That could have been worse.
Much worse.
While Emmet Sheehan’s implosion Sunday forced the Dodgers to deploy six relievers in a 13-5 loss to the Angels, the surprise bullpen game shouldn’t have any lasting effects — and not just because they aren’t scheduled to play Monday.
With Roki Sasaki pitching seven innings in the series opener Friday and Yoshinobu Yamamoto taking down eight Saturday, the Dodgers hadn’t asked much of their relievers in the first two games of the series.
That wasn’t just the case against the Angels.
The starters’ performance has decreased the bullpen’s load by several orders of magnitude.
Dodgers relievers have combined to pitch 206 ⅔ innings this season, the fewest of any bullpen in baseball.
That marks a dramatic change from last season when their bullpen led the majors in innings pitched.
Because of that, manager Dave Roberts said he was hopeful the bullpen would not only be relatively fresh for the team’s upcoming six-game trip to Pittsburgh and Chicago but also maintain stability throughout the season.
Last year, their bullpen’s inability to close out games in the middle of the season allowed the Padres to hang around them in the National League West.
“Obviously, if you get length out of your starters, that’s always a good thing,” Roberts said. “If we can kind of manage their innings, put them in their rightful lanes, that’s a benefit now and longer term.
“It’s always kind of contingent on the starters doing what they’ve been doing.”
The starters have been taking down more innings than any rotation in baseball, 375 ⅔ of them to be exact.
Without question, Roberts’ fealty to a six-man rotation has played a part in that. Because they’re pitching less frequently than starters on other teams, members of the Dodgers’ rotation are better-rested and therefore able to get deeper into games when they take the mound.
The Dodgers are uniquely positioned to have six starters. Shohei Ohtani’s status as a two-way player permits them to carry an extra starting pitcher who doesn’t take the roster spot of a player at another position. They also have the necessary depth to be able to field six major-league quality starters, even with All-Stars Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow on the injured list.
In Ohtani and Yamamoto, the Dodgers have two of the best pitchers in baseball. In Sasaki, Sheehan and Justin Wrobleski, they have a trio of promising young arms. In Eric Lauer, they have an experienced stand-in until Snell and Glasnow return — or when River Ryan is determined to be ready to come up from Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Sheehan’s stinker Sunday was a surprise, considering he’d pitched six or more innings in three of his four most recent starts.
With one out and a runner on first base, Sheehan walked consecutive batters to load the bases in the second inning. The sequence included a 15-pitch at-bat by Nick Madrigal, who drew one of the walks.
“Just frustrating,” Sheehan said. “Definitely couldn’t put guys away. Not efficient. Not good all around.”
After two runs scored on a single by Sebastian Rivero, Roberts removed Sheehan from the game — and harm’s way.
Sheehan had thrown 36 pitches in the inning.
“I just didn’t feel comfortable getting him past the 40-pitch mark,” Roberts said.
The game couldn’t be salvaged.
Blake Treinen gave up two runs in the fourth inning. Alex Vesia, who blew a save in his previous appearance, gave up two more in the fifth.
The Dodgers were down 6-1 at that point.
Back-to-back home runs by Dalton Rushing and Ryan Ward in the sixth inning reduced the deficit to 6-5, but Jonathan Hernandez was rocked for six runs in the seventh.
Hernandez had come out of the bullpen with two outs in the fifth inning.
“I tried to extend him to kind of shorten the game,” Roberts said.
Which was expected.
As usual, the Dodgers were taking the long view.
Catcher Will Smith missed his second consecutive game with a stiff neck, and Roberts described his availability in Pittsburgh on Tuesday as “TBD” — to be determined.
Roberts also refrained from using Mookie Betts and Andy Pages, as he wanted to give them days off.
Pages is only 25 years old, but he’d played each of the previous nine days, including four days in a row on a turf field in Arizona.
The Dodgers could afford to sacrifice a game. They still have a 7 ½-game lead over the second-place Diamondbacks in the NL West. They’re still eight games ahead of the third-place Padres. And by the time they play their next game, their bullpen should be recovered.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
