The struggles of the Los Angeles Dodgers bullpen has been well-documented so far this season. Entering play on Wednesday, the group had allowed 26 runs in 27 innings over past nine games.
That correlated to the Dodgers going 2-7 during that stretch. To make matters worse, Hyun-Jin Ryu went down with a groin injury in just the second inning of Wednesday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
It thrust the Dodgers into their second bullpen game in the last three days. While it didn’t look to be a recipe of success, the unit, led by Pedro Baez, stepped up in a big way.
They preserved a slim lead to help the Dodgers earn a 2-1 victory over their division rivals.
After the game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts commended his group of relievers for stepping up the way they did, via SportsNet LA:
“They got the MVP for the night, they really did. Like you said, they’ve taken a lot of criticism and obviously, they haven’t performed. But tonight, where we had no margin for error essentially, against a very good team playing well, each one of those guys stepped up and starting with [Pedro Baez] to give us 42 pitches or something like start, two and two-thirds innings. All of these guys have been extended, taxed, and they all rose to the occasion tonight. I was proud of them.”
Baez was the first reliever of the night following Ryu’s injury, and he threw a career-high 42 pitches while tying a career high with 2.2 innings. He recorded four strikeouts without allowing a run, escaping bases-loaded jam at one point.
That was followed by two shutout innings from Daniel Hudson, a scoreless inning each from Tony Cingrani and Josh Fields, and then Kenley Jansen picked up his fourth save of the season despite making things interesting by allowing a run to score and the tying run to reach second base.
While the Dodgers bullpen isn’t yet back to being the dominant group that they were the last two seasons, it is a positive sign to see them show that they are still capable of being that, which should help their confidence moving forward.
