Shohei Ohtani entered uncharted territory in his final pitching start of the regular season Tuesday night, shutting out the Arizona Diamondbacks over a season-high six innings while throwing a season-most 91 pitches.
Given the woeful state of the Dodgers’ implosion-prone bullpen, however, the only way they would’ve won was if Ohtani was able to go nine.
In the kind of late-game giveaway that did not feel the least bit surprising, the Dodgers were instead walked off by the Diamondbacks in a 5-4 loss, cutting their division lead to 1 ½ games with five to play.
Rookie relievers Jack Dreyer and Edgardo Henriquez combined to give up three runs in the seventh, cutting deep into what was then a 4-0 Dodgers lead.
Closer Tanner Scott completed the collapse in the bottom of the ninth, suffering his 10th blown save and fourth loss in a two-run inning punctuated by Geraldo Perdomo’s walk-off RBI single.
“It’s hard to absorb those games,” manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 11th walk-off defeat of the season. “Especially games that we need to win right now.”
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The story on Tuesday night should’ve been about Ohtani, who checked the final box off his recovery from a second career Tommy John surgery by pitching into the sixth inning for the first time this year.
It was a sign the Dodgers were loosening the leash on the two-way star’s previously cautious workload restrictions — from the five-inning cap they had placed on him previously, to what they hope will be more traditional full-length starts in what is set to become his first MLB postseason on the mound.
On Tuesday, Ohtani handled his season-long start with nearly flawless execution. His fastball was elite once again, topping out at 101.2 mph and accounting for five of his eight strikeouts. The rest of his seven-pitch mix kept the wild-card-seeking Diamondbacks (80-77) off balance, resulting in just five hits (all singles) and no walks.
“Over the last three or four starts, there’s been a ramp-up of intensity and performance,” Roberts said of Ohtani, who has given up one run in 19 ⅓ innings over his last four outings to finish the regular season with a 2.87 ERA in 15 starts.
“I think that was his plan.”
Now, it’s up to the team to make a plan for its postseason pitching rotation and figure out exactly where Ohtani fits within it.
Roberts has virtually guaranteed that the reigning National League MVP will be used as a starter in next week’s best-of-three wild-card round (which the Dodgers are all but assured of playing in, even if they sew up an NL West division title where their magic number remains stuck on three).
And as things currently stand, Ohtani would be lined up to go in Game 1, after the team moved his weekly pitching schedule this month to have him start on Tuesdays. Coincidentally or not, Game 1 of the wild-card round would be next Tuesday.
The reasons for opening that series with Ohtani on the mound are obvious — from his electric stuff, to his penchant for performing in big moments, to ensuring he does pitch in a series that could end in only two games.
However, Roberts insisted team officials “don’t know yet” how their playoff rotation will be ordered. There’s still debate to be had about how to best maximize their $700-million superstar.
The Dodgers could, for instance, opt to start the wild-card series with Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Games 1 and 2, and save Ohtani for a potential Game 3. The benefit there: Ohtani could focus solely on his duties as designated hitter the first two games, and wouldn’t be required to play the day immediately after a pitching start (he is hitting only .138 in such games this season, and the Dodgers have made an effort to get him starts immediately before off-days in recent months).
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When asked Tuesday night if he had a preference, Ohtani deflected.
“I’m sure there’s a strategic thought between which game I’m going to start, so I don’t want to really talk about that,” he said through interpreter Will Ireton. “But I’m always happy to just be able to start in any game that the team wishes me to pitch in.”
The Dodgers’ rotation questions, of course, continue to be overshadowed by their nightmare of a bullpen. In eight of the team’s 10 losses in September, a reliever had been credited as the losing pitcher.
Despite continued confidence from Roberts, neither struggling veterans nor upstart rookies have been able to provide any high-leverage consistency.
“Our starters can’t go nine every night,” Roberts said. “We’re looking for some guys to step up.”
Dreyer and Henriquez, who have pitched well this year, but in mostly low-leverage spots, failed to do so in the seventh. Dreyer gave up a single and RBI double. Henriquez served up an inside cutter that Adrian Del Castillo launched for a two-run homer to right.
In the ninth, Scott snapped his string of four consecutive scoreless outings with a predictable game plan, using his slider on 18 of 21 pitches while locating the ball in the strike zone only seven times.
Scott hit his first batter, Ildemaro Vargas, with a 2-and-2 slider. He walked his next, Tim Tawa, despite Tawa attempting to bunt. After that, James McCann did get down a bunt in a two-strike count to advance both runners. Then, Jorge Barrosa lifted a tying sacrifice fly before Perdomo (who noted afterward Scott’s abundance of sliders) hit his walk-off on another breaking ball Scott left hanging over the middle.
“For that to happen, it sucks,” said Scott, who has a 4.91 ERA. “We should have won the game. It’s my fault.”
It’s far from the first time this year he’s expressed such frustrations.
“I just see [guys being] careful,” Roberts said of the bullpen. “Getting behind, walking guys, hit batsmen — that’s just a sign of, you’re either scared or you’re pitching too careful. That’s just the facts. You’re not having the conviction in executing pitches for fear of failure or getting hit. At this time of season, you’ve got to put everything out there and trust that it’s going to be good.”
The Dodgers have grown so desperate, Clayton Kershaw meandered down to the bullpen Tuesday and was available in relief (the kind of role he will likely have in the playoffs). The Dodgers didn’t turn to him this time. But in the future, they might have no choice but to use such out-of-the-box ideas.
Because at this rate, it won’t matter who starts Game 1 in the playoffs. No level of rotation excellence will ever feel safe.
Bullpen reinforcements
The Dodgers have at least one bullpen reinforcement coming in this series, with rookie right-hander Roki Sasaki set to be activated on Wednesday in his long-awaited return from a shoulder injury.
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However, the status of trade deadline acquisition Brock Stewart remains in question. Though Stewart completed a recent minor-league rehab stint, and was with the team in Arizona on Tuesday, Roberts said the club is still “making sure he feels good” after missing the last six weeks with a shoulder injury. It is unclear if he will be activated this week, as originally expected.
“[We’re] making sure he’s put in a position to feel good if he is activated,” Roberts said. “That’s no guarantee … We’ll know more tomorrow.”
Before Tuesday’s game, Stewart threw an extended flat-ground session in front of a team trainer and general manager Brandon Gomes. The three talked for several minutes once Stewart’s session was complete.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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