MILWAUKEE — Looking back now, left-hander Alex Vesia can say that when was traded from the Marlins to the Dodgers with then-prospect Kyle Hurt in 2021, he had “no idea” what it actually meant to trust the process.
Sure, it’s a cliche and one most strongly associated with the 76ers’ rebuild a decade ago. But it’s had staying power in the sports lexicon for a reason.
The mantra clicked for Vesia in his first season with the Dodgers.
“When I first heard of it, it was just like, OK, I know what a process is,” he said before the Dodgers’ 5-1 win against the Brewers on Sunday. “But then watching it over the course of the year — where fastballs need to be placed, where sliders need to go, just trusting the information. That when a guy swings a lot at sliders and misses them, trusting that when you throw yours, he will miss it.
“And then over the course of a few outings, when you see those results, it’s like, ‘OK, I can do this more and more and more.’”
Vesia is now one of the veteran leaders in a Dodgers bullpen that set a franchise record on Saturday with 36 consecutive scoreless innings, surpassing the previous mark of 33 set in 1998. The Dodgers extended the streak to 38 on Sunday.
“[Saturday] night was awesome,” Vesia said. “It was a really great game because it showed how versatile our bullpen can be, that we don’t need a set inning for the guy.”
Instead, manager Dave Roberts could play matchups — having left-handers Vesia and Tanner Scott face the more heavily left-handed heart of the order, and Hurt check in for the right-handers at the bottom and top — until the Dodgers’ offense made it a blowout.
On Sunday, the bullpen only had to cover two innings, thanks to a steady performance by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who limited the Brewers to one run through seven innings. And they had a four-run cushion to work with, thanks to a fifth-inning rally that included a two-run triple from Kyle Tucker and a two-run homer from Andy Pages.
Right-hander Will Klein retired the top of the order in a clean eight inning, and Scott set down the next three Brewers hitters, putting the finishing touches on a series win in Milwaukee.
Entering the season, much of the chatter surrounding the Dodgers’ bullpen centered on the addition of closer Edwin Díaz. But he’s been on the injured list (elbow surgery) since April 20, and the Dodgers’ relief corps has been on a roll.
Without a set closer, the Dodgers’ circle of trust in close games includes a good mix of veteran arms and budding talent, from Scott, Vesia and Blake Treinen, to Hurt, Klein and Jack Dreyer (who is currently on the 15-day IL with left shoulder discomfort).
“It’s a bunch of selfless guys who know that the job is to throw up a zero and give it to the next guy,” Klein said. “I think we’re all just trying to give our offense a chance to do what we know they can do. And I think that showed up [Saturday], and it showed up a lot the last two weeks. They’ve been playing really well, and so I think we know if we just go out there, put up a zero, they’ll do it the next inning — and if they don’t, we try again.”
The bullpens’ scoreless streak stretches back through the eighth inning of the Dodgers’ 6-2 loss to the Giants on May 12. It covers a bullpen game, when the group filled in for Blake Snell when he was scratched from his start in Anaheim, and a series in San Diego, where the Dodgers relievers out-performed the Padres’ renowned bullpen.
“We’ve got to give credit to the starters and the hitters, and the guys playing great defense too,” Hurt said. “So, it’s not just us.”
Though good defense and some luck is involved in any scoreless streak this long – opponents entered Sunday with a .147 BABIP against Dodgers relievers since their shutout performance on May 13 — it’s no fluke either. The Dodgers bullpen still leads the majors in FIP (2.35) in that time.
So, what’s the secret stuff?
“The secret stuff is, there is no secret stuff,” Klein said. “Sometimes when you look for an answer, or you look for the magic to fix things, that’s when you overdo it and things start spiraling. But I think everyone knows that it’s one pitch at a time, and if you think about the result, you’re not as ingrained in the process.”
That was the moral in “Space Jam,” too.
The ripple effects of that consistency have been clear.
“It frees up the offense a little bit,” Roberts said. “Regardless of who comes into a ball game, I think they have the confidence now to go up and put up a zero. And it makes my life easier because you trust a lot more guys. And that’s what these guys have earned.”
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