{"id":30198,"date":"2025-10-30T13:26:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T13:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/30198\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T13:26:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T13:26:12","slug":"why-dodgers-faulty-bullpen-construction-will-cost-them-world-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/30198\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Dodgers’ faulty bullpen construction will cost them World Series"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Was Edgardo Henriquez<\/a> the best option to pitch to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the seventh inning with two outs and runners on the corners?<\/p>\n

Maybe, maybe not.<\/p>\n

And that was the problem.<\/p>\n

The problem was that Dodgers<\/a> manager Dave Roberts<\/a> didn\u2019t have a choice that was clearly better than to place the game in the hands of a hard-throwing but unreliable 23-year-old rookie.<\/p>\n

Henriquez walked Guerrero on a 99.9-mph fastball that sailed into the opposite batter\u2019s box, evading the grasp of catcher Will Smith<\/a> and allowing Addison Barger to score.<\/p>\n

A manageable two-run deficit was now three and about to become four.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers were on their way to a 6-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> on Wednesday night, the Game 5 result placing them at a three-games-to-two deficit in this World Series.<\/p>\n

For Roberts, that seventh inning didn\u2019t represent a manager\u2019s nightmare. That was a manager\u2019s night terror.<\/p>\n

What else could Roberts do?<\/p>\n

Stick with starting pitcher Blake Snell<\/a>? Snell had already pitched to Guerrero three times and his pitch count was at 116.<\/p>\n

Use closer Roki Sasaki<\/a> as a fireman? He\u2019s their only dependable reliever and Roberts wasn\u2019t about to use him in a non-elimination game in which his team was down.<\/p>\n

Turn to last year\u2019s postseason hero Blake \u2026? Never mind, that question isn\u2019t even worth being asked in its entirety.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard because you can only push a starter so much,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI thought Blake emptied the tank.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The Dodgers somehow concealed their pi\u00f1ata of a bullpen in the three previous rounds of the postseason, but that bullpen is now catching up with them.<\/p>\n

Reversing their series deficit will almost certainly require some of their starters to pitch in unfamiliar roles over the next two games, including Shohei Ohtani<\/a> as an opener on three days\u2019 rest in a potential Game 7.<\/p>\n

Snell figures to be a candidate to also pitch in Game 7, perhaps as a middle reliever. Tyler Glasnow is expected to be available out of the bullpen in at least one of the two remaining games.<\/p>\n

Besides Sasaki, the relievers can\u2019t be trusted.<\/p>\n

In each of the team\u2019s three losses in this series, the games turned when the starting pitcher was removed with men on base. In all three instances, the bullpen made a mess of the game, allowing the inherited runners to score.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at the three games that we lost, it spiraled on us with guys on base,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cGuys got to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

They can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

This reality makes the bullpen\u2019s heroic performance<\/a> in the 18-inning victory in Game 3 all the more miraculous. The Dodgers are fortunate this series isn\u2019t already over.<\/p>\n

The construction of this particular bullpen has to be one of the greatest front-office blunders in franchise history, as it could cost the team a World Series in a season in which it has Ohtani, Freddie Freeman<\/a> and a billion-dollar rotation.<\/p>\n

How did this happen?<\/p>\n

Start with Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates. The Dodgers committed a combined $85 million to the two relievers and neither of them is even on the roster.<\/p>\n

Look at the injured list. Brusdar Graterol missed the entire season with shoulder problems. Evan Phillips underwent Tommy John surgery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finally, examine what the Dodgers didn\u2019t do at the trade deadline. Everyone \u2014 and by everyone, I mean everyone except Andrew Friedman\u2019s front office<\/a> \u2014 knew they were in desperate need of bullpen help. Counting on some internal solutions working out, the only reliever they acquired was Brock Stewart. The notoriously brittle Stewart went down with a shoulder injury<\/a> and didn\u2019t pitch in the postseason.<\/p>\n

What the Dodgers did was the baseball equivalent of building a breathtaking mansion but forgetting to install any toilets.<\/p>\n

Now, the entire residence stinks, the Dodgers one loss away from losing a World Series that should be theirs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Was Edgardo Henriquez the best option to pitch to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the seventh inning with two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7203,5885,426,22276,423,22277,48,52,51,47,50,49,3289,2747,22275,22273,424,22274,4467,427,4470],"class_list":["post-30198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-base","tag-bullpen","tag-dodgers","tag-edgardo-henriquez","tag-game","tag-guerrero","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-loss","tag-manager","tag-middle-reliever","tag-problem","tag-roberts","tag-series-deficit","tag-snell","tag-team","tag-world-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30198","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=30198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}