Phillies’ plan to get to the Dodgers’ problematic bullpen as soon as possible will require patience
They'll have to grind out at-bats against Dodgers starters to drive up their pitch counts. But the Phillies also don’t want to lose their aggressiveness at the plate.
Even as the Dodgers muscled their way to a wild-card sweep this week, they were unable to conceal their biggest weakness.
As Jimi Hendrix would’ve said, they can’t get no relief.
Seven of the Reds’ nine runs in the series came against the Dodgers’ bullpen. Los Angeles needed three relievers to get three outs in the eighth inning of Game 1, two in Game 2. You could almost see the ulcer forming in squirming manager Dave Roberts’ stomach.
As the division series opens Saturday night, the Phillies will want to force Roberts to go to his bullpen as early as possible, a strategy that will require patience at the plate to grind out at-bats against the Dodgers starters and drive up their pitch counts. But the Phillies don’t want to lose their aggressiveness at the plate either.
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“It’s a balance there,” manager Rob Thomson said Friday. “Our goal, it doesn’t matter who we’re facing, is try to get the starter out of the game as soon as we can. So, that’s really what our game plan is. I don’t think it’s a secret.
“We’ll try to do the best we cannot to be too passive, where we’re taking a strike. We’re not going to do that. But what we really want to do is keep the ball in the strike zone. That’s really the goal. If you can do that, you’ll build pitch counts.”
The Dodgers’ bullpen almost certainly will be tested in Game 1. Shohei Ohtani finished six innings once in 14 starts in his first season back from elbow surgery. He topped out at 91 pitches in his final start on Sept. 23 in Arizona.
“My intention as a starting pitcher,” Ohtani said Friday, “is to go five, six innings.”
Ohtani didn’t allow a hit in five innings against the Phillies on Sept. 16 at Dodger Stadium. But the Phillies rallied for six runs in the sixth against relievers Justin Wrobleski and Edgardo Henriquez, scored three in the ninth against Blake Treinen, and won 9-6.
The Dodgers will try to mitigate their bullpen issues by using their surplus starters in relief roles. Roberts said starter Tyler Glasnow, in particular, will be available out of the bullpen in Game 1.
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But the Dodgers also will need Glasnow to start Game 4 on Thursday in Los Angeles after Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell start Games 2 and 3. Ohtani hasn’t pitched on four days’ rest in his career and almost certainly won’t start now. He typically got six days’ rest in the regular season and would presumably start a decisive Game 5 on six days’ rest next Saturday.
Roberts will also have righty Emmet Sheehan and retiring lefty Clayton Kershaw available out of the bullpen. And the Dodgers believe they found their postseason closer with Roki Sasaki, who topped out at 101 mph to close out the Reds.
“I think just having the ability for Glas to be available Game 1 is huge, and then pitch a potential Game 4 is also huge,” Roberts said. “That’s what we’re thinking right now.”
And the Phillies must be thinking about getting to the Dodgers’ bullpen for as many of the middle innings as possible.