World Series 2024: Dodgers’ latest bullpen game backfires, but the team’s best relief arms are ready for Game 5

NEW YORK — The Dodgers have walked a tightrope this postseason with their bullpen, and while they’ve gotten within one game of winning the World Series with that strategy, things didn’t go their way in their latest postseason bullpen game in Game 4.

“It’s challenging,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after his team’s 11-4 loss to the Yankees.

Rookie Ben Casparius was the man chosen to be the team’s opener on Tuesday against the Yankees, and while he allowed just one run in his two innings, his three walks created plenty of high-stress pitches, which turned out to be the theme of the early innings for the Dodgers’ arms.

Roberts then turned to veteran right-hander Daniel Hudson to be the bridge from Casparius to bulk guy Landon Knack. The hope was for Hudson to get through the heart of the Yankees’ lineup without any major damage. However, Hudson didn’t have his best stuff, and the even bigger problem was that his lack of command quickly put hitters into favorable counts, setting him up for trouble.

Hudson started the third inning by getting behind in the count against Juan Soto, and after a strikeout of Soto for the first out of the inning, things began to spiral. The Dodgers’ right-hander allowed the next three batters to reach base, drilling Aaron Judge, surrendering a single to Jazz Chisholm Jr. and walking Giancarlo Staton.

“Obviously, it was a little bit of a self-made mess there for me in the third,” Hudson said afterward. “Threw some good pitches to Juan to start the inning, and then it just kind of got away from me.”

Hudson nearly found his way out of the jam. He induced a popout from Anthony Rizzo for a critical second out, bringing shortstop Anthony Volpe to the plate.

On the first pitch he saw, the 23-year-old Volpe electrified a Yankee Stadium crowd looking for anything to cheer about, crushing a slider into the left-field seats for a grand slam and giving the Bronx Bombers a 5-2 lead that would prove to be enough to force Game 5 on Wednesday.

“Just threw a really bad slider,” Hudson said postgame. “Just kind of one of those that just pops out of your hand and [you] just have an instant ‘Oh, no’ feeling in your stomach.”

Said Roberts: “He had Stanton 1-2 and just couldn’t put him away. Then gets a pop-up, and he’s one out away from getting out of it and leaves a slider arm-side to Volpe. That was the difference in that inning.”

L.A.’s offense had taken an early lead on another Freddie Freeman home run and, even after the grand slam, had chances to get back in this one, starting with a Will Smith solo homer that made it 5-3 in the fifth. But the Dodgers weren’t able to put together a big inning against the Yankees’ bullpen, which didn’t surrender a run over five innings. Outside the two big flies, the Dodgers’ offense mustered only four other hits on the night.

Shohei Ohtani, still leading off with his injured shoulder, looked somewhat hindered in his at-bats but blasted a 102 mph flyout and a 103.8 mph single in two of his four at-bats. The other two at-bats resulted in a popup and a strikeout.

“We’ve asked him many times over, and it’s not impeding,” Roberts said of Ohtani’s shoulder. “He doesn’t feel it.”

The Yankees poured it on late in the game, scoring one run in the sixth inning off Knack and five more off mop-up man Brent Honeywell in the eighth, breaking Game 4 open with New York’s biggest offensive outburst of the series by far.

“I don’t think anyone expected those guys to lay down,” Roberts said afterward. “… Those guys unfortunately answered back. It was a good ballgame until it wasn’t.”

Added Casparius: “Obviously, we want to take care of every single day. A win would have been great today. But that’s baseball.”

The one silver lining from the Dodgers’ Game 4 loss was the job done by Knack to eat a chunk of the innings, keeping the Dodgers in the game before things turned late. The right-hander delivered 12 outs with one run allowed in his best outing of the postseason. As a result, Roberts was able to stay away from all of his high-leverage relievers, notably Alex Vesia, Brusdar Graterol, Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen, who will all be rested and available on Wednesday.

“I was really just trying to get ahead as much as I could,” Knack said. “Really just trying to mix well. Last time [against the Mets], I got in trouble just trying to go with two pitches. Today, I really just tried to get everything going. The mindset after that was really just trying to keep us in the game.”

The Dodgers will now send Jack Flaherty to the mound for Game 5, facing off against Gerrit Cole in a Game 1 rematch. Flaherty, backed by L.A.’s best relief arms, will try to be the series closer for the Dodgers and prevent this Fall Classic from heading back to Los Angeles.

“At the end of the day, we’re still in a pretty good spot,” Roberts said. “And we feel good. We’ll be ready to go [Wednesday].”