SB Nation • 6 min read

Dodgers must find way to overcome bullpen woes

It’s kind of hard to write about what’s going on with the Dodgers bullpen, because what hasn’t already been said about it in some sort of capacity?

The front office should’ve done better at the deadline.

They shouldn’t keep putting Tanner Scott in high-leverage situations. The list goes on, and on, and on.

It’ll be interesting to see what the Dodgers do with this situation as the playoffs are only one week away. That is not enough time to fix Scott AND Blake Treinen AND Kirby Yates.

Seemingly the only thing the Dodgers have in their favor is that they have some decent starting pitchers that before, probably wouldn’t make one or all of the postseason rosters.

It will be up to the front office and pitching staff to figure out how to best utilize Clayton Kershaw, Emmet Sheehan and Roki Sasaki as weapons out of the pen to join Alex Vesia and Anthony Banda. I don’t know if you can trust Scott or Treinen at any point in a playoff game at this point. Maybe with a 10-run lead, but of course leads like that happen rarely in the playoffs.

Brock Stewart may be returning for the playoffs also, but it remains to be seen how well he can perform. It is fairly unlikely that Brusdar Graterol returns for this postseason also.

The vibes are way off from last year. In their World Series run, the bullpen called themselves The Bulldogs and put the team on their back, working in concert to cover at least one game in each series on their way to the championship. If the Dodgers are to repeat, the starting pitching staff is going to be who has to take that mantle this season. Or the offense could just score a bajillion runs every game. That would work too

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The Dodgers’ magic number still sits at three, with the Padres winning on Tuesday. The Padres are only 1.5 games behind and have one game left against the Milwaukee Brewers who pretty much have sewed up their playoff spot and don’t have much to play for. They then are home against the Arizona Diamondbacks for the last series of the regular season.

With their win against the Dodgers Tuesday, the DBacks still sit one game out of the last wild card spot, fighting alongside the Cincinnati Reds to possibly overtake the New York Mets for that postseason berth. If the Mets and Reds both lose and the DBacks, win, they would be in that final spot.

In Wednesday’s game, the Dodgers will face Ryne Nelson, a right hander who is 7-3 on the season with a 3.34 ERA. He’s only allowed three runs in his last three outings but has a low strike out rate. The Dodgers have seen him twice this season, both in May, where he allowed one run in seven innings of work. Teoscar Hernandez has seen him well, going 4-for-6 against him.

Blake Snell goes for the Dodgers.

Reading some on the internet, the consensus of Arizona fans is “we’ll win these games just gotta wait until the starter is out”. And they’re not wrong. Conversely, all Dodger fans want is the starter to never be taken out. Someone has to put this staff on their shoulders and lead the way, or the Dodgers will find themselves bounced from the playoffs early.