by Cary Osborne
The decision to go with Brent Honeywell in Game 5 of the National League and stick with him for 4 2/3 innings was a clear indication of where the Dodgers were going for Game 6 in Los Angeles.
That was confirmed on Friday night after the Dodgers’ 12–6 loss and again on Saturday by manager Dave Roberts. The Dodgers are going with a bullpen game in Game 6.
Honeywell’s presence and innings have now twice preserved the Dodgers’ highest-leverage bullpen arms in this series.
Honeywell ate up three innings in the Dodgers’ Game 2 loss, giving his team the ability to piggyback with its key bullpen arms on Walker Buehler’s and Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s Games 3 and 4 starts.
That meant the bullpen earning 28 outs in Games 3 and 4 and allowing no runs.
Now the bullpen will need to get 27 outs in one game, which makes the group one of the biggest factors in Game 6 and the Dodgers’ efforts to advance to the World Series.
The bullpen has already done it once this postseason — saving the Dodgers’ season with a shutout of the Padres in Game 4 of the NL Division Series in an 8–0 Dodger win on Oct. 9.
“I don’t know if we’re necessarily looking for a story, for us all to be heroes or anything like that, but we’re looking to win,” said Dodger reliever Michael Kopech. “I think that we have that mentality as a group down there that if we can help the team win that would be huge.”
The Dodgers’ five highest-leverage arms are rested — particularly Kopech. And with the adage that the advantage goes to the pitcher when there’s less familiarity or more distance between meetings, Kopech is the least-seen of the five relievers who fall best under Roberts’ trust tree. Among the five, only Evan Phillips hasn’t faced Francisco Lindor in this series. Lindor is 1-for-3 with two strikeouts and a single in his career against Phillips.
“Obviously with the Mets, we haven’t seen them as much through the course of the year, especially now, as you said, in this series. We’ve been kind of protected from their guys in the lineup,” Phillips said. “And I think the rest is probably more important to keep our guys fresh for tomorrow and a Game 7 if necessary. But those two things are hopefully in our favor tomorrow.”
The group
Phillips: 2 days’ rest
– Game 4 pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings: faced Mark Vientos (strikeout), Pete Alonso (groundout), Brandon Nimmo (single), Starling Marte (single), J.D. Martinez (walk), Jose Iglesias (strikeout)
– Hasn’t faced in this series: Francisco Lindor, Francisco Alvarez, Tyrone Taylor, Jesse Winker, Jeff McNeil
Blake Treinen: 2 days’ rest
– Game 3 pitched one scoreless inning: faced McNeil (flyout), Alvarez (strikeout), Lindor (strikeout)
– Game 4 pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings: faced Lindor (single), Vientos (groundout), Alonso (strikeout), Nimmo (single), Marte (flyout)
– Hasn’t faced in this series: Taylor, Winker, Martinez, Iglesias
Ryan Brasier: 3 days’ rest
– Game 2 pitched one inning, allowed one run: faced Lindor (home run), Vientos (lineout), Nimmo (walk), Alonso (ground ball double play)
– Game 3 pitched one scoreless inning: faced Alonso (strikeout), Marte (single), Martinez (walk), Iglesias (ground ball double play)
– Hasn’t faced in this series: Alvarez, Taylor, Winker, McNeil
Kopech: 3 days’ rest
– Game 3 pitched one scoreless inning: faced Lindor (flyout), Vientos (flyout), Nimmo (strikeout)
– Hasn’t faced in this series: Marte, Alonso, Iglesias, Alvarez, Taylor, Winker, McNeil, Martinez
Daniel Hudson: 6 days’ rest:
– Game 1 pitched one scoreless inning: faced Iglesias (BB), McNeil (lineout), Alvarez (1B), Lindor (lineout), Vientos (strikeout)
– Hasn’t faced in this series: Marte, Nimmo, Alonso, Taylor, Winker, McNeil, Martinez
“Thankfully from our game-planning point of view we have more than one way to get a guy out,” Phillips said. “So whether or not we showed our whole game plan to one guy, it’s probably unlikely that we did so. So we still feel confident even if we faced a guy a couple times or back-to-back days, whatever it may be, we still feel confident in our plan.”
But to get 27 outs, the Dodgers will look to someone outside of this group to take down some of the Mets lineup. That group is left-handed veteran Anthony Banda and rookies Landon Knack, Ben Casparius and Edgardo Henriquez.
Banda faced one batter on Friday in Game 5 (McNeil) and threw two pitches. He hasn’t allowed a run in the postseason. In Game 2, he faced retired Lindor, Nimmo and Alonso and allowed a single to Vientos.
The Mets are a heavy right-handed lineup, but being the veteran of the group and with his overall success this season, Banda has earned his own place under the trust tree and figures to be part of the picture for Game 6.
Now there’s the question of: What if?
If the Dodgers go to a Game 7, do they have enough bullpen coverage?
“I do feel that as our focus is still on Game 6, whatever it takes, we’re very well equipped to prevent runs for a potential two games,” Roberts said.
NLCS: The tested and rested bullpen gets another shot to be a difference maker was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.