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Reliever Will Klein saves Dodgers with heroic 4-inning performance

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LOS ANGELES — For most of the month, Will Klein was in Arizona, working out with other Dodgers minor leaguers and reserves, staying fresh … just in case they needed him.

Did they ever need him.

Klein, who was one of two pitchers added to the World Series roster, was the last man standing in the Dodgers’ bullpen for their 18-inning, 6-5 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night at Dodger Stadium.

Klein tossed four scoreless innings on 72 pitches. The most pitches he’d ever thrown in any major-league game was 36. The most pitches he’d thrown in the minors was 56, when he was a starter in Class-A in 2021.

“We weren’t losing that game,” Klein said. “And so I had to keep going back out there. I was going to keep doing that and doing all I could to put up a zero and sit back down and go do it again.”

With no one behind Klein among the Dodgers’ relievers, starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto was beginning to loosen, just two days after he pitched a complete game in a Game 2 victory.

“It just speaks to guys will do anything to win a championship and they’re laying it out there,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

Klein faced 15 batters and he retired 12 of them, allowing just a hit and two walks.

His toughest jam came in the 18th, when he issued both walks. The two runners each moved up on a wild pitch, putting runners and second and third. Klein threw a 3-and-2 curveball that catcher Tyler Heineman swung through, for the third out.

“I started to feel it,” Klein said. “There were times when you’re starting to feel down and, like, you feel your legs aren’t there or your arm’s not there, and you just got to be like, ‘Well, who else is going to come save me, you know? So I had to dig deep, do it myself.”

It was a heroic performance for a 25-year-old who has been traded twice this year. The Athletics dealt him to the Seattle Mariners in January, and the Mariners shipped him to the Dodgers in June. Since then, he’d been bouncing between Triple-A and the majors, far from the spotlight.

Until Monday night, when he earned the admiration of all his teammates. Even first baseman Freddie Freeman – who hit the game-winning walk-off homer – called Klein the MVP of the game.

“Just to go out there and to be that sharp every inning and not really seem to lose anything, it was incredible,” starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow said. “Just to see him go out and do that was huge.”

Klein was the star on a night when the entire bullpen performed well.

The Dodgers’ bullpen had been identified as the team’s weakness throughout the last month of the regular season, and a few rough moments in October did little to change the narrative.

When the Blue Jays scored six runs against Dodgers relievers in Game 1, it caused further concern. So their prospects of winning Game 3 took a hit when Glasnow was pulled in the fifth inning with the Dodgers trailing.

The Dodgers ended up using every reliever they had, and they combined to allow one run in 13⅓ innings.

“It feels amazing,” said right-hander Emmett Sheehan, who worked 2⅔ scoreless innings. “It’s a great, great time to show up as a group and to show what we can do. That’s who the bullpen is, I think. We haven’t always showed it, but we showed it tonight.”

One of the biggest outs came from future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, who was summoned to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the 12th.

Afterward, the soon-to-retire Kershaw wanted to talk about Klein.

“What he did tonight, above and beyond what anybody can expect out of something like this,” he said. “Literally never done that before. So all the respect and credit in the world for him to keep going out there putting up zeros.”