In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.
The Dodgers have dropped out of first place.
The team that was expected to win 120 games has fallen a game behind the San Diego Padres in the National League West, and who knows how much further baseball’s most expensive collection of players could plummet?
The geniuses in the front office improved the farm system more than they did the obviously problematic bullpen at the trade deadline, resulting in blown lead after blown lead after blown lead.
Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani delivers the ball from the mound against the Angles on Wednesday at Angel Stadium. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Games have become “Choose Your Own Adventure” books in which every choice available to manager Dave Roberts ends in disaster, with relievers giving up leads in four of the team’s last seven games.
The recent activation of Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell have made the starting pitching whole, but what does it matter if the bullpen can’t close out games?
Mookie Betts has started hitting and the offense has picked up, but what does it matter if the relievers give the runs right back?
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told reporters the other day the look of the bullpen could significantly change by the time the playoffs start because of the anticipated returns of the likes of Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates and Michael Kopech. He could be right.
Read more: Welcome to second place: Tumbling Dodgers are swept by the Angels
However, there’s no chance of that transformation occurring in the next 10 days, which could be the most important 10 days of the regular season. The Dodgers will play the Padres six times over that period — three times at Dodger Stadium this weekend and three times at Petco Park in San Diego next weekend.
The Padres have won 14 of their last 17 games to overtake the Dodgers, who were nine games ahead of them on July 3. Whereas the Dodgers were relatively inactive at the trade deadline, the Padres fortified a lineup powered by Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. They bolstered the league’s No. 1 bullpen with the addition of Mason Miller, the best reliever on the market.
The Dodgers also have momentum — but an entirely different kind. When their starting pitcher departs a game, a collapse feels inevitable.
That was certainly the case on Wednesday when Ohtani was taken out of the game against the Angels with a 5-4 advantage. Why wouldn’t there be a sense of impending doom in a game in which Roberts was forced to place the game in the hands of Justin Wrobleski and Edgardo Henriquez?
Dodgers pitcher Edgardo Henriquez bites his glove as he walks off the mound after giving up the go-ahead run against the Angels on Wednesday at Angel Stadium. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Wrobleski and Henriquez combined to give up two runs in the eighth inning, and the Angels went on to complete their three-game sweep of the Dodgers.
If they had protected the lead, who would have pitched the ninth inning?
Roberts: “Umm …”
The manager eventually came up with a name: , whom the Cincinnati Reds demoted to the minor leagues before trading him to the Dodgers.
Roberts explained that Blake Treinen was unavailable because he’d pitched in three of the last five games. Another potential consideration Roberts didn’t mention: Treinen, who was activated from the injured list about two weeks ago, has a 4.26 earned-run average.
The blown lead on Wednesday was the second by the Dodgers in as many days. A worn-down-looking Alex Vesia gave up a tying run in the ninth inning and Ben Casparius lost the game in the 10th.
Read more: Nine-game NL West lead gone: Dodgers fall into first-place tie after Angels walk-off
“It’s something that we’re really not accustomed to, to be quite honest,” Roberts said.
The bullpen played a major role in the championship the Dodgers won last year. That seems like a remote possibility this year. Even if Scott and Yates return, what are the chances of them pitching well when the high-price free-agent pickups haven’t pitched well for the majority of the season?
And, say, the bullpen comes together as Friedman envisions. Where will the Dodgers be in the standings? The Dodgers have the fifth-best record in the NL. Only two teams receive first-round byes.
In the wake of the loss on Wednesday night, Roberts sat in the visiting manager’s office at Angel Stadium. A bottle of wine was on the desk in front of him.
“It’s a gift,” Roberts said. “I haven’t opened it yet.”
He didn’t discount the possibility of doing so, however. Asked if he could drink the entire bottle that night, Roberts forced a smile.
“Possibility,” he said.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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