SAN DIEGO — Some things just require explanation.
I’m sure the phrase was heard in living rooms and dens throughout greater L.A. on Tuesday night – and I can verify with certainty it was heard in at least one – as Matt Sauer, the bulk pitcher in a planned bullpen game, was getting lit up but stayed in to throw 111 pitches in San Diego’s 11-1 rout of the Dodgers.
“Take him out!”
To the naked eye, leaving Sauer in to give up 13 hits and nine runs in 4⅔ innings might have seemed like managing malpractice, or at least falling asleep at the switch. But it wasn’t.
Anyone who followed the Dodgers last year, and watched Dave Roberts navigate this team to its second World Series championship in five seasons with a starting rotation that was down to three healthy arms at the very end, should understand that this was all about going into “get ’em tomorrow” mode, living to fight another day.
And with 14 pitchers currently on the injured list – including starters Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki and Tony Gonsolin and leverage relievers Blake Treinen, Brusdar Graterol and Evan Phillips, and with Phillips done for the year with Tommy John surgery – saving their bullets is even more critical.
In this case, Roberts saved his leverage bullpen arms for Wednesday once it became apparent that chasing Tuesday night’s game, with a 5-0 deficit midway through and with Dylan Cease stifling the Dodgers, was futile.
Sure enough, the benefits were evident in Wednesday afternoon’s series finale. Ben Casparius, who has become one of the Dodgers’ more dependable bullpen arms, started and gave them four strong innings and 53 pitches. Then seven relievers – plus a booming three-run home run by Teoscar Hernández and a highlight-reel throw from center fielder Andy Pages to cut down Gavin Sheets at home in the third – were part of the Dodgers’ 5-2 victory in the rubber game.
Lou Trivino, Jack Dreyer, Kirby Yates, Michael Kopech (briefly, since he walked the bases loaded in the seventh), Anthony Banda (who escaped Kopech’s mess), Tanner Scott and Alex Vesia all were called on Wednesday. That conga line helped the Dodgers keep their hold on first place and continue to survive a stretch of 29 straight games against teams with (at least at the time) winning records.
They’re 12-10 so far in that stretch, with three against the Giants and four against the Padres at home still to come. And, again, they’ve done so with that expanded injured list, which currently takes up $83.3 million in payroll space.
“You know, we’ve tapped into the depth,” Roberts said. “But guys … whether it’s Teo, whether it’s Freddie (Freeman), whether it’s running Mookie (Betts) out there 11 of 12 or whatever it is, all these guys, guys are stepping up. The bullpen has certainly been used and pushed.
“And I just think it speaks to the character. Guys are not running from kind of the middle part of this season, the stretch that we’re going through. And we’re just finding ways to win. So, for me, it’s really good to see. Not surprising though.”
Tuesday night, Sauer understood the assignment and didn’t seem to have a problem with being left out there. And before Wednesday’s game I asked Roberts what he might want to say to those sitting and screaming in front of their TVs. He wouldn’t take that bait, but he did offer an explanation of sorts moments later.
“You have to manage one game, and then you’ve got to manage ensuing games,” he said. “Matt’s a big boy. He understood his role on this ballclub. And he served a purpose last night to help us win potential games going forward. So to the fans that felt that I was too hard on Matt for leaving him in the game, I apologize, but we’re trying to win as many games as we possibly can, and Matt completely understands.”
The guys in the clubhouse get it. Roberts was asked if he called any team meetings or the like to discuss it, and he said there was no need. Most of them saw it up close last season.
“They’ve been through it, unfortunately quite a bit as far as kind of what we’re going through right now,” he said. “We’ve gotten to the other side. … (Games like Tuesday’s) are byproducts of what we’re going through, and so it gets a little uncomfortable. But that’s a part of it.
“Everyone understands who’s on the IL, what guys can and can’t do. … Smart players understand you don’t (use) leverage guys when you’re down 6-0, when Dylan Cease is punching up the world and he’s going to go seven innings,” Roberts said. “I’m fortunate we have smart players.”
Adaptable, too, which has been a hallmark of the franchise since Andrew Friedman came here from Tampa Bay in 2015. In this case it’s Casparius, who was a starter at the University of Connecticut before the Dodgers drafted him, was mostly a starter coming up through the minors, but adapted well enough to relief pitching to become one of the unsung heroes of last year’s postseason run.
The Dodgers have been lengthening his workload, and Tuesday night he was told he would be Wednesday’s starter. He gave up three hits and two walks in the second, leading to San Diego’s first run, but didn’t allow a baserunner in the other three innings, which isn’t bad work on short notice.
“I don’t know what next week’s going to look like, obviously, but I feel pretty good,” he said. “I was happy to get to 50 (pitches) today. I thought the plan was two or three (innings), so just to get through four was was huge and I felt good.”
The idea is that Casparius will become a full-time starter here soon, though it almost certainly will be on a temporary basis while the Dodgers wait for Glasnow, Snell, Sasaki and Shohei Ohtani the pitcher, and possibly even Emmet Sheehan.
“It’s been a whole lot of different things this year, and then obviously potentially going into a starting role,” Casparius said. “I think kind of taking that reliever mindset pitch by pitch, inning by inning has helped me to slow the game down in general. So I think it’s been kind of a blessing.”
Adaptability. Can’t beat it.
jalexander@scng.com