By admin 
LOS ANGELES – In a text discussion with a friend about the Dodgers’ playoff chances a couple of weeks ago, I made the following observation:
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“I’m a lot more comfortable with the bullpen than I was a few weeks ago. (Assuming that Diaz’s recent outings weren’t a mirage.)”
Oh, but comfort is relative. It’s easier to assume the best before the important games start, the ones that decide a season – and, in this case, possibly a team’s place in history.
So where is that Dodger bullpen today? Feel free to shudder, as you are pondering what could be a much earlier playoff exit than anyone, even the haters, expected.
Yes, the best-of-five National League Divisio Series is tied 1-1, so their backs aren’t firmly planted against the wall yet. But Sunday night’s 3-2 loss in Game 2 was achieved with Dodger relievers allowing Atlanta’s second and third runs. And the Dodgers will see the Atlanta Braves’ ace, Chris Sale, on something approximating full rest – or what passes for it at this time of the season – in Tuesday’s Game 3 at Truist Park.
More on that later, and at least that one should be a fair fight, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto starting for the Dodgers.
But if you are experiencing flashbacks to last season, when it took starters pitching in relief to help get the Dodgers to the finish line – or to various points this season when relief pitchers caused still more stress – you likely aren’t alone.
Manager Dave Roberts wasn’t quite ready to put Edwin Diaz back in the closer’s role, which he had surrendered after his return from surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow corresponded with a series of bad outings stemming from out-of-whack mechanics. That included back-to-back outings in Arizona in August, when he blew a lead in the ninth and lost the first night, then blew a lead in the ninth but earned the win in the 10th the next night.
But he is now, especially given Diaz’s efficient performance in the sixth inning on Sunday night: Two swinging strikeouts and a fly ball that Kyle Tucker caught on the warning track. Diaz needed 12 pitches, hitting 99 to 101 mph on his four-seam fastball and 91-92 on his slider.
“Edwin was great,” Roberts said. “I think if you look at tonight, try to find some silver linings, that was a silver lining and certainly a positive.
“… I think I’ve been very consistent in the fact that I wanted to get him an outing, and this was a big spot. He did what he needed to do. It looked great. So absolutely, you could see him closing.”
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As for the rest of the bullpen? On a night when the result was all that really mattered, it wasn’t nearly good enough. Kris Bubic gave up a triple to Michael Harris II in the fifth – though Teoscar Hernández couldn’t get to the fly ball down the left field line and played it into a triple – and then wild-pitched Harris home.
And Edgardo Henriquez, who spent the last two weeks of the regular season on the injured list with back discomfort, gave up a seventh inning single to Matt Olson and then served up a 95 mph cutter – a cookie, right down the middle – that Harris jumped on for an RBI double to left center and a 3-1 Atlanta lead. That was one of only six pitches Henriquez threw among his 20 in that inning that didn’t top 100 mph. But it did damage.
And that’s all layered on top of the two-run home run that Tanner Scott served up to Ozzie Albies in the ninth inning on Saturday afternoon in Game 1. That blow didn’t change the outcome in the Dodgers’ 5-3 series-opening victory – but if you’re a Dodger fan, didn’t that bring back some old, bad memories from Scott’s 2025 season, his first in L.A.?
Even Roki Sasaki, a bullpen savior last fall and a member of the rotation this season, looked ragged when he came out of the bullpen on Sunday night. He walked Rowdy Tellez leading off the inning and hit Austin Riley with a pitch, but escaped when Ronald Acuña Jr. hit into an inning-ending double play.
Is it an overreaction to say Game 2 might have damaged the chances for that historic three-peat? Probably, but consider: Braves manager Walt Weiss waited until Sunday morning to make the decision on his team’s Game 2 starter, and he decided it wouldn’t be Chris Sale, who pitched an inning and a third in relief on Thursday night to close out a 6-2 victory over Philadelphia in the Wild Card Series.
Which means Sale, the best the Braves have, will start Game 3 on Tuesday in Atlanta with an opportunity to put the Dodgers in a huge hole. Yes, the Dodgers will counter wtih Yamamoto, last year’s World Series MVP – but how many times does a guy have to save his team’s season, anyway?
“Look, at the end of the day, we want full-strength Chris Sale,” Weiss said before Sunday’s game. “I know him at 80 percent is really good, but that’s what it came down to. We’ve given him extra rest all year, and it’s served him very well. It allowed him to do what he did the other night, I think, (with) all the extra rest he’d gotten.
“Not sure you’re getting the best version of him pitching today. We’re certain we will pitching Game 3.”
The Braves used two bullpen games this weekend. Sunday night they limited the Dodgers to two solo home runs, by Freddie Freeman in the fourth and Max Muncy off Atlanta closer Raisel Iglesias with two outs in the ninth.
And consider this: The Dodgers have not had a hit with runners in scoring position in this series – they were 0 for 8 on Sunday night and are 0 for 10 for the series – and they have not scored a run that wasn’t produced by a homer.
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So maybe their bullpen isn’t the only obstacle separating them from history.
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