Forget about Tarik Skubal – or at least move him back in the queue.
The Dodgers have a major problem they have to address, and it’s not starting pitching.
They have to do something about their bullpen.
That should be the No. 1 priority for Andrew Friedman and Brandon Gomes between now and the Aug. 3 trade deadline, regardless of how confident they are that Edwin Diaz will perform like an All-Star closer when he returns from an elbow cleanup after the All-Star break.
Skubal would be a luxury. A late-inning reliever or two to help them close out games is a necessity.
Because the Dodgers are having trouble doing that right now.
Don’t be deceived by their 7 ½-game lead in the National League West. The Dodgers aren’t playing well.
Since winning 13 of 15 games, the Dodgers have basically been a .500 team. They’re 6-5 over their last 11 games, and the downturn of their bullpen is the primary reason why.
Counting their 9-8 defeat to the Pirates at PNC Park on Wednesday night, a reliever was the pitcher of record in three of their five most recent losses.
In that 11-game stretch, the bullpen has posted a 6.88 earned-run average.
Remove a 13-5 loss to the Angels on Sunday in which a short start by Emmet Sheehan forced manager Dave Roberts to deploy six relievers to cover the final 7 ⅔ innings and the bullpen ERA over that span is still 5.12.
Dodgers relievers have pitched only 211 ⅓ innings this season, the fewest of any bullpen in the majors. Just a couple of days ago, I wrote how the relatively light workload should help the group avoid the kind of midseason slump it had last year when it topped baseball in innings pitched.
This was the same bullpen that pitched a franchise-record 38 consecutive scoreless innings last month.
But in the wake of their latest blown lead in the Pittsburgh, these late-inning meltdowns are starting to look less like isolated events and more like part of an unsettling trend.
“I think I’m seeing more walks than when we were going real well,” Roberts said. “I think when we’re on the attack and kind of imposing our will on those offenses, we’re as good as anyone.
“I know when you give free passes it sort of builds momentum for the other team. It takes one hit for them to score a run instead of a couple of hits to build an inning. I think right now we’re doing a little self-inflicted damage.”
That was certainly the case on Wednesday.
Shohei Ohtani had his worst start of the season, but he still managed to pitch into the seventh inning and departed the game with a 6-3 lead. The baserunner Alex Vesia inherited from Ohtani scored on a fielding error by third baseman Max Muncy, but the Dodgers were still up by two runs heading into the final two innings.
That’s when disaster struck.
Kyle Hurt started the bottom of the eighth inning by walking the first two batters. He then served up a home run to Tyler Callihan, who homered for the first time in the majors earlier in the game against Ohtani.
Just like that, the Dodgers were down, 7-6.
The barrage continued, as Hurt gave up a single to Jake Magnum and allowed him to advance to second base on a wild pitch. Hurt was fortunate Magnum was thrown out on an idiotic attempt to steal third base; if not for that, the Pirates’ center fielder would have scored on the double by Jared Triolo that followed.
Triolo’s double ended Hurt’s night but not the scoring. Hurt’s replacement, Jack Dreyer, gave up a two-run homer to Spencer Horwitz that increased the Dodgers’ deficit to 9-6. The runs proved valuable when Ohtani launched a two-run homer in the ninth.
“This one stung because I thought we were playing good baseball,” Roberts said. “We have no business losing that game.”
The homers given up by Hurt and Dryer were the ninth and 10th allowed by the Dodgers’ bullpen in the last 11 games. In the team’s previous 57 games, the bullpen had given up only 11 homers.
The Dodgers clearly miss Diaz – or, more precisely, the version of Diaz they thought they acquired when they signed him to a three-year, $69-million contract over the winter.
When Diaz underwent surgery in April to remove loose bodies from his elbow, virtually every reliever on the team shoulder a greater responsibility. Many of them thrived. However, some of them have started unraveling.
One of them is Hurt, who became a trusted late-inning option in Diaz’s absence. Hurt has given up runs in three of his last four games.
Diaz’s ninth-inning replacement, Tanner Scott, has been charged with runs in three of his last five appearances.
Diaz is expected to return this season, but the Dodgers can’t be certain of how he’ll look when he does. In the postseason last year, they made up for their shortcomings in the bullpen by using their starters in late-inning situations, but do they really want to stake their three-peat on Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitching in relief again the day after he starts?
Time is on their side. Nearly two months remain before the trade deadline, and the Dodgers have well-regarded prospects to trade. They can, and should, introduce a measure of stability in the late innings.
