Landon Knack, Brian Holton & the 8-out save

OAKLAND, CA - OCTOBER 1988: Brian Holton and Fernando Valenzuela, both pitchers for the Los Angeles Dodgers, share a quiet moment in the victorious Dodgers Clubhouse during the World Series against the Oakland Athletics at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, California in October of 1988

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What is the story about?

The Dodgers haven’t had a three-inning save yet in 2026, and as a host of the Three-Inning Save podcast I was starting to wonder whether this team actually has the juice to repeat as champions, again. Everything was setting up perfectly for that shortcoming to be rectified on Wednesday night.

Landon Knack was called up earlier in the day, a clear sign this was a reset day for the bullpen, like we’ve seen from Charlie Barnes and Cole Irvin in just the last month and a half. Eric Lauer pitched a splendid

six innings and threw 107 pitches, already his season high, and the Dodgers were up 4-2. This was the perfect opportunity to go for a three-inning save.

But the Dodgers left Lauer in the game, to face the lefty-hitting Josh Rojas to open the seventh. He struck out on five pitches, giving Lauer a season-high 6 1/3 innings but that ensured there would not be a three-inning save.

Knack still came in to fulfill his clear role, to give the bullpen a night off. He allowed a pair of singles in the seventh inning but was otherwise fine, and pitched the final 2 2/3 innings for an actual save, since he entered with a lead of three or fewer runs. It was by all definitions a perfectly effective outing, and will get Knack several handshakes and pats on the back as he’s optioned to Triple-A on Thursday in favor of another fresh arm for the bullpen.

Knack now has one save in each of his three major league seasons to date, including a four-inning save in Milwaukee on August 13, 2024 and the final 3 2/3 innings of the regular season last September 28 in Seattle.

Since saves became official in 1969, the Dodgers have 19 saves of exactly eight outs. Before Knack on Wednesday, the last such game was 39 years ago.

On June 8, 1987, Brian Holton relieved Orel Hershiser with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh inning against the Braves in Atlanta, with a 6-1 lead. Holton struck out Glenn Hubbard then induced an inning-ending groundout by future Hall of Famer Ted Simmons to extinguish the threat. Because the tying run was on deck when Holton entered, this was a save situation.

Holton stranded a single in a scoreless eighth inning, then allowed a two-run home run to Andres Thomas in the ninth inning before getting the final three outs for the first save of his career.

“I just stunk that inning,” Hershiser told Sam McManis of the Los Angeles Times after the game. “I came out because I couldn’t throw the ball over the plate.”

“Brian had a 12-to-6 curveball that was an optical illusion. That was a huge major league tool for him,” Hershiser said in the ninth inning of the SportsNet LA call of Wednesday’s game. In the LA Times game story, McManis described the pitch that struck out Holton as a “slow curve.“

Holton would collect two more regular season saves in his career. Nine days after the save in Atlanta, Holton pitched the 11th inning of a win in Houston, then protected a 9-6 lead on June 26, 1988 against the Reds in Cincinnati.

The right-hander also allowed one run in six innings of relief during the Dodgers championship run in the 1988 postseason, also saved the Dodgers’ NLCS Game 5 win in New York. Holton entered with one out in the eighth inning with a two-run lead, and the tying runs on base. He stranded them both and earned a save, one day after Hershiser saved Game 4 with a surprise extra-inning relief effort.

Mike Marshall was the very definition of a multi-inning reliever, and won a Cy Young Award in 1974 with the Dodgers will setting records that likely won’t ever be broken, with 106 appearances and 208 1/3 innings. Marshall had an eight-out save that season, on May 18 in St. Louis, but what I love about his season is that he had saves of every number of outs from one to 12 that season.