence in me. I had to turn off all social media because that was all negative. And I had to get some positive vibes in me. And my team did it. And I worked hard and finally saw one fall and I think we're all right now."
MOOOKIEEE 🗣️
— MLB (@MLB) October 10, 2024
Back-to-back games with a homer to get the @Dodgers on the board. pic.twitter.com/VHTz91ZvJw
The Dodgers extended the lead with a pair of RBI singles from Betts and Shohei Ohtani in the bottom of the second inning off San Diego's ace Dylan Cease, who was starting on just three days of rest for the first time in his career.
"Dylan knows he's a really good pitcher and has been for a while," said Padres' manager Mike Shildt on what he saw from Cease on three days rest. "Listen, he was excited to take the ball. He wanted the opportunity. Again, once he got to a certain point, swings were pretty good on him. He wasn't fooling anybody. I'm sure he was disappointed."
Smith, who was 0-for-9 in the series when he stepped up to the plate with a runner in scoring position in the top of the third, silenced the sellout crowd of 47,773 with a two-run blast to straightaway center that gave the Dodgers a 5-0 lead.
"I was able to get a good swing on a sinker up in the zone," said Smith of his back-breaking homer. "Muncy did a great job of getting on second with a double. I was just trying to get him over and I was rewarded with a homer."
Will Smith with a BLAST to add onto the @Dodgers lead! 💥 pic.twitter.com/YdlJJ5LEv8
— MLB (@MLB) October 10, 2024
Suddenly silent as the sheeted dead, Petco Park was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. What was supposed to be a clinching celebration of champagne popping and fireworks instead turned into a lot of head-scratching and angry muffled whispering among Padres' fans.
"It was huge," said Max Muncy about being able to score early and silence the crowd. "We got off to a hot start, especially in this place, this atmosphere, to take even a little bit of energy out of the crowd I think was big for us, and it allowed our pitchers to go out there and do their job and not stress about having to do too much."
Through the first three innings of all four divisional series in the MLB Playoffs, there has been a total of 43 runs scored, over 65 percent of them (28) came from the Dodgers and Padres.
After game 3 of the series, which saw a devastating display of defensive ineptitude in the second inning, the Dodgers had devolved into some unflattering finger pointing. Between Freeman’s throw that hit Manny Machado in the helmet as he ran inside the grass to second base, or Miguel Rojas mental lapse to run to second base for a double play instead of tossing it to second for the force out, there was plenty of blame to go around.
The whole debacle, which was more reminiscent of the Bad News Bears than the mighty Dodgers, was the kind of public postseason embarrassment and disappointment that makes the emotional storms of October look much more difficult than they already are.
To make matters worse, Rojas re-injured his torn abductor muscle on the play and he was pulled from the starting lineup ahead of Game 4. To add insult to injury, All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman was a last-minute scratch after re-aggravating his right ankle sprain.
Needless to say, in a bullpen game, and without two of their starters, the odds were stacked against the Dodgers.
But that didn’t matter with their backs to the wall. The Dodgers helped their bullpen arms by building them an early lead.
Betts and Ohtani each added RBI singles in the second inning, before Smith broke it open in the third.
Shohei Ohtani adds on for the @Dodgers! 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/VTw4q53GxD
— MLB (@MLB) October 10, 2024
Mookie Betts adds on another run and the @Dodgers are up 3-0! #NLDS pic.twitter.com/ENWFo2FWmo
— MLB (@MLB) October 10, 2024
Roberts called for some small-ball to tack on an insurance run on a squeeze play in the seventh.
The art of laying down the perfect bunt!
— MLB (@MLB) October 10, 2024
The @Dodgers tack on an insurance run. #Postseason pic.twitter.com/Fcb4lEl5u9
After not playing in the postseason with a torn ACL in 2022, Gavin Lux hit a two-run homer a few batters later to make it an 8-0 game.
MORE RUNS!
— MLB (@MLB) October 10, 2024
Gavin Lux extends the @Dodgers lead to 8-0. pic.twitter.com/4pg3PUy94H
"I was in straight compete mode," said Lux to Spectrum SportsNetLA of his two-run homer. "You just go look for a pitch in the lane you're looking in and try and grind guys out and get on base to help the team in any way possible. That was my mentality."
Outside of two innings of mop-up duty during a blowout in Game 2, the Dodgers bullpen has thrown 20 shutout innings in the series, and 15 consecutive scoreless innings after allowing those six runs in the second inning of Game 4, that's something no team in MLB history has ever done.
The Dodgers bullpen will now get a full days rest before the series heads back to Hollywood for Game 5 on Friday night. Their workload should be a lot less than it was on Wednesday as both Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jack Flaherty will be available on normal rest to start.
That decision on who will get the ball should come later, but one thing is for certain: there is still more baseball left to be played by the Dodgers this season.
The winner-take-all Game 5 of the best-of-five NLDS series will take place on Friday night at Dodger Stadium with first pitch scheduled for 5:08PM on FOX.
