The Los Angeles Dodgers suffered a heartbreaking defeat at the hands of the San Francisco Giants on Friday night, when Giants catcher Patrick Bailey hit a walkoff grand slam in the bottom of the 10th inning against Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott.
Scott delivered elite bullpen depth for the Dodgers last season when he was acquired from the Marlins, but has been roughed up this season to the tune of a 5.01 ERA in 50 innings of work.
The last month has been especially brutal for him: in his last seven outings, he has an ERA of 13.50, allowing seven earned runs in 4.2 innings, most of which have come in high-leverage scenarios, like Friday night.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts talked about Scott’s struggles in his press conference after the loss.
“He’s going through it right now,” Roberts said. “We’ve just got to try to continue to give him confidence and when the time is right run him out there and expect good things to happen.”
Though he acknowledged the struggles Scott is going through, Roberts still believes in the 31-year-old southpaw to get the job done when it gets down to crunch time in the postseason.
Another Yamamoto Start Wasted
The Dodgers were the beneficiaries of their ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s dominance once again on Friday night, as he pitched seven innings of one-run, one-hit baseball with 10 strikeouts. Jack Dreyer delivered a scoreless 8th inning before Scott and Blake Treinen struggled in the 10th allowing the Giants to come out on top.
Yamamoto was one out away from a no-hitter in his last start against Baltimore, before allowing a solo home run to Jackson Holliday with two outs in the bottom of the 9th.
Still holding a 3-1 lead after Yamamoto allowed the home run, it was once again the combo of Treinen and Scott out of the bullpen that lost what seemed like a sure win.
Bullpen An Issue For Dodgers Heading Into Postseason?
Los Angeles has all but locked up their spot in the 2025 MLB Postseason, but it has been in spite of their bullpens performance this season, especially in the last two months.
Scott’s recent struggles are just a symptom of a larger, ongoing issue that seems to have reached everyone in the Dodgers bullpen.
It’s been a rotating door in the back end for the Dodgers for much of the season with a number of injuries having plagued them, but their bullpen as it stands now is in a funk.
With the exception of Michael Kopech and Jack Dreyer, Scott, Treinen, Kirby Yates and Alex Vesia all have ERA’s over four in their last seven appearances. Those four are the marquee names that were supposed to provide stability in the back-end of the bullpen, not cause the late game collapses the Dodgers have faced of late.
With Roki Sasaki set to reappear in the MLB sooner than later, he could be a massive addition to the bullpen unit to help mitigate the struggles. Sasaki looks to slot in as someone who can go for 2-3 innings at a time in the playoffs.
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