A horrendous April carried into May as the Los Angeles Dodgers dropped a fourth straight game and their seventh in the last eight. And once again, it was due to the inability of a shaky bullpen to protect a lead in the late innings.
Clayton Kershaw saw another solid performance go by the wayside, as he tossed six innings of two-run ball against the Arizona Diamondbacks, striking out six and exiting with a 3-2 lead. Adam Liberatore was the first reliever Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called on.
Liberatore promptly gave up three hits, the last of which was a go-ahead, two-run triple to Daniel Descalso. Liberatore joined Pedro Baez, Tony Cingrani and Daniel Hudson in recently failing to preserve the Dodgers’ lead upon entering the game.
Kershaw nonetheless remains confident in the bullpen and put the onus on himself and the starting rotation to aid their efforts in finding a rhythm, via SportsNet LA:
“These guys, starting with Kenley all the way down, there’s a track record. There’s a consistency there and the guys that we have, the new guys we brought in this year, they’re there for a reason. It’s something where we have to find everybody’s identity, find everybody’s roles. Once we get to that, it starts with the starter, it’s my job to get deep into the game so everybody could line up and do their jobs. It’s tough when you got to put guys out of their comfort zones and things like that. So it’s just a trickle-down effect all the way through.”
The Dodgers bullpen has given up 26 runs in 27 innings over past nine games, which obviously is not a recipe for success. Particularly when your offense has not shown an ability to come back the way they did so often in 2017.
Part of the struggles can be attributed to not re-signing key bullpen pieces from last season, Brandon Morrow and Tony Watson. Their replacements, Tom Koehler and Scott Alexander have not contributed much.
Koehler has been on the disabled list the whole season and Alexander was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City after struggling with his command.
Additionally, returning relievers that have had success in the past. Baez, Josh Fields and Liberatore have each blown games. So right now it all looks bad for the Dodgers bullpen, although there is still a lot of season left to turn it around.
