LOS ANGELES — The best way for the Los Angeles Dodgers to win this World Series, the thinking went, was to use their bullpen as little as possible. They would lean on starters and use relievers as a last resort.
In the 12th inning of Game 3 on Monday, only the last resort remained. Seven relievers had already handled the Toronto Blue Jays, leaving two rookie right-handers, Edgardo Henriquez and Will Klein. They had collected a combined zero outs in the National League playoffs and were the final names added to the World Series roster.
So as Clayton Kershaw sliced his way through a bases-loaded jam in the 12th, using seven sliders and one 92-mph fastball, his hardest of the season — “I throw gas now,” Kershaw said, smiling — it was time for a pep talk from the bullpen support staff.
“We kind of pulled everybody together and said, ‘Hey, no matter what happens, what it’s going to look like, in whatever situation you’re going to go in, we trust you guys,’ ” said Evan Phillips, the injured Dodgers reliever who spent most of the game in the bullpen.
“Just making sure that message was clear and giving them some confidence before they went out there, I think, was huge. They were more than ready for this moment.”
Henriquez worked two shutout innings, and then Klein followed with four more. The Blue Jays managed one infield single off Klein, who had never thrown more than two innings or 36 pitches. He doubled both figures in one of the most unlikely star turns in World Series history, leading the Dodgers to a 6-5 victory in 18 innings and a 2-1 series lead.
“Will went four innings tonight, filled up the strike zone, competed his tail off,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And in the postseason, people talk about the superstars, but a lot of times it’s these unsung heroes that you just can’t expect, and guys come to pass and pop. Tonight was Will Klein’s night, and what Edgardo did was just as paramount.”
At least, Henriquez had a bit more of a profile. He pitched in three games last October and another in the wild-card round against the Cincinnati Reds. He was the hardest thrower of the 19 pitchers in Game 3, firing nine pitches over 100 mph.
Klein has struggled to establish himself. He pitched eight games last season for the Kansas City Royals and Oakland A’s, with an 11.05 ERA, and spent most of this season in Triple A, first for the Seattle Mariners before a trade to Los Angeles. He was solid in 14 games with the Dodgers but mostly followed his usual pattern: lots of strikeouts and lots of walks.
In Game 3, he was another kind of pitcher altogether, pouring in strikes, challenging the hitters, even snagging a pop-up and line drive. When he lost the strike zone in the 18th inning — walking two, throwing a wild pitch and falling behind Tyler Heineman with two outs — he found a way to escape.
“I started to feel it,” Klein said. “There were times when you’re starting to feel down and you feel your legs aren’t there or your arm’s not there, and you’ve just got to be like, ‘Well, who else is going to come save me, you know?’ So I had to dig deep, do it myself.
“And hearing our guys in the dugout and the fans kind of come behind me, especially with Will (Smith) calling that last curveball, I was like, ‘All right, cool, let’s do it.’ ”
The curveball finished off Heineman and ended Klein’s night. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who went the distance to win Game 2 on Sunday, was warming up and Roberts said he would have pitched the 19th. Instead, Freddie Freeman connected in the 399th minute of the game to win it.
“Will Klein,” Freeman said later, admiringly. “MVP of this game.”
The Dodgers set a record for most pitchers in a World Series game, with 10. The nine relievers combined to allow one run (off Blake Treinen) in 13 ⅓ innings. Anthony Banda, Justin Wrobleski, Jack Dreyer, Roki Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan, Kershaw, Henriquez and Klein all blanked the Blue Jays.
The way the Dodgers had designed it, a different cast was supposed to get those outs. However, Alex Vesia, a trusted lefty, was dropped from the roster to deal with a serious personal issue. Lockdown veterans like Phillips, Michael Kopech, Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott are all injured.
“The bullpen kind of ends up being the island of misfit toys at times,” said Phillips, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery. “It’s a long season. Things can happen that are unpredictable. The Vesia situation is weighing on our hearts heavily.”
Without Vesia, Roberts called for Banda and Wrobleski as the first lefties out of the bullpen on Monday, after Tyler Glasnow left in the fifth. As the night wore on, their work was erased – literally.
“I pitched the game and then I look up at the scoreboard and the innings that I pitched are no longer on the scoreboard,” Wrobleski said. “That’s probably the craziest thing: when you look up and those innings aren’t there anymore, it’s a little weird.”
The night was more than a little weird for the relievers, who are not used to having so much game remaining after they finish up. They did whatever they could to bend karma their way.
“We had, like, a whole game after I came out,” said Dreyer, who got an out in the eighth. “I did some recovery stuff, but then me and the rest of the guys on the bench were trying to figure out how to get rallies going. I ate a steak in (the clubhouse) at some point. We changed jerseys, we changed shirts, we did all kinds of stuff.”
Nothing worked as well as the last man in the bullpen doing double the work he had ever done in the majors. Klein guessed that he hadn’t pitched four innings since his junior year at Eastern Illinois in 2020. He was tired, clearly, but couldn’t quantify how much.
His mind made his moment possible.
“Just pure adrenaline,” Klein said. “I (just) had that thought in my mind that we weren’t going to lose that game. So each time I went out and I felt my legs were tired, I’m like, ‘Well, who cares? No one else is going to care that my legs are tired right now. The hitter doesn’t care, so why should I?’
“And just finding it in me to throw one more pitch, and then throw another one after that. And then sitting down and getting back up, the same thought going back out there for the next one: putting up a zero, we’re not losing this game.
“So that’s kind of what got me through it — and then, yeah, Freddie.”
Freeman, a superstar, sent them all home. That is what he does. But 72 pitches and four pristine innings? That is not what Klein does. However, he did it in the World Series, and his teammates know what that means.
Said Yates: “Will Klein cemented himself here forever.”
— Additional reporting by The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya and Ken Rosenthal