Oyster Burns: How the Dodgers got shelled

Oyster Burns (Brooklyn, 1888-1895)

By Jon Weisman

How unlikely was the Dodger bullpen meltdown in Monday’s 10-6 loss to Arizona?

• Joel Peralta (one inning, two-run homer): Hadn’t allowed two runs in a game for 11 straight appearances. Hadn’t allowed a two-run homer since June 27, 2014.
• Yimi Garcia (one inning, two-run homer): Hadn’t allowed two earned runs in a game or a two-run homer for 12 straight appearances.
• Juan Nicasio (one inning, two runs): Allowed two runs in an inning once (June 7) in 24 appearances this season.
• Adam Liberatore (1/3 innings, two inherited runs): Had stranded 10 of 14 inherited runners this season.
• Pedro Baez (one inning, four runs): Had allowed three runs all season in 16 appearances.
• J.P. Howell (1/3 inning, two inherited runs): Since the start of the 2014 season, had stranded 44 of 49 inherited runners, never allowing two to score in a game. But then Paul Goldschmidt came to the plate.

That all blew up in the same game, ending the Dodgers’ 26-game winning streak when scoring at least six runs, wasting the fourth-inning home runs by Yasmani Grandal, Andre Ethier and Joc Pederson.

And the Dodgers took it hard.

“It didn’t seem to matter what we did — nothing seemed to work,” Don Mattingly said after  the game, according to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. “This is probably one of the worst feels after a game this year, for me at least.”

Eric Stephen of True Blue L.A. has more on the perversely historic bullpen breakdown, which was especially discomforting considering that Mike Bolsinger had begun the game with four shutout innings (three singles, no walks and four strikeouts), before being felled by food poisoning in Miami over the weekend.

“That’ll teach me to never eat oysters,” said Bolsinger, who apparently needs to adopt ex-Dodger, current Marlin pitcher Dan Haren’s anti-seafood regimen.

The Dodgers also allowed six stolen bases in seven attempts, while having two runners of their own thrown out at or around third base. It was a difficult night to digest, to say the least.