NEW YORK — The Dodgers’ lack of pitching hasn’t hurt them often this postseason.
But in the third inning on Tuesday night, manager Dave Roberts stood in the dugout without many appealing options.
Not only were the Dodgers running their fourth bullpen game of the postseason in Game 4 of the World Series, trying to complete a sweep of the New York Yankees to seal the franchise’s eighth championship, but they were doing it with more limitations than normal.
Winning the first three games of this series forced Roberts to ride his bullpen heavily, especially his two highest-leverage relievers Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen. Because of that, the team had to find other ways to piece together the early outs in Tuesday’s game. And when trouble arose in the third, Roberts felt no choice but to ride it out.
Another leverage reliever, Daniel Hudson, had loaded the bases with the Dodgers protecting a one-run lead. With only rookie Landon Knack warming in the bullpen, Hudson stayed on the mound and threw a first-pitch slider to Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe.
On one swing, the momentum of this one-sided matchup took a sudden turn.
Volpe hit a grand slam to left, the Yankees had their first lead since the 10th inning of Game 1, and in a game that became a blowout late, New York held on to win, keeping this series alive with an 11-4 victory to force Game 5 back in the Bronx on Wednesday night.
When the Dodgers entered this postseason with just three healthy starting pitchers, they knew there’d be nights like Tuesday. Where the bullpen would have to cover nine innings. Where the decision to use top relief arms or not wouldn’t be very clear.
Of three previous times the Dodgers had run a bullpen game, it worked twice. First, to stave off elimination in Game 4 of the National League Division Series. Then again to clinch the pennant in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series.
In between that, however, the Dodgers lost Game 2 of the NLCS, in a defeat that felt very similar to Tuesday.
Like that game, the Dodgers’ bullpen entered Tuesday night heavily taxed. Treinen had thrown 55 stressful pitches in Games 1 and 2. Kopech had pitched in each of the first three games of the Fall Classic.
Because of that, Roberts issued what — to many Dodger fans, anyway — felt like a warning in his pregame press conference: Rookies Ben Casparius (who gave up one run in two innings as the opener) and Knack (who yielded one run in four innings of relief in the middle of the game) would have to provide some length. And while the rest of the bullpen would be available, “I’d better make sure it’s in the right spot,” Roberts said.
“Because every guy [we use],” he added, “will be with a cost going forward.”
For a little while, it seemed like the Dodgers might thread that incredibly narrow needle.
They jumped in front on a two-run homer from Freddie Freeman in the first inning. It was his fourth long ball of the series, coming on a down-and-away slider that just cleared the short wall in right field. It was also his sixth straight Fall Classic game (going back to his time with the Atlanta Braves in 2021) going deep, a new World Series record.
Casparius held up his end of the bargain, too, giving up a lone run on an Alex Verdugo grounder in the second to exit the game with the Dodgers holding a 2-1 lead.
Hudson was the one trusted bullpen option Roberts was willing to turn to early, summoning him to face the top of the Yankees lineup in the third. The inning started well, with the 37-year-old veteran striking out Juan Soto. But as things started to spiral, Knack was only the pitcher to begin throwing in the bullpen.
With one out, Hudson plunked slumping Yankees star Aaron Judge (who went 1 for 3 Tuesday and also reached base on a walk, an error and a hit-by-pitch). After Jazz Chisholm roped a long single off the wall and stole second, the Yankees loaded the bases on a Giancarlo Stanton walk.
Two batters later, Volpe delivered a series-shifting swing.
A childhood Yankees fan who was kicking himself earlier in the game, after failing to score from second on an Austin Wells double that Kiké Hernández tracked to the wall in center, Volpe didn’t wait long to earn his redemption. Hudson started him out with a front-door slider. Volpe was all over it, launching a line drive to left for a go-ahead grand slam.
For the first time this week, Yankee Stadium erupted with belief.
The Dodgers chipped away at the 5-2 deficit in the fifth inning by scoring two runs. Will Smith whacked a leadoff blast the other way. Freeman beat out a potential double play — while still running on his sprained right ankle — to get another run across.
That, however, was as close as the Dodgers would get.
Wells unloaded on a second-deck insurance blast in the sixth. The Yankees put the score out of reach with a five-run rally in the eighth against Brent Honeywell Jr., the last three of which scored on Gleyber Torres’ game-icing blast.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, managed nothing against the cream of the Yankees crop of relievers — ensuring that, unlike Monday night, almost all of the 49,354 in attendance at Yankee Stadium stayed until the end (with the exception of two fans who were ejected in the first inning for trying to rip the ball out of Mookie Betts’ glove on a fly ball near the barrier in foul territory).
History, of course, is still on the Dodgers’ side.
Only one team in MLB history has erased a 3-0 deficit in the playoffs. No team in World Series history has even forced a Game 6 after facing a three-game hole.
But the Yankees will have their ace, Gerrit Cole, on the mound for Game 5 against Jack Flaherty. For the first time this week, they’ll also arrive at the ballpark buoyed by a sudden burst of momentum.
In other words: The Dodgers are officially playing with fire now.
And — in what was essentially the third game this October they punted on with their pitching decisions, in hopes of keeping their top relievers fresh — they can only hope they didn’t just hand the Yankees a lit match.
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