LOS ANGELES ― Shelby Miller walked off the field in the 10th inning Sunday night pounding his fist into his glove. Evan Phillips didn’t walk so much as strut, double-fist pumping as he celebrated a bases-loaded strikeout to end the ninth. Brusdar Graterol did what he always does, fist-pumping toward the sky, after getting Thairo Estrada to end the eighth inning with a groundout.
Ryan Brasier did what he always does, too. Tasked with retiring pinch hitter Mitch Haniger with two outs and a runner on second base in a 2-2 game, Brasier threw three pitches, got Haniger to fly out lazily to center field, looked down and calmly walked to the dugout. The seventh inning was over, but Brasier displayed no signs of a pulse, let alone a celebration.
Brasier enters each game as quietly as he exits. He is one of two Dodger pitchers who has never chosen entrance music to herald his arrival on the field (Ryan Yarbrough is the other). With no fanfare, all Brasier has done since arriving is fashion a 0.74 ERA, the lowest of any Dodger pitcher with at least four appearances this season.
In fact, among all National League relievers, you’d have to lower the minimum number of appearances to 10 (through Sunday) to find one with a lower ERA than Brasier. It is the most quietly dominant performance by any Dodger player this season.
The adrenaline is in there, he said, even if it never seems to surface.
“If you can’t get it going to pitch out there in front of 50,000 people I think you’re in the wrong job,” he said.
As the Dodgers’ baseball operations staff shifts its concerns to postseason roster construction, the bullpen is of particular importance.
Their starting rotation is untested. A shoulder injury has limited Clayton Kershaw to shortened starts on six days’ rest. The Dodgers’ other veteran starter, Lance Lynn, has been inconsistent since his arrival in a midseason trade. Rookies Bobby Miller and Ryan Pepiot offer perhaps the most upside of any potential postseason starters, but their next October starts will be their first.
The Dodgers can’t construct an entire plane out of their relief pitching, but they might want to. Since the All-Star break, no team has a lower bullpen ERA than the Dodgers (2.22). They also lead the Senior Circuit in opponents’ batting average (.195), WHIP (1.01) and, perhaps most importantly, stranding runners on base (79.3%).
The most surprising element of their success is Brasier, who was designated for assignment by the Boston Red Sox in May with a 7.29 ERA. He signed a minor league contract with the Dodgers in June.
“When he became available … we had our pitching group take a look at him, and identify that if we were able to implement a cutter it would help versus left-handed hitters,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes recently told the Southern California News Group. “He’d always been very good against right-handers. Then (he made) some minor mechanical adjustments.”
Rob Hill, the Dodgers’ director of minor league pitching, was on hand at Camelback Ranch to help implement the cutter. Brasier threw it in a couple of bullpen sessions, tried it out at Triple-A, then took it to the majors when he was promoted on June 20. The rest is history.
Left-handed hitters are batting .115 against Brasier’s cutter, making it an effective complement to his slider and fastball, and allowing Manager Dave Roberts to deploy the right-hander in almost any late-game situation.
“To Ryan’s credit, this is a guy who had pitched in the World Series, had a very good career, and he said ‘I’ll go to Arizona and work, make these adjustments.’ It speaks to his will to win, his compete,” Gomes said.
For a time, the story of the Dodgers’ bullpen was shaping into a race against the calendar. Veterans Daniel Hudson and Blake Treinen were supposed to be the veteran right-handed anchors who could set up or close games if needed, but both have been beset by injuries this year.
Hudson, who is recovering from a sprained MCL in his right knee, is scheduled to face hitters in live batting practice this week. Treinen had been facing Triple-A hitters in August before pausing his rehab assignment because of soreness in his surgically repaired shoulder. Neither will pitch in the NL Division Series – if they pitch again this year at all.
Their absence has mattered little because of the emergence of Brasier and Joe Kelly, who were teammates with the Boston Red Sox in 2018.
“He’s throwing strikes now, which he did in 2018,” Kelly said of Brasier. “He’s a gamer and obviously his stuff is still tops in the league. It’s pretty fun to watch. He’s just a guy who needed to get strike one.”
Like the rest of us, Brasier’s teammates have been duly impressed by his heart rate.
“I think what makes relievers special is the ability to control your heart rate through an entire game,” pitcher Caleb Ferguson said. “It can get emotional at times late in games. That’s the biggest thing I’ve learned: the best ones can control it. He’s definitely got it.”
“I think (Brasier’s heart rate) only goes up when he’s irritated because the hitter does something dumb, which is fun to watch because you know the next pitch is going to be high and tight or a nasty slider,” Kelly said. “He’s always pretty even keel.”
ALSO
Dodgers designated hitter J.D. Martinez was selected as the National League Player of the Week. Martinez hit .458 (11 for 24) with five home runs, 12 RBIs, three doubles, three walks, six runs, a .500 on-base percentage and a 1.208 slugging percentage in seven games last week.
UP NEXT
Dodgers (TBD) at Colorado (TBD), Tuesday, 12:10 p.m. (Game 1), SportsNet LA, 570 AM; Dodgers (Bobby Miller, 10-4, 3.97 ERA) at Colorado (TBD), Tuesday, 5:40 p.m. (Game 2), SportsNet LA, 570 AM