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Except the Dodgers are without Saito and Wade, 2 of their best relievers, Broxton pitches worse as a closer (I'd be shocked if the numbers didn't support that), and Torre has overused Kuo. The pen has been a strong spot for most of the year but it's not right now.Originally Posted by The Natural
Padres suck ass.
It's okay. We play them in september THREE DIFFERENT SERIES. I'm sure we'll snap them out of their funk. And they'll be the reason we don't play in October.
The offense doesn't put enough runs on the board. That's not the bullpen's fault. Dodgers' pen has lost 18 games, good enough for 11th in the league. Now, with the 2nd best ERA in the league, that ought to tell you how good the offense has been, especially late in the game. Once again, not the pen's fault.
AND to make matters worse, the Dodgers' pen has pitched 402.1 innings. Only the STL Cardinals have pitched more innings (404.2!!) and remain serious Wild Card contenders. I'm not counting Houston and NYY as serious yet. So, besides STL, HOU and NYY, all of the other teams whose pen has pitched more innings are all out of playoff contention. So... the Dodgers' pen has been taxed by overuse and been weakened by injuries. But... after all of that... has been one of the best statistical pens in the league.
And with all of that, the Cubs pen has lost 16 games (only 2 less than LA) & with a much better offense... So, I ask you... which bullpen is worse? I hope you say LA. That'll just make my day...
Yeah... blame the lack of a post-season on the efforts of a team with a .381 win percentage... and a 20-26 record against the division.
If the Doyers want to place blame, they should look in the mirror first.
D-Backs win... Dodgers still 2 out.
Arizona needs to start losing some games or the Dodgers won't have to worry about a race for the division for much longer.
- T
To clear the whole bullpen thing up...
As opposed to the first half of the season, especially in the past 10-15 games, the Dodgers have been entering late into almost every game with either the lead or a tie. Before last night's loss to the Rockies - which was only by one run - I have to go back to the St. Louis series to find a game where the Dodgers were neither tied nor winning late in the game.
What this means is that the bullpen as of late is being given very little margin for error. In the past, when we just flat out sucked and were losing a lot of games well before the 7th inning, nobody gave a **** if the bullpen gave up a couple runs later in the game because they were effectively "meaningless" runs. Now when it's happening, this is when we lose games because we're actually doing a pretty good job in the first 7 innings.
I also wouldn't necessarily disagree that the bullpen has struggled, a bit, I just don't know what the numbers are for the past 2.5 weeks vs. the rest of the season. We can mostly attribute this to an expected, sporadic dip in performance in conjunction with the loss of Saito and Wade.
Point being...when nearly every game you're playing is with a close lead or tie late in the game, the bullpen comes under the microscope more heavily than normal. So when they get the losses, we notice it more.
With that said, the Dodgers bullpen overall over the year has been great, and the numbers support that.
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