An unsettling theme for the Los Angeles Dodgers this season has been the bullpen’s consistent inability to protect a lead, no matter which relievers manager Dave Roberts has turned to. On Tuesday night, Adam Liberatore was the culprit.
He entered in the seventh inning, with the Dodgers clinging to a 3-2 lead. He immediately allowed a leadoff single, then a base hit to John Ryan Murphy. Daniel Descalso followed with a two-run triple.
The Dodgers lost their lead in the blink of an eye, and Liberatore was removed after throwing just seven pitches and failing to retire any of the batters he faced. Naturally, the conversation shifted to Clayton Kershaw being removed after six innings.
Roberts explained it was due to some of the stress Kershaw faced and his pitch count to get through six innings, as seen on SportsNet LA:
“For Clayton to go out for the seventh, was a pretty easy question for me in the sense that the two innings prior, fourth and fifth, really labored. Had stress in both those innings. In the sixth inning, had a good inning, but at 102 pitches, he worked hard.”
The Diamondbacks did their damage off the Dodgers ace behind solo home runs from A.J. Pollock and Christian Walker. It was Pollock’s fourth in two nights, but only the second hit this season for Walker.
And though Liberatore did allow Arizona to take the lead, J.T. Chargois stranded Descalso at third base, and Kenley Jansen worked around a base hit, stolen base and walk in the bottom of the eighth.
With the Dodgers having lost seven of their last eight games, the bullpen has allowed 25 runs in 23 innings pitched during that span.
