Dodgers don't mind calling for help
L.A. bullpen a strength going into NLCS rematch with the Phillies
BBTN Minute: NLCS Preview
LOS ANGELES -- Figure out a way to win the game.
These were Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti's words to the team's pitching staff coming out of spring training in March.
It was an all-for-one-one-for-all, check-your-stats-and-ego-at-the-door thing. Team building. Scrap, fight, play as one, pick each other up.
But for the Dodgers, whose starting rotation has (to put it charitably) been in flux for much of the 2009 season, "figure out a way to win the game" has been more than a slogan, it's been an imperative.
And when things have been tough in L.A., the National League West champions have relied heavily on their bullpen to lead the way.
"Apart from Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier having the outstanding seasons they've had, the bullpen is probably the biggest reason we're here," third baseman Casey Blake said Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.
Los Angeles has used 12 starting pitchers this season (the most the Dodgers have used since also starting 12 pitchers in 2001). Those starters have averaged just 5.7 innings per outing (the worst average among the eight teams that advanced to this year's playoffs and the ninth-worst in the major leagues), and as a rotation, they've had 70 games in which they failed to complete six full innings of work.
But the arms in the 'pen have more than picked up the slack. Dodgers relievers are second in the major leagues in wins (37) in 2009 and first in bullpen ERA (3.14), WHIP (1.26), opponent batting average (.230) and opponent OPS (.656).
Through 9 2/3 innings of work in the NL Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles' bullpen gave up just eight hits and two runs, while striking out seven, and the relievers' ability to continue pitching lights-out might be the key to the Dodgers' fortunes in the NL Championship Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, with their Cole Hamels-Cliff Lee one-two punch, a series that begins Thursday evening.
Dodgers manager Joe Torre, who pulled starter Randy Wolf after only 3 2/3 innings of work in Game 1 of that NLDS and watched Jeff Weaver, Ronald Belisario, Hong-Chih Kuo, George Sherrill and Jonathan Broxton bring home a victory, is confident his relievers can continue to handle the pressure as the stakes get higher. He has seen them do it all year long.
"The good part about it is, when you reach down there and bring somebody in … they've all been tested," Torre said in a Tuesday afternoon news conference. "We've seen enough of these guys to know we have some choices down there, and we feel pretty good about how well they've done."
Colletti, whose trade for set-up man Sherrill just before the July 31 trade deadline has paid huge dividends (0.65 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and only 19 hits surrendered over 27 2/3 innings with the Dodgers), talked Tuesday about the way this year's bullpen has come together, been forged in the fire.
"A season will test everything you have; a season will either break you or make you stronger. I think as the year has gone on, they've gotten more and more cohesive," Colletti said. "I know the character of the people down in [our bullpen], and I know how they strive to be great and how they strive to pick each other up through thick and thin."
As the L.A. starting rotation suffered through injuries (Hiroki Kuroda early and late in the season) and dips in performance (Chad Billingsley down the stretch), the bullpen put in some serious work.
Weaver set a tone as the club's tweener, making seven starts and putting in 47 1/3 innings as a reliever.
"Jeff's our unsung MVP," reserve first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz said. "We're nowhere without him."
"We've had a lot of turmoil and change in the starting rotation," Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt said. "We've had a lot of guys who had to expand their roles."
The result was a relief corps that made 526 appearances (fourth-most in the majors in 2009) and logged 553 innings (third-most in the majors). But with the second-half addition of Sherrill and the late-July return of Kuo from an elbow injury, Honeycutt felt Wednesday that his crew is still fresh and set up for a strong showing in the NLCS.
"We were able to add depth," he said. "And that took pressure off Broxton and some of the other guys, like [Ramon] Troncoso, Weaver and Belisario, who had done so much work for us early in the season."
With the addition of Sherrill and return of Kuo, the bullpen gained not only stability but also versatility, featuring a balance of tough left- and right-handed pitchers.
"Having the two lefties [Kuo and Sherrill] and the three right-handers [Belisario, Troncoso and Broxton], you feel like you can put guys in the situations where you need them to be, and where they can really do their best work," Honeycutt said.
Beyond the Swiss-Army-knife potential, what might have served the bullpen, and the team, best is a sense among the guys in the 'pen that they're a collective, a band of brothers ready to rise to any occasion.
"I feel like I'm a part of those guys," Belisario explained Wednesday. "We work together."
"If I don't do the job, the guy behind me is going to pick me up," Kuo said. "We all feel that way."
And over time, camaraderie and versatility have bred fearlessness. "Figure out a way to win the game" has become a point of pride.
"Kuo can pitch the seventh, eighth or ninth. Sherrill can pitch the seventh, eighth or ninth. I can pitch the eighth or ninth," Broxton said with a get-'er-done shrug of confidence Wednesday. "Doesn't matter what Joe [Torre] calls us to do, we're going to go out there and do the best we can to get it done."
"They're interchangeable, those power arms at the back end for us," Honeycutt said. "And each one of them has been very unselfish in whatever role we've asked them to play."
The buzz around Dodger Stadium on Wednesday afternoon was about Torre's decision to start 22-year-old left-hander Clayton Kershaw against Hamels in Game 1, and rightfully so. The kid, who struggled in two starts against Philadelphia in the regular season, needs to step up in this big moment.
But Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, whose own bullpen has been the source of serious concerns throughout the season, began his news conference Wednesday talking about the threat posed by the Los Angeles relievers.
"It's a concern," he said. "Once they get to those guys, it gives them a big, big chance."
And inside the Los Angeles clubhouse, Dodgers players knew Manuel was right, knew their bullpen could well be the thing that determines their fate in the series.
And they were fine with that.
"Knowing those guys are out there, it just gives us a great feeling as an offense, as a ballclub," Mientkiewicz said. "If we're down, we feel like they're going to hold it there. If we have a lead, we feel like there's a really good chance to finish things."
Eric Neel is a senior writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine.
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