{"id":27007,"date":"2025-10-28T13:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/27007\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T13:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:47:10","slug":"how-the-dodgers-bullpen-dug-deep-and-won-game-3-of-the-world-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/27007\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Dodgers’ bullpen dug deep and won Game 3 of the World Series"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Most of the Dodgers<\/a> rushed to home plate to wait for Freddie Freeman<\/a>, who was rounding the bases after hitting another World Series walk-off home run<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shohei Ohtani<\/a> had another destination.<\/p>\n

With his left arm wrapped around Roki Sasaki<\/a>, Ohtani ran toward his team\u2019s bullpen, from which Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> emerged. When Yamamoto intercepted his two countrymen on the left-field turf, Ohtani pulled him in with his free arm. Joined by their interpreters, the players embraced each other in celebration, jumping up and down.<\/p>\n

How appropriate.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

From left, Yoshihiro Sonoda, Will Ireton, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani and Roki Sasaki embrace and celebrate in left field after the Dodgers won Game 3 of the World Series in 18 innings on Monday night.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Freeman\u2019s 18th-inning blast in the 6-5 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays spared Yamamoto from making an emergency relief appearance only two days after pitching a complete game<\/a>, but there was nonetheless something heroic about him warming up because the only alternative to him scaling the mound in the next inning would have been for a position player to do so.<\/p>\n

This sprint of self-sacrifice is what vaulted the Dodgers to a victory in Game 3 of the World Series. This courage to push beyond known limits is why they now have a two-games-to-one edge in the best-of-seven series.<\/p>\n

Nine Dodgers relievers followed starter Tyler Glasnow<\/a> in this 6-hour 39-minute marathon, and five of them pitched more than an inning.<\/p>\n

Sasaki provided 1 \u2154 scoreless innings, but the true heroes on this night were the unexpected contributors.<\/p>\n

There was Justin Wrobleski, who tossed a scoreless sixth inning and recorded the first two outs of the seventh. There were Emmet Sheehan and Edgardo Henriquez, who pitched 2 \u2154 and two scoreless innings, respectively.<\/p>\n

Most important, there was Will Klein, a hard-throwing journeyman on his third team this year.<\/p>\n

Klein pitched the last four innings of the game without giving up a run. He threw 72 pitches, which was only seven fewer than Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts with Will Klein,\u201d Clayton Kershaw<\/a> said. \u201cI think what he did tonight, above and beyond, above and beyond what anybody can expect out of somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klein started the year with the Oakland Athletics, who traded him to the Seattle Mariners. He spent the first part of the season with the Mariners\u2019 triple-A affiliate, after which he was traded to the Dodgers, who shuttled him back and forth between the majors and minors. Klein didn\u2019t make the Dodgers\u2019 roster for any of the three previous rounds of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

When Roberts called him out of the bullpen on Monday in the 15th inning, he was literally the last resort. But one scoreless inning became two, and two became three, and three became four.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started to feel it, and there were times when, like, you\u2019re starting to feel down and you feel your legs aren\u2019t there or your arm\u2019s not there,\u201d Klein said. \u201cYou just got to be, like, who else is going to come save me? So I dig deep, do it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yamamoto was ready to take over from there.<\/p>\n

When Kershaw entered the game with the bases loaded to record the final out of the 12th inning and preserve the temporary 5-5 stalemate, Yamamoto realized only two relievers remained: Henriquez and Klein.<\/p>\n

Yamamoto told pitching coach Mark Prior and manager Dave Roberts<\/a> that he could pitch. Initially, he was certain Roberts wouldn\u2019t take him up on his offer. However, when the situation looked as if it was unavoidable, they decided he should start warming up while communicating with the coaches on how he felt.<\/p>\n

Yamamoto said he thought back to when he was a 19-year-old rookie with the Orix Buffaloes of the Japanese league. Back then, he was unable to pitch for 10 days after making a start.<\/p>\n

He spoke about the years he spent working out with personal trainer Osamu Yada.<\/p>\n

\u201cI now have a body that is capable of pitching a complete game in the World Series and pitching again two days later,\u201d Yamamoto said.<\/p>\n

Half-kidding, Yamamoto said with a smile, \u201cI think I was able to prove what an incredible man Osamu Yada is.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the 18th inning, Yamamoto was throwing in the bullpen. He would have replaced Klein in the 19th inning, but he joked, \u201cI got saved by the home run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because he was throwing, Yamamoto said he didn\u2019t see Freeman\u2019s swing. He only saw the baseball clear the center-field wall.<\/p>\n

Kershaw was moved by Yamamoto\u2019s commitment. Yamamoto remains scheduled to start Game 6 on Friday in Toronto, if necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d Kershaw said. \u201cHe just threw a complete game two days ago, cross-country travel, get in at four in the morning (on Sunday), one day rest basically, and go out and say he could pitch. Sometimes, that\u2019s what you need to win a World Series and we\u2019ve got a lot of guys willing to sacrifice to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reserve infielder Miguel Rojas said what Yamamoto did could bring the team closer together.<\/p>\n

As it is, the bullpen has come together over the absence of Alex Vesia<\/a>, who isn\u2019t with the team because he and his wife are dealing with what is described as a \u201cdeeply personal family matter.\u201d On Monday night, the relievers wore caps with Vesia\u2019s number, 51, stitched on the sides.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust something that we talked about,\u201d Kershaw said. \u201cI\u2019m new to the bullpen, but Ves, he means a lot to all of us. He was a huge part of this team, a huge part of that bullpen, so we just want to do something to honor him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most of the Dodgers rushed to home plate to wait for Freddie Freeman, who was rounding the bases…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[20517,16711,5885,18647,217,426,4203,423,48,52,51,47,50,49,5884,422,427,18171,4470,72,429],"class_list":["post-27007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag--scoreless-inning","tag-alex-vesia","tag-bullpen","tag-clayton-kershaw","tag-day","tag-dodgers","tag-freddie-freeman","tag-game","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-roki-sasaki","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-team","tag-will-klein","tag-world-series","tag-year","tag-yoshinobu-yamamoto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27007","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=27007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}