Dodgers start and end successful roadtrip with bullpen games

Phil Gurnee ♦ June 8, 2018 ♦ Leave a comment

By any measure, the recent Dodger road trip through the Rocky Mountains and Pittsburgh was a resounding success but it wasn’t easy and Dennis Santana was as involved as anyone could be who only got fourteen outs in those six games.

On the first game of the road trip, the Dodgers decided to use Dennis Santana out of the bullpen instead of making the start, and eventually used six pitchers to record a satisfying opening series victory over the Rockies. The game was started by Scott Alexander and he was followed by Dennis Santana who had a rocky major league debut giving up five runs while recording just fourteen outs. He left the game with a 12.27 ERA and sadly for him it may be a while before he has a chance to lower it. Luckily for the Dodgers, the offense was in full Coors mode and scored eleven runs and even got the win for Santana. Not many pitchers can boast of receiving a win in their debut while giving up five runs with only fourteen outs.  In fact the previous sentence made me wonder how many times it had even been done. Not many, and never by a Los Angeles Dodger though old friend Luis Avilan did it as a member of the Atlanta Braves. The list below uses 1958 as the cutoff date.

Player                 Date  Tm Opp    Rslt  IP H ER BB SO
Dennis Santana   2018-06-01 LAD COL  W 11-8 3.2 6  5  1  4
Braden Shipley   2016-09-14 ARI COL  W 11-6 4.0 8  5  1  3
Luis Avilan      2014-04-14 ATL PHI   W 9-6 1.0 4  5  1  1
Addison Reed     2013-06-05 CHW SEA   W 7-5 3.0 5  5  1  5
Paul Clemens     2013-04-09 HOU SEA  W 16-9 4.0 6  5  1  0
Ed Whitson       1986-04-29 NYY MIN W 14-11 3.1 6  5  4  3
Jim Slaton       1983-07-10 MIL CHW  W 12-9 2.2 6  5  2  3
Tom Johnson      1977-09-16 MIN TEX   W 9-7 4.0 8  5  1  0
Diego Segui      1974-06-11 BOS OAK  W 10-9 2.0 5  5  1  2
Bob Veale        1971-07-20 PIT SFG  W 11-7 4.0 6  5  3  0
Orlando Pena     1970-08-01 PIT ATL W 20-10 4.0 7  6  0  2

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/8/2018.

The Dodgers used six pitchers in that game but that was nothing compared to what happened on the getaway game yesterday. Dennis Santana was scheduled to make his first actual start for the Dodgers but while warming up the Dodgers noticed his slider was not effective and it turns out Dennis was feeling some lat pain and was bumped from his start. Daniel Hudson took the start and nine pitchers later the Dodgers had managed another bullpen victory.  For all the pain I’ve given the Dodgers over using a short bench they needed every pitcher they had on the roster during this six-game road trip.

The offense was the real story of the road trip. The Dodgers had only scored one run in their last game at Dodger Stadium before heading off to Coors but they found their offense just in time. The Dodgers scored 11, 12, and 10 runs in the three-game sweep of the Rockies and followed that up with 5, 9, and 8 runs in Pittsburgh to take two of the three games.

Fifty-five runs in six games is a good start to the month of June.  The rotation isn’t as bad shape as you’d think based on the twitter chatter. They are lined up nicely this weekend with Walker Buehler, Alex Wood, and Ross Stripling going against the young stud Braves.  It only gets dicey starting next week but we will get to that come Monday.