World Series: Dodgers eyeball with, yes, a bullpen game

NEW YORK – For decades, the Los Angeles Dodgers were known for their superstar starting players.

These pitchers remain so indelible that last names largely suffice: Koufax, Drysdale, Valenzuela, Hershiser, Kershaw, all of whom started for the Dodgers' championship teams in the World Series.

The Dodgers' 4-2 victory in Game 3 of the 2024 World Series on Monday put them on the cusp of another championship with a historically insurmountable three-to-zero victory over the New York Yankees. LA can win Game 4 on Tuesday, traditionally a huge opportunity in the career of an ambitious starting player.

The Dodgers' Game 4 starter? After Game 3, the answer to that question remained: relief pitcher TBD. But we know it's going to be a bullpen game to maybe win the World Series.

“It would obviously be fun to go out and contribute something like that,” Dodgers reliever Daniel Hudson said. “I’m not sure what we’re going to do, but we’re going to go out and get three, four or five outs and get the ball to the next guy.”

This offseason, the importance of the 2024 version of bullpen deployment has evolved into something new.

In: Relievers are used at any point in the game – including early, as the Dodgers plan to do in Game 4.

Out: Preconceived roles. The fewer of them you have, the better.

“The guys we have down there,” right-hander Ryan Brasier said, “we compete against each other and we’re a super tight-knit group. We have fun, but at the same time, when it comes time to join in, everyone gets along on the same end of the rope and pulls.”

That's not what the Dodgers envisioned last winter when they signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a big contract, supplemented him with a slightly less big contract for Tyler Glasnow, and brought back Clayton Kershaw. Add returning starters, including a number of young players, injured returnees like Game 3 winner Walker Buehler and trade deadline pick Jack Flaherty, and you have a starting-pitcher bonanza.

Instead, there was so much maladies in the rotation that the Dodgers had to lean heavily on a bullpen that doesn't seem to have a clear pecking order of its own. The improvisational nature of LA's pitching plan was known from the start in October of this year. The Dodgers' bullpen roles have always been fluid, but that dynamic was compounded by the lack of starters. It was all up for grabs.

“There may be five or six guys that have a save this season,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said early in the playoffs. “I feel very comfortable. They all threw with leverage, be it fifth, sixth, seventh or ninth. Whichever pitcher I think is the best in that particular part of the game, in that part of the lineup, that's who.” I'll use it.

It turned out to be a feature and not a bug. Think of the Dodgers' relief staff as a 19th-century Old Hoss Radbourn-style pitcher who pitched every game. This pitcher has a 3.16 ERA over 68 1/3 innings, 13 holds, four saves and no blown saves. The Dodgers' starters – including some openers – have a 4.76 ERA in 11⅔ fewer innings.

Roberts and pitching coach Mark Prior executed the plan with remarkable acumen.

Consider Blake Treinen, whose performance is reminiscent of his prime, when he was one of the most unassailable backups in the game. In the past, when managers let a reliever like Treinen pitch, they might put him in the back of the bullpen and give him the final three, four, or five outs.

Not Treinen. He pitched two innings, was retired after a few hits in the ninth inning, and got outs in the sixth and seventh innings. Brasier pitched in the first (twice), fourth, sixth and eighth. You can see any replacement player at any time if the leverage is right and the matchup can be exploited against a specific sector of the opponent's lineup.

The deeper we got into October, the more Roberts was willing to put his recovering starters to work. Thus, Yamamoto and Buehler have given him not only efficiency but also more length than expected at the start of the series. This, in turn, reserves resources for things like a bullpen elimination game.

“I would compare our bullpen to any bullpen I've ever been on and any bullpen I've ever seen,” screwballer Brent Honeywell said. Honeywell, who was more or less out as a pitcher at the start of Game 4, could still get a chance as the Dodgers hope it will be the final game of the season. “I want to win, and if we have to do it this way, we have to do it this way.”

The Dodgers aren't the only team we've seen like this in the postseason. And playoff bullpen games have been around since at least 2019, in the form we know them now, but what we saw this October felt different. It's not bullpenning as a last resort, it's bullpenning because you can't score with our damn replacements no matter who they are, so maybe, just maybe, we're glad we have to do it this way.

The potential danger is that your replacements are exposed to the same group of batsmen too often over a long series. Roberts is all too aware of this challenge.

“Looking at the series long and short influences my decision-making,” Roberts said. “It’s a constant weaving in and out. But my pitching coaches are doing a great job of helping me kind of sift through it.”

Research conducted on the topic has shown that this can be a problem, but here's the thing: This is arguably a bigger problem for the traditional setup/setup/closer model of playoff bullpen management than what the Dodgers did have. Sure, there's a hierarchy in every bullpen, including this one, and these relievers will see the same hitters in a long series. (Although that streak may not be long after all.) But the Dodgers mitigate that by attacking their opponents with so many different weapons and in so many different circumstances.

However, this is how we scan now because it works. The Dodgers will attempt the ultimate proof of concept by fielding a parade of relievers on Tuesday. If it works again, the reward will be a parade.

Meanwhile, teams with rock-solid rotations (Philadelphia, Kansas City) and star closers (Cleveland, Milwaukee) have fallen by the wayside. The Dodgers, the team that can buy as much security as possible on a baseball roster, are just one win away from the ultimate prize, in large part because of how they have embraced their bullpen.

Going into Game 4, you might think there's a little lobbying in the relief group to be the last one out there. Ultimately, the last pitcher of every World Series clincher gains a measure of instant immortality.

But there is no such lobbying. Not from these Dodgers.

“Nobody here has any kind of ego,” Brasier said. “Just as the phone rings, everyone is ready.”