by Mark Langill
After a home run barrage by the San Diego Padres left a tattered Dodger pitching staff on the brink of elimination in the National League Division Series, the beginning of a historic scoreless streak saved the season.
After 24 scoreless innings closed out the Padres in five games, the dominance continued in Game 1 of the NL Championship Series against the New York Mets at Dodger Stadium.
A 9–0 victory on Sunday — the team’s third consecutive shutout — extended the Dodgers’ scoreless string to 33 innings, tying the postseason mark set by the 1966 Baltimore Orioles when completing a four-game sweep of Los Angeles in the World Series.
Baltimore needed only four pitchers against the Dodgers during the 1966 Fall Classic — starters Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Wally Bunker and reliever Moe Drabowsky. McNally, Palmer and Bunker each pitched complete-game shutouts as Baltimore outscored Los Angeles, 13–2.
By contrast, the 2024 Dodgers used a bullpen game in Game 4 at San Diego when trailing 2–1 in the NLDS. Los Angeles used eight pitchers in an 8–0 victory. In the Dodgers’ 2–0 victory in Game 5, starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto went five innings and was followed by four relievers.
The Dodgers plan a similar strategy for NLCS Game 2 with reliever Ryan Brasier starting the game against New York lefty Shawn Manaea.
“The game has certainly changed,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Sunday after Los Angeles starter Jack Flaherty pitched seven scoreless innings. “And I think from our perspective, I think it’s just a collective effort. Certainly the players that were involved in all those scoreless innings have been fantastic.”
Rookie reliever Ben Casparius closed out Sunday’s win after veteran Daniel Hudson pitched the eighth inning.
“I think everybody is super prepared,” Casparius said prior to Monday’s game when asked about the bullpen. “We have an opponent every single day. Whether it’s the top of the lineup, the bottom of the lineup, everybody planning for what they do, how they want to execute, and it just keeps going on that way.”
The Dodger catcher Will Smith was asked the difference between preparing for a typical starting pitcher and a bullpen game.
“I think it’s kind of the same,” Smith said. “It’s conversations with (pitching coach) Mark (Prior), with (bench coach) Danny (Lehmann), conversations with the pitchers, what we’re thinking, what we’re going to do. It’s just keeping them confident, keeping them going out there, just execute one pitch at a time.”
The 1974 Oakland A’s were the last American League team with a postseason streak of 30 scoreless innings, which they accomplished in the American League Championship Series against the Orioles. Oakland only needed five pitchers to beat the Orioles in four games — starters Catfish Hunter, Ken Holtzman, Vida Blue and relievers Rollie Fingers and John Odom.
Oakland continued its strong pitching in the World Series against the Dodgers. Oakland won the championship in five games. Four of the five games were decided by scores of 3–2.
Dodgers pitch record scoreless streak was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.