LOS ANGELES — After one last sweeper got pounded into the dirt by Fernando Tatis Jr. for a groundout and with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ series comeback complete, Blake Treinen raised his arm to the sky. Call it exuberance. Call it joy.
For the Dodgers lately, they’ll call it relief. They will ride into the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets amid a torrid stretch of run prevention, with a franchise postseason record 24 consecutive scoreless innings from their pitching staff to overcome a 2-1 series deficit and topple the San Diego Padres.
“This is all our pitching staff,” Freddie Freeman said in the champagne-soaked frenzy Friday night. “They’re the reason why we’re celebrating right now.”
“They went out there,” Max Muncy said, “and f—ing shoved.”
Of those frames, 16 came from a bullpen that combined to log the fifth-most innings in baseball this season, a collection of veterans, castoffs and All-Stars.
“I know everybody down there will say the same thing and that it was just part of the job, but I know we all took a little bit of pride in that we all kind of stuck our chests out, deservedly so,” Daniel Hudson said.
It’s a group that, in spite of its high usage, finished fourth in the majors with a 3.53 ERA. Its construction was fluid, with 14 pitchers combining to earn a save. Its Opening Day closer entered a Game 4 bullpen effort in the fifth inning. A man who has closed out a World Series pitched the sixth. The star deadline acquisition threw the third.
“Guys that have seen a lot of different things, been in a lot of different positions, success, failures,” Evan Phillips said. “We have a really good group that’s weathered the storm a little bit … I feel like that’s made us bulletproof.”
“I think we kick our egos to the door and we just try to go compete,” Treinen said. “I don’t think there’s a special formula. It’s just, keep it simple.”
Take Treinen, the former All-Star reliever who threw a combined five innings the last two seasons due to shoulder trouble and is on a $1 million option as a result … and still delivered a 1.93 ERA in 50 appearances, having lost a couple of ticks on his fastball while still possessing one of the most devastating breaking balls in the sport.
It was Treinen who closed out two of the Dodgers’ three victories over the Padres, with a life-changing interruption in the middle. Hours after the Dodgers bullpen performance kept their season alive in Game 4, Treinen was flying home, where he and his wife, Kati, were welcoming a daughter. He returned to Dodger Stadium in the hours ahead of Game 5, where he’d deliver the final three outs in the series clincher.
“There’s probably only a handful of days that are better than that,” Treinen said a day later.
Take Phillips, the journeyman reliever who discovered a wicked slider and a career in Los Angeles, who emerged as the Dodgers’ closer before struggles this summer returned him to a fireman role. In 4 1/3 innings in the NLDS, he didn’t allow a base runner.
Take Hudson, who contemplated retirement last winter after missing the majority of two seasons with different knee injuries before returning on a minor league deal. The 37-year-old, whom Trienen called “the anchor” of the unit, has a pair of Tommy John scars and years of battles but emerged as a sage even among the most veteran in the bullpen.
“I think it’s just because I’m the old guy,” Hudson said.
In 65 appearances, Hudson delivered a 3.00 ERA and 10 saves.
There’s Anthony Banda, who nearly quit the sport before rediscovering his joy, whose broken hand nearly threw it all away for this season and yet was the man warming as Treinen sought to close out the series. There’s Michael Kopech, armed with one of baseball’s most elite fastballs, who found his peak form after being acquired from baseball’s worst team. There’s Ryan Brasier, who signed a minor-league deal last summer, picked up a cutter and reinvented himself.
“It’s just the right mix of people down there,” Hudson said. “You can have all the stuff down there you want, but if you don’t have guys there that are tugging from the same side of the rope, it’s hard.”
It’s combined to form a formidable unit — one that propelled the Dodgers through at least one postseason series and will be leaned on heavily for two more.
It’s something Jack Flaherty learned firsthand. The right-hander, who will start Game 1 of the Dodgers on Sunday night, spent the latter part of the NLDS sitting in the Dodgers’ bullpen, watching as nine arms delivered a shutout performance in Game 4 while facing elimination at Petco Park and watching again two nights later as they put the final finishing touches on the comeback.
“I would talk a little bit here and there,” Flaherty said. “but I kind of wanted to stay and just let them do whatever they want to do and not try to mess with the vibe down there too much because they were really good. They were really high.
“I mean, those guys were incredible. They’re together. They’re a really cohesive group. You see the way they interact out there and see them being together. I didn’t want to mess with it.”
That group will be tested further over the coming weeks, and with a noteworthy absence. Imaging on left-hander Alex Vesia, who emerged as a vital cog in the group, revealed an intercostal issue that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Saturday makes him “highly unlikely” to be on the NLCS roster along with fellow injured relievers Brusdar Graterol and Joe Kelly. The ramifications against the Mets might be acute — their primary left-handed hitting options are largely limited to leadoff hitter Brandon Nimmo, outfielder Jesse Winker and potentially utilityman Jeff McNeil — but his effectiveness (a 1.76 ERA in 67 regular-season appearances) and steadiness stood out even among this group.
They’ll continue to be used heavily, too, with Roberts saying he could see a bullpen game “or two” being deployed as the Dodgers continue to work with a patchwork starting staff.
“But with that we’re going to have to ask innings from other guys,” Roberts said. “That’s just the reality. I don’t think that in a seven-game series we have the luxury to max out guys like we did from the pen in a five-game series.”
(Top photo of Blake Treinen: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
