On a night when so much went so wrong for the Dodgers, the sound of trumpets in the sixth inning sounded like just another misplay. Edwin Díaz was coming in from the bullpen, not to the accompaniment of a live trumpeter preceding a save opportunity, but to a recording preceding a middle inning of an uninspiring defeat.
All was not lost, however, for this is what those trumpets heralded: The Dodgers have found their postseason closer.
Is Díaz ready to pitch the ninth?
“I’m always ready,” he said.
Is Dodgers manager Dave Roberts ready for Díaz to pitch the ninth?
“Yeah, I think I’ve been very consistent in the fact that I wanted to get him an outing, and this was a big spot,” Roberts said. “He did what he needed to do. It looked great.
“So absolutely, you could see him closing, yes. I could see him closing.”
This should not be breaking news, even with the Dodgers and Atlanta Braves tied one game apiece in the best-of-five National League Division Series. This, after all, is what was supposed to happen.
The Dodgers signed Díaz for $69 million last December and feted him and his family with a lovely press conference, at which president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman anointed the three-time All-Star as the undisputed closer.
“To name someone the closer, you have to be one of the best,” Friedman said then. “You have to be elite and dominant at what you do.”
Then the season started, and Díaz was limited to 18⅔ innings because of elbow surgery and, later, a neck injury. He returned in mid-September, limited to five scoreless appearances before the end of the regular season.
The numbers say he’s back: Add in the perfect sixth inning he pitched Sunday, and he has faced 20 batters. He has given up one hit and one walk and has struck out 11 — that is, 55% of those batters.
In his outing Sunday, he struck out two of three batters, throwing one pitch at 101 mph and two others at 100 mph.
Roberts called that performance “a silver lining” in the defeat.
“I’ve been throwing the ball really well,” Díaz said. “Arm feels good. Body feels great. It’s playoff baseball.
“I was letting the ball rip.”
The Dodgers have been publicly noncommittal about a designated closer. Tanner Scott, who converted 25 of 29 save opportunities in Díaz’s absence this season, got the first postseason shot on Saturday. He gave up a single and a home run to the first two batters he faced.
Roki Sasaki, the accidental postseason closer last year, got his first shot of this postseason on Sunday. He walked the first batter, hit the next, and walked another to load the bases, although he did pitch two scoreless innings.
It is fair to say that Díaz did not face the heart of the Braves’ order. It also is fair to say that, if the Braves feature left-handed-hitting stars Matt Olson and Michael Harris II in a future ninth inning, the Dodgers might let the left-handed Scott work the ninth and deploy Díaz in an earlier inning against a run of right-handed batters. It also is fair to say Sasaki’s October run last year should earn him a shot to close.
But, really, the Dodgers ought to trust Díaz by now without overthinking this.
The only times Díaz has pitched as early in a game as he did on Sunday: twice this September, as he came back from the neck injury; the final day of the 2025 season, trying to keep his New York Mets alive in the playoff chase; in the sixth inning of a seven-inning doubleheader game during the 2020 pandemic season; and three times in his debut season of 2016.
For all his success over the years, the Dodgers are grateful that Díaz did not insist upon returning as a closer. That old bromide about how a player should not lose his job because of an injury?
“We are playing playoff games, so I’m open to coming into any situation,” Díaz said. “In playoff baseball, every inning counts, so if I come in the fifth or the ninth, it would play out the same for me.
“I will treat every inning as the ninth.”
Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas saluted Díaz on his professionalism.
“He knew, when he got to this team, it’s all about winning,” Rojas said. “You put the egos aside as soon as you walk into this clubhouse and you see the best players in the world. It’s really easy for you to put your personal demands or goals on the side.
“He’s been a really good closer, one of the best in our generation for a long time, and it’s a credit to him to keep working hard. Who knows if he’s going to end up closing the last game of the year?”
One step at a time, and the Dodgers took steps backward on Sunday.
Blake Snell, the Dodgers’ starter, barely outlasted Ray Kerr, the Braves’ opener. Dodgers left fielder Teoscar Hernández misplayed a drive into a triple. Dodgers reliever Kris Bubic heaved a run-scoring wild pitch. The Dodgers were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position.
And, as the tedious and repetitive screaming of in-game hosts begged the fans to make noise yet again, as the game headed to the ninth inning, plenty of fans instead headed to the exits, even with the home team down by only two runs.
Yet something good came out of the evening. The Dodgers found their closer.
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