The Dodgers’ early season bullpen usage had become so much of a concern, even minor-league pitcher Matt Sauer was keeping tabs on it from the team’s triple-A Oklahoma City affiliate.
Which is why when he took the mound following a call-up to the majors Tuesday night, he was determined to give the Dodgers some badly needed innings.
“Even when we’re down in OKC, you still follow the big league club,” Sauer said. “And I knew the bullpen has been used a lot.”
Indeed, entering Tuesday, no other team had relied upon its relievers more heavily than the Dodgers. Thanks to injuries and ineffectiveness from the starting rotation, their bullpen’s 126 innings were far and away the most in the majors.
Despite that the Dodgers had no choice but to deploy their second bullpen game of the opening month. Only this time they were able to stay away from their most important arms.
Instead, in a 15-2 win over the Miami Marlins, Sauer came to the rescue with five innings of relief, providing the type of length that too often has eluded Dodgers starters.
“I had a goal of at least five innings,” said Sauer, a 26-year-old right-hander who earned his first major league victory. “[To] help the boys down in the ‘pen a little bit.”
Shohei Ohtani reacts toward the bullpen after homering in the first inning.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
As pitching injuries have piled up, the bullpen has been strained in order to compensate.
Entering Tuesday only 10 teams had topped 110 innings from relievers The Dodgers had six relievers with more than 13 innings pitched. No other club had more than four.
“The thing that’s probably most disconcerting is the bullpen leading Major League Baseball in bullpen innings,” manager Dave Roberts said Monday, after Tyler Glasnow became the latest member of the starting staff to land on the injured list.
“That’s where my head is at,” Roberts added, “as far as making sure we don’t red-line these guys.”
That will be no easy task over the next couple of weeks. Starting Friday the Dodgers will play 19 games in 20 days. And with Glasnow and Blake Snell on the IL, they will begin it with just four healthy starters on their active roster.
“We thought our starters would be a position of strength for us from a workload standpoint, and unfortunately we lead all of baseball in innings for relievers,” pitching coach Mark Prior said Tuesday. “Sometimes that’s a good thing. But this early in the year, it’s probably not.”
Especially not after what the relievers did last October, combining for 82 innings in a grueling World Series run.
“Guys did some really heavy lifting,” Prior said.
And a short offseason only gave them so much time to recover. Evan Phillips and Michael Kopech both started the season on the IL, nursing injuries they sustained in the playoffs. While Phillips has returned, another key reliever, Blake Treinen, has gone down because of a forearm strain.
It made Tuesday a seemingly daunting task, with the Dodgers opting for the type of bullpen-game strategy they used so often last October.
But then in an unexpected twist, Sauer was able to provide a well-timed reprieve.
After rookie left-hander Jack Dreyer took down the first two innings, giving up a lone run after Teoscar Hernández misplayed a ball in right field, Sauer found a groove in his 78-pitch outing. He gave up just one run on five hits. He recorded four strikeouts. And most importantly, he achieved his goal of five innings.
“I can’t say enough about his performance,” Roberts said. “We needed every bit of it, considering where our ‘pen is at.”
It also allowed the Dodgers (20-10) to go to work at the plate, where they set season highs in runs, hits (18) and walks (eight) en route to their most lopsided victory.
Shohei Ohtani led off with a home run, his seventh of the season and first since returning from the paternity list last week.
Hernández atoned for his defensive miscue with two run-scoring doubles, tying the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge for the most RBIs in the majors with 29.
Mookie Betts had a two-run single as part of a two-hit performance, raising his batting average to .240 as he continues to try to snap out of his opening-month slump.
And Cy Young-winning Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara never found his footing, exiting in the third inning with the Dodgers ahead 7-1.
“Recently it just seems like team-wise we’re beating a starter, creating stressful innings, taking walks, [and] situationally we’ve been good,” Roberts said. “This is what we potentially can do. You just give yourself a fighting chance when you can kind of take those at-bats.”
The game got so out of hand, the Dodgers didn’t even need to use a real pitcher in the ninth inning. Instead, after low-leverage right-hander Luis García pitched the eighth, utility man Kiké Hernández took the mound for the final three outs, a plastic “pitching helmet” covering his cap.
“To stay away from some other leverage guys was big,” Roberts said, “and puts us in a good spot.”
Not only for Wednesday’s series finale but also the taxing stretch of schedule to follow.
On Monday night, in a game they led by five runs through five innings, the Dodgers experienced the latter, needing Tommy Edman’s two-run single in the bottom of the 10th to save the day in a 7-6 victory over the Miami Marlins.
“I was telling the coaches earlier tonight, it just seems like we’re a .500 team given what’s going on [lately],” manager Dave Roberts said, with his club sitting at 19-10 (one game behind the New York Mets for the best record in the majors) despite an 11-10 mark since their 8-0 start.
“The month of April has been up and down for us,” added infielder Miguel Rojas. “Even though our record is good, we feel like we haven’t really hit the gear that this team can hit.”
On Monday, at least, they avoided a stark shift into reverse.
Coming off a needed series win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, and opening their first of two series against the rebuilding Marlins, the Dodgers knew this was a soft spot on the schedule. A chance to rebuild momentum after their up-and-down play in recent weeks.
“I think this is a stretch where if we play good baseball … we can win a lot of games and put ourselves in a good position for down the road,” Rojas said.
The Lakers played two games in Minnesota, one with a diminished Doncic and one without making a substitution in the second half, and had the same result. Both losses have put the team in an improbable spot, needing three straight wins to keep their season alive.
There are reasons, credible ones even, to explain away why they left Minnesota empty-handed. Doncic’s Game 3 illness obviously meant it would be tough for the Lakers to win.
And despite fumbling a lead in Game 4, the Lakers weren’t the only ones who thought Doncic should’ve been shooting free throws with a chance to take a lead with 30 seconds left after being tripped instead of the Lakers turning the ball over on the inbounds pass that followed. The NBA said Monday that referees missed the foul on Doncic.
“I mean it was just, you know, big play after big play,” LeBron James said. “And, they made a couple more plays than we did obviously.”
Pivotal because the winner in a series that’s tied at 2-2 will be one win away from advancing in the Western Conference playoffs.
Pivotal because the loser will be one loss away from their season being over.
Pivotal because the team that wins Game 5 and subsequently takes a 3-2 lead in the series has gone on to win the series 81.3% of the time, according to the NBA.
No. 3 Lakers vs. No. 6 Minnesota Minnesota 117, at Lakers 95 (box score) at Lakers 94, Minnesota 85 (box score) at Minnesota 116, Lakers 104 (box score) at Minnesota 116, Lakers 113 (box score) Wednesday at Lakers, 7 p.m., TNT Friday at Minnesota, TBD* Sunday at Lakers, TBD*
No. 4 Denver vs. No. 5 Clippers at Denver 112, Clippers 110 (OT) (box score) Clippers 105, at Denver 102 (box score) at Clippers 117, Denver 83 (box score) Denver 101, at Clippers 99 (box score) Tuesday at Denver, 7 p.m., TNT Thursday at Clippers, TBD Saturday at Denver, TBD*
No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 8 Memphis at Oklahoma City 131, Memphis 80 (box score) at Oklahoma City 118, Memphis 99 (box score) Oklahoma City 114, at Memphis 108 (box score) Oklahoma City 117, at Memphis 115 (box score)
No. 2 Houston vs. No. 7 Golden State Golden State 95, at Houston 85 (box score) at Houston 109, Golden State 94 (box score) at Golden State 104, Houston 93 (box score) at Golden State 109, Houston 106 (box score) Wednesday at Houston, 4:30 p.m., TNT Friday at Golden State, TBD* Sunday at Houston, TBD*
Eastern Conference No. 1 Cleveland vs. No. 8 Miami at Cleveland 121, Miami 100 (box score) at Cleveland 121, Miami 112 (box score) Cleveland 124, at Miami 87 (box score) Cleveland 138, at Miami 83 (box score)
No. 2 Boston vs. No. 7 Orlando at Boston 103, Orlando 86 (box score) at Boston 109, Orlando 100 (box score) at Orlando 95, Boston 93 (box score) Boston 107, at Orlando 98 (box score) Tuesday at Boston, 5:30 p.m., NBA TV Thursday at Orlando, TBD* Saturday at Boston, TBD*
No. 3 New York vs. No. 6 Detroit at New York 123, Detroit 112 (box score) Detroit 100, at New York 94 (box score) New York 118, at Detroit 116 (box score) New York 94, at Detroit 93 (box score) Tuesday at New York, 4:30 p.m., TNT Thursday at Detroit, 4:30 p.m., TNT* Saturday at New York, TBD*
No. 4 Indiana vs. No. 5 Milwaukee at Indiana 117, Milwaukee 98 (box score) at Indiana 123, Milwaukee 115 (box score) at Milwaukee 117, Indiana 101 (box score) Indiana 129, at Milwaukee 103 (box score) Tuesday at Indiana, 3 p.m., NBA TV Friday at Milwaukee, TBD* Sunday at Indiana, TBD*
* if necessary
USC BASKETBALL
From Ryan Kartje: Four days after he was involved in a serious Cybertruck accident that led to him being put into an induced coma, top basketball prospect Alijah Arenas is walking and talking and expected to be discharged from the hospital “very soon,” according to the co-host of his father’s podcast, “Gil’s Arena.”
Arenas, according to Josiah Johnson of the “Gil’s Arena” podcast, sustained no major injuries in the single-car accident and is “doing much better.”
Arenas lost control of his Tesla Cybertruck just before 5 a.m. PDT Thursday as he was returning from the gym, according to Johnson. The car struck a fire hydrant and a tree on Corbin Avenue in Reseda and caught fire with Arenas inside.
Western Conference Pacific 3 Edmonton vs. Pacific 2 Kings at Kings 6, Edmonton 5 (summary) at Kings 6, Edmonton 2 (summary) at Edmonton 7, Kings 4 (summary) at Edmonton 4, Kings 3 (OT) (summary) Tuesday at Kings, 7 p.m., TBS Thursday at Edmonton, TBD Saturday at Kings, TBD*
Wild-card 2 St. Louis vs. Central 1 Winnipeg at Winnipeg 5, St. Louis 3 (summary) Winnipeg 2, St. Louis 1 (summary) at St. Louis 7, Winnipeg 2 (summary) at St. Louis 5, Winnipeg 1 (summary) Wednesday at Winnipeg, 6:30 p.m., ESPN Friday at St. Louis, TBD Sunday at Winnipeg, TBD*
Central 3 Colorado vs. Central 2 Dallas Colorado 5, at Dallas 1 (summary) at Dallas 4, Colorado 3 (summary) Dallas 2, at Colorado 1 (OT) (summary) at Colorado 4, Dallas 0 (summary) at Dallas 6, Colorado 2 (summary) Thursday at Colorado, TBD Saturday at Dallas, TBD*
Wild-card 1 Minnesota vs. Pacific 1 Vegas at Vegas 4, Minnesota 2 (summary) Minnesota 5, at Vegas 2 (summary) at Minnesota 5, Vegas 2 (summary) Vegas 4, at Minnesota 3 (OT) (summary) Tuesday at Vegas, 6:30 p.m., ESPN Thursday at Minnesota, TBD Saturday at Vegas, TBD*
Eastern Conference Wild-card 2 Ottawa vs. Atlantic 1 Toronto at Toronto 6, Ottawa 2 (summary) at Toronto 3, Ottawa 2 (summary) Toronto 3, at Ottawa 2 (OT) (summary) at Ottawa 4, Toronto 3 (OT) (summary) Tuesday at Toronto, 4 p.m., ESPN Thursday at Ottawa, TBD* Saturday at Toronto, TBD*
Atlantic 3 Florida vs. Atlantic 2 Tampa Bay Florida 6, at Tampa Bay 2 (summary) Florida 2, at Tampa Bay 0 (summary) Tampa Bay 5, at Florida 1 (summary) at Florida 4, Tampa Bay 2 (summary) Wednesday at Tampa Bay, 4:30 p.m., ESPN2 Friday at Florida, TBD* Sunday at Tampa Bay, TBD*
Wild-card 2 Montreal vs. Metropolitan 1 Washington at Washington 3, Montreal 2 (OT) (summary) at Washington 3, Montreal 1 (summary) at Montreal 6, Washington 3 (summary) Washington 5, at Montreal 2 (summary) Wednesday at Washington, 4 p.m., ESPN Friday at Montreal, TBD* Sunday at Washington, TBD*
Metropolitan 3 New Jersey vs. Metropolitan 2 Carolina at Carolina 4, New Jersey 1 (summary) at Carolina 3, New Jersey 1 (summary) at New Jersey 3, Carolina 2 (2 OT) (summary) Carolina 5, at New Jersey 2 (summary) Tuesday at Carolina, 4:30 p.m., TBS Friday at New Jersey, TBD* Sunday at Carolina, TBD*
* If necessary
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1901 — His Eminence, ridden by Jimmy Winkfield, wins the Kentucky Derby by 1 1/2 lengths over Sannazarro in the only Derby ever raced in April.
1961 — ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” debuts.
1963 — LPGA Titleholders Championship Women’s Golf, Augusta CC: Marilynn Smith beats Mickey Wright by 1 shot in 18-hole playoff.
1970 — Lakers guard Jerry West hits a 60-foot desperation shot at the buzzer to tie Game 3 of the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks. The Knicks outscore the Lakers 9-6 in the overtime for a 111-108 win.
1980 — NFL Draft: Oklahoma running back Billy Sims first pick by Detroit Lions.
1981 — MLB Philadelphia Phillies Steve Carlton is 1st lefty to strike out 3,000 batters.
1981 — NFL Draft: South Carolina running back George Rogers first pick by New Orleans Saints.
1985 — Tony Tubbs captures the WBA heavyweight title with a unanimous 15-round decision over Greg Page in Buffalo, N.Y.
1985 — New York Yankees fire manager Yogi Berra 16 games into season, despite assurance from owner George Steinbrenner that he would be kept for the whole season. Billy Martin named as replacement.
1986 — Roger Clemens sets a major league record by striking out 20 batters as the Boston Red Sox defeated the Seattle Mariners 3-1.
1986 — NFL Draft: Auburn running back Bo Jackson first pick by Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
1988 — The Baltimore Orioles end their 21-game losing streak by winning their first game of the season, 9-0 over the Chicago White Sox.
1990 — Pat Riley becomes the winningest coach in NBA playoff history as the Lakers beat the Houston Rockets 104-100. Riley’s 100th victory put him ahead of Red Auerbach.
1998 — For the first time in the 124-year history of the Kentucky Derby, a redraw is ordered during the post-position draw. Churchill Downs officials allowed ESPN to control the announcing of the draw. Commentator Chris Lincoln called the No. 15 pill twice while picking the draft order for post positions.
2000 — Lennox Lewis knocks down Michael Grant three times in the first round and knocks him out at 2:53 of the second at Madison Square Garden in New York to retain his WBC and IBF heavyweight titles. The combined weight of 497 pounds made it the heaviest title fight ever.
2003 — Indiana outscores Boston 5-0 in overtime for a 93-88 victory, cutting the Celtics’ first-round series lead to 3-2. It’s the first overtime shutout in NBA playoff history.
2006 — NFL Draft: North Carolina State defensive end Mario Williams first pick from Houston Texans.
2007 — Phoenix guard Steve Nash has 23 assists, one shy of the NBA playoff record, to help Phoenix to a 113-100 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
2010 — The NCAA’s Board of Directors approve a 68-team format for the men’s basketball tournament beginning next season. It’s the first expansion since 2001 when the tourney went from 64 to 65 teams.
2013 — NBA veteran center Jason Collins becomes the first male professional athlete in the major four American sports leagues to come out as gay. Collins writes a first-person account posted on Sports Illustrated’s website. The 34-year-old free agent played for six NBA teams in 12 seasons.
2014 — Clippers owner Donald Sterling is banned for life by the NBA in response to racist comments he made in an audio recording. The Clippers’ owner is also fined $2.5 million, the maximum amount allowed under the NBA Constitution.
2018 — Spanish tennis great Rafael Nadal equals his Open-era record for most wins at the same event (11 Monte Carlo) with his 11th Barcelona ATP title.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Before first pitch Monday night, former Dodgers first base coach and first-year Miami Marlins manager Clayton McCullough received a warm welcome back to Dodger Stadium. He was greeted by a parade of hugs from his old players during batting practice (including a leaping embrace into his arms from Mookie Betts). He was honored with a pregame ceremony on the field to receive his glitzy 2024 World Series ring. He received the highest of compliments from Dodgers manager Dave Roberts during his pregame media address.
“Clayton is a very, very special person, a very special coach,” Roberts said, describing McCullough as “a game changer” for last year’s championship team.
That, however, was as much hospitality as McCullough would get in his return to the Southland.
In the Dodgers’ 7-6 win over the Marlins, McCullough’s old club outlasted his new one in a game that never should have been that close, the Dodgers blowing an early five-run lead only to walk it off on Tommy Edman’s winning two-run single in the bottom of the 10th.
Monday should have been a much more straightforward win for the Dodgers.
Shohei Ohtani scored in the first inning on a leadoff single, a steal of second base and an RBI single from Freddie Freeman. Betts doubled the lead in the third with a bases-loaded hit. Former Marlins shortstop Miguel Rojas tacked on again in the fourth, roping a double down the left-field line for his first RBI and extra-base hit of the season.
Then, in what felt like a game-sealing sequence, Teoscar Hernández followed Freeman’s leadoff walk in the fifth with a sky-high two-run blast to left — making it 5-0 with his team-leading ninth long ball of the season and fourth in the last five games.
Instead, a half-inning later, the Marlins made it a brand new ball game.
After five scoreless innings, Dodgers right-hander Dustin May was chased with one out in the sixth, giving up a run on two singles and a walk to get the hook after 83 pitches. With two left-handed hitters looming, Roberts summoned southpaw Anthony Banda from the bullpen. A sensible plan in theory, but with a disastrous outcome two batters later.
Lacking any consistent command, Banda walked his first batter on five pitches before falling behind again to pinch-hitting righty Dane Myers. Facing a three-and-one count, Banda tried to climb the ladder with a 96 mph fastball. Myers, however, was all over it, clobbering a no-doubt grand slam to left that stunned Chavez Ravine into silence. Just like that, the score was 5-5.
The Dodgers squandered chances to answer. They put their first two batters aboard in the sixth, had a runner at second with one out in the seventh and got a single to lead off the eighth. They couldn’t cash in on any of those opportunities, though.
Dodgers pitcher Dustin May delivers during the first inning Monday against the Marlins.
(Katelyn Mulcahy / For The Times)
The Marlins then took the lead on Jesús Sánchez’s two-out double in the top of the 10th.
In the end, however, the Dodgers survived.
Andy Pages led the bottom of the 10th with a walk. Kiké Hernández advanced Pages and automatic runner Michael Conforto to second and third with a sacrifice bunt. Then, after coming off the bench earlier in the game, Edman walked it off with a line drive single to right.
Less than a month ago, Tyler Glasnow couldn’t have sounded more confident.
After tossing five shutout innings in his season debut against the Atlanta Braves on March 31, the oft-injured 31-year-old Dodgers pitcher believed he had finally unlocked the secret to better health.
That night, the 6-foot-8 right-hander said his mechanics felt “really synched up;” following offseason changes to the spine angle, release point and thought process behind his long-limbed delivery.
He spoke highly of the tweaks he had made in his offseason training regimen — including, notably, the elimination of heavy balls from his winter throwing program — and took his encouraging early results as a sign they’d “really been working.”
Most of all, Glasnow described pitching with “athletic and free” mechanics on the mound; having seemingly found the kind of comfortable delivery that has so often eluded him over an injury-plagued 10-year career.
“My body just feels a lot better,” Glasnow said. “It’s moving more fluid.”
Less than a month later, those quotes ring hollow.
On Monday, Glasnow was placed on the injured list with what the team called shoulder inflammation — shelving the pitcher for the foreseeable future after he left a start on Sunday after just one inning with what he described as a “grabbing” sensation in his shoulder.
There was no immediate timeline for how long Glasnow (who has had at least one IL stint every year since 2019, save the pandemic-shortened 2020 season) might be out.
There was no set plan yet for what his recovery will look like, either, with both the pitcher and the team going back to the drawing board to figure out how to keep him healthy.
“I think we’re all just — as Tyler said — very frustrated,” manager Dave Roberts said, “and trying to get to the bottom of it.”
Indeed, the most frustrating element of Glasnow’s injury setback is that it might be rooted in the health-conscious changes he made over the winter.
After undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2021, then sustaining a season-ending elbow tendinitis injury last year, Glasnow looked to revamp his delivery. He felt his old mechanics — in particular, a habit of letting his front side fly too far open on each pitch — was putting stress on his long-troubled elbow.
At first, Glasnow’s new throw seemed to be the fix.
Even before his season debut, he said repeatedly in spring training that he felt healthier physically and more freed up mentality, hopeful he could pitch a full season for the first time in his career.
“I feel really comfortable with what I worked on,” he said. “I’ve kind of changed a ton of stuff.”
Just five starts into the season, however, things had changed.
And as Glasnow theorized Sunday, his new throw might be an unintended culprit.
“Anytime you change something [you’ve] done for a long time to try to prevent an injury, I think it’s just other things are taking over,” Glasnow said Sunday. “There’s more stress on one part, and then I compensate doing something else. I don’t even know what it is or what’s going on. I’m just trying to figure out, like, why it is that something new seems to be happening.”
That’s why, as Glasnow hit the injured list Monday, Roberts wasn’t sure how his recovery process would look.
There is no structural damage in Glasnow’s shoulder. The team didn’t even feel like an MRI was necessary, with Glasnow reporting only shoulder discomfort and “overall body soreness” when he arrived at the ballpark.
Instead, Glasnow is out because — despite his early optimism — his new delivery was not allowing him to pitch pain-free.
“My position is, when you have somebody that is complaining about things, certainly a pitcher, you’re very cautious to prevent against any type of injury,” Roberts said.
Exactly when Glasnow will be back is another question, with Roberts saying his absence could “be a tricky one as far as timeline” as he works through a new round of changes to his delivery.
“In spring training, he felt good with the new delivery, until he didn’t,” Roberts said. “So I just really can’t speak to that.”
Roberts added: “For me, if we’re going to do this, then let’s make sure that we have everything taken care of, as far as the mechanics, the physical part of it. So when we do get him back, then we can just move forward without looking back.”
For now, the Dodgers are looking ahead with uncertainty when it comes to the rest of their pitching staff.
Tony Gonsolin (out since the end of spring training with a back injury) will return to the rotation Wednesday. Ben Casparius (a rookie swingman in the bullpen) could be stretched out to handle a starter’s workload.
But Blake Snell remains out with his own bout of shoulder inflammation (he recently received a pain-reducing injection, Roberts said, and does not have a timeline to begin a throwing program). Clayton Kershaw is still three weeks away from being eligible to return from the 60-day injured list. And Shohei Ohtani isn’t expected back on the mound until at least the midway point of the season.
It leaves the Dodgers with currently just four healthy starters (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Dustin May and Gonsolin once he is activated Wednesday) as they approach a grueling portion of their schedule (starting Friday, they will play 19 games in 20 days).
“Honestly, I just really don’t know how it’s going to play out in the next week to 10 days,” Roberts said of the team’s upcoming pitching plans, which could include spot starters from the minor leagues and/or a reliance upon pre-designated bullpen games (which will be their plan Tuesday).
