LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers did not have a save of at least three innings in 2026, their first full season without one since 2016. They also did not win or reach the World Series this year.
Coincidence? Yes, of course. Let’s not be daft.
But three-inning saves are still cool as hell, as I’ve explained many a time here and in audio form elsewhere.
We nearly saw a four-inning save at Dodger Stadium in the National League Division Series, when Braves right-hander Didier Fuentes retired 11 in a row before
allowing a two-out home run in the ninth inning. That pulled the Dodgers to within a run, and Atlanta manager Walt Weiss went with his closer Raisel Iglesias for the final out.
The Braves won that night, but never again this season.
The back end of the Brewers bullpen — Trevor Megill, Aaron Ashby, and Abner Uribe — is one of Milwaukee’s great strengths, with that trio this postseason having allowed three runs (two earned) in 24 1/3 innings, with 23 strikeouts. Ashby has pitched in six of Milwaukee’s eight games, totaling 12 1/3 scoreless innings, with 11 strikeouts.
In the NLCS, Ashby pitched two scoreless frames in Game 1, then got a five-out save to close out Game 2. Even before Game 4, Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman extolled the virtues of the Brewers bullpen, and specifically mentioned the left-hander.
“Ashby — I don’t understand that. It’s 98 to 100 from up here and sinking and curving,” Freeman said. “They’ve just got a lot of weapons.”
In Game 4 on Thursday, Ashby allowed doubles in the seventh and eighth inning, each of which represented the potential tying run. But he stranded them both.
“I was just praying for a little peace in the chaos, because with this crowd and this team, things can happen fast,” Ashby told Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports on the field after the game. “I was just trying to be calm out there, that’s pretty much it.
Then Ashby got the ninth inning as well, his 31st relief appearance involving multiple innings this season, tied for most in the majors. He retired the Dodgers in order in the ninth, with Jackson Chourio making a nice running catch in left field to clinch the Brewers first pennant since 1982.
Ashby recorded just the fifth save of three innings or longer in a postseason clinching game since saves became an official statistic in 1969, and the first since Lance McCullers Jr. with a four-inning save for the 2017 Astros in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
Working backward retroactively, two other postseason clinchers before 1969 had long saves as well.
In 2025, there were 49 saves of at least three innings in MLB, 15 more than the previous season and the most in any year since 1999. In 2026, there were 50 saves of at least three innings. This is a new golden age of extended saves, but the Dodgers did not take part this year.
The Dodgers for much of the season didn’t really have a long man in the bullpen, like at times in recent years. Eric Lauer seemed destined for this role, but he kept sticking around in the rotation as various other starters were either injured or optioned.
Jonathan Hernández pitched in a lot of mop-up roles but mostly topped out at two innings. Plus after June, the Dodgers mostly stopped collecting blowout wins, which tends to pave the road toward a three-inning save.
Landon Knack has recorded one save in each of his three major league seasons to date, including an 11-out save on the final day of the regular season in 2025. He had the best shot on the Dodgers for a three-inning save in 2026, as he was warming in the bullpen on August 12 after Lauer pitched six innings at 107 pitches, eight more than his second-most this season.
But Lauer instead got one more batter to open the seventh inning, and struck out Josh Rojas. Then, Knack entered and got a save of 2 2/3 innings, protecting a 4-2 lead. It was the Dodgers’ first eight-out save since Brian Holton in 1987, so that was something, at least.
But it was no three-inning save. At least Dodger Stadium, in seeing its third consecutive National League pennant clinched on Thursday, got to go out with a very cool pitching outing to put a cap on 2026.
We’ll always have the six-inning save by Jackson Ferris on September 9 for Tripe-A Oklahoma City though to tide us over through the winter.
