The Dodgers’ Bullpen Has Been Exceptionally Good in the 2018 NLCS
The narrative coming into the Championship series was that the Dodgers have much better starting pitching and Milwaukee’s bullpen was unstoppable. That makes sense, given that Milwaukee has guys like Josh Hader, Corey Kneble. and Jeremy Jeffress looming in the later innings. And yet, the Dodgers’ bullpen has far surpassed any expectations placed on them in the NLCS.
A little drama, and a roll call, and Pedro Baez has another scoreless inning under his belt.
— Michael J. Duarte (@michaeljduarte) October 18, 2018
The Dodgers’ bullpen has been nearly unhittable in this series. It’s even more amazing when you consider how much work they have put in over the course of the first five games of the series. They have pitched over 21 innings of work and allowed just three earned runs in the process. They have come on in high-leverage situations and blanked hitters to work out of jams on several occasions.
Pedro Baez may be the MVP of the bullpen, maybe even the entire team. He has appeared in four of the NLCS games and tossed 4.1 scoreless innings. In fact, he has only allowed two hits and one walk in that time while striking out seven. Dylan Floro is another one of those guys getting a heavy workload. He has also appeared in four games, throwing 3.2 innings of work without allowing a run either. Ryan Madson has been phenomenal as well, though he may be starting to show some signs of being overworked. Dave Roberts has leaned on him heavily in high-leverage scenarios.
And what about the Brewers bullpen? They have allowed 13 earned runs over 33.2 innings of work and allowed a 244 batting average. Not exactly the lock-down bullpen we were expecting when we headed into the series. But what do I know, Jeffress may think we’re just getting lucky.
I have bashed the bullpen all year, with good reason (27 blown leads at last count), but they have been excellent so far when it counts the most, so kudos to all of them. Give us one or two more good games.