Entering the season, the Dodgers’ dependence on young starters seemed like the biggest potential pitfall facing their pitching staff.
In a disheartening 7-5 defeat to the San Francisco Giants on Friday night, though, it was abundantly clear the real holes are in the bullpen.
Despite getting six no-hit innings from debuting right-hander Emmet Sheehan, a few dazzling plays from the defense behind him, and taking a 4-0 lead into the seventh inning, the Dodgers watched their bullpen blow the game. Again.
Brusdar Graterol gave up a two-run homer in the seventh. Victor González and Tayler Scott combined for a disastrous three-run rally in the eighth.
Then, after the Dodgers rallied in the ninth to get the game to extras, Alex Vesia faltered in a two-run 11th inning, putting the team behind for good in front of 49,074 at Dodger Stadium.
If this all sounds familiar, it’s because it is.
The Dodgers’ bullpen blew a two-run lead in the eighth inning Wednesday.
They suffered walk-off defeats three times on last week’s trip.
Of the team’s 14 defeats in the last 24 games, a reliever has been charged with the loss in 11 of them.
It didn’t help that top reliever Evan Phillips, as well as high-leverage right-handers Yency Almonte and Shelby Miller, were all unavailable Friday because of recent workloads.
Still, just when it seemed like the rotation had uncovered a promising young gem — getting a spectacular performance from Sheehan, a 23-year-old prospect who’d never even pitched a triple A game before Friday — a bullpen with the second-worst earned run average in the majors (4.89) once more found a way to ruin it.
It was all so reminiscent to Ross Stripling’s MLB debut in 2016 — not just because the then-Dodgers rookie was pulled from a no-hitter in the eighth inning of his first career game, but also because the Dodgers blew a late lead to the Giants that night, as well.
Stripling, who now pitches for the Giants but is on a rehab assignment in Arizona, wasn’t in the building Friday to witness the deja vu history.
Roberts was there, though, feeling a similar sting after his latest decision to pull a starting pitcher yet to have given up a hit.
A sixth-round draft in 2021 who had yet to pitch a game above double A, Sheehan was so far off the radar entering the season he never pitched in the Dodgers big-league spring camp.
But then, like the rest of the team’s talent-rich double A rotation, Sheehan began to dominate.
In 12 games with the club’s Tulsa, Okla. affiliate, the right-hander posted a 1.86 ERA with 88 strikeouts in 531/3 innings.
Last week, he was called up to triple A Oklahoma City, promoted alongside double A rotation mate Landon Knack.
Sheehan was supposed to make his triple A debut this weekend. Instead, with the Dodgers running low on pitching options after and trying to avoid a bullpen game Friday, the Boston College product was summoned to Los Angeles.
Whatever optimism he provided with his six-inning gem, however, was short-lived.
Graterol lost the no-hit bid on a bloop single to lead off the seventh.
Then, he served up a two-run homer to Wilmer Flores that sparked the Giants comeback.
In the eighth, Victor González got the nod over inconsistent lefties Caleb Ferguson and Alex Vesia, but quickly got into trouble.
When the Dodgers needed a righty later in the inning, Scott was the best remaining option, despite his 10.13 ERA on the season.
Predictably, the Giants took advantage, plating three runs to snatch a 5-4 lead.
The Dodgers extended the game an inning later, when Freddie Freeman knotted the score again on an RBI bloop single.
Max Muncy goes on injured list
The Dodgers placed Max Muncy (hamstring strain) on the injured list Friday, finally making the move five days after he was injured.
Rookie third baseman Michael Busch was called up to replace him.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.