The Los Angeles Dodgers are currently playing their best baseball of the season, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-7 on Thursday afternoon to complete a 5-1 road trip. They have won 15 of their last 20 games overall to move to 31-31 on the season.
Their successful road trip was despite not getting much out of the starting rotation, which has been decimated by injuries in recent weeks. The Dodgers bullpen was forced to throw 6.1 innings in Wednesday’s game against the Pirates after Caleb Ferguson managed to get just five outs in his MLB debut.
The following afternoon, the bullpen was forced to complete all nine innings because Dennis Santana was scratched minutes before first pitch due to lat soreness that now has him bound for an MRI.
Daniel Hudson got the start in the series finale against the Pirates, pitching for the third time in as many days.
After the game, Hudson said that while they realize they are being heavily relied upon, no one is the bullpen is complaining about it, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“It’s part of the job,” Hudson said. “Sometimes starters go down or they’re not as effective. Nobody down there (in the bullpen) is a complainer. There are no roles other than Kenley so you have to be ready whenever the phone rings, no matter what inning it is.
“Strap it on, get ready to go.”
All nine reliever pitched in Thursday’s game and while they may have given up seven runs, they threw well enough to secure the victory considering the circumstances. That number of relievers used set a franchise record for most in a nine-inning game.
With Walker Buehler, Alex Wood and Ross Stripling scheduled to start the Dodgers’ three games over the weekend, the bullpen may get a little bit of a break.
That will be much needed considering Dodgers relief pitchers have logged 54 innings in their last 10 games while starters have only pitched 35.
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