{"id":202237,"date":"2026-03-03T14:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T14:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/202237\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T14:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T14:11:13","slug":"will-klein-isnt-shocked-he-saved-dodgers-world-series-dynasty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/202237\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Klein isn’t shocked he saved Dodgers World Series dynasty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The day after he saved the Dodgers<\/a>\u2019 season, Will Klein<\/a> was hungry. He ordered from Mod Pizza.<\/p>\n

He drove over to pick up his order. The guy that handed him the pizza told him he looked just like Will Klein.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should just look at the name on the order,\u201d Klein told him.<\/p>\n

Chaos ensued.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe actually started screaming,\u201d Klein said. \u201cHe just started flipping out, which was funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thing is, if it were two days earlier, the guy would have had no idea what Klein looked like. Neither would you.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 26, Klein was the last man in the Dodgers\u2019 bullpen, a wild thing on his fourth organization in two years, a last-minute addition to the World Series roster.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 27, the Dodgers played 18 innings, and the last man in the Dodgers\u2019 bullpen delivered the game of his life<\/a>: four shutout innings, holding the Toronto Blue Jays at bay until Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off home run<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Los <\/p>\n

Dodgers pitcher Will Klein celebrates during the 16th inning of Game 3 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 27.<\/p>\n

(Mark J. Terrill \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

When Klein returned to the clubhouse, Sandy Koufax walked over to shake hands and congratulate him.<\/p>\n

That was Game 3 of the World Series. The Dodgers, the significantly older team, slogged through the next two games, batting .164 and losing both.<\/p>\n

If not for Klein, that would have been the end. The Blue Jays would have won the series in five games, and there would have been no Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez launching a game-ending double play<\/a> on the run in Game 6, no Miguel Rojas tying home run and game-saving throw in Game 7, no Andy Pages game-saving catch and Will Smith winning home run in Game 7<\/a>, no Yoshinobu Yamamoto winning Game 6 as a starter and Game 7 as a reliever<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There would have been no parade<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Klein rescued the Dodgers, he had pitched one inning in the previous 30 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can never take your mind out of it,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to stay prepared. Something might come up, and you don\u2019t want to be the guy that gets thrown in the fire and just burns.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers are not shy about grabbing a minor league pitcher, telling him what he can do better and what he should stop doing, and seeing what sticks. If nothing sticks, the Dodgers are also not shy about spitting out the pitcher and designating him for assignment.<\/p>\n

In his minor league career, Klein struck out 13 batters every nine innings, which is tremendous. He walked seven batters every nine innings, which is hideous.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers scrapped his slider, mixed in a sweeper, and told him his arm was so good that he should stop trying to make perfect pitches and just let fly.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times, pitchers are guilty of giving hitters too much credit, and hitters are guilty of giving pitchers too much credit,\u201d said Andrew Friedman<\/a>, the Dodgers\u2019 president of baseball operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of our job is to show them information that helps instill some confidence. I think that really landed with Will.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his four September appearances with the Dodgers \u2014 after a minor-league stint to apply the team\u2019s advice \u2014 he faced 17 batters, walked one, and did not give up a run. That\u2019s why he isn\u2019t buying the suggestion that something suddenly clicked in the World Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings were incrementally getting better,\u201d he said, \u201cand then you add that to the atmosphere. It amplifies it to 100. All the prep work and mental stuff that I had been doing, I finally got a chance to shine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts<\/a>: \u201cHe\u2019s done it in the highest of leverage. You can\u2019t manufacture that. You\u2019ve got to live it and do it. So, since he\u2019s done it, I think he\u2019s got a real confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers pitcher Will Klein speaks during DodgerFest at Dodger Stadium on Jan. 31.<\/p>\n

(John McCoy \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Klein last started a game three years ago, at triple A. After making 72 pitches in those four innings of Game 3, did he entertain the thought that maybe, just maybe, he was meant to be a starter after all?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d he said abruptly. \u201cI hate waiting four or five days to pitch and knowing exactly when I\u2019m going to pitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I did, the anxiety just built. I want to go pitch. I hate sitting there and waiting. That kind of eats at you. I like being able to go out to the bullpen and have a chance to pitch every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers are so deep that Klein might not make the team out of spring training. Whatever happens, he\u2019ll always have Game 3.<\/p>\n

In the wake of that game, a fan wanted to buy a Klein jersey but could not find one. So the fan made one himself before Game 4, using white electrical tape on the back of a Dodger blue jersey. I showed Klein a picture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s cool,\u201d Klein said. \u201cThat\u2019s pretty funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Wong, a Dodgers fan living in San Francisco Giants territory, also wanted to buy a Klein jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t have a jersey for him,\u201d Wong said.<\/p>\n

He settled for the Dodger blue T-shirt he found online and wore it to last Friday\u2019s Cactus League game against the Giants, with these words in white letters: \u201cWill Klein Appreciation Shirt.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n

This, then, would be a Will Klein Appreciation Column.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The day after he saved the Dodgers\u2019 season, Will Klein was hungry. He ordered from Mod Pizza. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5888,5885,217,426,93849,423,6135,4468,18316,48,52,51,47,50,49,93850,93851,4256,4610,85024,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-202237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-batter","9":"tag-bullpen","10":"tag-day","11":"tag-dodgers","12":"tag-dodgers-world-series-dynasty","13":"tag-game","14":"tag-guy","15":"tag-inning","16":"tag-klein","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-la-headlines","19":"tag-la-news","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","22":"tag-los-angeles-news","23":"tag-old-team","24":"tag-perfect-pitch","25":"tag-pitcher","26":"tag-thing","27":"tag-walk-off-home-run","28":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}