LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers’ bullpen got away with another shaky inning on Thursday night. Could a shakeup be in the cards for the relief corps?
At the very least, Roki Sasaki has given the big league club an intriguing option for the final week of the regular season.
The Dodgers held the Giants to just one hit — but issued 10 walks — in a 2-1 win over the Giants at Dodger Stadium, extending their lead in the NL West to three games over the Padres. Starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto worked around six of those free passes, his career high in MLB, but managed to complete 5 1/3 scoreless innings.
“It’s nice to win these ballgames,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “It feels like these are the ones we’ve been coming up short in lately.”
The opener of a four-game set between the longtime rivals did not come without drama. Los Angeles’ bullpen was at the center of it, as has been the case of late.
The Giants only notched one hit all night, a single off Yamamoto in the second, but they didn’t need one to stake a rally against right-handers Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen in the seventh inning. Instead, San Francisco was able to capitalize on poor command.
Kopech began the inning and retired only one of the three batters he faced. He walked the other two and landed only eight of his 18 pitches for strikes before being pulled for Treinen.
Treinen also opened his outing with a pair of walks, the last of which drove in a run. But the veteran right-hander bore down and found the zone before things got out of hand, striking out back-to-back hitters to end the threat.
That Treinen was able to escape the jam with minimal damage was an encouraging sign for the Dodgers. Kopech’s performance continues to be a concern, though. Stuff, rather than command, is his calling card, but he has walked eight hitters in his past 2 2/3 innings.
“I don’t know if he’s banged up,” Roberts said. “It might be a shoulder. It might be an elbow. He’s obviously coming off knee surgery and just has a hard time syncing his throw up. It’s been tough.”
Overall, Dodgers pitching allowed 10 free passes on the night.
Meanwhile, Sasaki made his first relief appearance with Triple-A Oklahoma City, retiring three of the four batters he faced and striking out a pair on one walk. He touched 100.1 mph and averaged 98.9 mph with his four-seamer, getting four whiffs on the offering.
That’s the extent of Sasaki’s body of work out of the ‘pen, but his stuff looked promising, continuing a trend from his previous appearance with Oklahoma City. He’s set for one more relief outing with the Comets on Sunday, the final day of the Triple-A regular season.
If Sasaki returns to the Dodgers and performs well in relief, he could potentially earn a spot on the postseason roster.
“The first part of it was him giving himself the opportunity to agree to go to the ‘pen. And then the next part is, he’s got to perform,” Roberts said. “Tonight, he performed. He was really good. And let’s see it again on Sunday. And then it kind of puts the onus on the organization to make a decision.”
Dating back to the Trade Deadline, the Dodgers have been looking for a lockdown right-hander to step up in their bullpen. They’re hopeful that Treinen is trending up, but Kopech and Kirby Yates have not looked promising of late.
There are a few intriguing options not on the active roster down in Triple-A. Rehabbing alongside Sasaki are Brock Stewart (allowed four unearned runs in two-thirds of an inning on Thursday) and Kyle Hurt (scoreless inning). Ben Casparius has given up only a solo homer in 3 2/3 innings since being sent down with the goal of getting back to dominating right-handed hitters.
With nine games remaining in the regular season, Roberts is trying to figure out which arms he can trust in big spots. There are limited opportunities to test them, especially Sasaki, who is new to relief.
The way Roberts sees it, there are still bullpen spots up for grabs. And whoever earns them has to be ready for anything.
“In the postseason, there’s no roles,” Roberts said. “They’re all leverage.”
