The National League Championship Series resumed at Citi Field on Wednesday, which saw the Los Angeles Dodgers take a 2-1 lead behind their 8-0 win over the New York Mets.
Walker Buehler enjoyed a bounce-back start and was followed by the Dodgers bullpen combining for five scoreless innings. The offense also had a better showing as they tallied 10 hits, including home runs from Kiké Hernández, Shohei Ohtani and Max Muncy.
Buehler became the first pitcher in MLB history to throw 90 or more pitches in a postseason start of four innings or less while not giving up a run, according to OPTAStats.
The Dodgers have received dominant performances from the likes of Jack Flaherty and Yoshinobu Yamamoto this postseason, but their bullpen has also stepped up in a major way to make up for some of the injuries to the rotation.
The Dodgers opted for a bullpen game in Game 4 of the NL Division Series against the San Diego Padres and were able to stave off elimination due to the collective effort of eight pitchers.
Even with a less-than-stellar performance in Game 2 of the NLCS against the Mets, Dodgers relievers have posted a solid 2.75 ERA across 39.1 innings during the postseason thus far.
Dodgers break MLB record with postseason shutouts
The Dodgers became the first team with three shutout wins by eight-plus runs in a single postseason. They also had such victories in Game 1 of the NLCS against the Mets and Game 4 of the NLDS.
The Dodgers have four shutout wins in their last five games, which is especially impressive considering the injuries to their pitching staff and lack of a dominant rotation.
“Mark Prior, Connor (McGuiness), Danny Lehmann, Bardo (Josh Bard) in the ‘pen, the players themselves obviously — I mentioned Will, what he’s doing, controlling and kind of being the jockey for these pitchers — these guys are locked in,” manager Dave Roberts said after Game 3.
“And they understand they have a job to do to prevent runs. And I think we’re playing good defense. That’s a big part of it, too.”
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