Closing out Game 1, moving on to Game 2

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By Jon Weisman

Over in the far-off reaches of the American League, the Detroit Tigers bullpen has been absolutely battered. In both his playoff games, Detroit manager Brad Ausmus has been ripped for removing a pitcher too soon.

Neither of those occasions came with Clayton Kershaw on the mound. Neither of them came in an inning that began after Clayton Kershaw had retired 16 of his last 17 batters with eight strikeouts, using only 74 pitches over that stretch and 81 in the game to that point.

I’m sympathetic to the argument that by the time nemesis Matt Carpenter came to bat in the seventh inning of Friday’s loss to the Cardinals, 21 pitches later, Kershaw was on thin ice. But I’m having trouble believing that anytime before that, Don Mattingly would have received less criticism for turning the final seven, eight or nine outs of the game to middle relief that has been darkly questioned all year long.

That’s not at all to say the bullpen would have failed, though the walk and home run surrendered by Pedro Baez to his first two batters was not reassuring — and J.P. Howell, who would have faced John Jay with the bases loaded in the seventh if many had had their way, allowed a leadoff single to Jay in the ninth.

It’s simply that between 1) a Kershaw that was allowing singles but also striking batters out, or 2) a fresh Howell or Baez, not only is the choice basically a tossup, but choosing the bullpen is betting against the player that has come through more often than any other pitcher in the game.

Put more bluntly: Imagine the reaction if Clayton Kershaw was in the dugout, having thrown 102 pitches on eight days’ rest, if and when the Dodgers lost their lead.

No one knows better than Kershaw that he didn’t come through.  But if you think that he was destined to fail, or if you think he can’t win in the playoffs, or if you don’t think he can come back in his next start from the rare adversity that strikes, I don’t know what pitcher you’ve been watching all this time.

As for the struggles of the 2014 bullpen itself …

Nearly as long as I’ve been blogging about the Dodgers, I’ve operated under a simple reality: You need great relief to win, but you can’t plan for great relief. I’ve studied this repeatedly over the years. Relief pitchers fluctuate so much year to year that there are no guarantees when constructing a bullpen — even if you spare no expense, and few teams have spared less than the 2014 Dodgers. A shutdown bullpen is, for the most part, a happy accident, and the Dodgers have to operate in a world without one.

Elsewhere …

• The question of whether Kershaw was tipping pitches won’t die easily, but Mike Petriello of Dodgers Digest aims for some resolution.
• Andy Pettitte and Tom Glavine are among the great pitchers who have allowed at least six runs in more than one postseason game, writes Dan Weigel at Beyond the Box Score.
• Game 1 provided numerous “Did you know?” facts. Chad Thornburg and Michael Lananna of MLB.com pull them together. ESPN Stats & Information has some more.
• Dee Gordon is the first Dodger to go hitless in six plate appearances in a nine-inning playoff game. Gordon did walk in the fifth inning.
• Lananna has more on the Dodgers’ offensive prowess, which produced their most runs ever in a postseason loss.
• A.J. Ellis addressed his teammates after the game, Lananna writes. “”We had two tough series against the Giants,” he said. “We lost the first game both times. The first time we got blown out. The second time we lost an extra-inning affair, and somehow we were able to rally and win the series.”
• Barry M. Bloom wrote about the Yasiel Puig HBP and the ensuing bench-chlearing for MLB.com, but what stood out for me was this: “Yasiel Puig had a tough night, and it showed. After some time in the training room postgame, the Dodgers’ center fielder limped to his locker and had some trouble pulling on his shirt and jeans, gingerly stepping into each pant leg without bending his knees, leaning on a swivel chair as he did so.”
• This Hyun-Jin Ryu commercial passed along by Eric Stephen of True Blue L.A. should cheer you up, if only a little.