The Bullpen (Again)
Like the Red Sox, the Dodgers have their own fair share of star players which can pound on any adversary that comes in front of them. Despite being setback through countless injuries to their stars this year, Los Angeles pulled themselves together at just the right time to return to the World Series for the second consecutive year.
As it has been the norm for the past few years, the bullpen has played a part in carrying the Dodgers to victory in their postseason runs. This year’s edition has a combination of new and familiar players standing at attention to help stave off any danger that comes to their starting pitchers’ way.
For the NLCS, the Dodgers’ bullpen, through 29 total innings pitched by 8 relievers, attained a 1.55 ERA against the Brewers’ power-hitting lineup (finished 2nd place in the NL in total home runs behind only L.A.), which is especially great when you think about the kind of players they faced while on the mound. Against the 4 Dodger starters, however, the Brewers had a field day with them by scoring 19 total runs in 36 innings, thus amassing a 4.50 ERA. Stars such as Christian Yelich (prime candidate for the NL MVP), Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain and Ryan Braun were all silenced throughout the series as they couldn’t figure out how to deal with them after smothering the starting pitching staff.
Regardless, compared with last year’s bunch, this year’s team seems to be more inferior as they allowed 5 earned runs along with 19 hits. Although this is a good statistic for any team in the playoffs, one has to remember the kind of numbers LA’s bullpen put up in 2017 where they had a streak of 28 straight scoreless innings all the way up to Game 2 of that World Series. However, in baseball, anything’s possible. It might just be that they will soon catch fire and not allow anymore earned runs despite having a worse postseason statistically-speaking than their predecessor. Their seemingly unstoppable unit was dismantled with no mercy; but now with their less-dominant version pulling in for the present, the inverse of what happened to them before may bring fruit, which is to say a virtual shutdown of the Boston bats.
A few relievers to look out for in this pitching company are Alex Wood, Kenta Maeda, and Kenley Jansen.
Wood started out the year, just like any other in his career, as a starter. He trudged along the season unfazed until September where he was converted into a reliever by manager Dave Roberts in the leadup to the playoffs. This change has paid dividends so far, as he has thrown 3.1 innings in 4 games while allowing just 1 run, which is good enough for a 2.70 ERA.
One would anticipate for him to be called up in the middle innings to serve as the connection between the starters and the closer for the Dodgers.
Another starter-turned-reliever is Kenta Maeda, a 30-year old Japanese pitcher going in his 3rd year with the Dodgers after starting his career in his homeland. In the regular season, he put up pedestrian numbers (0.4 pitching WAR, 8-10 record, 3.81 ERA) which was respectable when you put in mind the number of injuries his team went through.
Like Wood, Maeda changed roles to a reliever in the last month, where he served as Kenley Jansen’s set-up man at the end of every game. This familiar stint has been going well for him thus far as he has a 4.91 ERA through the 5 games he has played in this postseason (One thing I must stress is that his ERA is inflated because the large number was caused in one game of the NLCS by a couple of Milwaukee runs that is now looked at as insignificant. Had it not been for that play, his ERA would’ve been sitting at triple zeroes).
Of course, no description of the Dodgers’ bullpen would be complete without a mention of Kenley Jansen. The Curacao-born pitcher, after experiencing a rare down year which amounted for a 3.01 ERA through 69 games pitched, has been the lights out closer everyone has envisioned him to be in the bright lights of the postseason. In the NLDS, he had a perfect 0.00 ERA in 2 innings pitched. Furthermore, he was equally as dominant in the following series against the Milwaukee Brewers where he threw 4.2 innings while gaining 2 saves in as many opportunities.
Now that he has returned to the World Series, he will certainly attempt to take out the demons that have plagued him from that time.
