Ross Stripling, whose season began with 7 1/3 no-hit innings April 8 in San Francisco, pitched three shutout innings Sunday in his relief debut. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Jon Weisman
Regrouping after throwing 582 pitches in three games at San Diego — and losing one of their pitchers to the disabled list in the process — the Dodgers are bringing up two fresh arms for their pitching staff.
By Jon Weisman
Kenley Jansen has saved 13 of the Dodgers’ 38 games this season, putting him on pace for 55, which would tie the franchise single-season record set by Eric Gagne in 2003.
Jansen is also closing in on Gagne’s all-time Dodger saves record, with Saturday’s appearance leaving him six shy.
The 28-year-old Jansen on Saturday relieved in the 354th game of his MLB career, matching the number of relief appearances Gagne made in his career (including stints with Milwaukee, Texas and Boston).
As familiar as Jansen has become to Dodger fans, it might surprise some that his relief stats virtually match those of Gagne with Los Angeles, with 75 1/3 more innings. Gagne retains a slight edge in baserunners allowed, while Jansen has the strikeout edge.
Andrew Friedman and Dave Roberts before a rain delay April 9 at San Francisco. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Jon Weisman
Taking a break from the standing desk in his office overlooking left field at Dodger Stadium, 18 months into his tenure as Dodger president of baseball operations, Andrew Friedman was asked to reflect.
In the brief pause that followed, you could feel the sheer volume of all the moves and maneuvering roll through his brain like a freight train.
“It’s been such a frenetic pace,” Friedman said, “I feel like I’ve been drinking out of a firehose for the past year and a half.”
But the moment did provide an opportunity for Friedman to assess the state of the squad and look ahead toward a future filled with potential — all in pursuit of the unquestioned grand prize of a World Series title.
What follows are Friedman’s thoughts on three areas critical to that pursuit …
By Jon Weisman
“Right” said Pedro Baez, or something to that effect, the morning after an Adam Liberatore midgame warmup pitch Wednesday accidentally struck the right-handed reliever in the head.
Baez played catch in the outfield today and told reporters today that he feels fine, though Dave Roberts said in his pregame chat that the team hadn’t determined if Better Off Ped is available to pitch today.
However, the Dodgers have called up southpaw Luis Avilan from Triple-A Oklahoma City, because Louis Coleman has been placed on the bereavement list following the passing of his grandfather.
Avilan, who had a rough Spring Training, has thrown six shutout innings so far this season in the minors, allowing three hits and three walks while striking out nine. Left-handed batters are 1 for 9 against him with two walks and three strikeouts.
He’ll boost a Dodger bullpen that has been taxed over the past two nights and that will be hoping for a reprieve today with Clayton Kershaw on the mound. Number of pitches Dodger relievers have thrown since Monday’s off day:
Juan Ocampo/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
Sometimes on Twitter, I will post complimentary information about the Dodger bullpen, like this …
No good deed goes noticed: Dodger bullpen has 14 straight scoreless innings, holding opponents to 3-for-43 hitting w/14 strikeouts.
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) April 18, 2016
Or maybe it will be about an individual reliever, such as this tidbit about Chris Hatcher …
Since August 1 (including playoffs), @handlebars41 has a 1.69 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 12.8 K/9.
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) April 18, 2016
This is not me saying that the Dodger bullpen is perfect, that it will never allow another run for the rest of our lives and that we should look for a picture of a smiling Hatcher on a box of Bullpen O’s in the cereal section of our local supermarket.
It’s simply that during the period shown, the bullpen is doing a great job, and that’s worth pointing out — given the feeding frenzy that takes place when one or more relievers doesn’t succeed.
Welcome to the world,
Jensen Thomas Hatcher 7 lb 5 oz, 20", 1:04 pm. Mom and baby are doing great. pic.twitter.com/cRMukv8e5p— Chris Hatcher (@handlebars41) April 14, 2016
By Jon Weisman
With Chris Hatcher going on paternity leave (Congrats!) shortly before or after 1:04 p.m. today, Adam Liberatore has been called up by the Dodgers from Triple-A Oklahoma City.
The 28-year-old Liberatore, who most recently threw 33 pitches on Tuesday, walked two and struck out eight in four scoreless, hitless innings in the minors to start the season. He made his MLB debut for the Dodgers on April 17 last year, and allowed no runs or inherited runs in 13 of his first 15 appearances (0.71 WHIP) before finishing his rookie season with a 4.25 ERA.
Kenta Maeda pitched six shutout innings for the second straight game. (Juan Ocampo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Jon Weisman
Dave Roberts preached faith in the Dodger bullpen after its latest tough outing.
For the third time in the past four games, Dodger relievers surrendered a lead, with Pedro Baez and Chris Hatcher each allowing home runs in a 4-2 loss today to Arizona in the Dodger Stadium home opener (recapped by MLB.com).
With his team at 4-4 after eight games, Roberts said it was too early to contemplate changes to the bullpen.
Adam Liberatore has struck out 11 in nine Cactus League innings this year.
By Jon Weisman
The Dodgers are down to two left-handers in their Major League bullpen after optioning Adam Liberatore to the minors following the team’s 5-4 victory Monday over Texas.
The question now is, will they go down to one?
Since we last checked in on the bullpen, it has been whittled in predictable fashion, leaving the following:
Louis Coleman warms prior to his Spring Training debut March 4 for the Dodgers at Surprise, Arizona.
By Jon Weisman
For all the speculation about who the fifth starting pitcher in the Dodger rotation will be, there hasn’t been a ton of talk about the back end of the bullpen.
Let’s do a quick refresher of the remaining candidates for the (presumably) seven relief spots:
Since he came off the disabled list in August, opponents are hitting .163/.239/.313/.551 against Chris Hatcher. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Jon Weisman
No longer is there any doubt about who is the Dodgers’ primary eighth-inning reliever in the bullpen.
Don Mattingly visits Clayton Kershaw at the mound before leaving him in to finish the Dodgers’ September 2 victory over the Giants. (Jill Weisleder/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Jon Weisman
The other day on Twitter, I proposed a hypothetical that I think you could call a nice problem to have.
By Jon Weisman
We expected superb pitching Wednesday by the Dodgers — we just didn’t expect it like this.
While Zack Greinke nursed his sore calf muscle, Carlos Frias and five relievers combined to deliver one of the top pitching performances of the year for Los Angeles, in a 4-1 victory over Arizona that helped lower the National League West magic number to five.
The Dodgers needed 105 pitches to dispatch the Diamondbacks, their fifth-best total for a nine-inning game in 2015. Even more impressively, Dodger pitchers had 28 pitches called for balls in the entire game, their second-best mark in 2015.
You know how you try to avoid three-ball counts? The Dodgers had four innings in which they didn’t throw a total of three balls.
Setting the tone was Carlos Frias. Pitching on two days’ rest, Frias used 43 pitches over his four innings, retiring every batter aside from the obligatory Paul Goldschmidt home run.
“Obviously, they had a few first-pitch swings,” Don Mattingly said this morning, “which you understand with a guy like him, you don’t really want to get deep in the count with that cutter/slider he throws and the way his ball moves.”
But Mattingly said Frias had a “Go get outs” mentality that was just right for Wednesday’s outing.
“When you have to go through (A.J.) Pollock and Goldschmidt and those guys in their order, they’ve got some tough hitters — it tells you he’s got the stuff to make it tough on those guys,” Mattingly said. “Even though Goldschmidt gets him, he made some guys look not that great.
“His stuff’s really good. Can he kind of — I shouldn’t say ‘keep focus,’ because he’s focused — for me a better (question) for him is can he stay settled down enough so that he’s making pitches, not just throwing?”
Assuming Greinke returns for his next scheduled start Monday in San Francisco, Frias has become a darkhorse candidate to play a more prominent role in the Dodger bullpen this year.
Chris Hatcher has allowed a .529 OPS since August 31. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Jon Weisman
Maybe you groaned when Zack Greinke left Friday’s Dodger game in the eighth inning. Maybe you thought “Here we go again” when Chris Hatcher gave up an RBI single to Pittsburgh left fielder Starling Marte on his very first pitch.
But if you’ve really been paying attention lately, you might have noticed that was an aberration.
And you might not have been surprised that Hatcher came right back, buckled down and got the Pirates’ most dangerous hitter, Andrew McCutchen, to foul out, before Aramis Ramirez grounded modestly to first base.
Since September 1, the Dodger bullpen has the second-lowest WHIP (1.03) in the National League and is first in strikeout-walk ratio. These are among several encouraging signs for a relief staff that was strong in the first third of the 2015 season before slumping terribly in the middle portion.
Though not exactly like the team’s 180-degree basestealing turn (an MLB-best 34 for 43 since August 1), the Dodger bullpen seems to have evolved from a weakness into, if not an out-and-out strength, at least an adequacy.
Understandably, there’s still the fear that this could all blow up again in a minute. But to give credit where credit is due: Since the Dodgers’ disastrous 0-5 roadtrip from August 18-23, they have played 23 games. Here’s how many times the bullpen has hurt the Dodgers …
I’d argue that the last example shouldn’t even count: Dodger relievers allowed one run in nine innings before erstwhile starting pitcher Mat Latos gave up the 16th-inning homer to Nolan Arenado. But even including that defeat, that’s an encouraging slate.
The Dodgers are 18-5 since August 25, despite only one complete game and 72 1/3 innings from the bullpen.
By Jon Weisman
He is a man of family. A man of faith. A man of baseball. And for Clayton Kershaw, the spirit he brings to one informs the spirit he brings to all.
That’s the approach we took to our special, 13-page photo essay in the September issue of Dodger Insider magazine that highlights numerous aspects of Kershaw’s love of the game.
September also presents a package of pieces on the Dodger bullpen — but don’t be nervous. There’s a fun feature on the unique, odd-couple relationship between Kenley Jansen and J.P. Howell, plus a 100-year history of the Dodger relief corps. Another story you should enjoy, written by Mark Langill, is what happens at Dodger Stadium after the final out to tuck our beloved ballpark in at night.
In all, there are more than two dozen stories in Dodger Insider magazine, plus all the usual great photos, games, tidbits and more. For $5 at the ballpark, it’s a bargain.
Dodger Insider magazine is available at all Dodger team stores.
[mlbvideo id=”410637683″ width=”550″ height=”308″ /]
By Jon Weisman
As four-run Dodger victories go, Tuesday’s 5-1 win at Cincinnati was a nailbiter.
Los Angeles had a 5-0 lead against the Reds with 10 outs to go in the game. Under normal circumstances, you would recline in your chair a bit.
But there was the hovering drone of the five-game losing streak, with two of those five defeats directly tied to the bullpen. In between was a loss charged to Tuesday’s starting pitcher, Alex Wood, who gave up the go-ahead run August 19 to Oakland … with 10 outs to go in the game.
So here we were at Great American Ball Park. Ten outs to go. Bases empty. Five runs ahead. Maybe this night would go easier.
Here’s how many pitches it took to get each of the next 10 outs (click to enlarge):
It should jump out at you that of those 10 remaining outs, six came quickly and were quite routine. Yeah, there was a massive foul ball by Brayan Pena off Kenley Jansen, but that was with the bases empty and two out in the ninth.
But the final outs of the sixth and eighth innings … those were the times that try fans’ souls.
In the bottom of the sixth, the tension was underscored by just how far the Dodgers had to go to get to the end of the game, how intimidating those final 10 outs seemed. If it was going to be so hard to get one — three pitchers, 13 pitches — how would they ever get nine more?
We were 14 pitches and a baserunner into the seventh inning before J.P. Howell got an out, but that turned out to be two-for-Tuesday special, so the jeopardy factor was fairly low.
Then, just when you might have relaxed — three outs on seven pitches after the double play — you were punished. The game crept slowly, from two out/bases empty … to man on first … to men on first and second … to bases loaded, tying run at the plate … to Jay Bruce taking two 93 mph fastballs and fouling off two 94 mph fastballs on his way to a 2-2 count … and seemingly nowhere for Luis Avilan to go.
Seventeen Dodger pitches with two out in the eighth. Seventeen pitches, with only two swing-and-misses. Seventeen pitches, each more agonizing than the last. Seventeen pitches, holding us in suspended aggravation, until Avilan threw that final, liberating curveball for strike three.
After 11 more flings by Jansen, Dodger fans could exhale.
No, you wouldn’t think it should be this hard. Right now, it is. It won’t always be, and man, will we appreciate that.
What happens when three old friends in crisis fall into an unexpected love triangle? In The Catch, Maya, Henry and Daniel embark upon an emotional journey that forces them to confront unresolved pain, present-day traumas and powerful desires, leading them to question the very meaning of love and fulfillment. The Catch tells a tale of ordinary people seeking the extraordinary – or, if that’s asking too much, some damn peace of mind.
Thank You For Not ...
1) using profanity or any euphemisms for profanity
2) personally attacking other commenters
3) baiting other commenters
4) arguing for the sake of arguing
5) discussing politics
6) using hyperbole when something less will suffice
7) using sarcasm in a way that can be misinterpreted negatively
8) making the same point over and over again
9) typing "no-hitter" or "perfect game" to describe either in progress
10) being annoyed by the existence of this list
11) commenting under the obvious influence
12) claiming your opinion isn't allowed when it's just being disagreed with
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén
